POP UP boilies are used on every carp water in the land, almost - but not like this!
Pop up boilies are of course responsible for a lot of fish – and Angler’s Mail carp ace Colin Davidson has scored well on them over the years.
One of things he likes to do is use a long mono link to present pop up boilies. This can be deadly, especially through the colder months, but also a tactic to consider in warmer conditions.
Here’s how to tie one…
1. Long links are best tied with good old mono or fluorocarbon, being cheaper than combi-link materials, easy to work with and tangle free. I still prefer mono.
2. Pop-up rigs demand wide gape patterns for most effective hooking. Take an 18 in. to 2 ft length of your mono and whip a five-turn knotless knot. Where you would normally have a hair loop there should be just a tag-end of several inches of straight mono.
3. Thread a small tear-shaped rig ring with a short braided hair on to the tag-end and then pass the tag down through the eye towards the point to form a D loop with the rig ring on. Carefully offer a lighter to the tag end, down through the eye, to blob it and keep the loop secure.
4. Split shot aren’t great on light mono links and can easily pinch the line and weaken it. To counter-balance your pop-up, thread a float stop or, better still, a specialist carpy sinker up the link and mould a small slug of tungsten putty around it. I’ve found this rig particularly successful when the bait is balanced to a very slow sinker.
5. You can fish a long link, slow sink pop-up on running, helicopter rig or lead-clip end-tackles. Although I am generally not a fan of leadcore, it is recommended to decrease the chances of tangles. A safety clip with a swivel-less bomb and a small anti-tangle sleeve is the easiest and most reliable combination, especially if any amount of casting is involved.