Hudson Flats Fishing with Berkley Gulps

By: Pucky Mood: Happy Date: Jun 03, 2007 Music: None

My weekend started out with a busy schedule and not much time to fish.  The rain didn't help much and the south Skyway pier was closed due to power loss.

Not wanting to make the trip just for the north pier ... i drove around new port richey looking just to get a line wet.  i ended up calling a friend who just took ownership of a 16' flats boat.  we met up at the Tackle Outlet on Ridge rd to stock up on supplies for a Sunday morning adventure.

New Port Richey needed a big shop like the Tackle Outlet and I'm glad its hear now.  The people are really nice and the prices are great!  They carry just about every reel you can't normally find in Tampa.  I actually got my hands on a Daiwa Saltiga 50.  Now I know why they call it the metal jacket. 

 Anyways... my buddy is a pizza hut manager and hooked up the store people with a pizza from the pizza hut right next door.  They gave us a nice discount on supplies.  I spent $23 and left the store with 4 packs of Berkely Gulps jerkbaits, and several packs of hooks and jigheads!

We launched at 6:30am out of Nick's Park in New Port Richey right next to the only Hooters in the world on the water.  If you've never seen it, people can actually dock their boats right at hooters and walk in. 

 The day was pretty consistent  and it was my first time using Gulps.  I picked up Nuclear Chicken, Camo, Shining Sapphire and the infamous New Penny, all on white jigheads. (gotta love white jigheads!)  New Penny and Nuclear Chicken are highly recommended colors... I chose to fish them last to learn the technique before relying on colors I know will work.

The whole morning we managed probably 20+ spotted trout and my buddy landed a nice Redfish... too bad it was just under slot.  Its amazing what you can catch in 3ft of water! I kept a 17" and 18" trout. 

My goal for today was to learn how to fish Gulps.  Everyone told me to fish them slow and let the scent dispursion do the work.  Well... its true.  I couldn't believe that i was hooking up on pinfish.  I slowly worked the jig by bumping it off the bottom and dead sticking it (letting it sit on the bottom).  Most of my hookups came from this method.

As far as color goes... I'm partial to really bright colors.  Nuclear chicken and Shining Sapphire did well when were further from shore.  As the water turned from bluish green to brown as we were drifting in, I had to change to the Camo and New Penny colors to keep the bite going. 

At $6 per pack... I guess Gulps are kinda worth it.  They're some pretty fragile baits though.  I thought 4 packs (20 jerkbaits) was overkill for a single trip.  It ended up being just enough. 

I'm going to give the rest of my Gulps a chance on Tuesday afternoon when I go for trout from Green Key beach. 

until then...