How do you rig your 4" gulp mullet?

[chex]

As the water warms up and the chance of catching multiple species in the bay increases, I have found myself turning to the 4" gulp mullet as my go-to bait, year after year. I've caught small to medium keeper striper, large white perch, keeper puppy drum, keeper flounder, and even catfish on these tasty morsels. Indeed, fish seem to love them, because they're bright and that gulp juice that imbibes them is smelly and delicious. If you've ever left a tub of that stuff in your trunk, you know what I mean That stench -- which 9 out of 10 fish prefer -- will be with you for a thousand miles or more, as you explain to passengers what the strange odor is. You can put those things in double zip locks, and still, they will find a way to taint your drive. But I digress...

How do you rig your 4" gulp mullet? I figure most everybody puts it on a jig head, but I thought there might be some alternative rigging methods. I'm curious.
And if you put it on a jig head, as I do, what kind of jigheads work best for you?
And what's your color for the bay? If it ain't chartreuse it ain't no use?
Anybody use it in fresh water?
Storage methods??

[Big Mike]

I rig them on 1/8 thru 3/8 ball jig heads with the "keeper" tine behind the head. Besides trolling I like to cast and bottom bounce for croaker with them. My go to color is white, followed by chartreuse, and at times when the cinch worms hatch, pink. I just store them in the bag in an upright position, once I open a bag they get used fairly quickly. My only regret is when I forget to remove them from the hook at the end of the day and I end up having to throw the jig head away due to the Gulp forming an indelible bond with the hook.

[J.A. Veil]

I troll with them or cast with them on jigheads ranging from 1/8-oz to 1/2-oz depending on water depth. The style and shape of jigheads does not matter to me. A few years ago I thought Gulps always outperformed soft plastics. I don't feel the same anymore. I have had really good success with 12 Fathom 3" Fat Sam mullet paddletails. They swim in a more natural way than the Gulp mullet and come in a variety of colors that work well. I often troll a spread with one or two Gulp baits and one or two soft plastics. On some days the Gulps get more bites -- on others the soft plastics are preferred.

One gripe I have with Gulp is their quality control. I have had some bags of Gulp in which the twister tail was so stiff that it did not wiggle when pulled through the water. Those baits rarely got touched. I don't know if Gulps get stiffer with age or why the tails did not swim well. Also the Gulp tails are relatively fragile and tear easily. Once the end of the twister tail is gone, the bait does not swim well anymore. Most soft plastics hold up better (Z-man baits are the champs in durability, but in my opinion they do not swim as naturally as the Fat Sam mullets).

There is one other way in which I use Gulp. A few days each year I make a trip to Wachapreague, VA and bottom fish there and at a few other spots on the VA eastern shore. I usually buy squid and shrimp but also use Gulp on some of the bottom rigs. I use small thin-wire circle hooks on my bottom rigs. It is hard to get the Gulp to slide on and stay on the thin circle hook. My bottom fishing efforts during the past two years there have been poor, regardless of the baits used. But in earlier years, the Gulp baits were hit by bottom feeding fish.

[hookmeup]

For fluke, always tail down on ultra-minnow style bucktail tail, the teaser hook 12-18" above or the tap dancer hook 18-36" trailing.

More fish on the teaser/tap dancer. Larger fish on the bucktail.

[kevinfry]

I have used keel weighted worm hooks with gulp! swimming mullet when fishing weedy shallow areas, especially when I want to fish just above submerged weeds. This works better on the larger size (6"?) than on 4", but I have made it work.
That being said, gulp is not my top producing soft plastic. That honor would go to saltwater assassin paddletails. I generally choose paddle tails over curly tailed baits in general.
One anomally to my use of gulp.... though I catch more on white than on chartreuse, on days when fish are preferring chartreuse colored baits , chartruse gulp seems to outperform my other baits in that color.

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[sega]

I know a lot of people like to run it on a tandem rig with a bucktail.

Other than that I just use em on a 1/2 oz darter jig head. Rarely will I go lighter.


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[Whtmrln06]

I don't go fishing without my tub of 3" chartreuse swimming mullet. They have been my top producing smallmouth bait the past two years. Like you said I also catch perch stripers and catfish on them too. All rigged on a 1/8th oz ball head jig.

[mytmouse]

I troll with them or cast with them on jigheads ranging from 1/8-oz to 1/2-oz depending on water depth. The style and shape of jigheads does not matter to me. A few years ago I thought Gulps always outperformed soft plastics. I don't feel the same anymore. I have had really good success with 12 Fathom 3" Fat Sam mullet paddletails. They swim in a more natural way than the Gulp mullet and come in a variety of colors that work well. I often troll a spread with one or two Gulp baits and one or two soft plastics. On some days the Gulps get more bites -- on others the soft plastics are preferred.

One gripe I have with Gulp is their quality control. I have had some bags of Gulp in which the twister tail was so stiff that it did not wiggle when pulled through the water. Those baits rarely got touched. I don't know if Gulps get stiffer with age or why the tails did not swim well. Also the Gulp tails are relatively fragile and tear easily. Once the end of the twister tail is gone, the bait does not swim well anymore. Most soft plastics hold up better (Z-man baits are the champs in durability, but in my opinion they do not swim as naturally as the Fat Sam mullets).

There is one other way in which I use Gulp. A few days each year I make a trip to Wachapreague, VA and bottom fish there and at a few other spots on the VA eastern shore. I usually buy squid and shrimp but also use Gulp on some of the bottom rigs. I use small thin-wire circle hooks on my bottom rigs. It is hard to get the Gulp to slide on and stay on the thin circle hook. My bottom fishing efforts during the past two years there have been poor, regardless of the baits used. But in earlier years, the Gulp baits were hit by bottom feeding fish.

I had quite a few stiff tailed gulp minnows as well. I found that if you give them a good stretch they flutter just like normal. Ever since I found out I had some bad ones I do a test swim before I fish with them. It makes a world of a difference between the proper action and no action.

[nhunter344]

And if you put it on a jig head, as I do, what kind of jigheads work best for you?
And what's your color for the bay? If it ain't chartreuse it ain't no use?
Anybody use it in fresh water?
Storage methods??

The jig head I use depends on current and the direction I'm fishing. Heavier if I'm fishing against the current. I havent found a major difference between chartreuse and white, but I mainly use chartreuse because when your running low, every place in the world that sells gulp will always have chartreuse in stock. When those colors aren't working, Ive had a lot of luck with pumpkinseed or nuclear chicken.

For storage I use the Plano Liqua-Bait Locker Bottle. Ive never had a gulp container or bag that didn't eventually leak all over my gear. Ive had the plano boxes for a couple years now and no leaks so far. Ill throw all my gulp in one and then top it off with gulp juice. Ive found it keeps them from getting hard like they tend to do when stored in the bags.

I mainly use it for freshwater, SM and channel cats seem to love them. Even managed a couple limits of YP this spring on them. What I'm curious about is the Gulp eels. Picked up a pack of them last week. Ill try them out and see of they're any good.

[chex]

Lots of good info on this thread. I like to use the Gulp heads. They seem to hold the gulp better and the hooks are good.




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[BarefootPetr]

I travel with my gulp secured in a waterproof ammo case. It keeps the smell contained until you open it. However, be advised, when you do there will be a blast of that smell so you might want to stand clear for a moment