It's Not Plastic
Berkley Gulp! Explained

Photo: Berkley Berkley chemist John Prochnow says one of the keys to fishing Gulp! is to take it slow.

But Gulp! isn't just another scented, flavored soft plastic. Gulp! is a whole new idea. It's actually kind of like a sponge. It was 20 years in development, principally by Dr. Keith Jones, director of research at the Berkley Fish Research Center in Spirit Lake, Iowa, and chemist John Prochnow.

What Is Gulp!?

Most soft baits are made of a vinyl plastic base material. Even Berkley PowerBaits are constructed of oil-based resins and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The problem with that is that oil-based resins serve as a partial scent barrier, meaning scented baits are more effective as they get torn up by fish teeth. The PowerBait flavor impregnated into baits is tasted by fish upon biting bait, making the fish hang on longer for more positive hook sets.

"I always tell people to throw a PowerBait worm until it falls off the hook," Prochnow said. "Once that bait gets chewed and mangled, that's when the scent is going to be escaping the most."

Gulp!, however, is made using water-based resins. This allows for much more scent distribution than with oil-based resins. Because oil and water do not mix, when scent is added to a bait created from PVC and an oil-based resin, the oil literally traps the scent inside the bait. While some of the scent does get out, the oil is actually functioning as a barrier.

Gulp!, on the other hand, disperses the water-soluble scent as soon as it hits the water because there is no oil barrier keeping the water out. This allows the bait to disperse scent almost like a blood trail, expanding the strike zone by attracting fish that do not see the bait. Berkley advises when fishing with Gulp!, it is important to fish the bait slowly and allow the bait to do what it is intended to do: disperse scent.

The scent that is dispersing comes from the liquid that the bait is packaged in. Whether it's the liquid in the bottom of a package of Gulp! or the large volume of liquid found in a pail of Gulp! Alive!, the Gulp! baits soak it up like a sponge. Like with live bait, the fresher the Gulp! bait, the more effective it will be.

"Truthfully, you can use a single Gulp! bait all day and it's still going to be putting out more scent at the end of the day than anything else. But I like to keep mine fresh and full of scent," Prochnow said. "That's why Gulp! Alive! is so effective. If you use a bait for an hour or so you can just drop it back in the juice, and after 15 minutes that bait is like new. It's the equivalent of taking a dead shrimp and bringing it back to life."

Three Course Meal

Bass don't eat salad. They're predators. They want protein, like fish, crawdads, leeches, and other animals. Gulp! smells and tastes to the fish like the kind of food they want to eat.

Many "fish attractants" on the market today imitate the smell of garlic, cheese, shrimp, crawfish and baitfish. But the flavor makeup of Gulp! baits is more complicated than simply adding something to the bait that smells like something a fish might want to eat. The actual combination of scents and flavors is a heavily guarded secret, but the results are achieved through a three-layer formula.

Decades of research have shown Jones and Prochnow that fish are somewhat like people in what they eat: just about anywhere in the world, people eat the staples of meat and potatoes. Fish, research shows, are the same way. Whether it's a bass, redfish, pike, flounder – any species – they all consume the same staple diets, much like meat and potatoes. These staples are the base layer for all Gulp! products and contain a formula that Berkley scientists have found to appeal universally to fish.

The second layer of the Gulp! flavor formula is akin to local and regional differences in human diets. In some parts of the world, different spices are used; sometimes sauces. Following this analogy, the second layer would be considered the seasoning layer, with each bait "seasoned" to adhere to what flavors research has shown the fish to be attracted.

Ultimately, the third layer is specific to the style of bait. From shrimp to baitfish, extra ingredients are included, so that in the underwater environment of the fish, these baits smell like the real thing they represent.

"When a redfish eats a Gulp! Shrimp, it's actually tasting several different things. He gets the shrimp layer, the seasoning layer and the meat and potatoes," Prochnow said. "That's why fish never pass up a Gulp! meal when they can get it."

Photo: ESPN Outdoors The 2007 Bassmaster Classic champion Boyd Duckett is crossing his fingers for a jumbo-sized Gulp! worm to solve the problem of short-striking largemouths.

While few dispute the effectiveness of Gulp!, the shapes and colors available have been a bit more limited than the PowerBait shapes, due to the material being less easily formed than vinyl plastic. Berkley has been addressing that, and improvements are constantly being worked out. There are dozens of different shapes now being made, in a wide variety of colors, except for the more translucent colors.

Last year's Bassmaster Classic winner Boyd Duckett is a big fan of Gulp!, and uses it everywhere he can. He feels it is especially effective on smallmouth bass, but mostly due to their nature, and is satisfied with the shapes available (especially the gobies and leeches) when targeting smallies.

"Smallmouths are more curious," he said. "They'll come over to look at everything, and then they're close enough to smell the Gulp!. Then they eat it and won't let go. A largemouth will react the same way if they eat it, but you have to give them enough action to get them to hit it to start with.

"I use a big worm for largemouths, and the 10-inch PowerBait is the best big worm out there right now. It's the only one I throw.

"But you get short strikes on a big worm," he noted. "Gulp! would solve that, except it's hard to form that big of a piece of Gulp!. It's hard to make the tail reactive enough. It doesn't move as much as plastic. But when they solve that, I can't imagine anyone fishing with plastic anymore."

Since he and other Berkley pro staff have asked for it, it's a cinch Berkley scientists are working on it. Meanwhile, maybe Duckett could fish the Berkley Saltwater Gulp! 10-inch Eel, a saltwater shape that would surely appeal to a big, hungry largemouth as well.

Notable

> Jones wrote the book "Knowing Bass, The Scientific Approach to Catching More Fish" which is available at Amaxon.com, Barnes and Noble, and other booksellers.

> The Gulp! Alive! formula is available from Berkley in an 8-ounce spray bottle, so you can easily recharge your lure without replacing it or dipping it in the bag or jar. It can also be used to add appeal to other plastic or hard baits – temporarily, since they won't absorb the formula like the Gulp! material does.