Matching your pellet to your hook.

[Dave Burr]

The amount of fishmeal going into pellets now is a lot less than it was just a few years ago. As an example, Salmon Elips pellets (correct spelling by the way. They are elliptical to make them sink slower allowing caged salmon to catch more on the way down thus reducing wastage and pollution), used to contain about 38% fish oil and were a brilliant bait but.... During the winter the fish could not digest them and it caused intestinal blockage.

I digress. This oil content has drastically dropped and the pellets are far less effective but much more eco-friendly. The reason for the drop has largely been due to the rise in cost of the fish oil but the farmed fish are still putting on weight I presume.

As for vegetable oil pellets. If they ever become available I shall certainly use them but the early attempts to make a commercially viable one have proved very expensive and that, unfortunately, does not compute in the farming/fishing world.

Nowadays I tend to feed lightly and avoid throwing too much protein at fish as they just don't need that much food per day. Keep 'em hungry and catchable. If you don't feel comfortable using pellets then don't, if you do then do so responsibly.

[Santiago]

My thoughts exactly. Well put Dave.

[Santiago]

The real irony is, is that some anglers that scorn their use are happy to catch carp and trout that are reared on them before being stocked into waters that they fish. For example, stocking 200 trout at 1 kg each if we estimate 5 Kg pellets is needed to produce a 1 kg fish, constitutes the use of 1 ton of pellets. I don't know the real number, but I think this estimate is not far wrong! But it means for every fly caught stocked 1 kg trout, by proxy, the angler has used 5 kg of pellets! Actual figure is 4 kg fish protein is needed to produce 1 kg of trout! http://www.trout-salmon-fishing.com/stocking.htm

But I do in essence, agree with your sentiments, not that I think pellets are high-tech, but that they should be used sparingly and with thought for the environment. To me they represent only a small part of bait used along with more traditional bait; some anglers do however, over use pellets to the extreem, so I think we can agree that this practice is unwarranted.

And thank you to the moderators for allowing us to discuss this issue on the forum!

[Dave Burr]

Well said Santiago and, as was mentioned earlier, even humble sweetcorn when over used, can be a problem as it rots on the bottom. It is a very difficult food for fish to digest and should be used with care just like any bait. Unfortunately bait companies and Korda videos (especially), try to show that anything less than a bath tub of bait is not enough to lure a fish. Commerce over fish care.

Anyway, nuff said - I'm off to physio.

[Nobby]

I think the right approach is to choose the appropriate hook for the fish you hope to catch ( and that's rather based on what you know to be there rather than what you hope is there, I guess) and then match the size of pellet to the hook you've chosen.

I always have some commercially made pellets with me as well as some I have soaked and flavoured myself. Most fish we seek are stocked fish ( stillwaters at least ) and they know pellets well of course, and they trust them.

On Saturday I couldn't get a bite on anything but the commercial pellets....good job I took them!


Certain things always seem to work at one time or another..sweetcorn, prawn and bread. Maggot and worm of course, but pellets can be funny it's true. I once became quite convinced that a popular pellet called The Source killed the fishing stone dead. The Source pellet was quite different to The Source groundbait as well, I recall.

If you find the fish aren't playing a switch to pellets might do some good........there's a nice soft pellet called Jellets, but sadly they've stopped their Garlic flavour 4mm pellets which were ruddy useful.

If you were to buy a tub of 4mm and 6mm pellets they'll keep the whole season and I'd certainly recommend the F1 and Krill flavour from Sonubait for carp, tench and crucians. They shouldn't be more than £3 a tub. They need sliding on to the hook very gently, especially in the thicker hook sizes...in fact the 4mm Krill ones I just used were a bit prone to splitting as I put them on the hook...at £3 a tub they really should be perfect.

[SeanM]

Some interesting thoughts in this thread. Whilst I accept that some of us will have reservations about using pellets it must be said that they are a very useful addition to our armoury. All fish will take pellets and most will actively seek out fish meal and will often travel quite a way to find it.

When stalking clear water barbel I've noticed that they will be drawn from a long way downstream if pellets are introduced into a swim. You don't need to introduce many pellets to stimulate a feeding response so I often bulk out my feed with other stuff. On rivers and if I'm fishing with a feeder I use Vitalin, about 3 to 1 by volume with the pellets. On still waters you might try a cereal-based groundbait with a few pellets mixed in with it.

As Nobby says there are some good and some bad soft hookers (ooer!) about. Dynamite Baits Hook and Feed are good as are Ringers hooker pellets. Many are designed for use on the pole and they they won't stand casting when float fishing so you have to experiment a bit to find the best bait for you. I find that a tub of the Ringers soft hook pellets at about £3.99 will last me a whole season for hook baits so they aren't expensive. Soft hook pellets work really well when trotting for chub and I often have to wade through nuisance barbel to get at the chub.

I very rarely use soft pellets when ledgering and prefer to band a pellet on to the hair or the hook. Drilled pellets work well on the hair, but they break down a lot faster than the standard pellets because the drilled hole lets water into the centre of the pellet.

[Nobby]

I think possibly you're thinking of pellets high in 'halibut' oil, Firebird? There's some thought that these oils...another is 'dog' oil...are indigestible to fish, particularly in the summer months, and that uneaten ones can build up in the water system.

My main concern with those that aren't swimming in oil is just what preservatives might be in them?...if they keep for months on end it must be pretty powerful ones. The ones I make myself go mouldy in about 5 days even in a sealed tub.

[Dave Burr]

Your view on stocking is interesting Firebird. It would indeed be interesting to leave waters to stock themselves but our waterways have been interfered with for many, many years. I was surprised, when talking to water authority workers in Somerset years ago, just how many fish they moved about and how frequently they did it. I would assume that there were good reasons but I was a tad upset when they farmed the pool I'd obtained permission to fish and removed all the good tench.

There is also the matter of replacing stocks damaged by pollution, nature would take a long old time to bring a river back to its prime and the demand on fisheries is such that the EA step in.

Look back to the early days of fishing and anglers moved fish about with alacrity and Dick Walker wasn't shy about stocking a few pools near him. Its just something that has gone on for eons and there can be very few 'natural' stockings in the UK unless you look at upland trout streams.

I must add that the fish that pellets are not necessarily those fed them in their early years. Wild fish (I have targeted Wye barbel for years) will 'learn' that pellets are a viable food source very quickly maybe only taking a few days to acquire the taste. Once they have discovered the benefits of eating them they quickly become almost addicted. I have seen fish move from cover to find pellets merely by hearing them hit the water such is the allure.

In answer to Nobby. Fish meal Pellets do go off but the signs are difficult for us to detect other than keeping an eye on how long you've had them as they do not smell bad or mould due mainly to the oil content. It is difficult to throw away kilo's of bait you suspect as being off so most will continue to use them.

[Santiago]

The more oily ones also go rancid after a few months if they are not sealed from air (oxygen) which is akin to the oils drying like varnish. Once rancid these oils may well be harmful to the fish that eat them and to the environment! So it's best practice with these oily pellets to seal the packets and to throw in the bin if not used in a season.

However, used sparingly they have very little environmental impact. And most fish meal producing fisheries these days are well managed and sustainable, and if one researches the Internet one can find this information.

Even so, my son has just completed his Marine Biology unit at university and covered this in great depth so I will ask him all about the fish meal industry when I see him tomorrow, and I will report back!

[Santiago]

Thanks Firebird, I too am looking forward to discussing this with him. And it's a pleasure to debate this with you in a gentlemanly way!