KEEPING IT UP
Pop Up Boilies
Part One
The Facts
With Mother Nature covering virtually every lake bed in Europe with her winter blanket of leaves and debris, this is the time of year that buoyant or popped up bait presentations really come into there own. This style of presentation makes it possible to present your bait in a way that you can virtually guarantee, that no-matter where your rig lands on the lake bed with in reason, your hook bait and more importantly, your hook will remain clear of potential hazards that can mask your hook and lead to hook pulls and lost fish.
To present this type of baits correctly in the for mentioned angling situations, anglers have adapted conventional bottom bait rigs to make it possible to control the depth that your pop up is presented above the lake bed. By placing either rig putty or a lead shot on the hook link that is heavy enough to counter balance the pop up. You can vary the depth that the bait is presented from the bottom of the lake and how far above the debris your hook bait is presented by simply varying the distance from the hook to the counter balancing weight on your hook link.
As with all approaches and presentations, there will always be situations when these traditional adoptions of conventional rigs will not give you a suitable or practical bait presentation. So to deal with these situations, anglers have re-designed the Helicopter rigs and developed possibly the most popular rig in modern carp angling, the Chod. The most important and critical component of the Chod rig is the use of Pop Up baits to make your hook bait rise above the debris and weed residue, to enable a cleanly presented bait that is both visible and accessible to passing fish.
What ever rig you decide to present your Pop up baits on, there are certain rules that you must follow to ensure that the bait is presented perfectly. Firstly, you should always check to make sure that the counter balance weight you have on your hook link is heavy enough to keep the Pop Up in position. This is done by submerging the rig either in the margins or a suitable water container; this gives you the opportunity to then check that the rigs balance and presentation is correct and also establish the exact distance that your Pop Up will be presented of the lakes bed.
Secondly, you should always make sure that the bait you are using is going to be buoyant enough to easily hold your hook up of bottom. Various hooks and patterns use materials of variable gauge and weight and this is something that many anglers seem to forget. I have experienced whilst using a curved shanked hook by one manufacturer in size 8, that my chosen Pop Ups in 10mm would comfortably hold the hook up. However, I also found that a hook from another manufacturer of the same style would only allow the use of a size 10 hook, you should ALWAYS CHECK!!
To assist the beginner and anglers who have never used a Pop Up before, UKCA have put together a guide of what sizes Pop Up to use with what size of hook. This guide is based around tests carried out using 10 well know brands of readily available Pop Ups in conjunction with rigs that incorporating Curve Shank, Long Shank and Chod hooks of various sizes from most of the major hook manufacturers, including Nash Tackle, Korda, Solar Tackle, ESP and Atomic Tackle.
10-12mm Pop Up - Use a size 12 to 10 in Curve Shank or Long Shank.
14-16mm Pop Up - Use a size 8, 7 or 6 in Chod, Curve Shank or Long Shank.
18-20mm Pop Up - Use a size 5 to 2 in Chod, Curve Shank or Long Shank.
Over the past year, the UKCA team have used numerous different makes of mass produced Pop Ups to try and establish if any one particular brand stood out from this very crowded area of the bait industry. To be totally honest and after comparing all of our findings we were unable to come to a final decision, in fact we could only narrow it down to ten possible brands and flavours. So rather than giving you a single option which would have been an impossible task, we have put together our Top Ten Pop Up Boilies of 2010 and we are sure by test that all of them will catch you a lot of fish.
On the lists below, TESTED = We have actually used and rig tested this product and caught fish whilst testing them.
