all I said it's the biggest marketing scheme ever for fishing.....and it is without a doubt!I've been given a few tubs to try....Smallies like the leaches....but they also like the regular Gulp just as fine....with no mess involved...
Live bait vrs Gulp Alive?
I've never really thought of them as cumbersome...the tub isn't THAT big lol and i've never had one leak once closed...only spill i've had was my own fault (one that will NEVER be repeated LOL). As for price, yes they are expensive...but not fair to use a small $3 bag of YUM VS a big tub of the other. Thats implying that one costs 600 to 700% more....not quite a fair comparison there.Jamsers wrote:I've found the YUM! baits with LPT to work a HELL of alot better than the Gulp Alive! I have the leeches and the minnows.
I agree with RJ's sentiment.
I also find the tubs cumbersome and they leak!
SO in retrospect $2.79 for YUM or $18-22 for GULP ALive????
To be clear about this subject I fish plastics almost exclusively for walleye and have been doing so for a long time. My experimenting with them began in the early eighties and back then other than twister tails I was using those baits made for the bass market. I got a chance to try many different styles of baits in a variety of sizes, sure in the beginning my catch rate was low - I had to discover what techniques and presentations would work.
The evolution of the plastics used followed this pattern - these are what worked, the experimental list was much longer
Twistertails
2 & 3' shad bodies
3' Tubes
6" plastic worms
Fin s fish
then along came Power Baits and the fishing changed a ton
6" worms
7" worms
Grubs
Tubes
Jerk Shads
I'm sure you can get the drift
Then the Gulp formula was introduced and I used the nightcrawlers for a couple of years.
Now it's the Alive product line and I certainly place it foremost over any other scented plastic and yes I still play with a bunch of other offerings.
I find it interesting that there is so much negativity expressed about the evolution of the Berkley development when it is used so extensively throughout the marketplace. Could it be that maybe not enough time is spent trying to develop the right methods for presentation.
There have been a mess of players in the scent business over the years going back to the early Fish Formula days in the late eighties - early nineties and over the years since, everything has been tried from salt to fish oils to come up with the ultimate fish attractor.
I remember the Uncle Josh jars with their rusted lids, the seal on Strike Kings Porko that spilled juice everywhere, the stains in the boat from the sprays and aerosols - man we've come a long way - Berkley in my mind was in a big hurry to get the initial Alive product to market and really didn't pay enough attention to the jars - have you seen the new stuff - WOW.
It would be kind of nice if more time was spent by others to get the true reward from fishing with artificials rather than flip comments that are transparent to me - you really haven't spent any time using the baits - have you?
The comment about cost is so far off the wall - it's laughable.
During the season I would pay from 35$ - 50$ a pound for leeches (about 350 - 500) to a pound. 20$ for a gross of Alive and catch just as many fish and come home with some in the container after the week was over. Can you see economically why Alive is the better deal?
On the live minnow side of the deal I have no comment because where I fish they are not allowed, maybe somebody else can chime in with their experience.
As you can see I'm a voice for the Berkley lineup - I pay for my product and tell it the way it is.
Give it a fair shot, I'm sure you'll reach the same conclusion I have.
The evolution of the plastics used followed this pattern - these are what worked, the experimental list was much longer
Twistertails
2 & 3' shad bodies
3' Tubes
6" plastic worms
Fin s fish
then along came Power Baits and the fishing changed a ton
6" worms
7" worms
Grubs
Tubes
Jerk Shads
I'm sure you can get the drift
Then the Gulp formula was introduced and I used the nightcrawlers for a couple of years.
Now it's the Alive product line and I certainly place it foremost over any other scented plastic and yes I still play with a bunch of other offerings.
I find it interesting that there is so much negativity expressed about the evolution of the Berkley development when it is used so extensively throughout the marketplace. Could it be that maybe not enough time is spent trying to develop the right methods for presentation.
There have been a mess of players in the scent business over the years going back to the early Fish Formula days in the late eighties - early nineties and over the years since, everything has been tried from salt to fish oils to come up with the ultimate fish attractor.
I remember the Uncle Josh jars with their rusted lids, the seal on Strike Kings Porko that spilled juice everywhere, the stains in the boat from the sprays and aerosols - man we've come a long way - Berkley in my mind was in a big hurry to get the initial Alive product to market and really didn't pay enough attention to the jars - have you seen the new stuff - WOW.
It would be kind of nice if more time was spent by others to get the true reward from fishing with artificials rather than flip comments that are transparent to me - you really haven't spent any time using the baits - have you?
The comment about cost is so far off the wall - it's laughable.
During the season I would pay from 35$ - 50$ a pound for leeches (about 350 - 500) to a pound. 20$ for a gross of Alive and catch just as many fish and come home with some in the container after the week was over. Can you see economically why Alive is the better deal?
On the live minnow side of the deal I have no comment because where I fish they are not allowed, maybe somebody else can chime in with their experience.
As you can see I'm a voice for the Berkley lineup - I pay for my product and tell it the way it is.
Give it a fair shot, I'm sure you'll reach the same conclusion I have.
