Underwater Fishing Photography

[elmoputney]

5 hours ago, yonny said:

In my opinion you will absolutely increase your average weights by using pop ups. The higher you fish them off the deck, the higher your average weights will climb, and it's purely down to the mechanics of how fish of different sizes approach baits. If you whack a pop up 3 inches off the deck you'll hook fewer small carp as it just looks alien to them. Bigguns can't even tell as they're approaching from above due to their sheer size. Just my opinion of course.....

I have a mate that fished the same waters as me for 5 years. Great angler. His average, every year, was significantly smaller than mine, and he caught just as many fish if not more. Only difference is he fished bottom baits where I used pop ups. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.....

During my most focussed campaign after 1 particular fish, I increased the height of my pop up rigs significantly to avoid smaller fish. I landed 16 fish after that modification with an average of over 30 lb, and then the biggun. Normal average on this water was mid 20, my smallest fish was 25. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.....

You might sacrifice bites with big blatant pop ups but when the bite comes it's normally one that matters. My first piece of advice to anyone looking to target big fish would be to use blatant pop up rigs. You'll still catch smaller carp, and you'll still catch tench/bream, but imo frequency will be reduced.

Maybe next year I'll go higher than the old faithful spinner to get the job done, I definately agree though, I've held that view since I saw elliot grays rig on the korda underwater vids, when everyone thought it was being ignored and ripping him a new one  until it caught the biggun. 

My average fish size has also increased Infact looking back my average is way over 20lb in the last 3 years. And a lot less tench too which is always nice. 

 

[yonny]

1 hour ago, elmoputney said:

I've held that view since I saw elliot grays rig on the korda underwater vids, when everyone thought it was being ignored and ripping him a new one  until it caught the biggun. 

Great example 👍

[kevtaylor]

2 hours ago, yonny said:

Great example 👍

This is the one that comes straight to mind, it was proof beyond doubt - he showed them alright!

[emmcee]

10 hours ago, yonny said:

In my opinion you will absolutely increase your average weights by using pop ups. The higher you fish them off the deck, the higher your average weights will climb, and it's purely down to the mechanics of how fish of different sizes approach baits. If you whack a pop up 3 inches off the deck you'll hook fewer small carp as it just looks alien to them. Bigguns can't even tell as they're approaching from above due to their sheer size. Just my opinion of course.....

I have a mate that fished the same waters as me for 5 years. Great angler. His average, every year, was significantly smaller than mine, and he caught just as many fish if not more. Only difference is he fished bottom baits where I used pop ups. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.....

During my most focussed campaign after 1 particular fish, I increased the height of my pop up rigs significantly to avoid smaller fish. I landed 16 fish after that modification with an average of over 30 lb, and then the biggun. Normal average on this water was mid 20, my smallest fish was 25. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.....

You might sacrifice bites with big blatant pop ups but when the bite comes it's normally one that matters. My first piece of advice to anyone looking to target big fish would be to use blatant pop up rigs. You'll still catch smaller carp, and you'll still catch tench/bream, but imo frequency will be reduced.

Just reading through this thread and it got me thinking 🤔.  I'd say about 95% of my UK big fish captures (35lb plus) were on pop ups and they were nearly always different colours to my free bait.That being said, I fished nothing but pop ups for a very long time so if I hooked a lump then it would have been on a pop up. It was only in the last 4 or 5 years of my carp fishing that I started using wafters a lot. I'm pretty sure that most of my French fish were on wafters though. 

A mate on dinton once asked me "how come you catch a lot of bigguns?". I put it down to the spots I was fishing if I'm honest and a large slice of luck but this thread has maybe changed my mind on that as I virtually always fished pop ups, he was a snowman or bottom bait angler. 

Interesting for sure. 

[Golden Paws]

12 hours ago, yonny said:

In my opinion you will absolutely increase your average weights by using pop ups. The higher you fish them off the deck, the higher your average weights will climb, and it's purely down to the mechanics of how fish of different sizes approach baits. If you whack a pop up 3 inches off the deck you'll hook fewer small carp as it just looks alien to them. Bigguns can't even tell as they're approaching from above due to their sheer size. Just my opinion of course.....

That's certainly made me think! I have tried hinged stiff rigs and even Ronnies for a while but didn't really set the world on fire with them. I always test my rigs in an old ice cream tub before I cast them out to check that they behave as "natural" as possible.

