As an angling writer, I’m always thinking of ideas for worthy subject matter in order to try and offer advice and assistance that will hopefully enable people to get more out of their fishing. Yet, even so, you sometimes overlook the obvious!
I was fishing last week when a new member to one of our syndicates popped down to say hello. I was setting up as he was talking to me, and he was watching what I was doing with a keen interest whilst setting up. I just went about things in my normal manner and, when I added my glugged topper to my hookbait, you could see it took him by surprise – especially when the smell hit him! Turns out he’s not seen imitation baits used in this way before, and so, from my perspective, it was immediately ‘banked’ for a tips feature the following week.
Like many anglers I’ve long been aware of the benefits of using glugs and dips in my fishing. However, properly glugged boilie hookbaits can be a real pain to use effectively. I never liked to use glugged baits all the time, so would need to have glugged and normal variants; and, as I may use a 2% cork bottom bait, a pop up, or a wafter, it meant having to take six different lots with me each time – way too much like hard work. In addition, the glugged baits were often a messy affair to deal with when baiting up. Invariably, once you’d drilled your hookbait, mounted it on the hair and added a bait stop, you’d end up with as much glug on you as your hookbait!
As my bank time switched more and more to quick sessions, it became even harder to keep on top of making sure I had enough baits of each type glugged for each session and so it got to the point where I ditched them all and just went with standard baits. At around the same time, I was trialling the use of a topper on my hookbaits (using a piece of artificial corn mounted above the hookbait). I’d used them here and there in certain situations and, whilst fishing a certain water, it seemed the more I used them, the more I caught.
The spots I was fishing were in clear water about 2.5 feet deep. The bites seemed to come once it was properly light, so I tried using a fluoro pink piece of artificial corn on top of my standard dulled- pink hookbait, just so it could be picked out a bit easier in lower level light. The results were pretty immediate, and instead of the bites coming from 6am onwards, I started picking up bites as soon as the sun started to come up at around 4.30am just as the sun started to rise.
Whilst trying to perfect the approach, I suddenly thought about the benefits of glugging the artificial baits rather than the hookbaits themselves. This seemed to be the final tweak that turned it on, and all of a sudden I was going from having one fish in a short 3am-8am session to having two or three; whilst those around me were averaging one fish in a 24 hour session! I tried using the same approach on other waters and results improved here too and, to be honest, I’ve been using glugged fake bait toppers on my boilie hookbaits ever since.
For years I’ve had all kinds of artificial baits permanently glugged, both in floating and sinking form. Many of them have been in there for years now, end even when fished for a full session, they come in humming just as much as when they went out. And the beauty is, as soon as you pack up, you just drop the fake bait back in the tub and its job done – the bait pickles away in your tackle bag ’til the next time you are out – no hassle adding fresh baits all the time.
I use a liquid dip rather than a gunky glug, so again there’s zero mess. To make things even easier, I’ve now moved over to the Avid Corn Stops which have a built in bait stop, so there is even less hassle. I just hook one out of the glug with a baiting needle, add to the hookbait and out it goes – perfect every single time and no mess! By having a mixture of floating and sinking Corn Stops, whatever boilie hookbait I’m using, I can always get a perfectly balanced presentation.
If you like glugging baits but are tired of the mess, it could be worth a try, it certainly made a big difference on a lot of waters I fish bringing a lot more ‘first light’ fish to the bank.
Useful link;
Avid Corn Stops on eBay – CLICK HERE
Julian Grattidge
March 2013
