Pop-up boilies for barbel?

dazdidge · Mar 7, 2010

Has anyone had any success with pop-up boilies for barbel? I fancy trying something new and pop-ups seemed like a good place to start. The next question is should I use something bright or go for a natural colour such as dynamite bails marine halibut?

noknot · Mar 7, 2010

Hello John,

No idea what I'm talking about here as I have never fished for barbel, but I think a pop-up could work well, I would try it poped up by a few inches and not hard on the bottom, that way it will move with the water flow, could be deadly?

The fishing coach · Mar 7, 2010

I tried popped up baits some years ago for barbel and found they tended to foul hook fish in the pectoral fins. So I stopped.

noknot · Mar 7, 2010

The fishing coach said:
I tried popped up baits some years ago for barbel and found they tended to foul hook fish in the pectoral fins. So I stopped.

Well I did say I had no idea, looks as though I was correct

Bluenose · Mar 7, 2010

John, I used to use cheap sausages cooked in the oven, fished directly on the hook with no hair. These sausages were buoyant yet we caught plenty of barbel on the severn above Shrewsbury, no foul hooked fish that I can remember either.

Edit: I do realise your question is about boilies but the buoyancy aspect I felt was relevant.

The fishing coach · Mar 7, 2010

The baits I had problems with were fished on a short hair and therefore much more prone to foul hooking.
Two eight pounders hooked on popped up sweetcorn when an eight pounder from the Kennet was a big fish.

Rodney Wrestt · Mar 7, 2010

It seems a bit strange to me that the choice of bait for a fish nature has designed as a bottom feeder should be a pop up? I can see the benefit of a wafter or a neutrally buoyant bait but I can foresee too many problems with a pop up the main one T.F.C. mentioned.

noknot · Mar 7, 2010

Rodney Wrestt said:
It seems a bit strange to me that the choice of bait for a fish nature has designed as a bottom feeder should be a pop up? I can see the benefit of a wafter or a neutrally buoyant bait but I can foresee too many problems with a pop up the main one T.F.C. mentioned.

But is a Carp not a predominant bottom feeder also???

Rodney Wrestt · Mar 7, 2010

No, not really, they will feed at all levels of the water table including the surface.

The fishing coach · Mar 7, 2010

Rodney Wrestt said:
It seems a bit strange to me that the choice of bait for a fish nature has designed as a bottom feeder should be a pop up? I can see the benefit of a wafter or a neutrally buoyant bait but I can foresee too many problems with a pop up the main one T.F.C. mentioned.

The corn I was using was neutrally bouyant but when Mr. Whiskers starts feeding there is a lot of turbulence.

Rodney Wrestt · Mar 7, 2010

The fishing coach said:
The corn I was using was neutrally bouyant but when Mr. Whiskers starts feeding there is a lot of turbulence.

Exactly TFC, moving water will create another dimension of probable conflicting conditions to contend with, that's before we start on centrifugal elements of feeding fish.

Dicky (Angling Trust PAC) · Mar 7, 2010

On the latest 'Barbel Up Close and Personal' DVD, Stu Morgan demonstrates a barbel rig using pop-ups which he claims nails barbel in the bottom lip.

As I remember it...

No hair rig involved, a cut down pop-up is superglued to the shank of the hook, and the rig is counter-balanced with a single AAA.

By coincidence I met Stu Morgan yesterday on my stretch of the Severn; what a top bloke, very friendly.

Dave Burr · Mar 7, 2010

My attempts with pop-ups caught me a load of chub.

Neutral buoyancy is a much better bet as Martin suggests.

Rodney Wrestt · Mar 7, 2010

****y (Angling Trust PAC) said:
On the latest 'Barbel Up Close and Personal' DVD, Stu Morgan demonstrates a barbel rig using pop-ups which he claims nails barbel in the bottom lip.

As I remember it...

No hair rig involved, a cut down pop-up is superglued to the shank of the hook, and the rig is counter-balanced with a single AAA.

