Soluble pop-ups in-depth

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As floating baits are lighter than water, they possess distinct physical properties that classify them as a unique category of bait with a special presentation. The fish’s attention towards the bait, and thus the likelihood of getting a bite, depends on numerous physical and chemical factors, any of which can play a decisive role in the moment. The color, size, and presentation of the bait are all significant factors. Equally important is the chemical signal emitted by the bait into the surrounding water, as fish analyze the water’s chemical composition to detect certain substances, even in minute concentrations.

When fish approach the bait and attempt to consume it, the success of the capture relies on how the bait is presented. Carp, lacking hands or utensils, create a vacuum effect with their mouths to draw in food. At this point, the weight of the bait in relation to the water becomes critical. Lighter baits are more easily engulfed by the fish, which is why floating baits have an advantage over sinking ones.

Carp actively forage by “hoovering” the bottom, scooping up everything in their path and spitting out the inedible items. Selectively targeting a specific bait, no matter how exceptional it may be, is challenging for them. However, a light floating bait has a higher chance of being taken alongside the groundbait (or their natural food) as the carp sifts through it. Thus, floating baits prove more effective in certain situations, particularly when fishing in muddy areas where sinking baits may get buried, while floating baits remain visible.

Among the selection of floating baits used by carp anglers are pop-ups, foam baits, silicone imitations of plants and animals, and sometimes even regular foam balls. What sets pop-ups apart is their ability to incorporate attractants, effectively capturing the attention of the fish. This achievement is not without its challenges, as attractants can negatively impact the physical properties of the pop-up boilie mix, making it more difficult to shape the baits. The elasticity and mechanical strength of the final bait are significantly affected. Nevertheless, through extensive experimentation, we have successfully included all the effective attractants into our amino pop-ups, which have proven their efficacy in our sinking bait boilies.

In essence, a floating boilie is a container that can either be empty or filled to the brim with attractants. Whether it ends up empty or full depends on the desire, knowledge, and capabilities of the manufacturer.

There are different approaches to creating a floating boilie. One can roll a hollow ball and then soak it, or add a hint of flavor to the mix before dipping the finished boilies. Another method involves adding all the necessary attractants directly into the dough. The latter approach yields the best results, as the boilie will consistently and evenly release the attractants contained within it into the water. However, this particular technique is also the most challenging for the manufacturer. In our pursuit of producing baits that effectively catch the attention of fish, we spent several years conducting experiments. These experiments allowed us to incorporate all desired attractants into our amino pop-ups during the boilie dough mixing process.

The color of the floating bait can also play a significant role. Some anglers firmly believe that in relatively murky freshwater environments, especially at great depths where daylight penetration is limited, baits of any color will appear gray. While this may be true for humans, scientists assert that carp, which are accustomed to living and feeding in low-light conditions, retain color vision even in such challenging circumstances. It’s important to understand that our sensory organs and those of carp differ, leading to different perceptions of scent, taste, and color of the bait. Therefore, attempting to assess the effectiveness of a boilie by smelling or tasting it is not a very promising endeavor. Furthermore, many substances that attract carp do not possess discernible taste or scent to us.

In the realm of carp nutrition, devising something truly innovative can be quite challenging. Nonetheless, breakthroughs occasionally occur, resulting in the introduction of new types of bait or novel tactics that grant significant advantages to those who employ them, be it professional anglers or ordinary fishermen. Seasoned carp anglers still vividly remember the sensation caused by the advent of soluble boilies and how teams exclusively using them triumphed in fishing tournaments. Every manufacturer aspires to include in their product range items that outperform their competitors and cannot be replicated by anyone else for a considerable period. In our product lineup, long-dissolving boilies stand among such esteemed offerings, and we take pride in them.

After completing extensive work and commencing the mass production of amino pop-ups, we consistently contemplated how to make them even more effective and capture the fish’s attention more rapidly. This led to the concept of producing soluble pop-ups.

We understood that creating such baits was a challenging task. After the aforementioned craze for soluble boilies, the market quickly filled with them because there was no need to come up with anything new. It was enough to replace eggs with soluble binders (such as corn syrup, invert syrup, or molasses) during the dough preparation, abandon the boiling process, and simply dry the rolled boilies. There was no special need to develop specific base mixes since most of the base mixes used for producing traditional boiled boilies worked well with soluble binders. However, the same approach didn’t work with soluble pop-ups.

