What's the best hookbait for spring?

Question

Single pineapple pop-ups still appear to be the in-vogue approach for spring, but have you found another flavour or colour to be more productive?

Adam Penning

“I think that if it’s in front of the fish then any good quality boilie will work, whether it’s brown, pink or green. Yes, yellow pops work but then everyone is using them so it stands to reason that it can appear they are the best approach. Use a bait that you are confident in and put it in front of the fish, and remember that even though everyone is using bright baits, every year some of the country’s most prestigious big fish get mugged off on one attached to a ready-tied Chod Rig! This spring, I will be using pale brown Krills and will carry some white ones in reserve.”

Ian Chillcott

“I am not a single hookbait user, to be honest. I have caught on them, but prefer to use bait in the spring. If everyone is casting singles around then it makes sense, to me at least, to do something a little different. And that would be fish over some bait. Colour of hookbaits has never really interested me, but if you have confidence in one colour or another then use it, because confidence is a large part of the carp fishing puzzle.”

Gaz Fareham

“I haven’t used a pineapple for years, in fact hardly ever as I think it is just too obvious a label these days but I’ve been making my own super-charged bright singles since the Redes days of the late 90’s. I’ve used countless different variations but all based on the same principles: a combination of up to eight or even ten different low level liquids, oils and powders. I do still favour a bright one as a single, but have been using more washed-out/dulled down versions for the last four or five years and found these better now everyone is using bright ones. The mega bright ones can be a bit too much on clear waters or ones that have seen a lot of them for the last fifteen years.”

Nigel Sharp

“Over the last few years I’ve actually found on the waters I’ve fished that yellow pop-ups have become a victim of their own success and I’ve struggled to get bites on them. What I have found is that my old favourite slightly-off-white or washed-out yellows have been by far more successful. I’ve even found that a single dark foodbait type pop-up to be quite instant, but this might be down to the clarity of the waters that I’ve fished in recent years and the over-use of fluoros during the winter making the carp nervous of bright baits come the spring. Who knows, but one thing’s for sure, I still carry a pot of yellow wangers.”