Last edited by McQ on Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
As if you would actually write that.McQ wrote: The comment about cost is so far off the wall - it's laughable.
Just because it seems so affordable to you does not mean it's the same for everyone. Sure, compared to the price of expensive leaches, maybe it's the same. But maybe they are expensive too?
You can 'laugh' at me and everyone else if you want, but even if Gulp Alive is the best product out there, I'll never pay that price for them when there are several, much cheaper options that still do work very well.
-
eye-tracker
- Gold Participant
- Posts: 1998
- Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2003 9:23 am
- Location: Perth, Ontario
- Contact:
This stuff works for walleye...I am still a crawler guy at heart - mind you GULP is cheaper in the long run than purchasing the number of crawlers I go through in a season as the GULP stays on the hook when pan fish are nibbling and hot temptress kill off your crawler collection. 
This past summer the PWT Super Pro event in Dryden Ontario was the first event at this level where all the pros had to use artificial only. Almost every angler including my self figured out the bite on GULP Alive. My best memory was going to the local bait shop and being told by the owner we will never catch any fish on artificial baits, I smiled and purchased a few more bags of GULP! That same afternoon after watching a local for an hour work a mid lake hump with live minnows, I moved in on the hump as they packed up...he said the bite sucked and we should try some where else...in the first 5 minutes both Gord and I landed a walleye on gulp alive crawlers.
To end this story...the PWT Super Pro event broke all tournament weights and number if fish caught for that lake while only fishing with artificial baits - now this part of the north is minnow dunking territory and it was a great test for Berkley Gulp baits.
BTW a tip I posted earlier about leaking jars...
I have spent lots of time in the boat with 10 to 15 jugs of all different GULP Alive baits - the best way I have found to prevent them from leaking all over the storage compartments is the following. Take a pocket knife and cut a hole in the top seal so you do not remove it...this seems to keep a good seal and prevents the juice from leaking out around the edges.
-sheldon
This past summer the PWT Super Pro event in Dryden Ontario was the first event at this level where all the pros had to use artificial only. Almost every angler including my self figured out the bite on GULP Alive. My best memory was going to the local bait shop and being told by the owner we will never catch any fish on artificial baits, I smiled and purchased a few more bags of GULP! That same afternoon after watching a local for an hour work a mid lake hump with live minnows, I moved in on the hump as they packed up...he said the bite sucked and we should try some where else...in the first 5 minutes both Gord and I landed a walleye on gulp alive crawlers.
To end this story...the PWT Super Pro event broke all tournament weights and number if fish caught for that lake while only fishing with artificial baits - now this part of the north is minnow dunking territory and it was a great test for Berkley Gulp baits.
BTW a tip I posted earlier about leaking jars...
I have spent lots of time in the boat with 10 to 15 jugs of all different GULP Alive baits - the best way I have found to prevent them from leaking all over the storage compartments is the following. Take a pocket knife and cut a hole in the top seal so you do not remove it...this seems to keep a good seal and prevents the juice from leaking out around the edges.
-sheldon
I have alot of success with YUM LPT plastics, the white grub seems to work the best for me.
This year I woud like to try some LIVE, and give it a go. Nearing the end of last season, I started to play around with leach imitations. I clearly remember one HOT afternoon just playing around with a 6 year old bag of 4' berkley power leaches.. Just goofing off with panfish near a sunken log on the edge of the Mississippi River.
Tons of rock bass, perch and sunfish were going nuts for the leach. Then out of the corner of my eye, I could have sworn that I saw the faint white spot on the tail of a fish that rose for the lure than sank to the bottom just as quick.
I could have sworn that it was a Walleye, so I kept casting and altering my techniques to try and get that walleye. And sure enough, I got this little 12 inch Walleye to hit my Leach, must have been 27 degrees, blue sky and stinkin humid.. And I had a walleye rise into shallow water and hit this Leach.
This year, I want to try leaches and see if I can improve my Walleye catch.
I know that in early spring, Pike and Walleye LOVE leaches. So this May, I am going to try leach imitations exclusively. I think I may try some GULP LIVE.
This year I woud like to try some LIVE, and give it a go. Nearing the end of last season, I started to play around with leach imitations. I clearly remember one HOT afternoon just playing around with a 6 year old bag of 4' berkley power leaches.. Just goofing off with panfish near a sunken log on the edge of the Mississippi River.
Tons of rock bass, perch and sunfish were going nuts for the leach. Then out of the corner of my eye, I could have sworn that I saw the faint white spot on the tail of a fish that rose for the lure than sank to the bottom just as quick.
I could have sworn that it was a Walleye, so I kept casting and altering my techniques to try and get that walleye. And sure enough, I got this little 12 inch Walleye to hit my Leach, must have been 27 degrees, blue sky and stinkin humid.. And I had a walleye rise into shallow water and hit this Leach.
This year, I want to try leaches and see if I can improve my Walleye catch.
I know that in early spring, Pike and Walleye LOVE leaches. So this May, I am going to try leach imitations exclusively. I think I may try some GULP LIVE.
Bradford, just to make myself perfectly clear - yes I wrote what I did. I did not imply I was laughing at anyone - I said the comment was laughable.
