Berkley Gulp Jerk Shad: Everything You Need To Know [REVIEW]
- By: Luke Simonds
- on
- Found In: Fishing Tips, Lure Reviews, Product Reviews
If you’re an avid saltwater angler, you’ve most certainly heard of Gulp baits made by Berkley. And you likely know that they can be expensive… especially compared to other soft plastic bait alternatives.
In fact, I used to believe that they were over-hyped and over-priced to the point of not even bothering to try them out.
However, my thoughts on them drastically changed once I finally gave them a try… and they changed even more once I started learning how to properly care for them.
And then their value increased further once I realized how useful expired Gulp baits were in terms of catching pinfish and other great bait… more on that below.
Most importantly, what I learned in the learning process is that it’s not wise to evaluate a soft plastic lure on its cost-per-bait ratio… what we really care about is the cost-per-fish caught ratio…
So I thought this article and associated videos would help you decide if a Gulp is something you want to have in your tackle arsenal… detailed review, rigging steps, and maintenance tips below.
Review of Berkley Gulp Jerk Shad
When I finally did decide to use a 5″ Gulp Jerk Shad, I was completely blown away by the increase in bites I was getting from both my target fish (snook, redfish, and big trout), as well as small bait fish (explained at the end of the article).
This was the very first time I truly noticed a difference in bites from one type of bait to another… and that includes trying multiple “magic” spray fish attracting formulas and lots of other “must have” baits that I have accumulated as a complete fishing addict…
So I am a true believer that Gulp bait will draw more strikes… now the better question is will the added strikes be enough to justify the higher price per bait that.
To start, let’s cover the most effective rigging of the Gulp Jerk Shad that I’ve found so far for catching snook, redfish, and big trout in shallow water…
How to Rig a Gulp Jerk Shad
The most important factor in rigging a Berkley Gulp Jerk Shad (or any other jerk bait) is making sure that it’s straight form does not get altered by the hook or jig head.
This is because any curvature in the bait will result in the lure spinning around in an unnatural way on the retrieve, which will significantly decrease the amount of strikes you get… in addition to increasing the chance of you getting a wind knot in your line due to all of the twists.
So what can be done to prevent twisting?
Well that is fortunately extremely easy to do as long as you do these three things:
- Use a hook with a weight on the shank of the hook (click here to see our favorite size/style)
- Set the hook on the outside of the bait before hooking the bait so you know exactly where the hook should enter/exit (4:35 mark in video below)
- Make sure you exit the lure on the very top of the bait… an off-center exit will likely cause spinning (5:10 mark in video)
- Simply keep an eye on the lure when fishing to make sure it is still rigged straight on your hook or jig head
CLICK HERE to learn more about the hooks shown in the video.
Note: If find that you are getting line twists and/or wind knots, here’s a quick tip on clearing twists from your spool.
How to Properly Care for Gulp Jerk Baits
As stated earlier, Gulp jerk baits are expensive when evaluated as a cost-per-bait basis compared to the others.
But as I mentioned earlier, the more important factor is the cost-per-fish ratio, and a fantastic way to increase this for Gulp baits is to properly care for them because they require more care than other soft plastics.
The most important factor in maintaining Gulp jerk baits is their propensity to shrink and harden when left out of water for too long… see video below for details.
Fortunately, this is easily fixed with just making sure to take your bait off the hook when you’ve finished fishing with it. Check out the video below.
Bonus Benefit of Gulp Jerk Shad Baits
As mentioned earlier, I noticed that pinfish and other small bait fish were aggressively biting my Gulp jerk baits when I was fishing for snook, reds, and trout.
So what I eventually learned to do was use small chunks of Gulp to catch loads of pinfish, pigfish, and a large variety of other bait fish by hook and line… and it’s surprisingly easy.
It’s so easy that I highly recommend getting kids to do it since it is action packed and does not require a good cast or any sort of special retrieve.
Best of all, this does not require a brand new out of the pack bait to work… I simply cut up my old baits once they can no longer be used for prized fish so that I then can still get value from these baits for a much longer time.
