Gulp

[fishhawk]

OK for the past couple years I have tried the gulp minnows with no luck at all and this spring in Canada I thought it was going to be the same thing again. Well was short on real minnows and found a half used package of the 3 inch shad put one on a little Joe spinner rig and low and behold landed a walleye! Well OK lets try this again on a jig well the catching with the gulp was just as good as my friend using real minnows! Now this coming spring i will be going up for 2 weeks again but a week later than normal so was going to take some of the gulp leeches along question is has any one used them and how did they work? steve k

[rhbrink]

Here in central Missouri I had tried Gulp off and on several times without much luck. One day while fishing the very upper end of the Truman Lake in late December a fishing partner started catching crappie two or three to my one so it wasn't long before I'm asking just what the heck he's using? Gulp!
So after begging a bait or two I'm catching them too, we have found that in colder water 40* and less they work pretty good in these parts warm water not so much.

RB

[fishhawk]

I found with Gulp the biggest thing is confidence in using it. I would try it for a bit and nothing happen go back to the live minnows. The past spring where I was forced to use it being short of live bait it did work! You do need a little more rod action to give movement to it more so than live bait which was also learned fast. So looks like a couple packages of the leeches go-along for a ride to Canada this year along with more of the shad minnows. steve k

[shredder]

I used to use the power bait twister tails to catch perch in northern Manitoba. When the pike action got slow I would put the boat into the weeds close to shore in about 2 feet of water. The kids and I would get out the 5 gallon bucket and fill it half full of water the put the little perch in there so we coud watch them for a while. Most of them were about 3 inches long and the kids LOVED catching them. At the end we poured the bucket back into the lake and released them all.

We used a tiny jig and a piece of power bait. The perch would swarm in when the bait was new but after a few minutes and a couple of catches, they would start to ignore it. A new peice started the action all over again. It became obvious they could smell it and really liked whatever was on there!
Ahh kid fishing!

[fishhawk]

I was getting 4-6 walleyes on one 3inch shad before it was to tore up to keep on the jig then changed to a new one. At that rate even at 4 bucks for a pack of 18 of them that's a lot of minnows you saved the cost of (usually about 4 bucks a dozen)

[rhbrink]

Another thing that my fishing buddy taught me was to buy the Gulp bucket and when not using the bait to put it back into the bucket and it will replenish the scent.

Confidence is a big thing when using any bait.

RB

[fishhawk]

Tried that blasted gulp bucket man what a PITA blasted thing once opened leaked like crazy!

[rhbrink]

Get a tupperware type continer with a screw on type lid they make one about 3" in diameter and about 3" tall that works great fits better in the tackle bag too and it does not leak.

Mine leaked too at first I tried a old Miracle Whip jar it worked but was too big then found the plastic tupperware thing.

RB

[ole 5 hole group]

We go up into Ontario at least twice a year and in our experience Gulp works as good as minnows with walleyes - northerns will take anything thrown in their direction. Power bait tails and gulp leeches are hit & miss with us and I would say they catch 1 walleye for every 4 caught with live or gulp minnows but the northerns like them.

We use only spinners on an 18" leader with a small float and an 1/8 ounce weight. Most of our good fishing is found in 2 to 6 feet of water both spring and fall.

Second best bait in our opinion is the Rapala in size F11 - only problem is you'll get a treble hook in a finger every now and then if fish like most of us without a "landing net" in the boat but that is just a short delay in fishing, as pulling the hook out is a painless breeze once you're able to separate the hook from the fish.

On cloudy days the Rapala will keep up with the live bait and Gulp and using a short wire leader with the Rapala you'll save time and bait when ever a snake cruises by.

I imagine you fish in Ontario as well - you wouldn't be fishing off the Graham Road by chance??

[fishhawk]

Eagle lake with some drive outs to some back woods lakes with a friend. Some times go to Gordon lake west of vermilion bay for lake trout.

[giericd]

I use a lot of gulp for saltwater fishing! The things I don’t like about it is if you buy the bags they don’t have enough juice in them and the gulp dries out and are then trash, they leak and make a stinking mess, and they are pretty expensive. But with that said they work great. Everything eats them. A few tricks I've learned are to buy at least one of the gulps in the plastic container that way you have enough juice. Whenever you buy the bags just dump them in the plastic container mixing them is fine (all saltwater- shrimp, shad, mullet). Also the directions say they are not reusable once put in the water you have to throw it away when done, not true at about $7.50 for a 6 pac that’s what they want you to do! Trust me when done using it just put it back in the bucket of juice with the rest of them, it will be fine I do it all the time the only problem is after taking it off the jig it might be a little lose on the next jig, if that happens I just rehook it in a different way. In redfish tournaments some guys are buying the large gulp mullet that are about 5" long, they cut them into pices where each pice is a cylinder that is about 2 1/2" long and put it on a circle hook and toss it along the mangroves where the redfish cruise, they call it "dead sticking". Out on the reef/patch bottom I like to put a 4" gulp shrimp on a jig and bounce it along the bottom- I think the bounce is more so I feel like I'm doing something and might get their attention from the movement but you don’t even have to move it. As soon as it hits bottom you can feel little fish picking at it. More times than I can remember I've had a gulp on and dropped it to the bottom, put the rod in the rod holder and reached over to grab a drink and the rod doubled over! When you are on fish they will out fish and last longer than natural bait.