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Features >> IAN POOLE: Hookbait Talk

IAN POOLE: Hookbait Talk

One subject that has got carp anglers talking more than any other over the last few years has been the eye opening underwater footage we have seen in all of the underwater DVD’s.

Over the years I have been lucky enough to fish several waters clear enough to enable me to spend many hours watching carp feed over bait and end tackle, and some of the things I have witnessed have surprised me. However, this carps’ eye view we are seeing really is something totally new for nearly all of us, and has lead many of the people who have seen it to have a complete rethink on the way they approach their carp fishing. In particular, a lot of the footage has highlighted just how ineffective a pop-up presentation can be when fished in the wrong situation. In fact, more than one angler has said to me they no longer have confidence at all in fishing a bait popped up off the bottom, and actually avoid the tactic completely. However, the fact remains that pop ups have been responsible for many thousands of carp landed over the years; they are still working now and will go on to catch many carp in the future. When used in the right place and time they can be very effective indeed, and one of my recent sessions has just reinforced that point home to me.

On a water where bottom baits have clearly been out catching pop-ups for a long time, on my last trip I switched one rod over to a pop-up presentation to enable me to fish more effectively over a lightly weeded area. The result was three runs to that rod and none on the bottom bait. Up until this point I was doing all I could to avoid having to use a pop-up on this particular water, but since I’ve switched a rod or two back I’ve had a very good run of fish.

It’s fair to say that I probably couldn’t write anything about pop ups that hasn’t already been covered a hundred times before, so what I thought I would do is to concentrate on the thought process I go through to decide whether I use a pop-up or bottom bait.

IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME

So what for you is the deciding factor that makes you choose between a pop-up or a bottom bait presentation? Well for me it’s a combination of just about everything really. Sometimes it won’t matter whether you are on either and you will catch or blank because of many other reasons which, on that particular day, were more important. At times though it can matter a great deal and as I mentioned earlier, will make all the difference. Know when this is likely to be and you can keep one step ahead of the carp and many of your fellow anglers.

As we all know though, carp can be very unpredictable creatures at times, and on occasions there will be no obvious signs as to why they prefer pop-ups over  bottom baits, or vice versa. When this is the case it can simply be a matter of trial and error to find out what’s working best. With a little thought given to what you are doing on the day though, taking into account what’s out in front of you in the way of features, your baiting situation, what other anglers are doing etc, you can get it right more often than not, and up your catch rate considerably.

For me personally, the two main things that have the most say on whether I choose a pop-up or a bottom bait are usually a combination of the make up of the lake bed in front of me, and the baiting situation I am going to use. If for instance, I am fishing over lots of small particle baits such as hemp or pellet, I will always use bottom baits if I can get away with it, and by that I mean if there is not enough weed present to affect my presentation.

If I’ve located a promising looking spot using a marker float set up, I’ll then use one of my fishing rods set up with a rig on to determine how thick the weed is around it. Ensuring the lead sinks down on a tight line on each cast can soon transmit back to you  how deep any  weed around the marker is, and then by seeing what type and how much is coming back on your end tackle, you can make a decision on how best to present a bait in the area. If I feel it’s clean enough I’ll always go for a bottom bait, but if there is enough weed there I will have no hesitation about switching to a pop-up.

A typical situation where I would use a pop-up would be where I had found an area made up of both weed and clear patches, but I couldn’t guarantee hitting a clear bit every single time. But a pop-up presentation that was fished over one of the clear bits would surely stand out wouldn’t it? Well yes in a way, but if you think about it, any bait spodded out to the area will be found by the carp at various levels in the swim. Some will be on the bottom, but there will also be morsels of food settled in the weed at all levels, and any feeding carp in the swim would be used to hoovering up bait from everywhere. My choice here would be to fish a pop-up as low to the bottom as I think I can get away with, and as I’m fishing over bait, I’d have the pop-up shotted down rather than critically balanced. When numbers of carp move into a swim to feed over small baits like pellets and 10mm boilies, the last thing I want is my hookbait wafting about unnaturally. Water movement caused by fish will roll free offerings around a bit, but generally it doesn’t cause them to lift up in the way a critically balanced pop-up would. Bits like hemp and pellets may do, but not boilies.

On the other hand there are situations when I would nearly always go for a pop-up first, with single hookbaits being one of them. The thing about singles is that generally a carp will have nothing else similar around to compare them to, and this gives you the opportunity to use a pop-up which, in the circumstances that many of us employ single baits (cast out without any prior knowledge of the lake bed in that area), will ensure we still have an effective presentation whatever our rig lands on.

Ian Poole

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