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In Need Of Everyone's Input

DannyBoy

DannyBoy

Well-Known Member
Hey all, quick one here. Heading to Quetico (Boundary Waters) in a couple months. Quetico has gone live-bait free this year. Nothing but biodegradeable plastics can be used. Crank's work OKAY, at best. You can catch Smallies on them ALL DAY LONG, but I'm lookin for some Walleye, which are also in there in abundance but you literally can't keep the Smallmouth off your lure to even get it down into Walleye territory. Wondering what people have had success with regarding jigs and soft plastics, and presentation strategies. I've been catching Walleye my whole life with jigs and twister tails but would like to incorporate some of the newer scented soft plastics (grub-tailed minnows, leeches, etc.). Has anybody had success with the new Gulp Alive's or regular Gulps, or anything similar? Any input is welcome and would be much appreciated. Thanks!
 
Gulp Alive is sweet stuff! you litterally can put it on a hook and bobber and catch fish. not many plastic baits can claim that!

Also Gulp Turtle back worms are pretty effective and are 100% biodegradable!

Up there fish dont need to rely on scent and taste as much due to the clear waters, but a little added scent/flavor can only help you!

I use lots of Gulp and really believe in it!


For the 'eyes go with the Gulp Alive leeches or minnows, use a 1/4 oz jig and fish it under a slip bobber. with a fair amount of chop you should kill em with the stuff.


Rapala Original Floaters and Husky Jerks would be a good call as well.

hope that helps some!
 
Really!? Bobber fishing? Not doubting you, just strikes me as odd. Have you ever tried drifting them on the bottom or anything like that? I guess I wouldn't even know where to start with still bobber fishing...back in the shallows at night when they come in to feed? Thanks for the input THA4.
 
i didnt believe it either, and in all honesty i thought that "magic Juice" they are in was also a joke, but i have tried drifting the Gulp Alive and done well with both crappies and eyes, but i honestly dont spend tons of time fishing for those species, so my experience is limited. and like i said a good chop is almost needed for it to have some motion.


as far as where and when, well that all depends on the fish and the body of water.... /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif

another nice thing about Gulp Alive is you can take your Gulp baits in the package a dump them into the magic juice and it will keep them and further saturate them with the scent and taste despensing fluid!

do not put your power bait in the bucket, it will react with the material power bait is made out of! yukkky.....
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: -DannyBoy-</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Really!? Bobber fishing? Not doubting you, just strikes me as odd. Have you ever tried drifting them on the bottom or anything like that? I guess I wouldn't even know where to start with still bobber fishing...back in the shallows at night when they come in to feed? Thanks for the input THA4. </div></div>

Slip bobber fishing works great for times when you don't feel like dragging, especially if you find some humps in deeper water that have fish on them. I'd use a lighter jig though. You can slip bobber fish in four foot or thirty foot, just make sure you anchor updrift far enough to keep from spooking the fish if your shallow. I've also had success casting and slow retrieving a set-up with a snagless weight and a 3 foot snelled line and small jig tipped with leeches. It's just a way to scan for fish if you're anchored and your slip bobber isn't accomplishing much. Regaurdless, they're both "relaxing" ways to fish, especially if you're tired of fighting the wind and your bow-mount or kicker motor.
 
I would be packing a lot of Gulp's! They are simply amazing for bluegill, crappie, bass, walleye and everything else. They are fairly durable also.

HINT - Do not leave them on your hook overnight as they will dry rock solid.

It is amazing how often they will out fish live bait.

Good luck.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: TC</div><div class="ubbcode-body">HINT - Do not leave them on your hook overnight as they will dry rock solid.</div></div>

right on
 
Ya, I'm not saying I haven't slip-bobber fished before, because I've done my fair share of that as well, just haven't ever dreamed of doing it with soft plastics. And if there's wind, I'll be fighting it. We'll be in 17ft. canoes, haha. Drifting (dragging) is almost your only option, then troll while you're paddling back and start again.
 
go buy a bucket of Gulp ALive then some of your favorite gulp baits and dump them all in that bucket of magic juice and see for yourself!

make sure you take lots of pix regardless!!!

/forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
No worries my friend, pics will be taken. Hopefully there'll be some fish in them too! And to expand on that, hopefully there will be some lunkers.
 
It may sound crazy but we trolled with cranks. We put our poles between our legs and paddled around the weed lines. We found a black and silver jointed rap floater to be our best. It was a blast. We caught a ton of pike and bass.
 
walley250

That is EXACTLY what we have done in the past. We had our best luck with firetiger and perch JSR5 and 7's, and did moderately well with some of the originals in black and silver and some with the bleeding bill's on them. Like I said in my original post though, we absolutely could not keep Smallie's off our cranks. It was ridiculous. I'm just looking for a way to get past those pesky smallmouth and to the Walters. Don't get me wrong, we caught some dandy smallies, but we don't pack anything for dinner but shore lunch and vegetable oil, so we were really counting on eating more Walleye than we did.

So no, it doesn't sound crazy at all that you trolled your cranks. That's actually what we do when we are trying to cover a lot of ground. We had our poles rigged up all crazy though so that we didn't have to hold them at all. Don't ask me to explain how but it worked really well.
 
Great retreat up there in the Quetico....5+# smallies, 29+" Walleye's, plenty of pike and other wildlife. Just hope the wind doesn't blow too much.

One of my most memorable moments was when a friend had a smally next to the boat reaching his hand down to grab it and a 43" northern came out of no where to grab the smally....missed the smally and landed in the bottom of the boat! Thankfully he missed the smally and his hand!

Great memories from up there!
 
Ya the big ones are definately in there. We boated some Smallies just shy of that magic 5# mark, actually probably close to a dozen, and I've seen some Walter's in the 7# range. Last year we saw a GIANT (I'd guess 400# , but what do I know?) black bear that had the coolest color phase ever. Entire head was cinnamon and it faded very gradually down it's neck until it was just the regular black from mid-back to rear. Unfortunately those that saw him had to decide btw. taking it all in and snapping some pics, I made sure everybody opted for the latter /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif The encounter was too cool to risk making it end any earlier than it had to. I'll never forget it.
 
We were in the Quetico 2 summers ago. Most of the walleyes that we caught were on crank baits. Buddy of mine nailed a 10 pounder on a 7" orange rapala right before dark. Godd luck up there...it is a blast.
 
you know what could be handy are those rod holders made for canoes and jon boats. I have a couple on my 14ft boat. They clamp on to the rim of the boat and dont weigh much. so it would be worth adding to the already heavy pack.
 
walley,

We've tried those rodholders, but with a kevlar canoe they don't clamp down far enough, unless we're talking about different ones.

Jake,

It's weird. When we would stay in the actual Boundary Waters area for our trip we HAMMERED Walleye's on cranks, but for some reason Quetico was a different story. Smallies galore, so many that we'd get hit before the crank even got a chance to dive into Walleye waters. We caught a few here and there, but not like we used to. Same time of year, same presentation, mostly same lures even.
 
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