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Rig for pellet

Chris Thomson

Senior Member
Hi, my post about fishing pellets in a heavy weed situation got lost in the whose good for pellet thread so i thought id start another, obviously using pellet you need to scale things down a bit rig wise but in a heavy weed scenario whats a good hooklength and hook combination bearing in mind i have to give the fish a fair bit of welly straight from the off? Thanks
 
10" hook link nicked onto web ball of freebies, use the heavy web to allow the ball to roll into edge of the weed before it melts away a heavier lead helps to hold position close to the freebies that usually stay put in the weed roots ect.
 
Size 8 hook, 2 x 10mm elips on a hair rig. The rig I use is a combi rig with 3 to 4 feet of heavy fluoro (20lb) to a couple of inches of 12lb braid. Ideally you want to be upstreaming so that you are playing the fish downstream and away from the weed.
 
Chris
Why do you think you need to scale down your rig to use pellet?

Anthony
If not sight fishing, how confident are you that an exposed hook on a 3 to 4 foot hook length wafting around, has not caught up in the week?
 
10" hook link nicked onto web ball of freebies, use the heavy web to allow the ball to roll into edge of the weed before it melts away a heavier lead helps to hold position close to the freebies that usually stay put in the weed roots ect.

Seems about right John. :)
 
Michael, in all honest truth I can't be sure the hook hasn't caught up in the weed. It depends on how much flow we're talking about. Tungsten putty on the fluoro just above the braid could help but in slow flows, PVA foam could be used on the hook to protect it until it settles. There are still no guarantees. In the same way, a rig cast out into any river could have the hook point buried in a twig or dead leaves could it not?
 
similar to Johns but with lead clip, tuff coated braid, hook length threaded through bag to cover hook/clipped on quick release swivel and put a pebble in pva bag to weigh down
 
Chris
Why do you think you need to scale down your rig to use pellet?

Anthony
If not sight fishing, how confident are you that an exposed hook on a 3 to 4 foot hook length wafting around, has not caught up in the week?


Hi, my thinking to scaling down my end rig was to put a bit of subtlety into the rig as the water is gin clear and im glueing a couple of small elips pellets onto a size 12 talon tip hook and fishing in quite small holes in weed. I cant use long rigs due to the small clear areas so rightly or wrongly i was going to use 8" of drennan gravel braid attatched to said hook with a pva bag of pellet nicked onto the hook. My only concern is tangles using a braided hook link, bearing in mind the size of hook im using and the tight area im putting the bait would a combi rig using a heavyish mono/ flouro and the 12lb gravel braid combination be as effective as braid straight through? Tangles would be minimised i guess , what do you think?
 
Hi, my thinking to scaling down my end rig was to put a bit of subtlety into the rig as the water is gin clear and im glueing a couple of small elips pellets onto a size 12 talon tip hook and fishing in quite small holes in weed. I cant use long rigs due to the small clear areas so rightly or wrongly i was going to use 8" of drennan gravel braid attatched to said hook with a pva bag of pellet nicked onto the hook. My only concern is tangles using a braided hook link, bearing in mind the size of hook im using and the tight area im putting the bait would a combi rig using a heavyish mono/ flouro and the 12lb gravel braid combination be as effective as braid straight through? Tangles would be minimised i guess , what do you think?

Chris
I think a 8 inch hook length is about right, I would use a coated braid instead of gravel braid, something like korda ntrap soft would suffice, just peel the last 2 inches above the hook, this would act like a combi rig. Add a korda anti tangle sleeve below the swivel and embed the hook into the PVA bag, or thread it through before glueing the pellets on. About as anti tangle as you could get it.
 
Thanks Micheal, would you recommend using the coated braid even with a size 12 hook?

Jeez, for goodness sake we are talking Barbel here, do you really think it matters at all? Put a bait in front of it and it will gobble it up be it braid mono flouro whatever. :)
 
Only asking Neil, apologies if my questions irritate you, just asking advice from those whose experience of fishing pellets is greater than mine, i'll ask elsewhere
 
Sounds like a reasonable question to ask, ignore the last comment Chris.

Don't see why you might think to scale down?

Depends on your intended pellet size, but I'd say no need to go smaller than a No.8 hook? Also, with coated braid it might be awkward to tie to a smaller (14) hook without compromising by stripping it back and all that (another thread discusses stripping back or not) especially if you are intending to pass twice through the eye using a knotless knot.
 
Chris
No need to ask elsewhere, as said before, as long as you strip the last couple of inches of the braid, you will have no trouble attaching a size 12 hook. But as Paul has stated, why go that small when fishing in weed. I have caught plenty of barbel using size 6 hooks baited with maggots in swims less than 3 ft deep, crystal clear and the sun blazing down.
 
Only asking Neil, apologies if my questions irritate you, just asking advice from those whose experience of fishing pellets is greater than mine, i'll ask elsewhere

Sorry if I was unreasonable Chris, but please don't get too wrapped up in worrying about braid or anything else when fishing pellet. I find the main criteria is probably hook size for the size of pellet, make sure the pellet does not effect the hook hold, tbh I find mono as good if not better than any other material, if you need to pin it down, a small shot a few inches from the hook is just fine. I do take care about length of hair and how the pellet looks, but then again plenty of folks use bands, which rather proves Barbel are not as fussed as we seem to be.
I don't use any longer than a 12'' hook length normally and keep the 'furniture on the line to a minimum, a simple running rig with a bead and swivel, anything else might spook. Of course a bit of loose feeding will get them into a frame of mind... they will be quite bold.
If you haven't already check out the Hinders pellets, and on their website they currently have a good presentation tip from none other than Andy Little.
 
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