Have been reading about everyone doing well using eels. Looks like everyone uses live eels. Has anyone tried any of the imitation ones like Berkley Gulp Eels?

I took 4 of them and made an umbrella with em i will try as soon as possible. 2 are the Chart. and the other two are natural. They look really good going through the water. I ran one while cobia fishing this year WWWB on the boat trolling for spanish.

Doug

LIve will out catch any other everytime. I have used the different plastics and nothing beats a live eel. Better action and will find some holes the plastics will not.

I have to second the live eels. I am no professional fisherman but I have tried the fake stuff and have done alot better with the real deal.

I Third on the live eels. I used to work at Dick Sporting goods and had a angler come back wanting his money back for the Fake ones. He said their like having a Banana on the boat everytime he tried them, he either got skunked or something broke on his boat! Live is the way to go

If you are drifting with eels, then live eels by all means. If you are trolling with eels, it does not seem to make any difference whether they are dead of alive. When trolling, the live eel is not going to be live for very long anyway.

always brought them for shortage issues. Tried them last dec and caught half my fish. You have to bring some live just cuz

Cost are about the same for both. I wait and eel when they are so thick you could catch them on a garden hose. At that point dead or alive you will catch bass.

Oh yeah? Well I once caught a 46 lb slob on a PICTURE of an eel! And it wasn't even the eel's best side!

Well,

I'm not going to say that fake out fish live but the Berkley eels (double hook rigged eels) work great if you want to have some fun on casting gear.

We had numerous nights last year casting them back into the bridge/shadow line and caught some pigs up to 48".
There is a trick to fishing them in the current. Because they are light, you have to cast up current and let them drift back as they are sinking.
Make sure you stay tight so you can feel the bite.

I have personally have had more fun fishing them than live eels because you can feel the bite and set the hook instead of letting the rod holder do all the work on circle hooks.

After I catch my keeper limit, I smash the barbs down so releasing the fish is simple. They will swallow them pretty good and that back hook can be a pain to get out.

If I am fishing live eels at anchor, I always throw the fake eels to kill some time.

I also have out fished boats right next to me who are live baiting and I am casting fake eels. It's happened more than once.

They work great and I personally prefer casting to trolling or live baiting.
But I know what catches bigger fish and that is live eels.
Good luck and don’t rule out the fake stuff when conditions are right.

I got out on thursday and didn't have any live eels. Trolled from the concrete ships to the high rise, then along the bridge pilingsalmost to the 4th- tried everything on the boat and NADA! For kicks, I tied on an ounce-and-a-half white bucktail and put a GULP eel on it and of course used what at best could be described as a very light flounder rod. On the 2nd or 3rd cast to a piling, it was slammed and I was hooked up. Trying to get the fat 34 incher off the bridge piling, handle the boat in a pretty fast tide and getting the net when I finally boated the fish was interesting. I was happy to wash the skunk off, though and the tackle choice was a blast since I landed the fish. I fished the next 2 days with live eels et al and managed to let the skunk back aboard. Everything has its place- I stock a lot of gulps ever since my wife outfished me on flounder with me using real shrimp and her using gulp shrimp. We don't always have time to pick up/catch live bait but we always have something on board.