The best pop-up hookbaits for carp fishing

Special by name and special by nature, a cult classic that transformed attitudes towards using small, bright and fruity hookbaits.

When you open the tub, you will be met by a burst of citrus and sweet, fruity aromas that you can’t quite identify but will have you coming back time and time again to smell, they really are that good. 

With lots of different flavours in the bait that all leak out at different rates, the bait will continue to pump out attraction long after it’s been cast out. Don’t be surprised to reel it in, in the morning and it still smells the same. CC Moore steam their hookbaits to lock in the flavours and colours, meaning you have no loss of attraction, you also get a liquid booster to compliment the baits. 

Available in lots of colours (including black), sizes and flavours, even down to 8mm in size, there will be something in the range to suit every angler and situation.

If you’re looking for a pop-up that you don’t need to worry about losing buoyancy, then you will be hard pushed to find a more buoyant choice than Proper Job Pop-ups. These baits are hand rolled and all built on the same mix regardless of flavour, colour or shape and will remain popped-up for well over 48 hours.

Available in a wide range of colours and sizes, from 11mm to 15mm , the flavour choice is almost endless. You can even buy unflavoured pop-ups that you can personalise how you want, something we haven’t seen before. 

The baits are all perfectly uniform and perform the same, so once your rig is balanced, you can just change the baits without having to manipulate the rig each time. They also cut well without tearing, great if you want to change the shape or combine them with other baits.

What started as a secret bait soon became available to the masses in the form of Sticky Baits Signature Pop-ups, after how devastating they were in testing. Sticky based the attractor package on a changing of the pH of the water surrounding the hookbait, and whilst it may sound scientific, it is just another way carp find their food naturally.

A combination of ten liquids and two powdered palatants create a bait with a wonderful, fruity, almost sour aroma that carp, especially in the cooler months, find very hard to resist. Each bait is then given a coating of a unique amino acid blend after cooking to give it a final boost.

The baits are sold in pots with three colours, a washed out pink, yellow and white, to give you options on the bank and save you buying the three separately.

A new range of pop-ups from the Mainline stable, Mainline Clones were produced for fishing over particle baits. The flavours, size and colours all match popular particle fishing baits, that are generally too soft to fish effectively on a hair. 

Flavours available are 'Hemp' in a black and white colour, 'Maple' in a dark brown, 'Sweetcorn' in a yellow and 'Tiger nut' in a beige. Mainline have identified a problem, and looking at the colours and flavours available, have created a durable hookbait that will fish over your favourite particles perfectly, without worrying about them falling off or being too blatant. 

They smell incredibly similar to the particles themselves but boast a lot of extra attraction to get you a bite quicker, even over lots of small particles. They are available in 13mm and can be trimmed down if required but will remain very buoyant.

Easily the most recognisable smelling pop-ups on the market. Baitworks Scent From Hell pop-ups come with a warning and for good reason…they absolutely stink! You can’t miss them, the postman can’t miss them and the carp certainly can’t miss them. The smell is actually attractive to carp and the baits are as well known for their success as they are their smell.

Tank tested by none other than Simon Scott, these pop-ups were in the trial period for 5 years before being released, to make sure they were as good as they could possibly be. A blend of savoury compounds such as monster crab, essential oils and other feeding triggers mean there is no pop-up like it for pumping out attraction into the lake. 

The baits, being so pungent, are particularly useful when fishing very silty lakes that can often penetrate a bait and make them smell putrid, the Scent From Hell is simply too strong for that to happen. Great as a single hookbait or when looking for quick bites over large beds of bait. If you prefer a sweeter bait, there is a Scent From Heaven too.

The brainchild of Carp Team England manager Rob Hughes, these pop-ups have been specifically designed based on what has been examined by delving underwater.

The baits come in specific colours and have been created to fish in certain depths and water clarities. The tubs will confirm via their colour wheel, which is the most suitable choice for the venue you are fishing. Red is considered best for fishing in poor clarity and clay lined bottoms for example. 

The baits are blended with fruity esters and essential oils to create a lovely sweet bait and they are available in 12mm and 15mm sizes - perfect for most modern rig presentations. Also included is an additional booster liquid, should you feel the need for a more attractive hookbait.

If you want a pop-up that doesn’t come with loads of confusing ingredients and will catch fish, the Nash Instant Action pop-ups are well worth a second look. 

Based on Kevin Nash's and Gary Bayes' flavour combinations, these pop-ups have been catching carp for 20 years or more now. Available in 10mm, 12mm, 15mm and 18mm and in lots of classic flavours, these are sure to continue to put fish on the bank for many years to come. 

Designed to be high attract and easy to use, they are ideal for beginners or anyone who just needs a simple pop-up that works.

With a square profile instead of the classic round shape, there is nothing else like the Mainline Quads on the market and we are sure the fish haven’t come across anything like them either. 

Small in shape at around 10mm, the tubs include three colours, white, pink and yellow. There are a variety of flavours available to match the Mainline boilie ranges: The Link, Cell and Essential Cell. They can be used as "toppers" to compliment a boilie hookbait or just to add an unusual shaped visual aid in a snowman presentation. 

The square shape also lends itself to zig fishing or fishing over particles, when the fish can be very cautious with their feeding. It is claimed, that due to the shape, the bait is harder for the fish to eject, meaning far more takes. If you’re looking for an edge by fishing with something completely different, the Quads are well worth picking up.

Designed to replicate The Krill boilies once they have been submerged for 24 hours, these Sticky Baits The Krill pop-ups are the ultimate "match the hatch" hookbait and will not raise any suspicion amongst feeding carp. 

Created on the same base mix as the boilies and with high inclusion rates of the liquids and birdfoods, this is basically a floating food bait, not just a pop-up mix with attractors in it. Designed to be very buoyant and needle friendly, they are easy to use and will keep your rigs positioned exactly as you meant for them to be.

This is a fantastic pop-up to use when fishing over spreads of boilies. On venues where the fish have been caught a lot on bright baits, the higher levels of attractors and discreet colour draws the fish towards the hookbait resulting in quicker bites. They are available in pink and white if you still prefer a bright option.

The Nash Scopex Squid Cultured Pop-ups are basically a floating boilie, rather than a pop-up mix with enhancers added, it is packed full of natural attractors and foodstuffs that carp are known to love. 

These pop-ups are layered with the unique living Nashbait Culture, infused with the infamous Scopex Squid attractors. This paste layer totally encompasses the bait, slowly breaking down over the period of a few hours. The breakdown releases a feeding trigger rich in amino acids and minerals that heightens the attraction around the hook, emulating the natural feed triggers a carp is searching for rather than artificial flavourings.

Once the culture has broken down, the pop-up left behind will still be perfectly balanced thanks to some clever tweaking of the mix by Nash. So you needn’t worry about the hookbait no longer holding up the rig, or the rig lifting off the bottom.

Pop up sizes: 15mm, 18mm 20mm and 24mm