Back in August 2024, Mark Phillips from Berkley came to me with some samples of a new Berkley Gulp! soft bait he wanted to put to the test. These soft plastics had an extremely unique body shape and were designed to be fished with a specific jig head, which was also a unique shape and design – unlike anything I’d ever fished before! The Berkley Gulp! soft bait was named the Zagger, and the Berkley Nitro jig head to match it was named the Zipper. Mark took me down to a local creek to show me the swimming action, where the lure zigged and zagged left to right, with a tantalising action that I’d never seen from any hard or soft bait. I was in awe of this lure already!

After jamming a few packets of the new Berkley Gulp! Zagger soft baits and a few boxes of the Berkley Nitro Zipper jig heads into our tackle bags, Mark and I set out for a session on the Hawkesbury River to put these exciting new baits to the test. With numb fingertips, we braved the freezing conditions and set off towards one of my favourite spots which is a steep, rocky edge. At this location, fish usually suspend higher in the water column and chase food such as prawns, bait fish and even the odd insect falling into the water from trees. When fish are sitting mid-water, it can be hard to tempt a bite with traditional techniques and retrieves. This day we adopted the ‘strolling’ technique, which consists of a slow roll with small shakes of the rod tip, which is great for keeping your lure mid-water. The Gulp! Zagger is the perfect design and presentation for this technique! Long story short, we caught A LOT of fish that day with cricket scores of estuary perch, bass and flathead taken on the Berkley Gulp! Zagger and Berkley Nitro Zipper combination!

About a year later I teamed up with Russell Babekuhl from the Berkley Pro Team for a few days of fishing. Russ is an outstanding angler who has been catching huge numbers of fish on Berkley lures for many, many years. We planned to fish Lake Glenbawn for two days, before moving onto Lake Macquarie for three days. Glenbawn delivered us a very tough bite after the water level of the lake dropped 15 percent within a week, making it cold and dirty. Despite the hard fishing conditions, we still found a few quality bass on the Berkley Gulp! Zagger, the biggest being around 1.5 kilograms and 45cm. Australian bass are a species that I have chased more than any other, so I was stoked when the Zagger proved to be a fish catching weapon even when the bite was tough! Matched up with the Berkley Nitro Zipper jig head, it is now my go-to lure when chasing lethargic winter bass and other shut-down fish!

After two days at Glenbawn, we made our way towards the coast and one of my local estuaries; Lake Macquarie. Winter time fishing in the lake can be quite ‘hit or miss’, but I now had confidence that the Berkley Gulp! Zagger soft bait would find us a few fish. The first day at Lake Macquarie gave us perfect fishing conditions: a slight breeze, cloud cover, the odd rain shower, and a barometer that was through the roof reaching heights of over 1030 hPa. We decided to start the day fishing around shallow boat hulls targeting bream and had good success with some of the more traditional Berkley Gulp! soft bait styles.

Around mid-morning we decided it was time to pick up the Berkley Gulp! Zagger, once again rigged on Berkley Nitro Zipper jig heads. With mulloway and flathead on our minds, we moved to a deep mud flat in around 10 metres of water. There wasn’t any hard structure here, but an abundance of bait for us to focus our efforts around. After only a matter of minutes, the Zagger got inhaled and I boated the first flathead of the day! While not huge, it was a respectable fish in the low 50cm range.

Not even 10 minutes after releasing that flathead, the Berkley Gulp! Zagger hooked into another solid fish and we instantly knew it was a mulloway. While this wasn’t a big fish as far as jewfish are concerned, it was a good sign of things to come. Before we could even take some photos and release that mulloway, Russ was suddenly hooked up too! Another small mulloway came to the surface, and upon releasing both of these beautiful fish the mood on the boat had lifted significantly. We now had plenty of confidence in the Zagger and Zipper combination, and sure enough it was only a few casts later when Russ hooked another school size mulloway. He dropped that fish at the boat, but it was our third mulloway hook-up within 10 minutes of fishing which was insane!

I rushed to get my Berkley Gulp! Zagger back out there, and I was hooked up again on the very next cast. “This new lure is epic!” laughed Russell as he grabbed the net. This turned out to be a slightly better jewfish, but regardless of the size we couldn’t believe we’d hooked four mulloway in just over 10 minutes! We also went on to catch countless flathead up to 70cm that day, as well as bream, small snapper, salmon, tailor, and more throughout the afternoon. The next two days were similar, boating many nice fish. We ended the trip in awe of the Berkley Gulp! Zagger soft bait!

Since this trip with Russell Babekuhl, I’ve been fishing the Zagger soft plastics consistently and they never let me down. Whether fishing freshwater impoundments for bass, saltwater estuaries for mulloway, flathead, estuary perch and bream, or fishing offshore for snapper, kingfish and other pelagic species, these soft baits have you covered. The Berkley Gulp! Zagger always seems to help me catch more fish, no matter how tough the bite is. You’d be silly not to get some for your next fishing trip!