Click here to see a detailed video on how to catch bait with small chunks of Gulp baits.
Conclusion
Like all other baits, Gulp Jerk Shads have their pros and their cons. For Gulp, the high price would certainly be their biggest con.
However, I now find that my cost-per-fish caught ratio has been very impressive over the last ~5 years since I began using Gulp… especially once learning how to rig them with hooks that expand their life as well as learning how to properly care for them.
And the fact that they can be chopped up into small pieces to use for catching live bait is an added bonus.
So I highly recommend giving Gulp Jerk Shads a shot if you’re looking for a new lure to use when fishing shallow water.
P.S. – Be sure to check out our Inshore Fishing Manifesto to discover the three breakthroughs that allowed me to go from hoping to catch at least one snook, redfish, or trout per trip to consistently catching slams… it’s being offered free of charge to Salt Strong visitors – CLICK HERE.
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I fish the salt marshes in SE Louisiana and the water clarity is not as clear as what your videos show in Florida. What other color besides watermelon would you recommend?
I have found that color isn’t nearly as important as the lure’s action and size, so I don’t bother with getting more than 1 color of lures anymore. This one is my favorite for the jerk shad overall, so I use it when fishing areas with murky & stained water too and it works just fine as long as I get the retrieve and the size right.
never mind…I see this question answered below already
How much of the tail will you let get bit off before you won’t use it any more?
For short-term storage (moving from spot to spot or taking a break) have you ever used the Sav-A-Pig Grip-A-Lure that bass fisherman use to temporarily protect pork rind? Its a foldable piece of plastic with foam inside (that you wet with water) and when folded around your jig it stays folded with small Velcro tabs.
Hi Luke,
I recently reached out to Berkley and they informed me that they are no longer manufacturing the Watermelon 5″ Jerk Shad. The only color close is the Watermelon with Red Flake. I personally wouldn’t anticipate any different success with this color combo than the simple watermelon color. Thoughts?
Hey Brian, the watermelon with red flake is actually the one that I like best. I’m glad to see that they are going to continue making them because I’ve heard the news about a watermelon line that is going away… probably due to too the confusion of having 2 watermelon colors.
Awesome. Thanks for the reply!
Do Gulp shrimp have a different chemical formulation, than Gulp shad, , etc. Or is the juice always the same. This will influence my buying strategy.
Luke, what do you do when you’re fishing with the jerk shad, you get taps on your line from the trash fish, and they bite the last inch or so off the tail? Do you a) switch to a different bait like a gulp shrimp that’s harder for them to bite off or b) pack up and fish somewhere else or c) keep fishing with a shortie or d) put another one on and pray you don’t run out of bait? I fish from my kayak so going a great distance isn’t an option. Thanks for all the help! Dave
Option C… in fact, I sometimes even pull the tails off myself because the shorter ones work better when the bait in the area is small and the skip much better too so are great for skipping up under mangroves. I’ve actually caught some of my best fish with jerk shads that are missing over an inch of their tails.
Note: Just make sure that the jerk shad is still swimming properly as it shrinks… it won’t catch anything if it’s helicoptering in the water no matter what size it is.
My new confidence bait. The best price I have found is Academy Sports ($5.99 for 5 pack). If you order $25 of merchandise shipping is free. Their shipping response is surprisingly fast – very similar to Amazon Prime. I’ve had very good success with the camo and smelt colors.
What knot are you using to to tie your floral carbon to your jerk bait
Great info-
Do you know how long the attractant remains potent. I don’t get to fish that often and I have bait that is several years old. I could not find any information on the Berkley web site about how long to keep the bait.
Also can you store other soft baits in the Berkley attractant and have the same scent dispersion effect in the water?
Thanks for all the work you guys do to provide such great instructions. The quality and focus of your videos are superb.
I have had the same question for years liquid turns brown but same smell is present and viscosity is the same. I have tried adding other plastics to the bucket but could never tell the difference between those added to the juice or used as is.