I love fishing live leeches beneath a slip bobber, and I think they are the best smallie bait out there. I have avoided the Quetico since they banned live bait, but we are thinking about a Q trip this summer. Have you found any leech substitutes that work anywhere near as well as the real thing?

I have had good luck with the Gulp Leeches. They are awesome and last longer than the real thing.

Fish in the Quetico are so dumb, you don't need leeches.

Gulp leeches work great when you keep them moving. You won't get real leech-like movement under a slip bobber.

I've thought about using one of those tiny ice fishing crappie spoons under a bobber with GULP leeches like a Gem-n-eye with a little wave action this type of jig may help give the GULP leech enough action. Either that you could jiggle the line a little to impart action.

To tell the truth though I haven't tried it yet because I just plain jigging or cranks have produced so well it wasn't worth the hassle to set up. If ya try it let us know how it works.

T

There are no fish in Quetico. Why bother?

Slimers are the closest thing to a real leech.

Get the GULP Alive leeches for fishing under a bobber. The 5-inch have ever better action than the 3-inch. Very life-like.

We caught a few walleyes in Brent on the gulp leeches but in my opinion they are not even close to effective as the real thing. We tried them in all situations and conditions and caught the only fish drifting on a lindy type rig in some choppy water. You have to give it lots of action. They are pretty stiff out of the bottle.

It's very true that Gulp leeches need movement. I have used them in the last several canoe trips, and found them to work great with the presentation methods we use. As stated before, I prefer the 5" size, and I drift and or troll them with a "Little Joe" type of spinner rig. Jigging may also be very effective.

I'll say it again: Use Slimers, closest thing to a real leech.
They're hard to hold in your hand because they are so slippery and flexible.
When putting them on, make sure your hook pierces the fiber strip within them, so they stay on.

TGO, I agree with the slimers, was impressed with them last fall. They would be my first choice.

re: slimers-can you buy these locally or only online/mailorder?

Thanks TGO I will give these a try! Slimers

quote mooseplums: "Thanks TGO I will give these a try! Slimers "

I tried Slimers quite a few years ago and was not impressed. They appear to have changed the product quite a bit from what I remember. I'll give them a try on our June trip. They will be put head-to-head with GULP! leeches and I'll let you know the results.

snakecharmer,
What problem did you have with the Slimers??

quote tg: "re: slimers-can you buy these locally or only online/mailorder?
"

You can purchase them online, or we have them on hand in Ely.
I do not know what the shipping rate is if they are bought online??

quote The Great Outdoors: "snakecharmer,
What problem did you have with the Slimers??"

They didn't put any fish in the boat :) It was quite a number of years ago and they may very well have been the first generation of Slimers. Years later, along came Powerbait, GULP! and other scented baits. We've used them very successfully and they've gotten better and better. I'm guessing Slimers have also improved their recipe since I last tried them.