Gulp Alive! Vs. Real Bait.

[trappingaddiction]

Has anyone compared Gulp Alive! with live bait? I have not used a lot of Gulp Alive!, but with the prices of leeches, minnows, etc. these days, I may start to get more Gulp Alive! Other opinions on Gulp Alive! are welcome.

[bogwalker]

I don't like artificial bait, never have. That being said, Gulp Alive has out fished live bait in our boat every time. Not even close.

[walleyemaniac]

The only types I've used are the floating leeches and floating crawlers. Wouldn't say it's outfished live bait, but it's been just as good. Usually use it when I can't get to a bait shop at or on the way to the lake. Just have to recharge them on a frequent basis, seem to work good then.

[Steve Foss]

The real issue, in my mind, is whether such baits can keep up with live bait in a static presentation such as under a slip bobber or on a stationary bottom rig.

Plastics such as Gulp Alive tend to do very well compared with live bait when the presentation is moving, as in trolling or drifting, but few people have enough confidence in the plastics, or enough time to try them side by side, to come up with a worthwhile comparison. I know I don't feel like undertaking that level of experimentation when I'm on the water.

I will say that 1" Power Tubes do better than live minnows under slip bobbers for shallow crappies 95 percent of the time. That's a comparison we've made often. On complete slack dead windless water, the minnows will somewhat outfish the tubes. If there's even a slight ripple on the water, it's the tubes every single time.

Makes me wonder how the Gulp Alive in various forms would do on other static presentations for other species. Like tip-ups for pike, walleyes and lakers, or slip bobbers for walleyes.

So far I haven't seen anything definitive on that. Mostly it's just been speculation, like a lot of what I've just posted.

[reinhard1]

when fish are aggresive gulp works great. like you said steve, the small tubes are my go to bait for crappies right from the start. if they dont produce i will go to a flu flu with gulp and if that doesn't work well its the plain orange hook and minnow for me. i think they all have their place in a condition based situation. wow now i'm talking like some kind of pro which i'm not. just speculating from experience from the past. although the gulp is something new to me in the last few years. good luck.

[bobbymalone]

my experience with vertical jigging powerbait off the side of the boat while anchored up was less than promising. Live bait outfished the fake stuff easily 5 to 1.

[Bran32]

The only time I buy bait now is during the hard water season or if I'm slip bobbering with no wind!! If there is even the smallest breeze I'm using Gulp, Gulp Alive, and I have had really good luck wit Trigger Xleeches and minnows! The Bass in my avatar came off of a Jig and 4" gulp alive minnow and my largest walleye to date, at 27 1/2 inches was caught while bass fishing a texas rigged Gulp six inch sinking minnow!! I'm a huge fan of those 3 products!!

[Chad Peterson]

When the fish are bitting, everything works. With that being said,I have used the 1" and 2.5" gulp minnows in all colors and have great success with crappies and sunfish.Spring time nothing beats the real minnow and live leeches, but when the spawn in over, it is all plastics and gulp minnows.IMO

Sniffer

[cavalierowner]

Interesting thread because I'm leaving for a fly-in trip in Canada in a couple weeks. I'm bringing a couple tubs of Gulp Alive minnows for jigging and we are going to compare it to live bait. Maybe next time we can bring less live bait.

[tacklejunkie]

I have done better on their minnows and leeches than the GULP crawlers on harnesses

[NoWiser]

I think you will be happy with the results. I've taken two walleye trips this year so far. One to Leech for opener and one to Canada over Memorial Weekend. Both times the Gulp outfished the live bait, by far. On the Memorial trip I got a 25 3/4", 26", and 29 1/2" on 4" Gulp Alive minnows. I should note that I wasn't vertical jigging or using a slow presentation either time. Either drifting fast with the wind, snap jigging, or casting and retrieving the jigs seemed to trigger the most strikes. We also got perch, smallmouth, pike, muskies, and lake trout while fishing for walleyes with the Gulp. I haven't hardly used live bait in the last 3 or 4 years because I can seem to do as well, or better than the others in the boat who use more live bait. If I were to bobber fish, or slowly vertical jig or lindy rig, I'd switch back to live bait.