Your analysis on the average size of fish using blatant pop-up's is really interesting. I remember reading a Dave Lane article where he forgot his rig putty and so cast his pop-up's out anyway and had a red letter session!

[yonny]

13 hours ago, emmcee said:

A mate on dinton once asked me "how come you catch a lot of bigguns?". I put it down to the spots I was fishing if I'm honest and a large slice of luck but this thread has maybe changed my mind on that as I virtually always fished pop ups, he was a snowman or bottom bait angler. 

Another great example 👍

[elmoputney]

I think I've already started using soft hinge rigs in my head now. Going to go longer and towards the sky with them, even with a hit and run  leadclip they should fish on most substrates bar thick weed. 

[crusian]

Hello Everyone .

While we are on the subject of High Pop Ups where are you measuring from please ? .

Some seem to measure from the hook eye to the balancing weight , whereas others take the measurement from the weight to the bottom of the pop up .  

Ta .

🤔

[yonny]

38 minutes ago, elmoputney said:

Going to go longer and towards the sky with them

Bear in mind it'll likely mean less bites..... if you have the time to wait for the ones that matter that's great. If not - you could be screwing yourself over.

22 minutes ago, crusian said:

where are you measuring from please ?

I don't measure, I just do it by eye. I guess I'm talking about the bottom of the pop up to the deck/substrate.

[elmoputney]

1 hour ago, yonny said:

Bear in mind it'll likely mean less bites..... if you have the time to wait for the ones that matter that's great. If not - you could be screwing yourself over.

I don't measure, I just do it by eye. I guess I'm talking about the bottom of the pop up to the deck/substrate.

If I get more of the good ones it will be a good decision though. I don't catch that many anyway lol. 

[OldBoy]

On 21/09/2025 at 07:36, Golden Paws said:

That's a whole new can of worms! Treat them like idiots and they will make a fool of you. Other times you can chuck out a Fag dogbut and they'll take it! Some lakes has a resident mug and yet other fish can go years without a visit to the bank. A lot can depend on the size of the lake and the stock. Sparsely populated lakes are by definition the hardest and the fish can choose what to eat and what to avoid. Heavily populated commercials are easier and chances are most of the natural food has been harvested and the fish are reliant on anglers baits and the fish are more likely to be tolerant to tackle and bank-side disturbance. 

Exactly what I was meaning to say.... Lets be honest, a Carp is just a fish and shouldn't be treated any more 'intelligent' than any other imo.

Fishing situations obviously make any fish more wary, unless in overstocked commercials I deff agree with, think the term is a 'carp soup' puddle? 😂

Not sure about your comment about sparsely populated lakes, deff hardest to locate fish and I for one can't be bothered anymore,, when located they would be 'relatively' easy to catch on any bait given an application of bait in that area?

[salokcinnodrog]

On 24/09/2025 at 12:50, elmoputney said:

My average fish size has also increased Infact looking back my average is way over 20lb in the last 3 years. And a lot less tench too which is always nice. 

I'm positive that my average is well over 20lb over the past 18years on the big fish waters. On Nazeing from 2008-2018 I can recall only 4 fish below 20lb; 3 high doubles from Brackens and a 10lb mirror from Central Lagoon. 

On Alton I did have a couple of doubles, both on snowman baits, a couple of 20's on pop-ups, one on a snowman and the rest of the 20's came on double 18mm bottom baits.

 

On 24/09/2025 at 18:16, emmcee said:

A mate on dinton once asked me "how come you catch a lot of bigguns?". I put it down to the spots I was fishing if I'm honest and a large slice of luck but this thread has maybe changed my mind on that as I virtually always fished pop ups, he was a snowman or bottom bait angler. 

I was catching a lot of fish from the syndicate until August and the personal problems.

The syndicate has seen 20's and 30's caught on trimmed down 12mm pop-ups, 15mm pop-ups,, snowman baits and 15mm bottom baits, over just boilies and over particles, with only 3 doubles I think.

8 hours ago, crusian said:

Hello Everyone .

While we are on the subject of High Pop Ups where are you measuring from please ? .

Some seem to measure from the hook eye to the balancing weight , whereas others take the measurement from the weight to the bottom of the pop up .  

Ta .

🤔

To me the base of the pop-up to the lakebed. Be aware though, that not every pop-up rig sits perfectly upright. The rig shown, I may need to trim down the pop-up, and with that balance weight, you need a buoyant bait to lift it to that angle.