HookedOnFishingBoats.com presents:

Anyone who’s ever sniffed a GULP! plastic bait, much less left an open bag of GULP! baking in the car on a warm sunny day, knows that these things put out some serious stench. Note to self: Leave car windows open and allow vehicle to air out for a week, at least. To find out if they really tasted like fish I even tried chewing on a GULP! for a few moments. I discovered that:
a. this stuff does not rinse away with mere water;
b. to my taste buds it’s not merely fishy but more like a mix of fish meal, olive oil, and sweet-n-sour sauce; and
c. I can only push my wife so far, and still expect to get a kiss goodnight.

Actual on-the-water testing with GULP! 5” Jerk Shads was a lot more educational, when it comes to the fish-catching abilities of these soft plastics. I found them extremely effective when casting in the shallows to stripers and speckled trout, and also when jigging for flounder in relatively shallow water. What really impressed me, however, was when I got a bird’s-nest in my reel. The lure on the end of my line sank to the bottom as I worked on the tangle, and a few moments later, I felt a tug on the rod—a horse croaker (which we all know feeds with scent every bit as much as sight) had picked the GULP up off the bottom and eaten it. That made me curious, so once I had my line straightened out I tried letting the lure sit on bottom on purpose. Within a minute, another croaker picked it up and swam off. That eliminated any doubts in my mind that the GULP!’s scent was hard at work, attracting fish.

Since then I had the opportunity to go fishing out of Port Aransas, Texas, with John Prochnow, a full-time scientist who works for Berkley. Prochnow played a key role in developing GULP!, and as we casted over weedbeds and drop-offs for redfish, I asked him every question I could think of about GULP!. Turns out they didn’t just grind up some fish and mix the oils in with the plastics, but developed GULP! with a highly scientific approach. First they put different species of fish into a large test tank, and allowed them time to acclimate to their surroundings. Cotton balls (which have neutral taste) were dipped into different chemical compounds to formulate different “tastes,” then were dropped into the tank to see how the fish would react. When they ate the scented cotton balls the scientists then timed how long the fish held onto them, before spitting the cotton out. Then, they introduced a remote-controlled boat that towed test lures impregnated with the scents that the fish held onto the longest. Now, the scientists could observe how the fish reacted to different shapes, sizes, and scents—the same ones you and I would be fishing with.

The manufacturer claims that GULP! has 400-times the scent dispersion of regular bait, and this isn’t some wild guess. They ran tests on GULP! with an instrument called a spectrometer, which measures the amount of molecules being disbursed into the water. On a scientific basis, the 400 claim is pretty hard to argue.

Does that mean you’ll catch 400 times the number of fish while using GULP!? Of course not. Actually, after using this stuff for a while it becomes clear that the biggest boost you get from GULP! is a little bit of forgiveness when you’re slow on the hook-set. While a slow hook-set would normally give the fish time to spit out a regular artificial lure, in the case of GULP! it’s no problem because the fish holds onto the lure or eats it, instead of rejecting it. On top of that, I do think you’ll get more initial hits using GULP! then you will with scent-free plastics. Maybe it’s a five to 10 percent boost, with slightly higher effectiveness on fish that rely on scent (like those croaker, or redfish,) when hunting for dinner. Just how much do I like these things? When casting jigs in the shallows, the 5” chartreuse Jerk Shad has become my number-one go-to bait. Give ‘em a try, and I’ll bet that take over the number one slot for you, too.

Price: $7 – 8.
The Highs: Potent stink draws hits and keeps fish interested.
The Lows: Cost nearly a buck a bait—don’t use them when bluefish are around!!
Who Wants It: Light tackle anglers tossing plastics to reds, specks, stripers, and the like.
Contact: www.berkley-fishing.com