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When i first started out carp fishing i met a bloke on a lake i fished in the Colne valley. If I recall, it was before the hi viz hookbaits were all the rage was about but they were starting to appear more and more in the shops. Anyway, this bloke was a margin fisher, made his own bait but all in pellet shape. His hookbait though was always a hi viz pellet so he could see it better in the margin. He'd catch a few fish but he saw that the hi viz hookbait would be ignored mostly when one or two carp were on his spot but readily taken when 3 or more were feeding. I think most would agree that carp are easier to catch when they are competing with each other. He wanted to catch though when they weren't competing. One day i watched him bait a spot with his homemade pellet and slip in a hi viz one as well, the difference being the hi viz one was a freebie and his hookbait was a match the hatch (clever angling I thought to myself). His catch rate more or less trebled by making that change. When he couldn't get a margin swim he'd fish pva bags in open water and fill the bag with his pellet and one "decoy " hi viz pellet and he caught plenty. On a side note, I read in this thread about yellows for commons. Well, I nearly always fished yellows as my hi viz hookbait and nearly always caught mirrors.

Made a couple of 1 egg mixes with the AA Baits super buoyant fishmeal pop up mix, my sausage gun was perfect the last couple of times but I think this mix just expanded a bit more, so the sausages came out a bit big and I ended up with some pillows and odd shapes, but never mind flavour wise they are pretty banging one is scopex, black pepper and bergamot and the orange ones are banana scopex, black pepper and bergamot. They are very buoyant though, and one is holding up my rig nicely next time I will make some matching wafters and I'll have made enough hookbaits to last a life time.

Hi, Is a size 4 Korda Choddy hook on a hinge rig too big for a 14mm pop up? There's no issues with the pop ups I'd like to use, they're super buoyant. I've previously fished this rig with a 16mm hook baits so using these 14mm ers makes the hook looks a bit too big! Am I overthinking this and the set up I intend to use is good to whack out in the pond? Thanks

" On a side note, I read in this thread about yellows for commons. Well, I nearly always fished yellows as my hi viz hookbait and nearly always caught mirrors. " Well that's blown that theory then , emmcee , Just don't tell Kev. as he's after a big Common ! . 😁

Over thinking imo. Crack on. Personally prefer bigger baits but I have used PJPU 13mm with size 4s in the past and caught, on a fairly tricky water too.