The story of Berkley Gulp Heads starts in 1937 in Spirit Lake, Iowa, where “Stubby,” the Bedell family dog, unknowingly played a part in the creation of one of the world’s largest fishing companies. Sixteen-year-old Berkley Bedell took clippings off Stubby and used them, along with feathers from the chickens roaming his backyard, to create flies to sell under his own company, the Berkley Fly Co.
Over the next 75 years, the Berkley Fly Co. evolved into Berkley and Company and became synonymous with innovative fishing tackle including Trilene, Powerbait, and one of their more recent innovations, the scent-dispersing Berkley Gulp.
Scented soft baits are nothing new. A number of manufacturers infuse scents into their soft plastics, and some even use the oils from local baitfish such as bunker. Making the soft plastics “smell” has been easy, but getting them to disperse that scent over a wide area had proven to be a great challenge. In traditional soft-plastic baits, the oil-based resins and PVC act as a barrier, keeping the scent from dispersing through the water. Though scented soft-plastics do leak some scent, their real benefit is that the fish hold onto them longer, because as they bite and tear the bait, more scent is released.
Gulp avoids this oil/water barrier by using water-based resins and a sponge-like material. The Gulp baits absorb the Gulp scent formula and bleed it through the water as they are retrieved, creating a scent trail that draws fish to the bait. Because they are actively leaking the scent, Gulp baits need to be “recharged” in their liquid bath.
The Gulp scent formula is two-layered. The first layer is a scent that appeals universally to fish, be they catfish or stripers, trout or albies. The next scent layer is tailored to the specific Gulp bait so, for instance, the Gulp crab smells like crab and the Gulp shad smells like shad—to the fish, that is.
In 2012, Berkley introduced Gulp Heads to match specifically with Gulp soft baits. These jigheads are a far cry from a simple hunk of lead molded around a hook.
The first departure from a run-of-the-mill jighead is the Gulp Grip Bait Keeper. Located halfway down the shank of the hook, the Grip Bait Keeper holds the Gulp soft bait in place without tearing apart the nose or collar, helping the bait to survive more strikes and fish.
Recognizing that many states are banning lead sinkers and jigs in fresh water, Berkley made the Gulp Heads using a lead-free composite from Tundra Companies. Tundra specializes in making lead replacement products for everyday use at home, work or in recreational activities like fishing. Through their “interfacial modifier technology,” Tundra Companies adjusts the densities of their materials, a process that, in a jighead, has a direct effect on the sink rate.
The Gulp Heads are available in a number of popular colors. Some, like the New Penny color, match up with the Gulp soft bait color of the same name. Each jighead also features a set of realistic 3D eyes. They come in three styles, the Minnow JiggHead, the Darter JiggHead and the Bait Delivery System (or BDS).
The Minnow JiggHead is designed for freshwater jigging, or casting and retrieving. It is available in 1/16-, 1/8-, 1/4-, and 1/2-ounce sizes. The Darter JiggHead is designed for inshore saltwater fishing and comes in 1/8-, 1/4-, and 1/2-ounce sizes. Both styles have two options for hook size at each weight, allowing anglers to best match their soft baits to the right weight JiggHead.
The BDS Heads are unique in that they are categorized based on their sink rates, rather than their weights. The BDS Heads fall at 1.5 feet per second, 2 feet per second, 2.6 feet per second and 3 feet per second. The shape of the BDS keeps the bait horizontal as it sinks, making for a more natural presentation that, coupled with the appropriate sink rate, will trigger more strikes as the bait falls through the water column.
In the Northeast, Gulp Heads will be effective on stripers, largemouths, smallmouths, and even keen-eyed pelagics like albies, bonito and mahi.