my philosophy

Proper Job – Are they the best pop-up baits available on the market?

The answer is quite simply, yes they are! And here’s the background as to why that is…

The Pop-up bait market is a very crowded one with each producer claiming their pop-ups remain buoyant for days, hold their form and include attractor packages which fish find irresistible! However my experiences using existing pop-up brands often left me feeling very disappointed with the results. I discovered that the pop-ups I had used on my rigs were mostly balanced-wafters - straight out of the tub!

Of course, some larger pop-ups (15-16mm) do work for a period but when tested in the lake-margins after 20 hours immersion I found out they mostly turned into wafters as well, leaving my hook either snagged on debris or lying on the lake bed! Furthermore, problems with sinking pop-ups increase with smaller baits size (10mm, 12mm, and 14mm). Although this problem can be overcome, to a point, by dropping the size and gauge of your hook, even this results in the baits sinking after a matter of 4-5 hours.

I was becoming increasingly fed-up by the exaggerated claims made by the manufacturers of pop-up baits. Surely they must thoroughly test the buoyancy of their pop-ups as it is a fundamental aspect to successful carp fishing? However, I was completely stumped in not being able to find any available product that successfully addressed the sustained buoyancy I was after. This lead me to think that I had no choice but to make my own pop-up baits!

Initial experiments began by soaking cork balls (some prior-painted) in various soaking solutions. Cork balls had the buoyancy I wanted. But after being immersed in lake water for less than 24 hours resulted in their becoming “washed-out”, plus they had taken on lake water which meant they would need to be dried out before re-soaking. This was not feasible so I began moulding proprietary pop-up mixes around cork balls in an effort to make them as buoyant and long lasting as the mix manufacturer claimed. Methodically, I adjusted base mix amounts and managed to achieve a buoyant, long lasting pop-up. However, it was the need to re-produce this for smaller pop-up baits which led me to a radical solution for gaining optimum and prolonged buoyancy.

I knew that these two factors depended on the constituent ingredients of the mix. My extensive research in to the base materials, lead me to contact specialist international suppliers. It has involved trialling many different components, experimentation, trial and error eventually leading to a consistently successful mix which, of course, was a bespoke creation to match my very own requirements and high standards.

A one-egg mix of this produced more pop-ups than I could use so I started giving away the surplus pop-ups to my angling friends. The feedback I was getting was so positive that I decided to formulate three different buoyancy base mixes to produce a range of 11mm, 13mm and 15mm pop-ups. The principle behind having different buoyancy base mixes is simple physics…the smaller the bait the more buoyant the mix has to be as there is less mass to hold up the hook.

Now I primarily designed the pop ups to be used with to-days modern rigs.

A single 11 miller will hold up a size 6 long shank hook in excess of seven days.

A single 13 miller will hold up a size 6 long shank hook complete with a sliding micro swivel mounted on the hook shank in excess of seven days.

A single 15 miller performed to the same standards set by the 13 miller.

For all you chod rig users out there "Your Prayers have now been Answered"
 

If you are still unsure what these pop ups are capable of, all I can say is everybody I have spoken has been amazed at the performance of these baits when compared to others they have used, and some say they could not use the rigs they use today if Proper Job Pop Ups did not exist.

But what’s more important than anything that has been printed so far is: THEY CATCH A FISH OR TWO AS WELL.