Gulp, Yum, Power Baits, Etc. Do they work?

[Thunderstick]

I've noticed some articles recently on rigging with flavored plastics instead of real meat. Call me old fashioned, but I believe some stupid ol' 6 or 7 pound bass might fall for that stuff, but walleye are too smart to be duped. Anyone have any success stories?

[bountyhunters]

west branch lake in ohio .two boats two fishermen .one gulp guy one minnie guy yep the gulp guy out did me .we were not ten feet apart .

[reelman1]

Lets see, that crawler you are pulling on your crawler harness is the first crawler that 99.9% of the walleyes you catch will have ever seen. And to top it off it has a 1-1/2" piece of steal spinning in front of it! And you think a walleye is smart!!!

I have used the 6" GILP! crawler on harrnesses with results the same as using a real crawler and the bait dosen't get stolen buy white perch, yellow perch, white bass, gobies, etc.

[vetspet.ind]

i have clients who use gulp for bluegills in their ponds and say the gulp works better than real bait...i went to florida to visit sister and decided to bass fish in her backyard canal which leads to a lake...these were stupid bass and no public access and no fishing pressure....we musta caught 80 bass in 3 days...no small bass...no really big ones...but all were between 2-4+ lbs....purple gulp worms...and i had never caught a bass on a plastic worm in my life(i'm not a bass fisherman)...what a blast...steve

[T man]

In early July, in Lake Erie (off of Buffalo, NY, my fishing buddy and I were both trolling pretty much the same worm / spinner harnesses (same depth(s), etc.).

On July 9, he boated 3 walleye (and 4 sheephead), using "real" night crawlers. I got zero using 6" Gulp night crawlers.
On July 16, in the same area, using the same harnesses, it was the opposite. He had zero luck using real crawlers, and I boated a 27" and a 28.5" walleye, using 6" Gulp night crawlers (black w/ red fleck).

What did we learn? I guess, on a given day, you can be more successful with Real vs. Gulp. But then again, the opposite can be true.
My buddy still likes "real" night crawlers, keeps some in his fridge, and cleans up after the mess they can make in the boat while baiting hooks.
I still prefer the Gulp crawlers. I don't have to keep them cold, they don't mess up the boat, they stay on the hooks better / last longer than "real" ones.

T man

[grt1]

I put some gulp (white twister tail) on my hook while ice fishing along with a minnow and caught fish.

In the spring I caught a 23 inch walleye on a pumpkin seed coloured 6" gulp worm when I ran out of minnows.

Today I was in a spot where I used minnows and couldn't stop the fish from biting, so for fun I put on a gulp 6" worm (natural colour) and never had a hit for the next 45 minutes.

different days, different stories, all you can do is experiment

[Tom B]

We quit buying livebait last fall. For jigging or rigging, all we use is gulp, now.

Tom B

[Box]

Ditto Tom. On my small MN lake, we mainly go for smallies this time of year, and the gulp crawlers have been awesome. So have the gulp 3 inch minnors, especially in black shad color. And one day, I was just dragging a jig with gulp minnow, and picked up a walleye in otherwise unlikely spot. Surprised me. Now I just use gulp, and the stuff is great.

The little gulp larvae are great for the kids with sunfish off the doc, and the 2 inch minnows with twist tails have just killed the crappie. No more live bait for me, at least until this gulp stops working for some reason.

-Box

http://www.walleyecentral.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=103808

[ERIE REBEL]

Last month on Erie after trying cranks with no success I decided to switch over to my crawlers.When I opened my cooler I realized that I had left them at home. I always keep a package of power crawlers and gulp crawlers in my tackle bag.Since I was using mayfly rigs I used about a half a worm.Both baits took fish and I ended up with my limit. There was really no advantage of powerbait or gulp, they both caught fish. and this was casting them not trolling.

[RANGER]

I've used, and like, GULP but I'm not ready to trade live bait for it Carte Blanc!

[Pooch]

After three weeks in Canada this is what I found.

Using Gulp Leeches when the fish were really cranking was as good as the real thing and much quicker "turnaround" after each fish. When it slowed down they would not touch the Gulp but would pick up and hold onto a real leech. This was jigging.

When trolling spinners, real leeches and crawlers outproduced Gulp hands down. This didn't make sense to me but thats what was happening.

When fish where hitting crank baits they would also hit the Gulp or plastic.

My conclusion is that when the fishing gets tougher or slower live bait is still the way to go.

Also, this year I had the opportunity to see a Northern over five feet long grab and hang onto my four pound walleye. I've never seen a Pike like that and doubt that I ever will again. At first I thought it was a sturgeon. The head and upper body was at least eight to ten inches wide. And it absolutly dwarfed the walleye. Now I understand why some of the larger walleye have such tremendous large scars on them. I looked the walleye over for teeth marks because I wanted to measure the width of the scars but there were none. One gill was torn and several fins were shredded. Other wise the walleye swam off unaffected. But, not me! Oh yea, the Northern let the walleye go about three to five foot away from the boat. So I did get a really good look a it. He just grabbed the walleye and hung on. Didn't fight me for it or anything. Just let go and slowly eased his way back down into the depths. (Fishing thirty foot water) Kind of like a monster movie!

Guess which fish I will always remember from this trip?

Pooch

[Pooch]

After three weeks in Canada this is what I found.

Using Gulp Leeches when the fish were really cranking was as good as the real thing and much quicker "turnaround" after each fish. When it slowed down they would not touch the Gulp but would pick up and hold onto a real leech. This was jigging.

