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Pellets

I caught on the Wye on the Sticky ones, but they’re not much good for leaving out for a long soak in the Hants Avon. They become spongy relatively quickly and susceptible to the pecking of minnows and silvers... I’ve found the same with the Hinders Flatz.

It’ll be interesting to see if anyone can suggest company that do a ‘normal’ pellet shape in Elips, other than Hinders. I don’t rate their stuff these days, seems inconsistent in flavour/colour/texture. Every order is a bit of a lottery. It’s a shame, because when their stuff is good, it’s really good, in my experience.
 
Another vote for 10mm sonubait elliptical pellets, i have a few bags left in my shed, bought 'em all up from my local when i was told they were being discontinued, and discontinued they have been..i have a few hinders elips in normal pellet shape but just use them for feed, as said not a patch on the originals, i bought a bag of stiky ellipticals out of curiosity really but not even opened them yet, probably use as feed after the hinders run out...
 
Neil Smart said:
I believe the elipse pellet is no longer, it was a commercial choice made by feed companies to cease production. The Hinders flats as said just don't cut it and the elips are not a shadow on the original.
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I used the elips from hinders a few years back, found them to be no better than the skrettings elite and coppens premium select which I use for the vast majority of pre baiting when fishing for carp on low stock waters (Far cheaper when buying sacks too) in fact caught most my fish from fishers green on the old river pre baiting with coppens and skrettings with a healthy dose of boilies aswell. Were they that much better in the beginning or was it just a case of good marketing?
 
The Elips pellets currently sold by Hinders are still very effective imo, but they do seem different to the Elips sold 10 years ago. The most obvious difference is you don't seem to get the secretion of oil which used to gather at the bottom of the large bags after a period of storage - this was brilliant stuff in the right conditions.
 
I've spent a lot of money on Elips over the year, but I no longer use them on the hook. I've got a stock of small, medium, and large, which I now only use as feed ... mixed in with cheap as chips 6mm pellets, plus flavour(ings). IMO the best thing about Elips is the oil in them, so I buy that and use it as a glug and for wrap making. On the hook I use drilled Robin Red pellets, glugged in Elips Oil or some other glug. They are very long lasting and, being finely drilled, easily hook-mounted via various method.
To me the flavour of the pellet is more important than the analytical breakdown/constituents of the pellet. Now, to me, the pellet is just 'the base'.
 
Ryan Allen-Varney said:
I used the elips from hinders a few years back, found them to be no better than the skrettings elite and coppens premium select which I use for the vast majority of pre baiting when fishing for carp on low stock waters (Far cheaper when buying sacks too) in fact caught most my fish from fishers green on the old river pre baiting with coppens and skrettings with a healthy dose of boilies aswell. Were they that much better in the beginning or was it just a case of good marketing?
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I think the original ones were better, but that might not be the case, just how we feel about a bait at that time. It is a confidence thing, but I take your point.
 
Neil Smart said:
I think the original ones were better, but that might not be the case, just how we feel about a bait at that time. It is a confidence thing, but I take your point.
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fair play, just a question though. I’ve found the pellet of old in all ranges are far inferior to what they used to be. I remember sacks of trout and halibut pellets used to be dripping in oil. Maybe for the best for the fish health wise perhaps, but as far as effectiveness goes they certainly are not what they used to be. I did see this on another forum that made me wonder, how true it is I don’t know.


Real halibut pellets ar not available and have not been for about 10 years ,Most were made in the Burgus Plant in Northern spain ,the one we purchased from Skets came from there ,so as the plant would not supply to the angling trade in Spain at that ( about 16 or 17 years ago) made in spain sent to England and taken back to the Ebro !

When the spanish caught on after some one down there ordered 20 tonnes of the 22mm Halibut pellets the plant manager realised that no one in the fishing game checked quality so so he started making a much cheaper lower quality version ,and refused to supply the proper fish farm quality pellets.

A couple of years later this was rolled out in the UK and unless you know a proper Halibut farmer you wont be able to get real halibut pellets.
The problem is to use standard ingredients to make a pellet of 48% protein and some were the low 50's % this will have be done I think with hydrolised fish meal .
So most or all halibut pellets sold to the angling trade are not really halibut pellets but cheap BLACK pellets and because they are black they are Halibut pellets ,now the real halibut pellets to those who have never seen them are a dark brown colour not black.they were also very oily like you could pour oil out of the sack when all the pellets were used up.

So in conclusion if you want a quality pellet you need to buy one which is not made for fishing but made for fish farming where the quality is checked all the time ,by the factory and the fish farmers who if the fish do not grow properly will go and buy another brand.
What are the options ?
Trout pellets or Salmon pellets, both quality controlled and under constant review by professional users.

​
 
Thanks so much for that insight, so I need to source from fish farming suppliers. Do you have any heads up as to where?
 
Neil Smart said:
Thanks so much for that insight, so I need to source from fish farming suppliers. Do you have any heads up as to where?
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To be honest I haven’t got a clue.. that was copied from a thread on another forum I’m a member of. I’m a member of the Bcsg and have done digging through a few sources between some very knowledgeable bait guys but every time it’s come to a dead end unfortunately. May not be gospel, but would make sense hearing from other people’s experiences in quality going south over the years.
 
There is a definitely a wide range of pellets being sold under the 'halibut' name, often varying batch to batch under the same brand names.
Hell, last 10mm dynamite feed Halibuts i bought were clearly those classic stubby trout pellets.
Ive found the Pre drilled Halibut pellets seem to be more consistent and both more oily and a dark brown rather than dyed black.
 
Agreed Josh. I’ve definitely had good bags and bad bags of the same brand and sent before. My go to will always be Sonusbaits spicy sausage now though, they always seem to be quite potent and I’ve had good success on them.
 
The makeup and shape of hinders Elips changed many times over the years, as they are/were produced for the aquaculture Industry. The unique shape was supposed to produce a slower fall rate through the fish farming cages, leading to less waste. The original version, which was always the best, had the magic astaxanthin ingredient, which gave them the orange colour. It was later omitted due to cost.

I have a bag of the large sticky baits version and they are ok for hookbaits 👍🏻
 
Josh Porteous-Webster said:
There is a definitely a wide range of pellets being sold under the 'halibut' name, often varying batch to batch under the same brand names.
Hell, last 10mm dynamite feed Halibuts i bought were clearly those classic stubby trout pellets.
Ive found the Pre drilled Halibut pellets seem to be more consistent and both more oily and a dark brown rather than dyed black.
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I thought that Dynamite made their own pellets and so you would think they would be more consistent. I have had a lot of success using Dynamite pellets of the various flavours and sizes.
 
Clearly Dynamite make some of their own pellets e.g. Robin Red pellets? Some of their pellets however, appear to be standard coarse fish pellets, which are then sprayed with colours and flavour?

I‘d wager that most if not all marine/trout type pellets are procured from the aquaculture industry and repackaged, or at least that used to be the case?

And re drilled pellets, that’s done so that farmed fish digest and break them down more quickly. It’s nothing to do with ease of hair rigging.
 
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