Pellets and Indigenous Fish

[roundhead1642]

Though I accept that pellets have a place in all fishing I am not a fan of using large amounts of this bait on Rivers. However what I would be interested to know is if anglers have had success with this bait and/or boilies on rivers which contain only (non stocked) indigenous fish and in locations where pellets are not heavily used.
In other words is there evidence that fish respond to baits such as pellets where they may not have come across them previously.

 

[benny samways]

I think all fish love pellets.

They do not need educating on to them, the level of natural food in most rivers is very low (compared to what it was) and fish will pounce on any food source.

I try to soften hard pellets when using them for loose feed as I believe softer pellets will pass through fish better. For example, halibut pellets are designed to be fed to halibut which grow to 200lb and have much stronger teeth for breaking them up. Coarse fish probably can not mash them up as much and this could (maybe IMO) lead to the fish being ‘fuller’ for longer. Fish can get congested so that’s why I think like that. Softened pellets will still work well in winter too.

The dace on my river which can turn up one season and then go missing for the next 3 definitely love pellets; these are most definitely not stocked fish.

 

[cg74]

I've found on some lightly fished rivers, chub initially shy away from oily pellets but return about 10-20 minutes later and feed on them.
Apart from the occasional chub backing off, I've found ALL UK Cyprinid species readily take pellets.

---------- Post added at 12:12 ---------- Previous post was at 12:05 ----------

I think all fish love pellets.

They do not need educating on to them, the level of natural food in most rivers is very low (compared to what it was) and fish will pounce on any food source.

I try to soften hard pellets when using them for loose feed as I believe softer pellets will pass through fish better. For example, halibut pellets are designed to be fed to halibut which grow to 200lb and have much stronger teeth for breaking them up. Coarse fish probably can not mash them up as much and this could (maybe IMO) lead to the fish being ‘fuller’ for longer. Fish can get congested so that’s why I think like that. Softened pellets will still work well in winter too.

The dace on my river which can turn up one season and then go missing for the next 3 definitely love pellets; these are most definitely not stocked fish.

Surely if food was less abundant, then the mass of fish would reduce accordingly?

 

[nicepix]

Though I accept that pellets have a place in all fishing I am not a fan of using large amounts of this bait on Rivers. However what I would be interested to know is if anglers have had success with this bait and/or boilies on rivers which contain only (non stocked) indigenous fish and in locations where pellets are not heavily used.
In other words is there evidence that fish respond to baits such as pellets where they may not have come across them previously.

Small chicken pellets, around 3mm, work straight out of the bag for roach and carp in places where anglers have rarely trod. The larger pellets caught on the Dearne, again a very lightly fished river and more recently I've had double figure carp on 15mm pellets in areas where I'm pretty sure they would not have been used previously.

So, in a word - yes.

 

[little oik]

Over here in Eire I have tried pellets on numerous occasions but always have better success on "naturals", worm maggot corn etc . The waters are really all wild and most of the people that fish them tend to use naturals as well .Whether this is because there is still a large amount of natural food available or that there is little use for pellet on the hook as they do not induce a lot of fish .Although a lot of people use small pellet (2 to 4mm ) I am not sure that the fish recognize anything larger as food (Bream, Tench, Hybrids, Roach and Rudd)

Carp are very few and far between unless in the odd commercial as there is a very strict regime to the stocking of them due to what happened with the Roach invasion (live bait ban and all )

 

[benny samways]

Surely if food was less abundant, then the mass of fish would reduce accordingly?

It very much has on the Great Ouse mate and Im sure lack of natural food is what is hindering fish stocks aswell lack of habitat, poor spawning areas and crays and comorants.

I think on EA surveys they give a biomass per cubic metre and also how many fish per cubic metre. The last survey I read had it at something like 2percent of a fish per metre cubed (very low anyway cant remember exactly). These were results from a previously prolific bit of water.

 

[barbelboi]

Though I accept that pellets have a place in all fishing I am not a fan of using large amounts of this bait on Rivers. However what I would be interested to know is if anglers have had success with this bait and/or boilies on rivers which contain only (non stocked) indigenous fish and in locations where pellets are not heavily used.
In other words is there evidence that fish respond to baits such as pellets where they may not have come across them previously.

When my son and I first started using 10mm shelf life boilies for barbel on the Loddon in the 90's we not only caught lots of barbel from the off but also roach and chub. As far as I know no one before us had experimented with boilies/pellets on this particular stretch which was very lightly fished.
Jerry

 

[sam vimes]

There are sections of the Swale that I doubt will see a vast quantity of pellet, ever. Frankly, they probably don't see much of any particular bait or anglers. I've tried pellet in a few of these out of the way stretches with no success whatsoever. I'll bet that they take the bits as the pellets actually break down. Unfortunately, while they retain any structural integrity, the fish shy off.

 

[peterjg]

Starting this season I've been roach fishing a stretch of the river Colne which is hardly ever fished with very little success - I've managed a few reasonable roach to 15ozs. I've tried various pellets with no success, legered sections of lobworms, maggots and punched bread catch micro roach, legered flake and crust is soon pulled apart by tiddlers, wheat, hemp and sweetcorn has produced only a few roach. Should I prebait with pellets, quite frankly I'm running out of ideas - HELP!!!