Fake worms

Any of you guys have any luck using rubber worms on crawler harnesses? You would think the fish would not notice too much difference since it’s pulled behind a bottom bouncer and moves a bit. I pulled a Kalins natural something and not one sniff for 6 hours. Luckily on P4 I am allowed 2 lines so I like experimenting. Tried this with Impulse leeches last year and same thing. I even put some stank on it to kick it up a notch. My other rod with real crawlers put at least 20 fish in the boat. Mostly sheep but eyes, sauger, perch and crappie as well. I thought about trying the gulp crawlers, they look more flacid?

Tried the GULP LEECHES and crawlers on devils lake and live bait out fished them 30 to 1 on real bait on bottom bouncer and spinners.

I’ve tried imitation crawlers and minnows in areas where panfish are an issue when using live bait. I hadn’t had any luck until recently I tried using the Powerbait maxscent line and that stuff is definitely on a different level. I understand why it’s sold out everywhere. It took an hour of searching online to find more.
I was using the flatnose minnow in place of a fathead, pulling spinners over weeds and the artificial caught just as many fish as the real deal. It was really nice not having to re- bait constantly as the artificial is way more durable than a real minnow.

When I pull spinners I use nothing but Berkley Crawler and even the ones they have specially made for pulling spinners. I use them on single hook slow death rigs and crush the fish. Most recent was a trip out to ND in 7 hours of fishing two of use boated 122 walleyes. I believe there is a time to use live bait and that is when your pulling spinners at slow speeds but when looking for a reaction bight there is no reason not to use fake worms. Have made many trips to ND and Canada with no live crawlers and do not regret it.

Also you can catch so many more fish on a single fake worm and when perch are a problem you know you still have a worm back there much more durable and harder to pull off.

Use Berkeley worms both on harnesses and slow death rigs. Work well.

Agree with what both grubson and josh have said in their posts. I haven’t used the Berkley maxsent specifically (because its sold out and very high cost on eBay), but I have used the gulp nightcrawler many times with success. The biggest issue is panfish like perch or bluegills constantly biting at the end of it. If your pulling them at a faster rate (like this time of year during midsummer), the goal is a reaction strike anyways.

Or try a jigging rap…

gimruis wrote:

Agree with what both grubson and josh have said in their posts. I haven’t used the Berkley maxsent specifically (because its sold out and very high cost on eBay), but I have used the gulp nightcrawler many times with success. The biggest issue is <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>panfish like <em class=”ido-tag-em”>perch or bluegills constantly biting at the end of it. If your pulling them at a faster rate (like this time of year during midsummer), the goal is a reaction strike anyways.

Completely disagree. Those are great baits and there are many others. Buy cheap and get cheap. Sorry gimruis, but what the hell. Why shoot down a great bait ? I don’t think you know what your talking about

We were on mille lacs a week ago and 1 guy using gulp crawlers out fished the other 3 guys using live bait.

I think it’s something to have in the arsenal but in general live bait is better. We have caught some nice walleyes with gulp crawlers on spinners but overall better with the real thing

https://slimers.net/
anybody try these?

Bearcat89 wrote:

Completely disagree. Those are great baits and there are many others. Buy cheap and get cheap. Sorry gimruis, but what the hell. Why shoot down a great bait ? I don’t think you know what your talking about

I didn’t say they Berkley Maxscents weren’t any good. I only stated that I haven’t used them because they are always out of stock and the cost is too much on ebay.

I actually would like to try them sometime because I have heard they are really good, especially on a drop shot.

I meant that that real night crawlers often get bit off or pecked at by panfish. Not the gulp ones, they are far more durable. I think we had a slight misunderstanding there.

Berkley Gulp Killer Crawlers while jigging. Watermelon pearl.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
Completely disagree. Those are great baits and there are many others. Buy cheap and get cheap. Sorry gimruis, but what the hell. Why shoot down a great bait ? I don’t think you know what your talking about

I didn’t say they Berkley Maxscents weren’t any good. I only stated that I haven’t used them because they are always out of stock and the cost is too much on ebay.

I actually would like to try them sometime because I have heard they are really good, especially on a drop shot.

I meant that that real night crawlers often get bit off or pecked at by panfish. Not the gulp ones, they are far more durable. I think we had a slight misunderstanding there.

My apologies, my reading skills were lacking at that time. I misread your post.

Bearcat89 wrote:

My apologies, my reading skills were lacking at that time. I misread your post.

Its all good

Max Scents are a joke, those flat worms for drop shot are $25 a bag. There is other brands that are better.

Charles wrote:

Max Scents are a joke, those flat worms for drop shot are $25 a bag.

