There is no doubt that soft plastics are taking fishing by storm, especially here in Australia. Fishermen that would use only bait now have bait free boats and go out with a box full of rubbers. The most talked about soft plastics in recent times aren't plastic (or rubber) at all. The are biodegradable are made in the US by Berkley. Yes I am talking about Berkley Gulp (although I did give that away in the title of this post). These fantastic lures are claimed to be so good that they are better than live bait, but are they?My testing
I am a reef fisherman, in that I love reef fishing before all other forms of fishing. So it is in this area that I have tested the gulp range more than any other. I rig a gulp of two on a dropper rig and drop them down onto my favourite reefs. So far the results show that little fish still prefer bait like prawns, pilchard, squid etc. which I guess is not surprising. However, gulps certainly catch fish. As a trial during my last fishing trip I used bait (prawns) and my old man used gulp lures. I would have to say that the gulp lures did work, but the prawns still took the most (and the bigger fish).I am very keen to keep trying these lures (especially ones that look like prawns) to see how they compare over a season of fishing. I have a feeling that they will start to become a greater part of my fishing life and the amount of bait I use will slowly be reduced. I will certainly keep you updated with my results.
Types
There are many patterns to choose from (grub, shad, goby, minnow, worms, squid, crab, pogy, shrimp, etc). I use the salt water models (because I fish in salt water) and I try to buy a few different colours and styles. However because they are used more like a live bait I tend to stick with natural looking colours.
Avaliability
Originally these little lures were very hard to get a hold of in my home town, but now they are literally everywhere. Even some of the bigger department stores and stocking them now and I wouldn't be surprised if you could find them in your local tackle store.