Do bright baits fished over dark baits work?

Dear Gary, I've seen a number of the guys in the angling press fish a bright hookbait over a bed of foodbaits (i.e. dark baits). Is this something you'd do and does this differ if you were fishing a more heavily pressured, tricky pond to an easy runs water? Julian Cooper, via e-mail

Hi Julian, I've used bright hookbaits (not just pop-ups) over dull free offerings and caught, but it isn't really as straightforward as that. Bright hookbaits are really just one of many bait tricks anglers use. It's by no means the best method there is but then there isn't one method that does it all. As for fishing them over a bed of foodbaits it's very misleading to say that there is such a thing as a bed of free offerings, certainly not at any sort of range. The spread of free offerings, catapulted, throwing sticked or even spodded is usually much more than you imagine unless you use a lot of bait.  Even an handful of baits dropped over the side of a boat in 10ft of clear water on a slightly mucky bottom is hard to see and spreads further than you think. Then the cast to land anywhere near more than a few free offerings has to be good, taking into account that a lead attached to line doesn't land directly underneath where it hit the surface. So, the hookbait is fishing as a single bait more than imagined, be it bright or dull.

I threw about 200 free offerings in the margins at my own lake this summer and dropped a bright pop-up on top and due to the silt I could only see the pop-up so could it be simply a sight thing or is it the fact that most pop-ups are over-flavoured like mine? Next to that rod I put on another over-flavoured bait but nearly the same colour as the free offerings and this was the one that caught. Lucky more than likely but that evening (after an hard days netting my other lake) I had another fish on the dull hookbait in the same area but in this case I don't think it was anything to do with sight since the carp had totally coloured the area up while I was netting. 

Smell and taste for me is more important than colour but even this isn't an exact science, I think we fish to many hours with over-flavoured hookbaits, often getting bites hours after most of the flavour has washed out.

I hate to admit but I'm getting my ass kicked at the moment on The Essex Manor, one fish in too many nights fishing. The Manor is well pressured and they are getting caught on all methods but I think the bright hookbait, on a Chod Rig is the most consistent at the moment, over a bed of dull free offerings. I don't believe for one minute they are not eating the free offerings, it's simply down to hookbait presentation. That said, I've made some black baits up and that's what I caught on and a mate has had four fish on the black baits in just a few nights. Our fish catching hookbaits are critically balanced snowman rigs tipped of with yellow or red pop-ups. We do feel that bottom baits will start to come into their own soon but only time will tell and probably a different rig/approach. I'm making some black and some bright pop-ups and wafters and will try everything because I really do think I am getting done by them Manor carp, time will tell.

Back to your question, I feel the bright hookbaits are mainly an easy water thing as you said, and yes, I do prefer dull hookbaits on all waters. Magazine features are often done on 'takes waters' to get the action shots required and look better with a bright hookbait (pretty pictures). I prefer dull hookbaits because I've always caught the better fish on them but I do keep an open mind and use bright baits if I think it improves my chances. White and orange are my favourites, often fished snowman style as critically-balanced as possible. My favourite dull pop-up colour is sandy yellow, achieved by mixing brown and yellow dye together and I like to use these to critically-balance a normal bottom bait, snowman style. My next favourite method is single 12 x 20 boilie pellet shape boilies, critically-balanced with a bit of foam on top or double 12 x 20's, again critically-balanced which make for interesting hookbaits, set-up side-by-side, as a 'T' or end-to-end. 

Until I get complete confidence on a rig, hookbait presentation I try most methods, but once I start to get it right then it'll be all rods on one set-up.