By coincidence I met Stu Morgan yesterday on my stretch of the Severn; what a top bloke, very friendly.

is there any sistance between the hook and the shot? if not then it's more a critically ballenced rig than a poped up one?

I'm not saying it would never work (fish have a habit of going against the grain on occasion) but i.m.o. it may work in spite of itself rather than as an improvement on a bottom bait/wafter/neutrally buoyant bait.

Dicky (Angling Trust PAC) · Mar 7, 2010

Rodney Wrestt said:
is there any sistance between the hook and the shot? if not then it's more a critically ballenced rig than a poped up one?

I'm not saying it would never work (fish have a habit of going against the grain on occasion) but i.m.o. it may work in spite of itself rather than as an improvement on a bottom bait/wafter/neutrally buoyant bait.

Hi Rodney,

As I remember it the shot was about 2inches from the hook; I'll watch it again and check my facts.

As for neutrally buoyant or popped up, I guess it would depend on how much is trimmed off the boilie, the weight of the hook, and more importantly the depth and flow, but fluid dynamics are not my speciality and he didn't describe it in that kind of detail.

I tried making the rig as described when I first saw it, but couldn't get my head round it.

I should have asked him yesterday...

I'll check the DVD later and report back

Rodney Wrestt · Mar 7, 2010

Hello ****y,
Thanks for that, I've not seen the third one yet, I have the other two and enjoyed them (I didn't even know there was a third out there

)

You're absolutely right about the trimming down a boilie, gauge of the hook etc, it just doesn't sit right in my mind that it's the best option especially in flowing water. I use pop up's in the various ways mentioned in the other posts on both canal and loch but I wouldn't be confident on my local river as it pushes through even at lower water in summer.

Dicky (Angling Trust PAC) · Mar 7, 2010

Just checked the DVD.

Cut down pop-up, no talk of neutrally buoyant (bait shown wafting in current at set depth), cut down boilie glued to the back of a longshank Kamasan. Shot looked to be one inch from the hook.

All barbel nailed in the bottom lip.

Oops forgot,supple braid or stripped-down coated.

Rodney Wrestt · Mar 7, 2010

Cheers again ****y,
With the bait being cut/trimmed down it looks like it's either to prevent it being popped up too much/ leach out the scent faster or a combination of both, but basically it's as we were discussing earlier.

In saying that though, I suppose it's still a pop up being used restricted or trimmed it begins life as a pop up.

Interesting they're all hooked in the bottom lip though, not what I would've imagined.

---------- Post added at 22:01 ---------- Previous post was at 21:49 ----------

meant to say, I wouldn't have expected their choice of hooklength material to be either the braids, they made a big thing about fluorocarbon in the previous DVD's. The scene if I remember correctly has 3 rigs lying in the margins and you can follow the materials of 2 from hook to weight quite clearly, the third the viewer is advised are just the rig components and that's all it looks like till they lift it and it's a fluorocarbon end rig.

dazdidge · Mar 8, 2010

Do you know if the pop ups he used were bright or were they drab? Does he say what make / flavour he was using?

Dicky (Angling Trust PAC) · Mar 8, 2010

Rodney Wrestt;794310[/COLOR said:
meant to say, I wouldn't have expected their choice of hooklength material to be either the braids, they made a big thing about fluorocarbon in the previous DVD's. The scene if I remember correctly has 3 rigs lying in the margins and you can follow the materials of 2 from hook to weight quite clearly, the third the viewer is advised are just the rig components and that's all it looks like till they lift it and it's a fluorocarbon end rig.

Rodney,

I believe that the rig was used a lot for night fishing, when the whole visual aspect is less important.

Don't see why it wouldn't work with fluoro too; you could slide on a float stop and use tungsten putty to avoid weakening the line with a shot.

John,

The boilies used were dull colours.

I thouroughly recommend the DVD, available from HERE

Pop-up boilies for barbel?

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