The humble trout type pellet has caught thousands of big barbel throughout Great Britain for as long as I can remember. Pellets comes in all shapes and sizes and have names like, high oil, carp pellets, Marine pellets, halibut pellets,etc.
All are brilliant for catching barbel but usually the main problem that we have is presentation on an hair rig. I know they can be banded, drilled and some of the larger pellets even come pre-drilled.
The knot less hair rig on a size 6 Drennan super specialist hook, with rubbing block and 2 Elips pellets
The problem with drilled baits is that they allow water to seep deep inside the pellet quickly, making the pellet break down quicker than it normally would. Again the quick intake of water by the pellet is one of the main problems when trying to present a pellet bait to last for any reasonable length of time. I do find that by leaving out bait for a longer period in a moving river, certainly picks up the larger specimens. The obvious answer is to use boilies, but I feel that on some occasions you can get a better result by presenting a spread of bait of small pellet and using a larger pellet on a hair rig sitting the middle of it.
One side of each pellet is filed down to create a flat surface
So what do I suggest – The Elips Pellet
The best way to describe the Elips pellet is a cylindrical shape that has been flattened, creating 2 almost flat sides. They come in 3 sizes – large, medium and small.
A touch of super glue to one of the pellets
The large pellet is what I use as the hook bait, and the medium and small for loose feeding. Attaching them to the hair rig is simple.
Place the knot less hair rig onto the glue on the pellet
Place the other pellet ontop so that the hair less rig is sandwiched between the flat side of each pellet and hold for about 10 seconds
Take two of the pellets and simply run one of the flat sides of each pellet along a flat hook sharpener. This takes a few seconds work on each pellet. The hair rig that I will be using has no boilie stop knot, just an inch long piece of hook rig material. Simply put a dab of super glue on one of the filed sides of a pellet, and then sandwich the hair rig between this pellet and the filed side of the other Elips pellet. Hold in place for about 10 seconds making sure that no over spill gets on your fingers and you have the perfect hair rigged pellet presentation.
The finished item
The rig on top of a spread of medium pellets
This rig will sit out in the water for at least an hour before it needs changing, unlike other pellets which break down in a much quicker time. The presentation is brilliant and can even be used in short carp fishing sessions stalking.
Give it a try! You will be surprised by the results.
Paul Cooper
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