By Roy Van Goor

Early season is often a good time for margin fishing. As the water temperature rises the fish will start to patrol in the shallower water… and often that means the margins get visited.
To trick the carp in these situations I often use a critically balanced hookbait and the best way to do this is by using a pop-up that’s presented just above the baited area. I create mine a little differently to most… instead of putting the counterweight on the hooklink I prefer to place it on the hair itself.

To do this I put a little bit of lead tight against the bait on the hair. In my experience around 0.3g of lead will balance a 15mm pop-up.

Presenting your bait this way gives several advantages;

1) the bait won’t be touching the bottom, so the smell of the bottom won’t penetrate into the bait
2) it will stick out above the rest of the free offerings, making it easier for the carp to spot it.
3) most importantly the whole presentation is practically weightless making it very hard for carp to feel the danger.

Try it… and improve your catches!

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