Carp Company Pukka Pop Ups
RRP £5.99 All Sizes
| Flavour | Sizes (mm) | Tested |
| Caviar & Cranberry (Reddish Brown) | 12, 14, 16, 18 | |
| High Viz-Squid (Bright Pink) NEW | 12, 16 | TESTED |
| High Viz-Cranberry (Orange) NEW | 12, 16 | TESTED |
| Coconut (White) NEW | 12, 16 | |
| Black Squid (Black) | 16 | |
| Classic Strawberry (Red) | 16 | |
| Chocolate Malt (Yellow) | 16 | |
| Sweet Cream (Yellow) | 16 | |
| Purple Haze (Purple) NEW | 16 | |
| Liquid Freeze (Red with Dark Fleck) | 16 | |
| Condensed Milk (Red & White) | 16 | TESTED |
| O-PM - Seriously Addictive | 16 | |
| Pineapple (Flouro Yellow) | 12, 16 | TESTED |
| Natural Impact | 14, 16, 18 |
Dynamite Baits Fluro Pop Ups
RRP £5.99 All Sizes
| Flavour | Sizes (mm) | Tested |
| Mulberry Florentine (Fluro Purple) | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Monster Crab (Fluro Pink) | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Strawberry & Scopex (Fluro Red) | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Coconut Cream (White) | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Pineaple & Banana (Fluro Yellow) | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Mussel & Anchovy (Fluro Green) | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Tutti Frutti (Fluro Orange) | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Squid & Octopus (Fluro Purple) | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Robin Red (Deep Red) | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
Nash Baits Top Rod Airball Pop Ups
RRP 10mm £3.99 30g Tub, 15mm £5.99 100g Tub & 20mm £5.99 100g Tub
Also available in Top Rod Airball Boilie Pellets in 100g Tubs for £4.99
| Flavour | Sizes (mm) | Tested |
| Monster Pursuit Plus | 10, 15, 20 | |
| Tangee Peach Plus | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Scopex Squid Liver Plus | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Formula 1 Plus | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Maple Squid Plus | 10, 15, 20 | |
| Formula Fish (FF) | 10, 15, 20 | |
| Whiskey | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Scopex Squid plus Robin Red | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Mach 1 | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| Amber Strawberry | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
| IC-1 | 10, 15, 20 | TESTED |
Mainline Hi-Visual Pop Ups
RRP £6.99, in Mini, Assorted Sizes or Dumbells
| Flavour | Sizes (mm) | Tested |
| Pineapple Juice (Bright Yellow) | Mini, Assorted, Dumbells | TESTED |
| Fruit-tella (Bright Pink) | Mini, Assorted, Dumbells | TESTED |
| Tutti Frutti (Bright Orange) | Mini, Assorted, Dumbells | TESTED |
| Plum (Bright Red) | Mini, Assorted, Dumbells | TESTED |
| Milky Toffee (Bright White) | Mini, Assorted, Dumbells | TESTED |
| Indian Spice (Bright Green) | Mini, Assorted, Dumbells |
Richworth Day Glow Airo Pop Ups
RRP £5.99 per 80g Tub
| Flavour | Sizes (mm) | Tested |
| Salmon Supreme (red) | 14, 18 | TESTED |
| K-G-1 (brown) | 14, 18 | TESTED |
| Crab & Mussel (brown) | 14, 18 | |
| Bloodworm (red) | 14, 18 | |
| Tutti Frutti (orange) | 14, 18 | TESTED |
| Pineapple Hawaiian (yellow) | 14, 18 | TESTED |
| Squid and Octopus (pink) | 14, 18 | TESTED |
| Scopex (orange) | 14, 18 | |
| White Chocolate (white) | 14, 18 | TESTED |
| Strawberry Jam (red) | 14, 18 | TESTED |
| Honey Yucatan (yellow) | 14, 18 | |
| Multi-Plex (brown) | 14, 18 | |
| Ultra-Plex (red) | 14, 18 | |
| XLR8 (brown) | 14, 18 | TESTED |
Nutrabaits Alternative Hook Bait Pop Ups
RRP £5.30 per Pot
| Flavour | Sizes (mm) | Tested |
| Pineapple & N-Butyric | 12, 16, 20 | TESTED |
| Wonderfruit & Cream Cajouser | 12, 16, 20 | TESTED |
| White Spice | 12, 16, 20 | TESTED |
| Violet | 12, 16, 20 | |
| Pink Pepper | 12, 16, 20 | TESTED |
| Sea Monster | 12, 16, 20 | TESTED |
Solar Tackle Perfect Pop Ups
RRP £6.99 per Pot, 14mm &18mm all include free pot-shot.