That’s mostly why I haven’t tried them yet. The cost is outrageous. I would like to give them a try when the supply/demand thing catches back up though.

I might try em again but with just one hook. I was thinking maybe that second hook made it look less appealing? I mean it is the big muddy and with all the green crap in Pepin, its amazing the fish see their meals at all.

Charles wrote:

Max Scents are a joke, those flat worms for drop shot are $25 a bag. There is other brands that are better.

I can’t speak for the flat worm specifically, but with some digging online I found the flat nose minnows for $4.99/ bag at Tackle Warehouse. I may have bought the rest of their stock though.
I agree the supply and demand on these baits and others have brought the prices on some into the ridiculous category. Their effectiveness is no joke though. I’ve tried the flat nose minnow and the Kingtail worm and both have been very impressive to me.

I will say that the perch, sunnies and rock bass don’t know the difference. I’ve tried Gulp crawlers only once on our cabin lake. It has a respectable Walleye population but it’s more of a weedline-related fishery so the machine gunning bait-stealers are a constant. Good luck getting a crawler to last more than 30 seconds. They hit the gulp at the same rate and it lasted much longer, but no walleye. Probably because they couldn’t see it with the swarm of panfish constantly mauling it.

I will say in the later summer when the bigger gills transition to the deeper outside weed edges you can get a lot of keeper sunnies with a gulp crawler on a harness.

Question for you guys that are having luck with them, are you letting them have the worm for a bit or going straight to hook set? Also are we talking with a bottom bouncer or a lindy style weight?

John Rasmussen wrote:

Also are we talking with a bottom bouncer

I was initially referring to a spinner with a bottom bouncer pulled at a relatively fast rate. I also use a worm harness just like I normally would with a real night crawler. When a sizable fish hits it they often just hook themselves since you are moving anyways.

Got a little off track when I brought up the Maxscents on a drop shot as that is a completely different strategy than what the OP was referring to.

We run a mix of gulp crawlers and live crawlers throughout the summer. Most of my daytime fishing when I’m at the cabin is running a bouncer/spinner or bullet sinker/spinner along or over the tops of weeds. if there’s stable weather, there’s no need to run live crawlers, a gulp crawler will put the same amount of walleyes in the boat. Bluegills are the pickiest when it comes to the difference between a live or gulp crawler. But using the pinch crawlers has helped with more hook ups on gills before they can react fast enough to let go. This is pulling at speeds between 1.2 and 1.8 mph. I don’t like going any slower, you never get away from the schools of small fish pecking non stop then.

eyeguy507 wrote:

Any of you guys have any luck using rubber worms on crawler harnesses?

Like you, I did a science experiment in Canada one year with Impulse crawlers and leeches versus live bait.

Now my thinking was that in the middle of the Canadian sub-arctic where the walleyes have never seen any angling pressure, there would be very little difference because the fish hit like a sledgehammer and no way could they be taking time to sniff and inspect the bait, right?

Wrong. Live bait WAY outfished Impulse. It wasn’t even close. Several of us tried it. It was so obvious that using Impulse was probably a worse choice than simply going with a twister tail or other high-action plastic.

It would have been great to not have to haul in all that live bait, but the results of the test were crystal clear. Even in a place where the fish are super aggressive, they still are put off by something that doesn’t quite look or (more likely) smell right.

I have tried berkley gulp crawlers head to head with real crawlers. Live bait outfitted the gulp by a huge margin. Mille lacs and upper red lake is where I tried this.

Matt

I’ve had pretty good luck with the gulp crawlers. Especially around areas with lots of bluegills/perch that always bite the ends off your crawlers

You’ve got to use the right Gulp crawlers to get the best results. With spinner rigs, use Gulp Spinner Crawlers and with slow death rigs, use Gulp Killer Crawlers. The other Gulp crawlers don’t work nearly as well in these applications in my experience.

Also use Gulp Killer Crawlers with super slow death hooks and usually have very good results. Just got back from a trip to SD and caught walleye, northern, smallmouth, and crappie on this rig…since they’re hollow it makes them easy to thread on, but because they’re hollow they also tear more easily and the rig loses its spin once the collar splits down too far…great action though when rigged properly, and keeps the boat cleaner too!

Max warms at Forest Lake gander are $3 a bag with the 50% off sale. they had 40 bags left of the purple Max sent left

Like Any Bait they must be used in the right Scenario and the described scenario is it. If I was live rigging bait I would use live worms and not gulp. But pulling spinners at above a mile an hour there is no reason for real worms that is usually a reaction bite. Also just with a bite I never feed line I let the rod load up and set the hook. Maybe developing confident in the bait and right application will help.