P.V.A. bag quandry

Had some success at the weekend on a P.V.A. bag filled about 2/3's with 6mm trout pellet and about 40 10mm boilies and a matching 14mm pop-up fished 4 inches straight off the lead. Problem is that my rods are only 2.5lb t.c. so casting was a bit difficult and I couldn't get the range I really wanted. I am using a 2 1/2 ounce lead and the bag ends up being slightly smaller than a tennis ball, any bigger and casting becomes nigh on impossible. Would I be better fishing with a ligther lead, say 1 or 1.5 oz or should I step down to fishing smaller bags or dynamite sticks?

I don't want to compromise self hooking properties but at the same time I feel far more confident with a bigger pile of bait/more attraction around my hookbait.

if you're worried about the self hooking aspect, use smaller hooks.

At the moment I'm using a size 8 G4 raptor fished using a D-rig. So the smaller the hook the better the self hooking potential then? I thought it was the other way round! Suppose it makes sense though cos its less distance to drive it in to the bend. I fish size 10 super specialist for my bottom work cos I use 10mm baits.

Use what you would normaly use and as soon as the bag hits the water put the rod down and catty in more PVA bags.

Raptors are becoming more and more renound for hook pulls BTW, try something like a fox series 2, even in a size 6 or 8 they are mega sharp (but do go blunt quicker), less prone to hookpulls and will still selfhook with light leads. Mind i have had fish hook and bolt using a free running set up so i am not convinced a heavy lead means instant hooking.

you could try just putting the pelets in the bag and string the boilies..
or use the boilie pva tube use a bit less bait and thread the hooklength, lengthway through the tube..
seems to cast better both ways, as you say its hard to cast tennis ball size bags..

if it's the weight of the bag and not the dynamics, you could try altering your casting style to more of a pronounced lob, the same as when lobbing big deadbaits or an oversized spod.

I understand your thinking here ByNasty and your intention of slinging a load of freebies in a PVA bag around a hookbait, but why so much bait? why not try half as much bait or even a third of the amount of bait in the PVA bag but increase the flavour within the bag? Crumble up a couple of boilies (same as hookbait) add a few pellets then soak in a little liquid flavouring/glug (same flavour as hookbait), knot the lot up and punch it out twice as far?

worth a go?

Big Leads, little leads not convinced it makes a real difference in the hooking. Use a big lead to punch out into the open and a small lead to sit in the margin.

Cakey's got a good view on small leads, he uses the smallest he can get away with and in no way are they used as a lever to set the hook.

Cakey, u still on half ounce leads?

the only time I've used big leads in bags is to punch through dense weed, else for me it's just an ounce or two ounces max.

Excellent! I was hoping you guys would say something along these lines. I shall be dropping down to an ounce I think which should give me much more of a shot on my rods. I've been toying with the idea of getting some 2lb t.c. greys prodigy specimens next year cos of my tench and bream fishing but they will also be used for the carp so I'm going to have to start adapting my tactics to lighter rods anyway.
Stu, would a change to say 40mm funnel web be more ideal? A 5 or 6 centimetre bag with a diameter of 40mm should be considerably lighter but leave enough bait round my hook for me to be confident. I've steered away from glugging since I experimented with glugging method balls in mollases and then rolling them in dry swimstim, I used to end up caked in the stuff! Maybe a return and rework to that theory might be worth a look if I can work out a way that I can get round my clumsiness and make it less messy.
I'm also toying with the idea of cutting down on the trout pellets and adding more particles such as chopped tigers, mini maples, and some peanuts along with a little bit of dry brown crumb or ground vitalin, is this worth ago or am I over complicating again? Bearing in mind that the only bite I've ever had at this lake was on the tactics I originally described and that was the first time I'd used them I'm in 2 minds whether I should be experimenting more or not but I feel I could be getting more out of my time there.

Sorry about the mini novel you can all go back to sleep now!

As Rik will tell ya, the colder months will see me playing around with minimum freebies and maximum flavour and in that order.

play with oils and essences and then place in pva to see whats what matey!

sometimes an overflavoured single hookbait isn't enough attraction in winter and a small cloud of flavour/smell may attract from a wider area.

we're soon see my old friend, won't we?