With the different range of hook-baits available to the model day angler, there are many hook-baits which are more suited to different fishing situations. For an example, the amount of nuisance species in a lake can often result in a choice of a bigger hookbait.

Sinking Hookbaits

Sinking hook-baits are one the most ideal hook-baits for when you are fishing a hard area with no silt or weed, the lack of bouyancy means that the hook-bait will feel similar to a boilie when boilie fishing.

There is a range of sinking hookbaits to choose from being hard-hook baits, boilies, artificial baits, maggots and many more.

Boilies

You can use a standard boilie as a hookbait, however before doing so there are some factors to consider. The longer a boilie is in the water for, the softer it will become, if you are leaving your rods in the water for a longer period of time then be wary that the boilie will become soft. This meaning that smaller fish can easily peck away at the boilie which could result in a lack-of hook bait when you reel your rods in. For this reason, if you are fishing a lake with cray-fish present, then it is recommendable to use a hard hook-bait.

If you are casting in excess of 70 yards, you should be wary that some softer boilies may fall off the hair on the cast (depending on the technique of the cast), for this reason, a harder hookbait may be more suited for this situation.

Hard Hookbaits

Hard hookbaits are idea when fishing lakes with nuisance species, diving birds and cray fish. The hardness of the hook-bait means that the hook-bait is more durable in the water, in the sense that it takes longer for the hook-bait to go soft when in the water. For this reason, it is harder for nuisance species to peck-away at the hook-bait as well as being able to withstand more attention from cray-fish.

If fishing extreme distances, hard hookbaits will stay on the hair on the cast as they are less likely to spilt on the hair, meaning that when fishing with these you can always be confident that your hookbait is always attached to your hair.

Artificial Corn

Artificial corn can be a massive edge in modern carp fishing, either using a single bait on the hair or in conjunction with an other hook bait it can have devastating effects. However like every hook bait, there is some factors to consider before using this.

Before casting out a single piece of artificial corn, always consider possible nuisance species in a lake. You don’t want to be ruining your chances for a carp by reeling in bream every five minutes because you decided to use fake corn as bait. In this situation you may want to use artificial corn in conjunction with another hookbait such as a hard hookbait. The bigger hook bait will mean that you won’t be pestered by nuisance species all the time.

If there is very little nuisance species in the lake, using sweetcorn as loose feed can be deadly for catching carp due to the sweetness of the bait. In this situation using artificial corn as a hookbait can turn a session into a red-letter day if you in a situation where sweetcorn won’t stay on the hair.

Wafters

They can be round like a boilie, or in a dumbell shape. Wafters are buoyant, but the weight of the hook makes the hook bait sink. This meaning that the lead will always land on the lakebed first, followed by the rig which can present where a normal bottom bait won’t. This also reduces the chance of hooking silt on the bottom due to the fact that the lead will land before the hook bait does.

As well as this. The added buoyancy can improve your hook hold, as when the carp sucks up the rig, the hook-bait will naturally move up into the carps mouth due to the hookbait having buoyancy.

Wafters are my go-to hookbait with solid bag fishing. The wafter will waft above the bag mix in the water completeing a perfect handful of food for a carp to come across.

You can create a wafter-like bait with a boillie and pop up which are the same size. Simply cut both in half and put them together and you've got yourself a semi bouyant hookbait! Just check how it sits in the margin and if your happy your good to cast!

Match-The-Hatch Pop-Ups

Match-the-hatch pop ups are best fished when using a matching boilie as feed. They don’t look as blatant as a fluro pop up and with this in factor, the match the hatch style pop up can trick up more weary carp in some waters.

These pop ups can be a perfect bait for surface fishing as well however, for an example, the Sticky Baits manilla pop ups are a very similar colour to dog biscuits. When the fish are feeding confidently on dog biscuits then a brown pop-up can be a deadly hook bait for surface fishing.

Fluro Pop-Ups

Fluro Pop Ups can be a deadly edge in carp fishing, ranging with unique colours and flavours to any other bait, having some fluro pop ups in your bait bucket can change a blank to a bite.

Fluro pop-ups come in a range of colours and flavours, many of which carp don’t see every day, this can trick carp up through a carps inquisitiveness as the only way they can investigate these pop ups is with their mouth, meaning that these pop ups can be a game changer when fishing.

Snowman Presentation

This presentation of bait is perfect if the lake has a high stock of tench / bream. The bigger bait reduces the amount of bream and tench.

12 mm pop-ups are perfect to use for a snowman presentation with a 15mm boilie or larger. I'm currently using a snowman presentation a lot with my fishing (due to nusience fish) and I've found a 12mm pop-up and 15mm bollie is perfect, just wittle down one side of each so theres a flat surface for the baits to sit on each other for the best presentation.

Tiger Nuts

Tiger nuts are perfect if there are Cray fish in the lake. As they are less soft than bollies, they can withstand the attention from Cray Fish a lot more and they also seem to get a lot less attention from nusiance speices like crayfish. As well as this, tigers are a deadly hookbait especially when used with a liquid additive. These are the pefet hookbait when fishing with a bit of hemp and crushed tigers!