How to make your own pop-ups
Mark Pitchers shows you how to create your own pop-up hookbaits in 12 simple steps
“If you really want to give the carp something different then why not try making your own pop-up hookbaits for your own personal edge. This opens up the door to a multitude of ‘custom’ options – brown fruit baits, yellow or pink fish baits and flavour combinations other than the norm. The only limit to what you might try is your imagination. The process
is so simple you can even do it on the bank (if you don’t want to annoy the other half with a messy kitchen), as I’ve done here…”
1. You’ll need one egg, liquid flavours (I’ve chosen Milky Toffee and Strawberry), Polaris Pop-Up Mix, a colour bait dye, a mixing bowl and measuring spoon.
2. Start by cracking the egg into the mixing bowl - a one-egg mix will produce in excess of 100 pop-ups depending on size, so a couple of tubs worth.
3. The next step is to start adding your chosen flavours – here I’m using 5ml of one of favourites, the awesome sweet smelling Milky Toffee flavour.
4. Next, I’m using 10ml of the liquid palatant, Strawberry Ade, to round off the flavour of the baits and prevent them from having a bitter taste.
5. Now it’s time to give the baits some colour with a whole teaspoon of bait dye. This is double the recommended amount, as I want them really bright.
6. It’s important to get an even mix so that all the pop-ups will look, smell and taste the same – so whisk the egg and the flavours together with a fork.
7. With the liquids all evenly mixed together you can now start adding the dry ingredient and powder of the super reliable Polaris Pop-Up Mix.
8. Add the Polaris Mix a little at a time until you end up with a dough/paste that is not too wet or sticky and not too dry or crumbly – this is perfect!
9. You can use a rolling table, but for such a small mix it’s hardly worth the bother – rolling pop-ups between the palms of your hands is just as good.
10. One of the great things about making your own pop-ups by hand is that they don’t have to be standardly round - you can create odd ‘edgy’ shapes.
11. Once you’ve rolled out all the paste the baits will need to be cooked, with one to two minutes vigorous boiling to give them a durable outer skin.
12. After boiling allow the pop-ups to ‘air-dry’ and harden on a towel or cloth, ideally for at least 24hrs before storing them in a small tub ready to go!