Pellet

[Guest]

After some 20 odd years I have started fishing again, apart from drowning the odd naggot when on the Broads.On most of the waters I have fished recently pellet works very well. Does pellet work on the Broads?

I am back down in the middle of Sept and hope to get Julia to have a go but she really does not like handling maggot so if pellet will catch it would help a lot. Has anyone tried it, with or without success.

Thanks in anticipation

Chris

[donnygeoff]

Hi Chris,

Never tried pellet, Don't like using maggots on the rivers (they attract eels, which are a pain to unhook) I caught bream on sweetcorn.

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply donnygeoff, I have used sweetcorn and bread but pellet is easy for the occasional angler (Julia) to use and does not seem to exclude small fish. Maggot doesn't catch many eels if you fish it off the bottom; that is on the drop or trotting and holding back.

[Guest]

You are right about the confidence thing. I catch most of my fish on pellet at home. To be fair I do fish commercial waters. I haven't tried pellet yet on the Broads but as we start our second cruise this Sat, it was close season last time, and I only got back into it this year after a 20 odd year break. I shall give the pellet a good go this time and report back.

I have also had some success with the newly discovered to me anyway artificial maggot so I hope between the two we have solve dthe problem of Julias dislike of handling the real thing.

Ifthode don't work I shall have to apply the little and often approach to alcohol instead!

[mbird]

It'll be interesting to hear the results. I wonder if the fish in the Broads just wouldn't know what to do with a pellet as they aren't natural?

I fished for and hour and a half on Womack Water this Sunday and ended up with 4 bream (nothing big but up to 2lb). The all fell to double maggot, but rather strangely there were no Perch or Roach as you'd normally expect.

[SteveO]

I have always fished with double maggot and have never used pellet. I would like to give it a try, to give me a backup bait for the days when I don't have maggots with me. However, I am confused by the overwhelming choice of different types, sizes and flavours. Can anyone recommend some for me to try?

I am intrigued by the concept of artificial maggot. I might give that a go as well.

Regards

Steve

[Guest]

Stevo,

I will be trying Sonubaits 4mm competion soft hook pellets, fishmeal flavour and 8mm hard halibut pellet with 2mm micro fishmeal pellet to feed with; I have found that they both work well for many species an lots of different venues. The smaller 4mm for silvers and doubled up on a hair for carp. The bigger 8mm halibut pellet for larger carp and barbel, with the occasional larger bream. My trip starts this Saturday so i will report back in a couple or three weeks on results for both pellet and the atrificial maggots.

[SteveO]

Thanks Chris,

I look forward to finding out how you get on.

Regards

Steve

[Mowjo]

I've been using pellets most of the season and had good results so far, and the fish seem to be a little bigger than usual, I've been fishing them over a bed of hemp and very small trout pellets, the other thing I've been trying is artificial sweetcorn again the Bream have been a better size, but it is a waiting game and it needed plenty of groundbait, the best catch was 14 fish up to 6lb at Womack Island, the red corn hasn't caught me a lot so far but that could be because I'm using the wrong groundbait so thats still in the experimental stage,, the guy that owns my local tackle shop swears the artificial maggots work and says he uses them a lot on the Broads, so I'm going to give them a try and it might stop my Mrs from saying Frank my maggots dead put another one on for me,,

[RedRover]

I've been using pellets most of the season and had good results so far, and the fish seem to be a little bigger than usual, I've been fishing them over a bed of hemp and very small trout pellets, the other thing I've been trying is artificial sweetcorn again the Bream have been a better size, but it is a waiting game and it needed plenty of groundbait, the best catch was 14 fish up to 6lb at Womack Island, the red corn hasn't caught me a lot so far but that could be because I'm using the wrong groundbait so thats still in the experimental stage,, the guy that owns my local tackle shop swears the artificial maggots work and says he uses them a lot on the Broads, so I'm going to give them a try and it might stop my Mrs from saying Frank my maggots dead put another one on for me,,

Hi,Frank,nice to see someone actually putting in groundbait before fishing to try and tempt the fish to eat instead just throwing in the maggot on the end of a hook like some people seem to do, with not checking the depths etc.no wonder some people don't catch much.By the way what is artificial maggots?

[Guest DanDen]

I am a huge fan of pellet having used them alot in commercial fisheries, when fishing on the broads for the first time this summer I tried sessions with and witout loose feed pellet, Undoubtedly pellet helps you catch more fish and bigger fish. Use big 10mm size to draw them into your swim, never blanked and had some reasonable roach and bream on sweetcorn and maggot hookbait.

Dan

[donnygeoff]

By the way what is artificial maggots?

Not real ones but artificial ones

they are little bits of rubbery plastic shaped like magots

[Guest]

Well we are back and I can now confirm that pellet definately works on the Broads. I caught fish everywhere I tried pellet feeding micro 2mm pellet and fishing 4-6mm hooker pellet. Fish taken included roach rudd and bream. The biggest bream on pellet came from Norwich Yacht Station about 4lb maybe a bit bigger.

Pellet also turned up some very nice roach from Upton Dyke that was also the place where the artificial maggot scored really well with a beautiful fin perfect rudd over a pound in weight caught by Julia.

The artificial maggot worked wherever we tried it and took quite a few perch as well. I understand that Enterprise also manufacture artificial redworm and bloodworm so I think I shall have to give them a go as well.

The only experiment that didn't work was the 8mm halibut pellet I tried a few times with different methods but couldn't get a bite swapped to soft hookers corn or bread and got bites I am not sure why they didn't work ?I think more time and experimentation may show the way to use them effectively.

Unfortunatley all that will have to wait until next year now and I still havn't caught a pike on the broads I put out a deadbait most times I fished but no runs I think perhaps I will have to concentrate on them for a few sessions to break my duck. I did spend 10 mins watching a pike in the very shallow water by the side of Beccles road bridge though so at least I saw one!

[mbird]

Thanks for the info

We've got a week alfoat coming up and I am intrigued by the pellet idea, so I think I'll have to get some to give a go. Are the 4-6mm hook pellets actually labelled as that in the shops, and what flavours were best?

With regard to the piking, I've only ever had a small Jack that was caught spinning, never so much as a nibble with dead bait. I think the serious pikers tend to livebait on the Broads, but I just can't bring myself to shove hooks into a perfectly good live fish.....

[Guest]

The most sucesful pellet was Sonubaits soft hooker pellets in fishmeal flavour as were the micro pellet I used for feeding with, the micro pellet are also known as skrettings and you need to soak them for 5 mins then pour the water off so they all sink. Watching your free feed float down river is a bit demoralising.

I share your views about livebaiting, maybe next time I should take my lures with me, any ideas of which areas to try spinning for pike?

[mbird]

The most sucesful pellet was Sonubaits soft hooker pellets in fishmeal flavour as were the micro pellet I used for feeding with, the micro pellet are also known as skrettings and you need to soak them for 5 mins then pour the water off so they all sink. Watching your free feed float down river is a bit demoralising.

I share your views about livebaiting, maybe next time I should take my lures with me, any ideas of which areas to try spinning for pike?

Excellent, of toLathams I go

With regard spinning, the Jack I caught was at Womack Water, but I would guess any where with not too many snags would be okay. Sorry I can't be any more helpful