A GULP! Substitute? Maybe So . . .

For u gulp guys have a few extra batches of ultra minnows. I do not ship local pickup I have an angler package of a dozen 4 2oz,4 3oz & 4 4oz for $45 ... My boat package is 10 2oz 10 3oz & 10 4oz for $95.(30) jigs.. All have Mustad 6/0 and 7/0.hooks. Works out to about a buck an ounce. Mixed colors with plastic skirts. Some powder coated in basic colors some plain. message me on here if anyone needs a bunch limited supply.

Gulp on sale at Dicks again, 2 for 10. I ordered on line, they also offer free shipping.

No more of the appropriately named "Dicks" for me ! Bloomberg - Are you a robot? But I have seen the little bags for five dollars elsewhere.
My last purchases were of the pint "Gulp Alive" buckets direct from Berkley.

Amazon has some of the 6 inch grubs for under 5 a pack as an add on item.

It will be interesting to see how well AAS works...it’d be nice to have an effective alternative to Gulps.

Resurrection of an old post. I also re-watched GULP! Scent Dispersion vs Z-Man Test Video - Fresh Test Update the Lep posted.


Some things may have changed. Back in 2019 people tried All-American STINK. Not sure if people still used it. Did John Skinner put out a video on this. I think, for him the GULP out fished the All-American STINK. I think Lep posted something on ZMan.

BTW: Still not happy on how many times my GUP comes up without a tail.

Anyone try FishBites? It seems they now have a Flavor/scent. I used the white Squid strips on a charter trip. Not anywhere near the action, but it supposedly released a scent. They were using the FISHBITES® FAST ACTING E-Z SQUID Fishbites® Fast Acting E-Z Squid - Fishbites

Anyway, as we get ready to start a new season, I always like to try one new thing. This year it may be FishBites.

I just wanted to see if people’s minds have changed and what new ideas may be out there.

I do lose some tails but I only use 3" Gulp! on bucktail dressed and painted lead heads. Usually the hook is in the front of the jaw and the Gulp! is floating just behind the teeth, unscathed. But I need to point out that I usually catch way less than ten fish during my three hour backbay paddles and after a single weak paddle home after maybe another couple of drifts hoping for a fluke or cocktail.

Oh, how I wish I could find an artificial that works as well as GULP! I tried these, along with my disappointment with Jersey Fluke Bellies (as I wrote up in the New Product Eval thread), and just couldn't establish a solid bite, even when the fish were all but jumping into the boat.

I do know that the JFBs are liked by a couple of charter capts in my area, and that some big fish were taken on them over the past two seasons. But my results do not bear out further testing/wasting of valuable on-the-grounds time, whilst the GULP! continues to shine.

Until something better comes along, I'll continue to pay the usurous price that Berkeley gets for them. In the realm of $3000 dockage bills and seemingly endless other boat expenses, a couple of hundies a season for GULP! is actually small potatoes.

I'll just have to keep repeating this, until I believe it myself. 🙄

Oh, how I wish I could find an artificial that works as well as GULP! I tried these, along with my disappointment with Jersey Fluke Bellies (as I wrote up in the New Product Eval thread), and just couldn't establish a solid bite, even when the fish were all but jumping into the boat.

I do know that the JFBs are liked by a couple of charter capts in my area, and that some big fish were taken on them over the past two seasons. But my results do not bear out further testing/wasting of valuable on-the-grounds time, whilst the GULP! continues to shine.

Until something better comes along, I'll continue to pay the usurous price that Berkeley gets for them. In the realm of $3000 dockage bills and seemingly endless other boat expenses, a couple of hundies a season for GULP! is actually small potatoes.

I'll just have to keep repeating this, until I believe it myself. 🙄

Have you tried FishBites?

Yes. Not good. Not for me anyways.

I have tried different baits over the years and keep coming back to gulp.

Have you tried FishBites?

I have tried Fishbites and the only thing that kept taking them was Sea Robins, my buddy at time was using gulps and even though the fluke were shorts he was out fishing me

It would take a truly fabulous artificial to replace Gulp! for me to switch. Since I don't go through as much fishing off the yak in the backbay, I can deal with the bitten off tails.

Which GULP scent do you "refresh" with? Spray? Liquid?

And I might as well ask.... Does it work on anything other than GULP? FsihBites? All-American STINK, etc.

Which GULP scent do you "refresh" with? Spray? Liquid?

And I might as well ask.... Does it work on anything other than GULP? FsihBites? All-American STINK, etc.

I like the squid spray

I like the squid spray

I was wondering if a quick spray soaks in or is a longer dunk required.

My own test results demonstrate that GULP! is a system, meaning it takes both the liquid and a properly absorbing bait to come together and work as well as it does. Other baits lack the critical "soak up" ability of the GULP! baits, and that most likely is why using the GULP! spray (or soak) is pretty much a waste of time and energy on any other baits.

All the other wannabees out there are plastic baits, and use some type of ineffective liquid or a smear-on viscous attractant, neither of which is anywhere near as productive as the GULP! system. If you read thru this and other threads here on NYAngler (and elsewhere), this becomes pretty apparent.

Like I've repeatedly written, I do wish there's some magic artificial bait out there that works as well as GULP! But so far that bait has yet to present itself. Perhaps once the Berkeley patent expires, then some generic will come on the market - and hopefully force a competitive cost reduction. But I doubt that will be anytime soon, and I ain't gonna hold my breath or waste any more valuable on-the-grounds fishing time testing ineffective "substitutes." Its just not worth it, to me.

About 10% of the "baits" in my Plano
Plano 456100 Liqua-Bait Locker™ Bottle
container are non-Gulp, ineffectively trying to soak up the juice.
while these "imitations" occasionally catch something, I usually only put them on the teaser and not the bottom lead head bucktail after a real Gulp! got torn apart. (I use a 14" apart rig named the "Lep" for something or other that was hilited on that all but forgotten "other" website. I found it worked as well in shallow back bay as other rigs and eliminates the twisting of a 3 foot teaser leader and a 12" heavy buck.) When paddling back to start another drift, most of which are under 100 yards on the yak, I alternate dunking the teaser and buck back in the container above, or spray them with Gulp! spray. (Squid or some fish thing, I have a decent smeller and usually can not tell the difference- maybe fish can?) If you have ever forgotten to take a Gulp! off a hook and revisit the shriveled up little lump the next day, its easy to see what Leprechaun said above, that the Gulp! baits absorb whereas most of the alleged competitors do not.

As for price, look for 4 for 3 deals, discounts at Berkley and even Amazon. The dicks at Dicks used to have good rebates, but being a monopoly on good stuff, Berkley (or the aforementoned dicks) got wise to that and I haven't seen that ad in two years or more.

I always drop my gulp back in the jar when restarting a drift. I use spray on long drifts, or after a catch and release, or a keeper.

the only bait that seems to attract weaks and fluke as effectively as Gulp! is the Bass Assassin, silvery body and brigh green curly tail. While I do dunk them in the juice, I think its just the superior action of the Bass Assassin that catches.

Again, I use live snappers for bait as soon as I can catch them, and until they get too large to liveline for the usual fish that inhabit the back bay. Rarely is a short caught on a livelined snapper and occasionally I may get just one bite in three hours on them. Once the onshore picks up by late morning, I am paddling home to "hopefully" clean a fish or two and hit the pool.

I always drop my gulp back in the jar when restarting a drift. I use spray on long drifts, or after a catch and release, or a keeper.

Yes, Hunter, exactly what we do! Lines up, baited rigs dropped in dedicated GULP! juice bottles, run back up-drift, drop rigs back in the water. Reel in fluke (usually).