When trolling spinners, real leeches and crawlers outproduced Gulp hands down. This didn't make sense to me but thats what was happening.

When fish where hitting crank baits they would also hit the Gulp or plastic.

My conclusion is that when the fishing gets tougher or slower live bait is still the way to go.

Also, this year I had the opportunity to see a Northern over five feet long grab and hang onto my four pound walleye. I've never seen a Pike like that and doubt that I ever will again. At first I thought it was a sturgeon. The head and upper body was at least eight to ten inches wide. And it absolutly dwarfed the walleye. Now I understand why some of the larger walleye have such tremendous large scars on them. I looked the walleye over for teeth marks because I wanted to measure the width of the scars but there were none. One gill was torn and several fins were shredded. Other wise the walleye swam off unaffected. But, not me! Oh yea, the Northern let the walleye go about three to five foot away from the boat. So I did get a really good look a it. He just grabbed the walleye and hung on. Didn't fight me for it or anything. Just let go and slowly eased his way back down into the depths. (Fishing thirty foot water) Kind of like a monster movie!

Guess which fish I will always remember from this trip?

Pooch

[Juls_OH]

I used the Gulp Leeches and live leeches at Devils Lake during the FLW event, and the Gulp product was catching more fish for me than the real thing. I don't know if it was coincidence, or not, but the Gulp baits were catching larger fish too.
The nice thing about them, was that if I missed a fish, I didn't have to re-bait my jig!

I agree with Pooch's assessment of the fast bite and slow bite conditions using the Gulp vs. real baits...I had the same results. When the bite slowed down, the real thing was the way to go.

Juls

[Juls_OH]

I used the Gulp Leeches and live leeches at Devils Lake during the FLW event, and the Gulp product was catching more fish for me than the real thing. I don't know if it was coincidence, or not, but the Gulp baits were catching larger fish too.
The nice thing about them, was that if I missed a fish, I didn't have to re-bait my jig!

I agree with Pooch's assessment of the fast bite and slow bite conditions using the Gulp vs. real baits...I had the same results. When the bite slowed down, the real thing was the way to go.

Juls

[grt1]

I ttalked to Budfll last night and he had guys in his camp last week thet used gulp and did fantastic, the group left him with 40 doz worms because the gulp worked so well.

[grt1]

I ttalked to Budfll last night and he had guys in his camp last week thet used gulp and did fantastic, the group left him with 40 doz worms because the gulp worked so well.

[brian1785]

Just got back from Lake of the Woods from 10 days of walleye fishing. In both jigging and pulling spinner rig situations, my Powerbait and Gulp out fished my partner who refused to give up his crawlers and leeches. It wasn't even a close contest. FYI.. thanks.
BE

[brian1785]

Just got back from Lake of the Woods from 10 days of walleye fishing. In both jigging and pulling spinner rig situations, my Powerbait and Gulp out fished my partner who refused to give up his crawlers and leeches. It wasn't even a close contest. FYI.. thanks.
BE

[reelman1]

5' pike? That's 60"!!! What is the world record?

[reelman1]

5' pike? That's 60"!!! What is the world record?

[Pooch]

They took a 59.5" out of this lake a few years ago. It was not accepted as a record because they had everything except the girth measurement. Fly-in lake with no access to a certified scale.

I now have a renewed respect for deep water fish! Record or not is not relevant to me. Just to see and know such a enormous fish swims means everything to me.

Pooch

[Stu]

Hey Pooch, what lake were you fishing?

[Pooch]

Lake Savant

[walleye4]

I have had pretty decent luck with the Gulp. But I really like Powerbait better and I have had pretty good luck with 3" Yum grubs too.


Wallagator Chaser

[fishhunter]

I always run 2 rods and I have one with bait and one with gulp and the gulp rarely outfishes the bait but it almost always catches bigger fish, I have had the best luck with the bright yellow nightcrawler or white minnow.

[Unlogged T-Mac]

I have had good luck in certain situations with Gulp.
Casting jigs and vertical jigging, it has worked well. I have not tried the crawler version trolling.

[JoyBoy]

I work in the fishing dept. of a large sporting goods store. When fishing neophytes ask me which lures or bait are best for catching fish, it tell them that all fishing lures or baits fall into one of three categories:

1) Guaranteed to catch fish,
2) America's Favorite, or
3) as seen on TV.

The reality is that all the marketing hype works best at catching fishermen, more so than fish. Seasoned fishermen learn that presenting the right bait at the right time is a bit of a crap-shoot. Over time, the contents of our tackle boxes mature to a point where we have several options to turn to when the bite shuts down on whatever we're currently offering the fish.

Each of the baits discussed has it's merits, depending on what it takes to trigger the fish bite under particular conditions. Fish can be stimulated to feed based on sight, smell, vibration (picked up via the lateral line), or some combination of these. Plastics from Zoom, Yum, etc. have proven to work well over the years, but I believe that they are effective when the bit is visually-based only, since, despite claims of LPT (Yum), added salt, etc., the baits are not really impregnated with anything as far as I can tell, so once these hit the water, the salt washes away within seconds, leaving a plastic bait that may look like food to a fish, but that’s it.

Gulp differs from plastics in that it is made from a combination of edible compounds. It’s therefore a good option for when the bite is scent-based, but can be ineffective if the bite is triggered by sight or vibration.

Bottom line is that it’s a good idea to carry a variety of lures and baits, so when the bite shuts down on one offering, you can readily switch to another. JMO