No Pot Shot with 22mm baits
| Flavour | Sizes (mm) | Tested |
| Aniseed & Bunspice | 14, 18, 22 | TESTED |
| Clubmix (Squid & Octopus) | 14, 18, 22 | TESTED |
| Dairy Cream (Fresh Pineapple) | 14, 18, 22 | TESTED |
| Jacko's (Fruit) | 14, 18, 22 | |
| Pineapple | 14, 18, 22 | TESTED |
| Red Herring (Smoked Salmon) | 14, 18, 22 | |
| Top Banana (Caramel Toffee) | 14, 18, 22 | |
| The Secret (Secret Fruit Blend) | 14, 18, 22 | TESTED |
| BYT (Belachan, Yeast & Tigers) | 14, 18, 22 | |
| Quench | 14, 18, 22 | TESTED |
Pukkabaits Pop Ups Range
RRP £5.99 per Pot of assorted sizes
| Flavour | Sizes (mm) | Tested |
| The Bite (Orange) | Assorted | TESTED |
| Insomnia (Red) | Assorted | TESTED |
| Kryptonite (Green) | Assorted | TESTED |
| Dominator (Brown) | Assorted | TESTED |
| Terminator (Golden Brown) | Assorted | TESTED |
| Marine Supreme (Light Orange) | Assorted | TESTED |
| Something Unusual (Fluro Orange) | Assorted | TESTED |
| Something Different (Fluro Yellow) | Assorted | TESTED |
Premier Baits Pop Ups
RRP £5.00 per Pot
| Flavour | Sizes (mm) | Tested |
| Matrix (Red) | 14, 16, 18 | |
| Matrix Plus (Brown) | 14, 16, 18 | TESTED |
| Super Indian (Mint Green) | 14, 16, 18 | |
| Spiced Citrus (Red) | 14, 16, 18 | |
| Winter Blend (Red) | 14, 16, 18 | TESTED |
| Quad (Biscuit) | 14, 16, 18 | TESTED |
| Pineapple & Black Pepper Oil | 14 | TESTED |
| Heminos (Fluro Pink) | 12 | TESTED |
| Randoms (Mixed Colours) | Assorted | TESTED |
DT Baits Fluro Tech Pop Ups
RRP £6.25 per Pot
| Flavour | Sizes (mm) | Tested |
| Fresh Orange (Fluro Orange) | 15 | |
| Strawberry & Condensed Milk (Fluro Red) | 15 | TESTED |
| M-Blend (White) | 15 | TESTED |
| Pineapple Chunks (Fluro Yellow) | 15 | TESTED |
| Oily Chicken ((White) | 15 | |
| Tutti Frutti (Fluro Orange) | 15 |
Final Thoughts
Over the past 12 months the well oiled machine that is the UKMA team have been out and about on numerous different venues up and down the country, putting the above selection of Pop Ups through there paces. With at least 4 members of the team having now used each of the above listed baits, UKMA can conclusively say that any of the above ranges and flavours of Pop Ups will catch you fish on all types of venues and in virtually any weather condition you will encounter during your time on the bank in the United Kingdom.
This is not the be all and end all list of Pop Up baits; we have only added products to the above review that have been sent to the UKMA office over the past year. Some may say there are better Pop Up products available but until we test these products in an angling situation we cannot make any valid judgement. We will be reviewing some very exciting new developments from some of those little known companies that many of us miss out on but those anglers who are in the know worship. So keep your eyes open for “Keeping it up – Pop up Boilies” Part II in 2011