Gulp Alive for Lac Seul?

[bpetersen]

What size and color of Gulp Alive minnow would be best for Lac Seul in early June?

Pete

[Hump]

Quite a few people have addressed the gulp vs. live bait. Some are sold on it , others aren't.
One of the guys that goes with me works at Scheels and tried the leeches last year. Getting the lid off was an adventure and then had little luck. I have tried gulp without luck, but I hate to switch when crawlers and minnows work so well.

[lacseulwalleyeguide]

Leeches all the way in June! If you want multispecies action, that is. I have seen live bait outproduce gulp alive too many times to bother with it, although it definetly is the better option when you are not allowed to use bait, or run out!

[Camp chef]

We have been using Gulp for several years now and have a great deal of success with it, even outfishing live bait from time to time. Just as crawlers will out fish leeches one day and minnows may work well in the morning only to find that the fish prefer something else in the afternoon. The gulp has certainly become an important part of our arsenal.This last fall we caught all our big Northerns on gulp 3 inch minnows with the curly tail in yellow or orange.Last spring most of our walleyes and all northerns were on gulp.We haven't tried the alive stuff yet. The regular gulp seems to be less mess and hassle

[Lac Seul Lover]

Been fishing LS for many years in June and you can leave all the Gulp at the dock and put a minnow or a crawler on and be assured you will catch fish.

We pick up a 500 pack of crawlers (around $50) at Cabelas and the Eyes are very happy with our choice...cheaper thab Gulp and more effective.

[Mike Willems]

We experimented with "Gulp Alive" on Lac Seul last year. I have been a bit skeptical of "Gulp" in the past, but the "Gulp Alive" did perform well. When the action was fast, Gulp Alive produced at the same rate or better than live bait. When fish were fussy, live bait clearly outproduced it.

I found the 4" minnow in smelt or Chartreuse shad to be the most effective for larger walleyes. I am not a fan of the "Gulp Alive" minnow grub. The standard Berkley Power bait grub has much better action in the water.

As a guide, I used "Gulp Alive" minnows while my guests used live bait in order to get a better feel for the relative strength of the bite. If everyone was catching walleyes, then I knew that it was a relatively strong bite and that I could increase the speed and aggressiveness of presentations. If only the live bait was producing, then it was time to slow everything down and more carefully work a tougher, more selective bite.

The lids are poorly designed and it is pricey, but it is a very comforting insurance policy to have on board in case you get on a fast and furious bite that tears up your live bait cache.

Mike Willems
Silver Water Wheel Lodge

[Mercuryguy]

We were to Lac Seul near ear falls the 3rd. week in June. Took nightcrawlers, packaged minnows and gulp. Caught very few untill the last 2 days when we bought live minnows. Did very well with live minnows.

[Steve of Madison]

I tried the Gulp 3" minnow in black shad and 3" leech. When we had a good strong bite it worked as well as live bait. If we had to slow down and the bite was tougher we noticed a significant drop off of strikes. Like Mike said, it is a very good altenative when you are running out of live bait. I am interested to see if the stuff in the tubs of juice work any better, I noticed that the bite was better when they were fresh. I am assuming you can reinfuse them when redunked into the juice, and replaced with a new one.

[orchard frank]

Not Gulp, but I had very good luck on Lac Seul with Power Tube baits, 3-4", best was Pumpkinseed (yellow/orange) and Watermelon (light green). With a long shank 1/8th oz. jig inside the tube, has a very nice glide action. Casting/swimming along the bottom seemed to work best for me, and even vertical fishing with a heavier head worked great much of the time. In my experience, they usually out-fished twisters. Tough conditions, minnows were always best. I liked to move around a lot, find active fish. Good Luck

[Mike Kansas]

We have been fishing Lac Seul for 19 years. During the last few years we have experimeted with Gulp and have found that it can be effective in a feeding frenzy situation but when compared to live bait the Gulp products seem inferior.

It is very difficult to out perform live bait in a vertical jig presentation. We have used plastics and Gulp in casting presentations and have been pleased with it's performance. But I feel it's because during a cast and retrive presentation you evoke more "Reaction " strikes.

Good Luck, Mike Kansas

[orchard frank]

I should have added a note to the vertical presentation with tubes. We found that very little movement worked way better than a more aggressive jigging. I think that is one reason the tubes worked better (in most cases) than twisters for us. Just barely twitching the jig, or better yet, tapping the rod handle with your finger is enough to get the tentacles moving a little, and strikes often came as it was still. Good Luck