Elliott Gray's biggest game changers...

Question: What have been your biggest game changers – a rig tweak, a particular bait, a certain way you mount your floater hookbait – over the years?

I suppose there’s been loads over the years, which are undoubtedly easier to pick up on these days, with the way social media is and websites like this. Two things that have changed my angling tenfold are, the use of pop-ups and bright hookbaits. When you combine these two things you’re onto a winner.

For the first three to five years of my fishing, from the age of around 13-18, I rarely ever used pop-ups. I never really understood their purpose and the idea of using one seemed pointless. Eventually though, as you progress, you see and learn more, and the penny eventually drops.

My fishing was often based around margin fishing, where I could see the bottom, or out in the pond but with extensive use of a marker float. This meant that a pop-up was never something I found necessary. This was well before the times of the Chod or Hinged Stiff Rig littering 50% of a magazine, and no one I knew ever used them either. I grew up learning to fish spots that were clean enough to present a bottom bait effectively.

Pop-ups opened up the world of big hooks, a road I’m glad I went down

Eventually I read a certain book which opened my eyes to pop-up rigs and I learned quickly how effective they could be.

The use of pop-ups would enable me to fish effectively in areas that had otherwise been unfishable. If you’re using a pop-up then you can fish over areas of low-lying weed or leaves, two types of area that carp absolutely love to spend their time – let’s face it, it’s not often you see them sat perfectly over a gravel area awaiting a rig. Casting at showing fish is a deadly technique and the pop-ups absolutely change the game in this situation. One or two casts and you’re fishing 99% of the time.

On top of this, and a big reason why I started using them was that they would also enable me to target the larger fish in the lake. I saw the evidence on paper at first but since that time and after extensive use of pop-ups, I have seen it for myself too, in real life fishing situations. Not only once either, I’ve seen it many times, particularly with taller pop-ups of two-inches or more. The smaller fish will notice that the bait is suspended above ground level, whereas the larger carp seem far less aware on average. This is simply down to their bulk not enabling them to see the bait from the same angle – a bigger fish is always looking down upon the bait.

Try making your own, super-high attract hookbaits

On the subject of pop-ups and bigger carp, it also opened the world of big hooks up to me, which has been another game changer. Not only am I able to single out bigger carp with the pop-ups but because the hook is masked by the bait, I’m also able to use much larger hooks than I used to, and suffer less hook pulls as a result.

Similar to my theory on pop-ups, as a young lad I never saw the point in using bright hookbaits, but that opinion is long gone. Nowadays I use bright pop-ups all the time, particularly during the winter and spring.

Bright hookbaits are also a great way getting quick bites from a large area of feed, and if I’m not using a bright one over a baited area then I will always have at least a small sight bob on top of the bait, namely a piece of yellow foam. The idea is simple: the carp are feeding over the baited spot, the bright one stands out, catches their eye and they pick it up! This is an absolutely awesome method that will, without doubt, catch you loads of bonus carp, it certainly has done so for me anyway!

Throughout the colder months I will often use the bright hookbaits as singles, mounted onto pop-up rigs – this is ideal for casting at showing fish. The carp aren’t that hungry during the cold so a bait they can see and taste with ease will often be enough to tempt a bite. Fishing in this style will enable you to up sticks and move at the crash of a fish (flick of a hat), and at the same time, you’re able to get cast straight back out and into action in no time at all too, whilst at the same time fishing super effectively.

I’ve used all sorts of colours over the years but my favourites are white and pink, I have used orange and yellow a lot too but always favoured white and pink. I think these two colours stand out the most and certainly seem to produce plenty of bites.

With pop-ups you can get cast out and fishing effectively in no time at all