[Redline]

The last 2 years on my trip to Lake of the Woods, I've used mostly Gulp Alive minnows and leaches. I've got just as much, if not more fish with them than live bait. I'm fully on board with Gulp.

[pooly_31]

Why does everyone use Gulp over TriggerX?

[ozzie]

I have been a big fan of the Gulp Alive for the past 3 years. It is the only minnow I really use. I mainly use the 2.5" black shad or emerald shiner and do really good for panfish and walleyes when I accidently find them fishing shallow for crappies. I will use the Gulp Alive under a float alot if there is wind or no wind and the fish have no problem eating it!!

[delcecchi]

Why does everyone use Gulp over TriggerX?

More advertising and wider availability?

[Judge Smails]

I bought trigger x twice and the bags opened up and stank up my tackle bag. Im getting a free on in the mail and if this bag opens up I'll go back to the Gulp for good.

[jmg]

Yeah, Judge, I just cleaned out a small tacklebox today, due to a TriggerX bag of leeches that some-how opened up and spilled those fragrant pheromones all over the bottom of the bag. Really aromatic after the warm weather we had last week. Don't know how it happened and I only used one leech. Did have a good hit from a mystery fish that bit off about a third of the leech. Couldn't get anymore bites on it after that.

Still haven't decided if they are any good or not, but they sure can make a mess.

[curtistodd]

sounds like the common theme is: If you are fishing slow or slip bobbering you HAVE to have live bait. If you are fishing fast or with spinners it doesnt really matter. I agree totally. Fish will hit most anything on a reaction strike. I carry gulp dead and gulp alive with me when im in a boat just in case the live bait runs out. If the bite is so good that we run out of live bait, they will hit the gulp also. But they will also hit twister tails, munchies, realistix, etc. etc.

[ozzie]

I use it under a bobber and slow retrieve gulp alive all the time with great success!!

[Angstman]

I'm fully onboard with Gulp Alive!. I tried the 1" fish fry and absolutely hammered the panfish and also caught a bonus walleye from shore. I've fished with artificials before but nothing has even come close to being as good as this.

[beakgeek]

I used the 1" minnows with a small jighead and bobber while fishing with two of my girls. We had waxworms too. The Gulp minnows were awesome and easy enough for them to bait their own hooks. They caught more sunfish with the minnows.

[RiverFish]

I've had good luck using the Floating Gulp nightcrawler with spinner rigs.

Does it out fish live crawlers, I don't know. It is more durable than live crawlers, especially when I am trolling through thicker cover. I don't have to worry about keeping crawlers on ice or alive.

[harvey lee]

I have had great luck with the gulp minnows and pretty good luck corking with the 5" leeches. Seems when there are some waves, the leeches work much better corking.

As far as the crawlers go, not for me. I have been on good bites with real crawlers and switched to the gulp crawlers and did next to nothing at all. I will not use them again.

[Borch]

I've had good luck using the Floating Gulp nightcrawler with spinner rigs.

Does it out fish live crawlers, I don't know. It is more durable than live crawlers, especially when I am trolling through thicker cover. I don't have to worry about keeping crawlers on ice or alive.

Me too. AT tyimes they have outfished real crawlers. They work especially well when you're also dealing with hungry panfish that would rip up a real crawler.

[BobT]

Every June for the past 10 years I take a Canadian fishing trip for walleye. A typical day produces well over 100 walleyes per person per day. When I order bait I order 3 dozen minnows per fisherman per day. Our trip is 4-1/2 days. This year I ordered 150 dozen minnows and a pound of leeches for 10 guys.

One year I decided to try bringing Gulp! along to test it against the live bait. I felt this was the perfect opportunity because the result could be seen immediately. Live minnows outfished Gulp! 10 to 1, easily. I tried many various approaches from more finesse to more agressive. I still have some Gulp! left in that container on my boat and bring it out from time to time and have never had it even come close to matching live minnows. I won't waste my money on it any more.

I also brought some preserved minnows along and tested those as well with similar results. Nothing compares to live minnows in my experience. As I already noted we do include leeches in our arsenal as well and minnows usually outfish leeches 2 to 1 for sure. I figure this has to do with the timing of the year. Leeches might do better later in the summer months when the water is warmer.