Comparing unit costs of 8, 10 or 12 piece packaging to a bulk price is simple math - the smaller quantity grossed up is more expensive.
You're right, the bulk packaging is expensive. Maybe there will be smaller packaging available in the future - who knows? Of course there are other options and I probably have a few hundred of them in my kit too. All I said was the Alive 5" leeches are my go to for harness rigging and the reason why.
I apologize if I gave you or anyone else the wrong jibe - I didn't mean to get personal in any way.
Comparing unit costs of 8, 10 or 12 piece packaging to a bulk price is simple math - the smaller quantity grossed up is more expensive.
You're right, the bulk packaging is expensive. Maybe there will be smaller packaging available in the future - who knows? Of course there are other options and I probably have a few hundred of them in my kit too. All I said was the Alive 5" leeches are my go to for harness rigging and the reason why.
I apologize if I gave you or anyone else the wrong jibe - I didn't mean to get personal in any way.
-
Fish'n Buddy
- Bronze Participant
- Posts: 264
- Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 11:21 am
- Location: South Nation River
my buddy said he's had alot of success with artificial minnows through the ice...to me its a tough choice, not gettin to fish even close to as much as I'd like (I'm sure that goes for all of us) I am obsessed with not wasting anytime, or opportunity when I'm out there. To me its a risk to "experiment" with something when I don't know if I'm gonna get a chance to get out in the next month...hard call , this is a good thread though, lots of good stuff guys, I think after reading some of your posts (especially Sheldon's)I might have to take "the risk" by jigging an artificial next time I'm out...but you know I'll have my set line with live minnows for sure!
Good luck fellas
Fishin' buddy
Good luck fellas
Fishin' buddy
-
MichaelVandenberg
- Silver Participant
- Posts: 736
- Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2003 9:44 am
- Location: Ontario
I was on Clayton a couple weekends ago with two other guys fishing Perch (also Walleye but no one caught any).
They were both using minnows and I was using Berkley Gulp Alive.
We all caught fish but they were constantly replacing minnows as the Perch were picking them off the hook.
Another note, I was using a vex and so was one of the other guys who was using minnows. We both caught more fish than the one without a Vex.
Summary:
Gulp Alive = Minnows but Fishing time increasing with Gulp Alive
Get a Vex (or equivalent). It will double/triple your catch
One last thing observation, the difference between the Gulp Alive tubs and Gulp packages IMHO is the baits in the tubs are all straight as they are suspended in the juice. In the package, some of the baits will have curved tails and such.
Cheers,
Mike
They were both using minnows and I was using Berkley Gulp Alive.
We all caught fish but they were constantly replacing minnows as the Perch were picking them off the hook.
Another note, I was using a vex and so was one of the other guys who was using minnows. We both caught more fish than the one without a Vex.
Summary:
Gulp Alive = Minnows but Fishing time increasing with Gulp Alive
Get a Vex (or equivalent). It will double/triple your catch
One last thing observation, the difference between the Gulp Alive tubs and Gulp packages IMHO is the baits in the tubs are all straight as they are suspended in the juice. In the package, some of the baits will have curved tails and such.
Cheers,
Mike
-
Erie-Eyes
- Silver Participant
- Posts: 549
- Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 8:12 pm
- Location: Ottawa (Blackburn Hamlet)
I have traditionally used worms with spinners soft water fishing, and minnows for hard water fishing. Last summer I started using Gulp Alive leeches instead of worms on a crawler harness, and continued to catch as many as as my fishing partners, and now they are a permanent part of my arsenal, but NOT the only part. I also preferred the plastic crawlers on the "slow death hooks" as I find they are more durable, and just as effective.
I have caught walleye through the ice using Gulp Alive Minnows, so I know they work in this application, but do not limit myself only to them if I also have the option for live ones. I like to have both available and let Ol' Marble Eyes tell me what he wants.
I have caught walleye through the ice using Gulp Alive Minnows, so I know they work in this application, but do not limit myself only to them if I also have the option for live ones. I like to have both available and let Ol' Marble Eyes tell me what he wants.
Thanks to you all for all of the great insight and ideas, as usual this sight provides me with excellent feedback and direction. I am planning on trying both if I make it out this weekend. When I take my sons out they do not like it when I put a hook through a minnow to use for bait. I am hoping the 'GULP' will be the answer for this situation for me.
Cheers,
Troller
Cheers,
Troller
I practice catch and release 95% of the time
and I prefer the challenge of catching fish using artificial lures and bait
I believe live minnows are more productive bait especially when the fish dont want to bite
having said that
it seems wrong to me to kill a dozen or two minnows to catch sport fish ...then release the sport fish. What about the poor minnows!!!!!
worms ,well I dont care about them so much. you cant see the look in their eyes
and I prefer the challenge of catching fish using artificial lures and bait
I believe live minnows are more productive bait especially when the fish dont want to bite
having said that
it seems wrong to me to kill a dozen or two minnows to catch sport fish ...then release the sport fish. What about the poor minnows!!!!!
worms ,well I dont care about them so much. you cant see the look in their eyes