During our many years of work on creating our amino pop-ups, we acquired and tested almost all the pop-up mixes available on the global market. It is difficult to even count how many mixes we experimented with. After deciding to develop soluble amino pop-ups, we tested all these mixes and found that none of them rolled properly using the binders traditionally used for making sinking soluble boilies. By the way, different mixes for pop-ups vary greatly in the technological properties of the resulting dough and the physical properties of the boilies rolled from that dough. After extensive experimentation, we settled on two top-quality mixes from English production for manufacturing our amino pop-ups. Unfortunately, even these mixes didn’t work for making soluble pop-ups using the traditional technique. We had to invest a considerable amount of effort and time into developing formulas, recipes, and production techniques for soluble amino pop-ups. In the production of floating boilies, the technological nature of the initial dough is extremely important because even a slight deviation in the final size of the boilie significantly affects its buoyancy, which should be as stable as possible (at least within one container).

It’s not easy to even understand what needs to be achieved in the end. For example, on a seemingly simple question of how quickly a floating boilie should dissolve, the answer is not so straightforward. On one hand, the faster a boilie dissolves, the quicker it can attract fish. On the other hand, excessively rapid dissolution of the pop-up can disrupt the desired presentation of the bait. The technologies we employ allow us to adjust the dissolution rate of floating boilies within a fairly wide range. Through practical testing of our amino pop-ups, we have chosen the optimal dissolution speed that increases bite intensity while avoiding the need for frequent recasts.

Before starting the process of creating and refining new baits, we purchased and tested all the claimed soluble floating attachments we could find on the market. The results of these tests revealed that none of these attachments dissolved (or, as carp anglers commonly say, “dusted”) as we desired, similar to how sinking soluble boilies dissolve. Firstly, all the tested attachments dissolved very slowly, at least several hours, which, in our view, was too long for quickly grabbing the fish’s attention. Secondly, the attachments did not completely dissolve in water; they merely softened but did not “dust.” In other words, they behaved more like pellets than soluble boilies. Our goal was to achieve the effect of our floating boilies gradually and evenly diminishing in size, “melting” in the water. We needed the boilies to constantly release a large number of small particles carrying attractants trapped inside, quickly spreading these substances around the bait. The majority of these particles released from our soluble amino pop-ups float, while a small portion sinks and remains near the bait on the bottom. Additionally, our boilies are very vibrant, so the particles released from them are also brightly colored. Thus, a brightly colored and attractant-rich cloud forms around the bait, capable of quickly attracting fish. Furthermore, it was essential for our soluble amino pop-ups, the Grandcarp attachments, to start dissolving immediately upon entering the water.

After numerous experiments and practical tests, our soluble amino pop-ups were born—a unique attachment that had not been released by any known manufacturer until now.

Soluble amino pop-ups are highly effective attachments for fast-paced fishing, as achieving success without them is challenging, especially in rapid-fire flat-feeder tournaments. Even in everyday life, fishing has become so time-constrained that there isn’t as much free time for leisurely angling as we would like. Yet, even during short fishing sessions, we still want to have some action with fish. This is where soluble amino pop-ups can come to the rescue.

Soluble pop-ups work excellently when fishing in deep water using the zig rig setup, both as a standalone attachment and in combination with floating foam. Soluble pop-ups (just like regular ones) can be used as a supplement to sinking boilies or pellet hook baits.

While the dissolution speed of sinking soluble boilies is not significantly affected by drying time (the degree of drying), it is quite different for soluble pop-ups. The more they dry, the longer they take to dissolve, but at the same time, their effectiveness (the “dusting” effect) decreases. At the moment, we have found a favorable compromise, from our perspective, between the duration and intensity of boilie dissolution. However, if you want to increase the dissolution time of our amino pop-ups, simply allow them to dry further at room temperature.

When you open a jar of our soluble amino pop-ups, you may not immediately detect a strong aroma like you do with other boilies or fake synthetic balls dipped in an aroma. This is not because we’ve skimped on the flavoring; it’s simply because of the technologies we employ. The outer surface of the boilies, which are still in the jar and have not yet been in the water, is “sealed,” preventing the aroma from escaping. However, once the soluble pop-up comes into contact with water, its surface instantly “opens up,” and the boilie starts emitting a very strong scent. So, don’t be disappointed if you don’t smell much when you sniff the jar in the store; it will be entirely different in the water. Just break open one boilie, and you’ll see that its scent is intact.

Some anglers may have concerns that as the boilie dissolves, the presentation of the bait will deteriorate. In reality, with a well-balanced rig setup, the desired presentation can be maintained for a sufficient period (remember, we’re primarily talking about speed fishing, which involves frequent recasting). The buoyancy of our soluble amino pop-ups is quite high – they can lift a hook weighing 0.18±0.02 g to the water’s surface. Even as they decrease in size, our boilies can still keep the hook in the desired position. Therefore, you can rest assured that the presentation will remain intact for at least an hour, and complete dissolution of the boilie occurs in approximately two hours (in a water container at a temperature of 20°C/70°F).

In conclusion, if you’re looking for bait that can attract fish with its color, scent, attractant release, vibrant cloud, and presentation all at once, we highly recommend our soluble amino pop-ups.