To pop or not ?

C

Carp Angler

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With current converstaion centering around our trip to France, Stuart and I are in hourly meetings, discussing baiting tactics, hooklinks, hookbaits and all manner of different scenarios.

One thing that already has come to the fore, is both of ours preference for pop-ups, due, we believe, to the superior hook up ratio and hookhold.

Other people I know, always advocate a hookbait that is as near to the loosefeed as possible, which clearly, our pop-ups are not.

Which camp are you in?
A feeding carp will just wolf down the lot (6 inch visibility blah blah blah) or are they more cautious in their feeding?

Discuss.....
 
D

Dave Rothery

Guest
i used to be in the pop up camp, had absolutely no confidence in bottom baits.....i've now done a 180deg u turn! saying that, 1 of the 3 rods is nearly always a pop up, but i still catch proportionately more fish on the bottom baits. maybe i just dont put the pop up in the best spots? maybe i fish different waters (clay/silt as opposed to gravel pits). i use method/pva bags far more than i used to - i want the hookbait exactly the same as the freebies.

"A feeding carp will just wolf down the lot (6 inch visibility blah blah blah)" i think 95% of the time your right...
 
J

jim turner

Guest
i agree with dave personally, i used to use a lot of pop ups but now i'd choose bottom baits over them. Although a lot of this is maybe due to finding a boilie i have a lot of trust in (the source) and this boosts my confidence. Although these do have pop up varities which i think il test head to head against the bottom bait of the same type. i'd still choose a hi-visibility pop-up for a single hook bait though.
 
S

Steve Shaw

Guest
Funny, I have never had much confidence in pop ups. I have allways liked to keep my bait hard on the bottom. well most of the time.

Steve S
 
S

Sir Steven Blanksalot

Guest
I am with Steve on this one, I have never had much confidence in popped up boilies! However, popped up corn is another matter, the majority of my carp last year came to Enterprise corn.
 
C

Carp Angler

Guest
so why pop up corn, why not sinking corn if you've no confidence in pop-ups?
 
D

Dave Rothery

Guest
surely a popped up 6mm boilies better than a bit of yellow plastic steve?

i do use snowman/stack rigs a lot......

what do you classify popped up? is a bait 1cm off the bottom really "popped up"? gives you the best of both worlds then.
 
GrahamM

GrahamM

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I've always had more confidence in bottom baits than pop-ups. Not for any reason based on evidence, for although I've caught a lot more carp on bottom baits I've also used them a lot more.

Must admit I like balanced baits though, to make it easier for the fish to suck them in.

Maybe that's the main reason why pop-ups score most of the time.
 
C

Carp Angler

Guest
what about the way the hook is presented?
(it's my main reason for favouring pop-ups)
Dave asks... is a bait 1cm off the bottom really "popped up"?
errrr, I would say so.
the same with balanced baits, if the hook is sitting the same way, then I'm happier.
 
D

Dave Rothery

Guest
what i'm getting at is unless you use really critically balanced baits or your fishing over a hard bottom, the shot or whatever will sink into the silt/silkweed/whatever so the bait will still end up touching the bottom.
 
B

Bill Cox

Guest
I,m with the steve,s on this one, unless i am on a silty or weedy bottom i always use boilies on the bottom, however critically ballanced or popped up corn seems to out fish corn on the bottom.
 
D

Dave Rothery

Guest
so why's corn any different? isnt that just the type of baiting situation (small bright baits, small pop-up) that makes the difference? obviously if loads of corn goes in, it may be more "acceptable" than some other baits. have you tried corn hard on the bottom?

what sort of height off the bottom do people prefer?
 
S

Sascha Welsch

Guest
I must admit I've always had more success with baits on the bottom critically balanced or otherwise. Maybe it's just a confidence thing?? I caught a fair few fish on maize last year all on the bottom so didn't really feel it was nescassary to try a popped up bit. Even if I had, it would only be an inch or so. Rightly or wrongly it just doesn't feel right to me to present a bait above a bed of feed??? If fishing a single pop-up I suppose the situation's different as there is only one attractor yet with a bed of feed the hookbait is taken in along with the rest and should surely mimic those items as closely as possible.

With a single pop-up presentation I guess I'd want to have it visible so would pop up above the weed however deep that may be. But as carp have np problem picking a bait out of thickish weed I'd probably still try a bottom bait encased in a small pva bag before trying the pop-up.
 
C

Carp Angler

Guest
so do you all support the theory that I stated earlier ?

"A feeding carp will just wolf down the lot (6 inch visibility blah blah blah)"
 
D

Dave Rothery

Guest
yep. so long as its not floating 6" above their heads....
 
S

Stuart Dennis

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Not sure if I support your theory on "a feeding carp will just wolf down the lot", as this does not take into acount cautious feeders.

I certainly agree (as you know) that a popped up presentation will normally give a better hook hold and turning facility than a bottom bait. I also agree with those comments listed above, however there is a pattern forming here. People say they believe a bottom bait will hook better, some say a pop-up will, but then again unless you match like for like you cannot say can you? I?ll explain, if you use bottom baits all the time, then all the fish you catch will be on bottom baits, hence your opinion will be that bottom baits are the best. Same as pop-ups!

So can we dig a little further into why we feel a pop-up is better and vice versa?

For me, I believe a pop-up will give me a better chance of hooking a fish than a bottom bait based upon the following:

1 ? The hook is not laying dormant on the bottom under the bait, it is in fact sitting and poised ready to strike in the exact position I have designed it to sit.

2 ? with the hook now ready to strike, I know that the turning of my rig in order to take a firm hold is always the same, i.e, its sitting proud and again ready to do what is was designed to do.
 
D

Dave Rothery

Guest
apparently the new korda video shows some "interesting" things about popups - havent seen it myself though...
 
M

Malcolm Bason

Guest
I have seen it Dave - on DVD! It was very interesting to see how the popped-up baits behaved as opposed to the freebies!

The tench and carp would home in on the freebies, sucking in and blowing out just everything that was in the baited area - except the hookbait!!!

Ok, eventually this would often be taken toom, but only when everything else had been 'hoovered up'.

Watching the popped up bait, it looked so much different to the freebies - it just did'nt appear right to the feeding fish.

I was unsure previously about the benefits of bottom bait over those popped up, however since seeing the dvd, my opinion is very strongly towards to use of bottom baits.
 
S

Stuart Dennis

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Now thats interesting Malc! Would like to know where I could buy a copy of that online if you have any links mate?
 
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