Crawler harness bait

[Schnauzer]

I have always used live crawlers with my spinner harnesses on Mille Lacs. Has anyone had similar luck with artificial crawlers like Gulp, or others?

[subzero]

Great question, I am going to try the gulp nightcrawler this weekend but would like to hear from others as to there luck with them.

[TrophyEyes]

I have not on Mille Lacs. It has worked equally as well on Pelican as live night crawlers. I actually like a grub tail worm better than a straight line worm. Colors that I like are black with a chart. tail. or black and blue. I have not tried the Gulp night crawler, but I think I might. If the perch are biting off the end of the live night crawler it is definitely worth switching to artificial.

[Schnauzer]

I asked because I picked up some Gulp worms when I bought the Tail Dancers over lunch today (see other post). I get sick of chomped crawlers and having to rebait while soiling my boat with worm bedding flying out of the crawler carton. So, I'll give them a try in hopes of keeping a tidy boat. I'd still love to hear from someone who has pulled them with spinners on the pond.

[harvey lee]

I have used the plastic crawlers with zero luck. I have been fishing and many crawlers were getting the paddle chewed off. I changed to the plastic version and didnt get a bite. Then I changed back and started to get bit again. I have done this numerous times with no luck.

Maybe the lake I was fishing the fish are just a little smarter. Just seems as though they should work but I have had no luck with them. Only tried them on one lake.

When I use a spinner and harness, the sunnies like to hit that crawler but, when I put the plastic one on, the sunnies stopped.

[Schnauzer]

Harvey,

Was this on Mille Lacs? And, was this with Gulp? Gulp goes to great lengths to explain it isn't plastic. Just curious...

Oh, and it is nice to see a Sibley County guy. I grew up on the west side of the county.

[harvey lee]

NO, it was a local lake. I used it approx three years ago but I dont remember if it was Gulp for sure but I believe so.

[aanderud]

Back in '02 or '03 (whichever year was 'the hot bite' year) my buddy and my dad and I were on the pond. We made the mistake of only bringing 10 dozen crawlers. Thought it would last a few days. The first day we ran out!! Well, before we ran out, when there were like 2 dozen left, my buddy decided to use powerbait that we had. Just some yellowish brown worms. They worked great! The nice thing was that he could catch several (5+) fish on one worm!

After the first 3-hook harness broke off on some 'eye teeth, leaving only 1 hook left, we noticed how much easier a single hook was -- no gut hooking and not as much net tangling. So we cut off the other hooks on our other harnesses too

Since we were using only 1 hook, he just used 1/2 a power worm. It was working great. I switched over when we ran out of crawlers too. I think the real crawlers were working slightly better, but I think the newer gulp looks/smells better than that old powerbait.

One additional plus -- when you go through that many worms, you are talking about a lot of mud on the hands. Using plastics makes fewer towel washings...

I haven't tried it again, but I might next time just for giggles.

[IceAge@work]

I was up on Mille Lacs Sunday pulling spinners on the gravel in the big waves. I used Gulp and my partner fished live crawlers. There was no discernable difference in bites or interest from the fish.

We caught upwards of 25 walleyes with 20 between 21 & 26 inches. My partner had to put on a new crawler for every fish. I caught as many as five on one Gulp crawler and ended up with a dozen walleyes on I believe 4 baits. The last one was still going strong when the fish shut down.

To me it was a huge advantage in regards to the conditions since I was controlling the boat in those waves and would have lost quite a bit more fishing time had I been needing to constantly re-bait.

At this point I believe Gulp to be a good option for reaction type presentations like spinners or maybe agressive jigging in stained water. I have not made the leap of faith it would take to start rigging with the artificials.

FWIW I was using the Pumpkin Seed-Floating variety. Best of both worlds. Durability of the artificial and no need to blow up the crawler either to get some lift.

Until proven otherwise Gulp & Spinners will be a big part of my game plan when I head up to fish the reefs on LOTW in late July.

My $.02

[aanderud]

Thanks for confirming to me that the gulp works pretty good. I haven't yet tried it. I like the approach for the driver especially, since it's boat control is so important. Wasting less time baiting, washing hands of stupid crawler mud, etc can keep you 'on' the fish.

When they hit those spinners there's no doubt that they're going to be 'on'. I mean, you don't feed them line and let them decide if it's good or not like you do when riggin. So the live/fake difference definitely seems like a minor detail. The 'big long fast-moving colored spinning under-water night crawler thingy' is, as you say, a reaction bite, and it's usually pretty strong!

[rms]

Schnauzer,

I have a small cooler that I fill half full with lake water. I shake the dirt or bedding off the crawlers and put them right in the water. Add ice to keep them cool. They get nice and plump plus you don't have to deal with messy bedding or dirt. I put the left over crawlers back in their bedding when I'm done.

Personally, I had better luck on real crawlers than Gulp.

[vaneeck]

Last year I had bought some gulp crawlers for backup, if I ran low on the real thing. I went ahead and tried them when I already was on some hot fish and they worked great, same experience as others here, nice not too have to re-bait as often especially since trolling spinners is my favorite method when you are forced to fish in some pounding surf out on the pond.

Great spare bait to carry, actually this year I want to try simply some regular plastic worms, I have hard time thinking the walleyes biting at a good spinner trolling speed are really tasting or smelling the bait until its in their mouth and by then its "too late" I hope to have luck on the "bass" regular plastic worms they are cheaper, tougher and don't dry out like gulp. Hopefully they work too!

[federline]

Let us know if the bass worms work. I'm skeptical, but intrigued. I think Gulp crawlers will work better, tho. Trolling speed or not, they are smelling, tasting and feeling the bait. Live bait works so well because of this, it is exactly what they normally eat, they are like fussy kids at the dinner table. They will lock onto the back with their teeth, and nibble their way up the bait when running spinners, many will swim with you as you drift/troll, if something doesn't taste, smell or feel normal to them, p-tewy! While you try looking for the reaction bite, I'd use a crawler harness and trim the fake worm down so its tail is right at the third hook. The eyes on ML like it fast right now, it would be a good time to try it.