Having the best season I have ever had in size, and before long number if it keeps up. Been fishing a mix of boilie and pellet. Started of with smaller stuff and the start of the year with smaller hook baits then the Rudd switched on, and now I am on 20mm boilie 17mm and 20mm pellet. Now I hear the " if it's not broke " people will be saying, but I can get 35kg of pellet for the price on 10kg of boilies so it's a big difference in price, so do people target bigger carp use just pellet? had a play and made some nice hook baits that last out of crushed pellet and egg white. Tempted to do it maybe splash a little corn in as well. In these times of rising prices it has certainly got me thinking

In reply to Post #1
It was my intention to do exactly what you've described this season, but life has gotten in the way.
Next season it'll be 20mm Aller Aqua Best pellets and pellet shaped hookbaits made from them.

In reply to Post #1
Pellet is an excellent fish attractor and that can be the downside on some waters, especially if you are fishing further out and there is a good head of bream. I have used 16mm + on and off over the years for baiting up and fishing over, can catapult them a decent distance. the only thing that controls my use is other species because they will wipe you out, as mentioned. For me you also need the option of fishing one on the hair, my standard river bait approach over boilies, but thats for Barbel

Exactly what I am interested in but its basically a short term tactic as they wont keep for long. We have specially formulated pellets here in Germany that keep their shape for roughly 48 hours. But even they wont last a night securely on the hair if nuisance fish are around. So its definitely effective and cost effective but not for overnight sessions really.

I like this idea but always struggled with what to use as an hookbait. I might test some pellets in armamesh and see how long I could keep one on the rig

In reply to Post #5
Baitworks Edge pellet hookbaits have worked for me over pellet only.

This thread just reminded me of how I fished for the whole spring and summer in 2002.
Having moved into our new home and time being in short supply, I bought a sack of trout pellets and then popped into my local tackle shop (sadly gone) to look for a suitable hookbait. I bought a kg bag of dark brown barrel shaped boilies, pretty sure they were Nash Formula 1?
Anyway I had absolutely loads of success on a local club water that year. Probably my cheapest season baitwise since the days of sausage meat and Weetabix paste as well.

I know a few lads who use nothing but pellets for feed with a boiler pellet shaped hookbaits. They do very well as no doubt carp love pellets. I think in these boilie obsessed days a lot of anglers are missing a trick in regards to bait. Pellets and old school particles such as maples, chickpeas etc still catch loads of fish for those using the them.

In reply to Post #1
On one of my lakes this season have been using Aller Aqua Best in a mix of sizes from 2-11mm and fishing them exclusively with a Black Spot 60's barrel hookbait . . .water is small & moody but with minimal nuisance fish and they are fed these pellets throughout the year. Seems to be working for me but not sure its appropriate for all lakes . . .

In reply to Post #9
Do you add anything to the pellets, hemp oil, flavour etc?

In reply to Post #10
Nope - keep em 'raw' . . Only thing I sometimes do is add a small layer of micro belachan pellets over the top which are smellier / oilier . . .I only really want my hookbait to stand out from a smell (not look) perspective . . .

Fished pellet only for a couple of seasons on a lake with loads of Bream,with a bit of prebaiting the carp soon got on them and I had very little trouble with the snotties this was with 11mm Skrettings.
For hookbaits just drill a load out and mesh them in tights or use one of the many dumbell hookbaits out there.

I’m thinking to try out some 18mm pellets and mixed crushed boilies instead of a Spod mix . Getting fed up catching so many bream . Any thoughts ?

In reply to Post #13
I want an answer to this question as well please.. I was thinking of large pellets I could caterpault out with boilies as well.

Pellets are a wonderful bait and have been since first use, currently using 19mm ones within my baiting regime.

Does anyone know if any companies offer pellets made from base mix in 15mm upwards?

Quality Baits used to but they won’t do the bigger sizes anymore.

Over the past few years I've been using a prebait of small fishmeal pellets liberally coated in csl, and then dusted with brocacel yeast for close in work. It seems to draw fish into the swim very quickly and keeps them grubbing around. You have to press this mix firmly together in your hands before you put it in but once in the water it creates a lovely cloud of attraction. Don't know what the correlation is between these three ingredients but it works very well.

Gave this tip to a member on here and in April/May, he had fish of 41 ,36 and a 27 over the pellet and csl/yeast mix and a few days later he had two more of 44.5 and 32.6. He was fishing further out than the margins so he used a bait boat.

In reply to Post #17
Sounds rubbish, it will never work. 🤔

In reply to Post #18
😉