I headed down to Plymouth last week for a day out with Malc Jones aboard his boat Sea Angler 2 accompanied by fishing mates and work colleagues Rob Wyatt and James Robbins. The main aim of the day was to get some product DVD footage for some work presentations we need to compile.

Fishing to the camera is nothing like fishing for fun. You need to concentrate on what the camera sees, looking to help the cameraman has much as possible. The fishing aspect is somewhat secondary, but obviously it’s important you winkle out some nice fish to compliment the product and show what the product can do against good sized fish.

Bait was a problem as Malc told me that mackerel were just about non existent, there were next to no herring and only a few launce were showing and these were scattered. We managed to find a few launce on small lumo shrimp rigs and the rest of the lads set up on flying collar rigs and fished the fresh launce which is highly effective.

Opting to do something different to the others to break it up a bit, I went solely on artificial lures.

Gulp baits have had some bad press, mainly because it was touted as a static bait, and I’ll be the first to tell you, for me it does not work as a ledgered bait, full stop! On the other hand I’ve found it excellent when worked as it was intended as a lure and worked through the water column as you would other artificial lures. 

I set up with a Gulp Sapphire Shine 6” sandeel using a flying collar boom with about 10ft of 15lb Fluorocarbon hook length with a size 4/0 Viking hook just passed through the head of the sandeel and out through the body.

Due to the low bait fish count the pollack were also not as thick on the ground as they should be at this time. But Malc knows his marks and soon found a showing of fish. I was first in with a pollack about 4lbs, followed by Rob who boated a 5lber on the fresh launce.

We continued hitting the odd pollack in the 4 to 5lb range, then as we came to a drift over a rising ledge I felt the typical steady increase in pressure on the rod tip and let the tip just pull over against the weight of the fish as it sucked in the lure. This fish went straight back for the seabed dragging a fair few yards of line off the reel, and I was using very light tackle including a prototype small low profile reel with light braid on. The fish made several dives and really played its part for the camera before Malc netted it. It looked about 7lbs.

The fishing wasn’t hectic but the pollack were hitting the other lads launce sandeels but often not taking them fully in. It appears they were still feeling the effects of the cold sea temps and the 10” plus launce were just too much of a mouthful.

Eventually Rob took on his serious face and set the hook in to what was obviously a much better fish. This hung deep and made slow but steady runs taking line. Malc was ready with the net as the fish surfaced and though we didn’t weigh it looked 11lb plus, a really nice fish from reef ground.

I was switching lures now and taking fish on the Gulp Jerk Shads especially the Chartreuse pepper, and the Paddle Tail Shad in Boji Blue, the latter fished on a jighead.

I guess you’ll ask the question did the Gulp out fish the fresh launce? I’d put it at an equal catch rate on the day with no outright winner, though that said there were four other anglers on fresh launce and just me on the artificials so if anything the Gulp might just have had the edge, plus I didn’t have to keep changing baits through loss and damage gaining me more fishing time and my lures went back in to the container ready for next time when I changed them.

I’m not trying to sell you Gulp, that’s not my job nor intent, but it’s had some unwarranted press, yet I get asked about it a lot, by anglers on the beaches and boats. Fished in the right way I personally find it very effective. It’s not the cheapest of lures, but then it lasts a long time and can be recharged in the attractant liquid time and again.

The 6” Gulp sandeel caught me a fair few bass and pollack last year from both the shore and boat and this year I’m looking at using it in some different ways, not just plain spinning and vertical retrieving.

I’ll come back to Gulp and alternative ways to fish it a little later on for those of you interested in genuinely trying it and making up your own minds.