Gulps & Powerbaits : A Con-job or are they for real ?
Four weeks ago, I decided to give SP's a try, after reading the many comments in the Gulps vs Squidgies thread. Seems the general consensus that Gulps should (theoretically) attract more fish.
So out I went, bought a couple of DVD's (BCF's Snapper/Bream/Flathead disc has some footage shot here on the broadwater with this guy hooking up flathead using gulps and powerbaits), and Berkley have an excellent DVD on their SP's with this guy gettin stuck into Bream, Flathead and Jew in various saltwater clips.
Off to BCF I went and "invested" some of my hard-earned cash in all the right gear that I'm supposed to use on my rod. Fireline, vanish leader and an assortment of Jigheads from Wilson, Nitro and Gamagatsu, plus a pile of gulps and powerbaits in all shapes and sizes, from white shaky shads in 3", mullet, grubs and such, white, pink, brown (pumpkin seed), all-in-all $150 worth of goodies.
Despite doing everything instructed in the DVD's I have yet to hook and land a single fish on these little plastic wonders.
Starting a month ago, the first two weeks were 100% fishless for the first time in my life (I'm 42 and have been fishing since I was a teenager). Not even an undersize Bream or whiting on a 2" shrimp on a little jighead with a size 4 hook.
2 weeks ago I started to go and pump yabbies again and take 2 rods out with me, either a 7ftr for the estuaries, or a 9ftr for the tally river breakwall, and my usual 12ft'er with sinker and size 4 hook for a cast with a yabby.
When the water's relatively clear you can see the fish move around down there, and casting any of the gulps in there doesn't seem to do much except for the Bream and Dart chewing the friggin tails off, casting into the beach side.
Yesterday, an entire pack of gulps demolished within the hour casting into the surf, Bream and Dart absolutely love them tails. It would eventually be completely gone. Whether it's these, or a white shaky shad on a bigger hook/sinker jighead, makes no difference, they just love chewing off those friggin tails instead of hitting in from the side and getting hooked up.
There's some decent sized fish in there, as I found out when I grabbed the other rod, put a yabby on the hook, and cast it into the same area, hooking up into the odd good-sized dart and plenty of toss-me-back undersized bream.
No such luck with them gulps. All the fish do is chew into the tails, eventually rendering them useless and destined to be replaced. Suppose that's how the company makes its money.
Away from the surf in the estuaries, the plastics are even more useless because toadfish absolutely LOVE THEM !!!
An early morning session off budds beach last week saw 1 pack of 2" shrimps in gulp nuclear chicken gone, 2-3 casts, chop chop and the rear end chewed, and half a pack of these little fellas (picture above) gone. 2-3 casts into the early morning darkness sees the tails chopped up and eventually gone.
Toadfish.
Tallebudgera River up near Yabby island reveals that little whiting also chase after them chomping into the rear ends of the plastics. As the plastic becomes visible in the shallows on the retrieve, I can see whiting, toadfish and some other fish with a zebra patten nibble into the plastic's rear end. Bigger fish seem to ignore them, and they're in there because when I cast off the footbridge I can see bigger fish swimming around the gulp with the littlies mucking around with it and chomping on the tail. Repeat same exercise with a yabby, yep the little fish usually beat the bigger fish to it, stealing the bait, but the bigger fish try a little bit harder though.
Cast after cast next to one of the bridge pylons produced nothing on the M1 overpass, nor down below the Gold Coast Hwy bridge at Currumbin Creek. Repeat same exercise with Yabbies, and nibbles galore, lots of lost yabbies, but landing the occasional fish here and there. Lots of undersized bream around, but it proves without any reasonably doubt that Gulps are over-hyped and DO NOT outfish all other bait, that statement on the packet is misleading and should be against the law.
"Fish Eat it" might be more true, but should make a reference to the tail or rear end of the plastic, as my personal experiences see a relatively small number of chomps into the actual body of the gulp, compared to tail hits.
Toss a yabby on a #4 hook in there and it won't take me long to hook up something, usually a small whiting, toadie or a lucky flathead (took yabbies to Budds Beach last week and used the 7ft rod with the plastics, and the 9ft with the size 4 hook for the yabbies.
Spent a total of 2 hours casting gulps and scoring nothing but wasting a pack and a half of the rip-off mongrels, and about half an hours' worth of casting into the same areas landed me a 32cm flathead (dinner), 3 undersized bream, a whiting and one of those friggin toadfish that seem to be everywhere, that went back to live another day.
What gives?
Doing everything the guys are doing on those 2 DVD's in terms of how to put'em on the jig, slow retrieves with little jerks and all that, but no fish?
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Originally Posted by PinHead
