Pop Ups.... or do they?

Popups explained

I get so many questions on the subject of hookbaits, especially, popups that I thought I would put my thoughts on paper and try and answer as many questions as possible so here we go.

Right off the bat there is no such thing as a perfect hookbait, as anglers we need to think outside the box and stop believing everything we are told, logic and common sense will prevail and what I mean by this is when it comes to hookbaits something always has to give. Whether that be buoyancy, attraction, food signals (short or long term), size of hookbait and its limitations depending on rig choice, size of hook and fishing situation, and what exactly you are trying to achieve from your chosen popups. There are so many variables in fishing people never think about or take into consideration, they just pick up a pot and expect it to do everything. Well believe me, this could not be further from the truth.

Now I personally believe a true pure food bait is the best hookbait you can get, you want what you are putting on the your rig to be the most attractive item of food out on your spot. This will make the fish home in on it and eat that bait first and this is my personal choice and the closest thing to a perfect hookbait in my opinion. Here is why, ever since I started using these, my results have skyrocketed using pure food baits and I say pure as there are a lot of baits out there claiming to be this.  They are not always what people think they are, it can be very misleading, making it a minefield for anglers when it comes to making a decision in choosing the right bait for you and what you are trying to achieve within your fishing but more on that subject later.  Back to the subject in hand, pure hookbaits, these are not without their problems. Using cork dust as your buoyancy aid to make your paste of pure food float is where the problems begin, getting enough cork into the paste to make that heavy lump of goodness float is your first issue. Recommended levels to achieve this are 10% to 15% depending on your chosen ingredients, I use 18% plus which as you can imagine makes the popups almost impossible to roll and also tells you a lot about the ingredients being used within the bait. Unlike most other cork dust popups available I don't want to compromise on the ingredients used within the bait just to make a consumer-friendly buoyancy aid. 

The next issue is keeping that bait buoyant once it starts to absorb water and the ingredients get heavier. This is where most people would use cheaper, light ingredients, binders and flours to bulk the paste out, these ingredients would not be as heavy once fully saturated. An alternative would be adding popup mix to the paste to help add buoyancy and create a skin to help stop the ingress of water, which will prolong the time it takes to absorb water, in turn making the buoyancy of the bait last longer.  This to me defeats the point of using a food bait. If you stop the water being absorbed, you also stop the food signals and attractors escaping from within the bait, which is the whole point of using a food bait. 

This is where people will say these hookbaits are the same as your boilies and yes, they may have some of the ingredients your boilies contain along with the same flavour profile, but they are nowhere near as attractive as what you are feeding, in essence sacrificing food signals and attraction for buoyancy. Most companies don't want to complicate things and just want to make the product that is consumer friendly. This is why most companies will only deal in air ball popups or a combination of air ball mix and cork dust or even worse, change the ingredients and claim it to be exactly the same or better. 

Moving on to the standard air ball popup, now these have improved massively over the years becoming more and more buoyant ever since moving away from using glass bubbles (yes you did hear correctly - glass) which is great for the humble popup and its buoyancy levels but essentially the food content is almost non-existent, you may as well be using a piece of foam which has been flavoured. For this very reason I never use air balls within my own fishing anymore and yes you can glug them and drip feed them over long periods of time which is what I do, and this massively improves the attraction and food signals but there is only so far you can take this. The more moisture you add, the less buoyant even an air ball will become. Similar to a piece of foam, the leakage within these baits is a lot faster than a pure food bait leaving you essentially a very unattractive but a boyant bait. For example, how often do you reel in, put a fresh air ball hookbait on and bang get a bite very soon after! This is one of the main reasons why that happens so often, whereas yes, they may stay up for days but essentially after a short period of time these baits are just lures. Of course, they still catch fish, like foam on zigs and plastic corn but just because it still smells, doesn't mean there are food signals pumping from the bait. In most cases they catch more anglers than they do fish. These hookbaits normally get eaten while the fish are eating the rest of the food items within your swim, but they could be the last thing taken and not one of the first, meaning less fish on the bank. Very often they are not taken at all and it's so easy for us as anglers to make excuses and say the fish weren't there, but after extensive use of a boat I have lost count of the amount of times I have checked a spot, discovered all the bait gone but my alarms have been silent while the carp happily cleared my area of food (well everything except my hookbait that is). 

This, for me, is another major factor in my decision to always use a real pure food item. Believe it or not most companies don't even make their air ball hookbaits, they are generally sold in 1kg to 10kg bags as blanks meaning they have been rolled without any flavour or additives just plain air ball mix and coloured dye of choice. They are placed in a pot and a few drops of flavour added before being sold, maximum profit with no effort required! Definitely food for thought! This leaves the air balls that do contain some base mix and food signals, but this is minimal as the more you add, the less buoyant these air balls become, and they soon get the reputation of being rubbish, whereas in fact they are probably far more attractive than a bait that is super buoyant. Something always has to give.

 Next up is cork balls, now you would think that has cracked it, ultimate buoyancy and pure food content! Yes, the buoyancy is far superior to anything else out there but the food layer around the cork ball is only a couple of millimetres thick so very minimal food for the size of the hookbait. Plus, you have to blend or sieve the basemix to remove all the lumps to stop this thin layer of skin from crackling. Hardeners need to be used for the very same reason, the thin layer needs to be as hard as possible to stop the paste breaking down and dissolving, (essentially coming away from the cork ball too quickly). But this process will also be locking in a lot of the food signals, yes these are miles better than air balls but still compromised especially on the leakage within the limited amount of paste around the cork ball, never mind the base mix having been changed. 

This brings me back to the very best possible option, the cork dust popups whereas you get everything you require from a food and attraction perspective, the longevity of the buoyancy is the compromise. Now my baits will keep the heaviest of rigs popup up for 24 hours in a tank test which is great, but in reality, there are so many factors you can't simulate within a tank that happens within a body of water. How many people consider the size of the lake, water pressure, temperature, depth, bird life, glugging or not glugging your baits, using a baiting needle or tying your bait on with floss, the length of time your bait is in the water? Every one of these factors will affect the buoyancy of your hookbait and every one can be different on any given day and vary from water to water. I could talk about every one of these points in great detail but I would bore you to death.

The way I get around these issues, instead of worrying about all of the above I simply use a cork plug within my cork dust popups, essentially creating the ultimate hookbait.

As everyone that knows me will tell you, I am very honest and open, I will always say it as it is, no sales patter or bullshit needed. If you want me to make you some air ball or air ball/cork dust hybrids or even cork ball popups that is no problem at all, just drop me a message. I am always willing to help but, believe me, a cork plug in a cork dust popup will solve all these issues and at the same time give you the ultimate hookbait and 100% will put you more fish on the bank. If anyone would like to contact me to discuss this method or subject further, I am always here to help,

Many thanks Leigh