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Solid pva bag fishing

Been using it for the last few months carp fishing , not used it on the rivers although I use mesh bags all the time .
I love fishing solid bags , tie em up at home then loop to loop when you get there
Nice little parcel of bait with your hookbait sat on top , don think it would work like that in a river though , probably the flow taking all the pellets / crumb downstream
Plus it works best with a really short hook link 3-4 inch and a inline 2-3 oz lead and lead core leader of about 3ft
Not sure I’d want to fish like that on a river
 
I find them a faff especially as you have to perforate them otherwise they float to the surface and end up miles downstream.

I personally stick with PVA mesh bags and / or a stringer (if using boilies).
 
Used em for years,get larger ones off eBay,three quarters fill em then twist the remaining tail and then wrap the tail around the lead and “lick and stick” the tail to the bag,bodge the bag with a baiting needle and away you go.I do use pear shape gripper leads along with enterprise run rings,so the “tail” wraps round the link nicely and the bag stays put during the cast.Sounds a bit of a fiddle but once you’ve done it a few times it becomes dead easy 👍👍
 
I've used them a lot for carp fishing, great for weedy conditions. I've never used for barbel because I like to use longer hook lengths (2ft +), whereas for carp my hook lengths is generally never exceed 6". They are faffy to tie up, but that's fine for carping as my bait can be in the water for up to 8 hrs.
 
Only advantage I can see if using on rivers would be to get a bait down quickly under weed without snagging up…but would be more inclined to use a method feeder if I wanted to do that. Solid bags are effective on stillwaters and easy to make up if you use the purpose made fillers…..give it a go on rivers and report back!
 
Joe Winstanley said:
I've used them a lot for carp fishing, great for weedy conditions. I've never used for barbel because I like to use longer hook lengths (2ft +), whereas for carp my hook lengths is generally never exceed 6". They are faffy to tie up, but that's fine for carping as my bait can be in the water for up to 8 hrs.
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Joe not being critical just an honest question about longer hooklinks what do you do if you want to fish close to snags / overhanging branches ?
 
Terry Harman said:
Joe not being critical just an honest question about longer hooklinks what do you do if you want to fish close to snags / overhanging branches ?
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I exercise a lot of care Terry!

Tbh, I don't tend to fish that close to snags as I prefer to try and draw them out into an area where I know I can land them, all being well.

Overhanging branches - I might possibly go down to about 18" if the foliage really warrants it, but never really have an issue. I'm generally placing baits out with the gentlest of underarm lobs. I did once dick about with pva string and longer hooklengths, but that didn't end well!
 
Terry Harman said:
Joe not being critical just an honest question about longer hooklinks what do you do if you want to fish close to snags / overhanging branches ?
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Slight thread drift but this caught my eye... I rarely use a hooklength shorter than 4ft on the Ouse and Nene. I don't trust my casting skills despite fishing for over thirty years so the solution on the occasions I fish near overhanging branches: baiting pole. It can be a faff if there's a bit of flow, especially on a certain backwater upstream of Peterborough or in the dark on the Ouse but it's so handy and I have tended to drop a bait and leave it for 2+ hours in recent years so it's worth a bit of tomfoolery.

As for solid bags, I regularly use them for carp fishing at certain times of the year, especially as my baits are often out for 48 hours, but not really tried them for barbel, especially with my long hooklengths and flowing water. Can see them being handy on slow flowing weedy stretches though.
 
I never fish a hooklink over 2ft I prefer to pin the line down behind the lead with a mtr of tungsten tubing I have dabbled with pva but not solid bags I use pva mesh slid onto the hooklink

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For me I’m I’m wanting bait out there, the most productive way of getting loose feed where I want it in the volume i want it, is with the 2 oz spopper.

Get the bait in before I’ve even set the chair up and get the swim resting for a good hour before putting a hook bait out. After that it’s single leads and minimal disturbance going forward.
Pva anything has never been a useful item in my barbel fishing. I find it really frustrating stuff.
It’s a nightmare in the rain, it’s a nightmare if you cast in the wrong place, it doesn’t accept any wet bait and it’s consumable so you’ve constantly got to replace it.

Spopper wins on all fronts.
 
I use them quite a bit. For the longer hooklengths that barbel anglers tend to use I just snip the corner of the bag, thread the hooklength back up through the bag on to QC swivel and then just fill the bag as you would.
 
Richard Isaacs said:
For me I’m I’m wanting bait out there, the most productive way of getting loose feed where I want it in the volume i want it, is with the 2 oz spopper.

Get the bait in before I’ve even set the chair up and get the swim resting for a good hour before putting a hook bait out. After that it’s single leads and minimal disturbance going forward.
Pva anything has never been a useful item in my barbel fishing. I find it really frustrating stuff.
It’s a nightmare in the rain, it’s a nightmare if you cast in the wrong place, it doesn’t accept any wet bait and it’s consumable so you’ve constantly got to replace it.

Spopper wins on all fronts.
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Years ago on a decently populated Hampshire Avon, the sound of a dropper was like a dinner gong for barbel. You could develop a swim continually feeding with a dropper whilst the barbel became voracious.
These days, I am quite sure with predation, what barbel remain in the Avon, and it's not many, have a completely different behaviour. It's a game of stealth more than ever. If you can make out a fish, as little as possible disturbance is the order of the day and the pva bag is just the ticket.
 
Damian Kimmins said:
Years ago on a decently populated Hampshire Avon, the sound of a dropper was like a dinner gong for barbel. You could develop a swim continually feeding with a dropper whilst the barbel became voracious.
These days, I am quite sure with predation, what barbel remain in the Avon, and it's not many, have a completely different behaviour. It's a game of stealth more than ever. If you can make out a fish, as little as possible disturbance is the order of the day and the pva bag is just the ticket.
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I’m willing to bet a pva bag hits the water with more disturbance than a 2oz spopper does and you’re doing it with the hook bait.
I’m not presenting a hook bait until at least an hour after feeding where I’m only using a light lead and nothing more.
 
I think with pva it’s more about the accuracy of the free offerings to your hookbait… unless you’re putting out a massive bed of bait ie baiting an area not a spot … even if you are clipping up you won’t get the same accuracy as you would with pva
 
I also don’t believe the noise affects them either in the past I have cast 5 - 6 times to get a certain spot only to have the rod rip round while I’m putting it in the rest
 
I rarely cast out without a mesh bag attached , I even started using them filled with maggots late in the season on the Trent .
Can’t really see the point of a solid bag Barbel fishing , in a carp fishing context they work great because you’re putting the bait - rig - lead everything in there , leaving a nice little pile of bait with the hookbait sat on top .
I use the spopper to get bait down close in , down a near side margin .
 
Richard Isaacs said:
I’m willing to bet a pva bag hits the water with more disturbance than a 2oz spopper does and you’re doing it with the hook bait.
I’m not presenting a hook bait until at least an hour after feeding where I’m only using a light lead and nothing more.
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Not if you are lowering it in. There is another advantage to PVA bag fishing, that is again connecting to behavioural changes I have seen in Avon fish, and that is they are really not keen on beds or quantities of bait - they are literally wary all of the time. In fact some of the ingredients of my bags will have no food value whatsoever.
 
The advantage of a solid pva bag is that each time you cast with one attached there is a number of pellets,maggots etc going downstream directly in line with your hook bait,got to be the most accurate way to draw fish towards the said hook bait.
 
Trevor Brown said:
The advantage of a solid pva bag is that each time you cast with one attached there is a number of pellets,maggots etc going downstream directly in line with your hook bait,got to be the most accurate way to draw fish towards the said hook bait.
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A swim feeder does that too..
 
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