Bucktailing question

[Nails]

Had an ok day with family on a local reef on July 5th. I was the only one by bucktailing. Lots of shorts and robins. No rays or sand sharks, which was nice. Had an 18 and 21” fluke and 4 sea bass to take home.

My question; every time I dropped down I’d usually real back up with a fish but both tails on the gulp were bitten off. So what does everyone do? Obviously I replaced the gulp every time but with the price of gulp it gets pretty expensive. Should I put a stinger hook on? Or is there anything else I can do to save more gulp?

[tjd24]

I leave the piece of Gulp on the hook and an Otter Tail. They are a little bit tougher. This provides you with action and you'll still have the Gulp scent. Put the Gulp back in the container to recharge. You may be able to reuse at another time.

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by Nails

Had an ok day with family on a local reef on July 5th. I was the only one by bucktailing. Lots of shorts and robins. No rays or sand sharks, which was nice. Had an 18 and 21” fluke and 4 sea bass to take home.

My question; every time I dropped down I’d usually real back up with a fish but both tails on the gulp were bitten off. So what does everyone do? Obviously I replaced the gulp every time but with the price of gulp it gets pretty expensive. Should I put a stinger hook on? Or is there anything else I can do to save more gulp?

I would leave the gulp body on for scent, and add a spearing to the bucktail and teaser, and then after a while replace the gulp with a new one.. They nail spearing on a jig as fast as they nail Gulp, and its cheaper than constantly replacing Gulps with tail bitten off... bob

[Big.Billy.Bass]

You might want to try cutting your gulp and making it a bit smaller. I have 5" and 6" grub on a bucktail and will usually cut a 6" down. The 5" is perfect but they're less commonly sold.

[Reelron]

Have you tried using Squid strips or Fluke strips? I only use Gulp until I can get fluke strips.

[Gerry Zagorski]

The gulp tail does impart action when moved through the water... I would definitely replace the one on the teaser, don't think the one on the bucktail is as important... However, at the end of the day, with all the money you're spending to be out there, you want the best odds to attract fish so don't be penny wise and pound foolish..

As others mentioned above, you can use strip baits in place of the gulps... Long squid strips cut from trolling squids, Sea Robins, Bluefish and Bunker all work.
You do however need to be careful when using Fluke strips. If you get boarded, you need to have the dead rack you cut the strips from or you could be fined.

[shrimpman steve]

Larger hooks on the six inch gulp. 8 or 9/0. The hook will stick out of the six inch gulp closer to the tail. If you think that that hook size is to big, your wrong

[Nails]

Thank you for all the replies and details. I will try these methods over the weekend and let you know how I fared.

[Capt. Lou]

Get Z Man scented tails holds up 1000 times better !

[Zach123]

Try using a longer shank hook. Like a worm hook. I use only 5/0 baitholder gamakatsu hooks for my teaser. Works excellent. But I’ve noticed when they start just nipping the tails I’ll go to a worm hook. With the worm hook you get the point very close to the tail without just a crazy big hook. Best of luck! Also otter tails work great, or using pork rind if you have any uncle Josh’s stored .just make sure you either leave the gulp body on or use the gulp spray.