Soft hook pellets

[JamiEngland]

When I'm using a floating rig would soft hook pellets be ok

[saladdodger]

Ive tried float fishing with soft hook pellets and found them a nightmare to hook and when casted it came off.

[BoldBear]

Hi Jami,

You can buy different types of soft hook pellets and some stay on the hook a little better than others.

The jelly type tend to stay on the hook a little longer as they don't seem to split so much when a hook is pushed into them but the non-jelly type seem a bit more natural to me, but both types can be excellent baits.

If the water I was fishing had a fair number of fish in it and/or the fish were more used to finding them on the bottom then I would be happy to try soft pellets but once the temperatures get colder or the water I was fishing was less densly stocked I would prefer to use a live bait such as the humble Maggot, Pinky or worm to entice them to take my bait; as I am convinced that a moving bait stands out more to the average fish, especially when the temperatures start to fall.

But 'yes' soft hook pellets are fine to use on a float as long as you can get them to stay on your hook when you cast; and the hook point is not masked by the bait.

[Maceo]

I found these a complete waste of money.

Not sure whether it was the heat or the fact I opened the tub the night before I went fishing, but either way I couldn't get them to stay on the hook at all and they turned into a soft paste like mush.

Perhaps other brands are better.

[BoldBear]

I don't remember the name of them but I used to use small softish hook pellets which came in a small glass jar when I used to fish a whip when on holidays and they used to get the fish bubbling staight away, but even they had a tendency to split and fall apart if not hooked carefully. I used to use 'wide gape' size 16 and 18 hooks and catch lots of Roach, Rudd and the occasional small Tench on them.

They were handy for holidays because I could keep a small 6 mtr whip with a small jar of these soft pellets in the boot without taking up too much boot space.

[northern eye]

For years, I steered clear of using soft hookers for the same reasons - they kept dropping off or they split on the hook etc. I just lost patience with them. It was only when I started practicing for and then entering matches that I found I needed to use pellets again on certain waters, especially in summer, so I tried many different pellet brands, hooks and rigs to combat the problems I was having. I have found that the Maver Match This hook brand are perfect for using soft hookers. They are quite fine wire but still strong and the shape of the bend helps to not split the pellet when feeding the hook through. Size 16 work perfectly with 6mm pellets and size 14 with 8mm pellets but always mount them on the curved side, against the grain, not on the flat top - this will stop them splitting or coming off so easily. The brand I ended up using are the Van Den Eyne Jellets. They hold together well whilst still being nice and soft and will sometimes stay on the hook after a bite or more than one cast. They have Green lipped mussel, Strawberry and Natural and all flavours have caught me many fish. They are cheap too, at 2.99 a bag, which is re-sealable to keep them fresh. I use soft pellet mostly when pole fishing but, using a light float rig, soft action rod and being very gentle on the cast is the key to keeping the pellet on the hook. Experiment with shotting patterns aswel - sometimes the position of the shot can bounce the pellet off the hook when the line flicks round on the cast. Keep rigs/lines/floats as light as possible and a gentle underarm cast will allow the whole rig to plop into the water without loosing the pellet. Good luck.

[Cherry Tree]

Hi guys, my first post on here. I have started using Marukyu soft pellets and JPz's this year and had my best year fishing ever in 25 years. The JPz are jelly like and I found them easy to stay on the hook. The soft pellets are best moulded round a bait band.

Apparently the JPz's are effective in the cold (not that I've had chance to try them in the cold in this obscure October weather we've had)

As for the soft pellets, i've used the protein pellets this summer, but there is a Nori variety, which are supposed to be effective in the cold. I found the key to the Marulyu baits is to understand them properly before forking out any cash. You will find certain ground baits complement certain pellets, similarly with the boils and pastes (I've not tried these either)

http://fishingbaits.biz gives a good load of info on the baits if you have a look at the fishing guides section.

[chazyboi]

soft pellets in my view only any good for pole fishing as they dont like being punched out