New Hinders Elips.

[Joe Fletcher]

Not if they are on your hair Joe.....

John I was talking about loose fed pellets

 

[John Cook]

Yes i know Joe

 

[Richard Parsons]

Yes, I guess I received very little clarity - the response merely muddied already murky water (bit of a potential tongue-twister). I can only surmise that the chap who replied is confusing 'cylindrical' for 'eliptical'.

No, they wouldn't work end-to-end as the bait would be too wide and narrow, IMO.

Joe - yes, totally agree. The shape was what gave them the edge. Alas, no more.

 

[David Gauntlett]

I guess the point is that it's quick, cheap and easy to extrude endless sausages of the paste and chop them up to form cylindrical pellets...but a whole new ball game to produce elliptical pellets. No doubt that is why the one and only company that made that shape pellets is no more, the production costs would have made them non competitive. Add to that the rising cost of their particularly effective ingredients, and it's not too surprising that they had to call it a day. .

Sad, but most likely true.

Cheers, Dave.

 

[Derek Funcks]

I guess the point is that it's quick, cheap and easy to extrude endless sausages of the paste and chop them up to form cylindrical pellets...but a whole new ball game to produce elliptical pellets. No doubt that is why the one and only company that made that shape pellets is no more, the production costs would have made them non competitive. Add to that the rising cost of their particularly effective ingredients, and it's not too surprising that they had to call it a day. .

Sad, but most likely true.

Cheers, Dave.

Dave, why would it be so much more expensive ? Surely they would only have to squash/flatten the extruding nozzle. Hey Presto, elliptical pellets

 

[Anthony Pearson]

If indeed it was more than just squashing the nozzle, where did the machinery that produced the elips end up? After all, if they were the only manufacturers and stopped production, surely it would make sense to sell it to the highest bidder? Perhaps it's for sale on ebay?

 

[David Gauntlett]

Dave, why would it be so much more expensive ? Surely they would only have to squash/flatten the extruding nozzle. Hey Presto, elliptical pellets

Short answer Derek...I don't know. We have very few facts to work on, so obviously my thoughts were based on not a lot For what it's worth, my thoughts were...

(1) The company that failed was apparently the only one that produced elliptical pellets. Why? I assumed from that that producing such pellets was more expensive than producing the standard cylindrical shape....otherwise they would all be producing them.

(2) Even if only in angling terms, these pellets were in high demand...and yet the companies that successfully manufacture and market cylindrical pellets have not bothered to modify any of their existing equipment to fill that demand. Why? Again, one has to assume that producing these pellets is more problematical than a simple modification of existing equipment.

Having said that, it may be that the company that failed did so for entirely different reasons...who knows? Having given it more thought, I have to question why they chose to make a pellet of that shape to start with. It's no secret that virtually all of these pellets are manufactured for the fish farming industry. Many of the fish that are commercially farmed (salmon for instance) are surface to mid-water feeders. This means that they will naturally intercept their feed as it passes through the water column, and largely ignore the feed that reaches the bottom. So, it stands to reason that a slow sinking pellet will give the fish more time to intercept it, thereby making such a pellet more cost effective.

Perhaps the elliptical shape was that particular companies attempt at producing a slower sinking pellet, in that it would flutter down slightly, rather than the direct sink of a cylindrical version?

Perhaps the other companies took a simpler route to solving this problem...perhaps they merely adjusted the type of ingredients (added shrimp/krill meal for instance) to achieve the same result, which worked out to be more cost effective?

Again, who knows? All I do know is that for me, speculation of this type beats the hell out of bloody sudoku in keeping my ageing brain from completely vegetating from lack of use

Cheers, Dave.

 

[Derek Funcks]

Great answer Dave. If anyone can secretly P.M. me the original ingredients, i will start producing the elliptical pellets you all crave. Ive got an empty bathroom sealant tube with a squashed nozzle, just need the ingredients to make the paste to fill it.

 

[Andrew Richardson]

Or just glue them end to end. Does anyone really think it would make any difference?

I,ve always glued mine end to end (ow sounds a bit perverted that)

 

[John McGough]

Well my new elips arrived Friday. First trip this afternoon and I had to wait all of 10 minutes for the centre pin to scream as a feisty 7lb er picked them up

 

[Roman Vann]

.

 

[Dai Gribble]

Short answer Derek...I don't know. We have very few facts to work on, so obviously my thoughts were based on not a lot For what it's worth, my thoughts were...

(1) The company that failed was apparently the only one that produced elliptical pellets. Why? I assumed from that that producing such pellets was more expensive than producing the standard cylindrical shape....otherwise they would all be producing them.

(2) Even if only in angling terms, these pellets were in high demand...and yet the companies that successfully manufacture and market cylindrical pellets have not bothered to modify any of their existing equipment to fill that demand. Why? Again, one has to assume that producing these pellets is more problematical than a simple modification of existing equipment.

Having said that, it may be that the company that failed did so for entirely different reasons...who knows? Having given it more thought, I have to question why they chose to make a pellet of that shape to start with. It's no secret that virtually all of these pellets are manufactured for the fish farming industry. Many of the fish that are commercially farmed (salmon for instance) are surface to mid-water feeders. This means that they will naturally intercept their feed as it passes through the water column, and largely ignore the feed that reaches the bottom. So, it stands to reason that a slow sinking pellet will give the fish more time to intercept it, thereby making such a pellet more cost effective.

Perhaps the elliptical shape was that particular companies attempt at producing a slower sinking pellet, in that it would flutter down slightly, rather than the direct sink of a cylindrical version?

Perhaps the other companies took a simpler route to solving this problem...perhaps they merely adjusted the type of ingredients (added shrimp/krill meal for instance) to achieve the same result, which worked out to be more cost effective?

Again, who knows? All I do know is that for me, speculation of this type beats the hell out of bloody sudoku in keeping my ageing brain from completely vegetating from lack of use

Cheers, Dave.

Elliptical pellets were produced because they use less energy when drying them compared to cylindrical pellets. Sounds great but they have one major drawback which is they flutter when sinking through the water and fish find them harder to catch and as a result more go to waste through the bottom of the cages in which the fish are kept.

As far as I know teh elliptical pellets sold as bait all came from one factory. The angling sales were a small part of the overall sales and to make it worthwhile running a production run to produce them required an order larger than was viable.

Sonubaits still have some available but as the saying goes “when they’re gone they’re goneâ€.

 

[Andy Frances]

It's absolutely true that the pellets we've all used for angling are the bits and bobs that aren't bought up the fish farming industry. When we were selling lots of pellets we were buying a tonne at a time and this was considered very small fry to Ewos, the supplier.

The idea that any of the fishing pellet suppliers are making their own pellets is highly unlikely. They get what they're given by the suppliers.

Even in the time that we were buying pellets in bulk the ranges were being cut, and pellets were changing. From an angling perspective it was for the worse. The focus seemed to be on saving fish farms money by producing more cost effective food. Hence the removal of Astaxanthin.

I always heard that the elliptical shape was introduced so that they hung in the water longer so the trout had more opportunity to take them, causing less wastage. The thinking on this has obviously changed.

Cheers,

Andy F

 

[Paul Garner]

I always heard that the elliptical shape was introduced so that they hung in the water longer so the trout had more opportunity to take them, causing less wastage.

Andy, way back I used to have some sales literature from EWOS that stated exactly that. Although, who believes sales literature

 

[Neil Blood]

Don't buy farmed fish or use pellets to catch Barbel:

WWF - Aquaculture problems: Fish feed