#LockDownChallenge – Hookbait Day!

Season 2 of the South African LockDown has officially started today!

If all went according to plan, we would have been back to a fairly normal routine by today. Season 2 of LockDown has now begun. Do you have any special plans to do at home, or with the family during the next phase of LockDown? We are still busy with a lot of Carpy things at home. The Task Hat still has many chores for us, even though some tasks are weather permitting; we cheated a bit and did a timely task that is a continuing task. Not just during LockDown, but during normal circumstances too.

The task at hand, Goo’ing popups. Let us call it, hookbait day!

Popups have become an obsession for Wors. He has been using mostly popups for a few months, trying to mix and match the best popup with the best Goo or glug at specific venues. This obsession resulted in stocking up on many brands, both local and international. Using popups as is or glugged, in a snowman presentation or single popup style. To my surprise, Wors is into incredibly good results with this silly plan of his (“silly” – says who? – Ed).

How do you go about selecting a popup and glug? Firstly, select your favourite popup and match it with an appropriate or complimenting glug or Goo. Have an empty container ready to use for the Goo’ing process. Bait pots with a removable inner basket are ideal for glugging and Goo’ing baits.

How do you go about this Goo’ing process, you may ask? It is very easy, yet when done right, it can be a potent hookbait! Simply pour a fair amount of your chosen glug or Goo over the popups. The popups should be coated completely and left for a couple of days to absorb the glug or Goo.

**Important rookie mistake! Do not let the popups lay in a soup of glug, this can compromise the buoyancy of the popups.  Less is more! A costly lesson we have learned over the years. Also, remember that brands differ in quality and buoyancy. Test all your baits on a rig in the sink or a bucket.

Give the pot a good shake twice a day to recoat the popups. Let the popups air dry outside every 2 days for a few minutes, give it a shake to coat again or re-glug if necessary.  If you do not have a hookbait pot with a removable basket, use less Goo over a longer time frame. Once again, less is more! You have two more weeks to give it a try!

The key to successful hookbait preparation, is time! The longer you soak the popups, let them dry and re-glug, the better the results.

A recent successful and favourite hookbait of Wors, is a Mainline popup paired with Iso-tonic Korda Goo. The success rate on this bait was so impressive, he also invested in the same range of boilies and wafters in the same recipe, all 3 giving massively good results thus far.

One flavour has always been a favourite of Wors, namely Sweetcorn. A versatile and very underrated flavour as feed and bait. Some say it attracts younger carp. In fact, we have had the best results on sweetcorn flavours when it comes to carp size! A while ago, Wors set out on a mission to find the best sweetcorn Carp baits in South Africa. Acquiring everything sweetcorn from glugs to boilies to popups, tigernuts and wafters. All locally manufactured. Local is lekker!

Although it is too early to determine the best sweetcorn baits in the land, there are 2 favourites so far. Stay tuned after the LockDown for the final verdict! It is only fair to give each brand a fighting chance!  Each brand has a very unique sweetcorn smell and taste…. yes we tasted them! Some take your breath away! Literally! Others make you want to eat it; others remind me of Big Corn Bites and others make me feel all fuzzy with contentment.

Keep your eyes peeled for more baits and feed secrets in the next week. We prepare some boilies, because, brace yourselves, Winter is coming!