So today I picked up a couple packs of these gulp 3 inch smelt minnows..I haven't used them before but I've heard good things..I got them dirt cheap on clearence..what are some good ways to fish them? Beetlespin and dropshot? I don't really use the dropshot much..

I think they'd work well in a lot of different ways, but DS and little spinner are what I'd do first too. If they sink, you could use them unweighted or with little weight in shallow water.

Very popular and productive dropshot bait in this area, esp. for SMB. Personally I don't care for them too much, not because they don't catch fish, but Gulp is a PITA to "care for" compaired to normal soft plastics. And honestly I don't catch any more with them than any other 3" drop shot bait that I apply my own scent on to bother with them much. They do seem to have a more multi-species appeal than most other traditional soft baits for some reason though.

A 3" pearl white gulp with an jig head or an hook is like an fluke.. It'll catch anything.. with an 1/4 oz hook I catch plenty of walleyes, SMB, LMB, and bullheads.

Another note: They do have good scent, but if you leave it out for one night open they'll be useless and turn hard and gross. Gulp is always easy access, but not my favorite due to very high costs, and how long they last. Just my opinion though.

A 3" Gulp minnow on a 1/8oz ball jighead will catch anything that swims. If you buy them in the tub with the Gulp scent they're much easier to keep. It seems in the bags no matter how tight I think I have them closed they'll eventually dry out on me. For that reason I've switched to the regular Berkley power minnow and use them the same way with the same results except I don't have to worry about them drying out.

I use them all the time on a 1/8 - 1/4 oz. roundhead jig (unpainted) as a search bait around structure in both fresh and salt water and have had tremendous success. Once you locate them, you can switch to a drop shot or even a float-n-fly technique once the bite slows. If they are still hitting it when you work it with the jig head, keep working it. The one drawback to them is that after a couple good hits, they can get shredded fairly easily. I too keep them in a Gulp Alive container. One trick I use with them though is to buy two of the containers and consolidate one into the other. I then use the other container for my other soft plastics like ZOOM flukes and fluke jrs or Kalins Grubs (excluding Z-Man due to their own proprietary makeup that dissentigrates when in ocntact with differing brands).

The cool thing about the Gulp solution is that you can store like colors together with little to no cross-color bleaching or staining. So don't hesitate to store their leeches, gobies, pogies and minnows together.

One trick I use with them though is to buy two of the containers and consolidate one into the other. I then use the other container for my other soft plastics like ZOOM flukes and fluke jrs or Kalins Grubs (excluding Z-Man due to their own proprietary makeup that dissentigrates when in ocntact with differing brands).

Another trick I do with the Gulp Alive is to drain out most of the "magic gravy" as soon as I open it. I see no need for a small handful of baits to float around in a pint or quart of solution. I keep just enough in there to cover the baits. Cuts way down on leakage and spillage, that is the main reason I do it.

When dropshotting the minnow, I have had better luck nose hooking the bait sideways rather than straight up and down. In other words, I don't come through the chin and up out of the top of the nose, I go in one eye and out the other. I rarely rig it differently.