Your complete guide to pop-ups

Pop-up hookbaits are a huge part of the modern-day angling scene, with most of the big name anglers taking full advantage of them. They prove extremely effective over silt, weed and most types of bottom debris where your hook is most likely to get caught up in if you were using a bottom bait.

Pop-up hookbaits come in many different colours, flavours, shapes and sizes and you can get matching pop-ups to the bottom baits you are using. There is a massive array of presentations for use with pop-ups but some of the most documented include the Chod Rig and Hinged Stiff Link. All pop-up presentations utilise a counter-balance weight in order to present the pop-up at whatever depth off the lakebed you desire.

Corkball

Corkball pop-ups are the most buoyant hookbaits available. The baits consist of a thin layer of paste around a corkball. These baits are best for use with Chod Rigs and Hinged Stiff Link Presentations.

Airball

Airball pop-ups are made of a buoyant pop-up paste. The consistency of the bait is fairly spongy and they are ideal for Hair rigging. Some of these pop-ups are more buoyant than others, so it’s worth testing them in the edge before casting out.

Corkdust

Corkdust pop-ups have real fragments of cork mixed into the base of the pop-up. This automatically highly increases the buoyancy over a standard Airball pop-up mix. Many of these are even buoyant enough for use with Chod Rigs.

Barrell pop-ups

Barrel pop-ups have many good uses; they are different to the standard round hookbait so they automatically look different. The fish also find them harder to eject over a standard round bait.

10mm pop-ups

Are perfect for using inside solid PVA bags with a small split shot as a counter balance. Another good use for 10mm pop-ups is tipping off a slightly larger hookbait – i.e. snowman style.