[BigRock44]

Bob I live on the Hudson not too far from the Newburgh area and have fished it for many years. But truth be told, I prefer to fish the Raritan bay and NJ ocean areas for striped bass. They seem to be more aggressive/hungry there. Though fishing can sometimes be very good in the river, I think they really have spawning on their minds and the fishing can turn on and off like a switch. And more often than not, IMO it's off. It's pretty frustrating to see your fishfinder screen light up on a big school and dropping everything you have down into them without a touch. Ironically my biggest striper ever was caught from a raft when I was younger drifting a bloodworm on a freshwater setup in the Newburgh area. She towed me around for about an hour before I even got a glimpse of her! But getting back to your original question...yes I have caught some smaller sized stripers on gulp grubs once when I ran out of bloodworms. Have probably tried gulp and other assorted lures at least a dozen times over the years but only lucky with gulp once. It also seems different areas have better results with different types of bait (herring vs bloodworms). Add to that the tides, water temps and weather and it gets even more complicated to predict a good bite!