Hook and Pellet Size

Hi everybody

Thanks for looking in. Newbie here, I'm not sure how many years I can get away with calling meself a newbie (!) but here goes....

I've never used a pellet on a river before, in fact if I'm honest, the pellet thing has passed me by. Until now, so it's all hand to the pellet pump!

I have a query about pellet and hook size.
I will be trotting on a river, very shallow (3'-4'), clear and very slow running. I intend to use 10/11mm soft hooker pellets directly on a size 12 hook feeding 6mm pellets. If I miss bites then I'll scale up to a Size 12 hook. Fish in the swim will be mainly chub and barbel with the odd "nuisance" trout.

Have I got the hook to pellet size balance correct?

If there's already a thread about this then please feel free to point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance.

Blackie

I'm probably more of a "newbie" than you and have only just tried using soft hooker pellets and never on a river. On stillwater they can be a problem on a waggler as they seem to dislodge very easily on anything more than a gentle cast. I've only used 6mm on 12 & 14 hooks but think you may need to up the hooksize with 10mm pellets.

I would definately take a stock of back up baits that will stay on the hook longer.

Perhaps some of the more knowledgable posters will be able to help us both.

barbelboi said:

[FONT=&quot]I’ve never even thought of trotting pellets, soft or hard, on a river. IMO bread and the ‘natural’ baits do the business.[/FONT]

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I've done bread, paste, maggots, worms and slugs and frying steak and mince. I just fancied a change and wanted to compare the alleged controversial pellet with other baits. Never trotted with pellet before and I didn't want to spook the fish with the wrong size hook pellet combo.

never tried it myself but be interesting to see how ya get on keep us posted and wwelcome mate!

hello mate, expander pellets are too soft for trotting . try sonubaits hooker pellets 6m knicked onto the bend, size 12/14 hook they
make a 11m version if you want to go bigger then I would go up to a size 10 hook.

Have a look at Bob James article on Trotting with Pellets. He uses hard pellets but uses them with a Bait Band.

Here's the link for you.

Trotting for Chub with Bob James

steph mckenzie said:

Have a look at Bob James article on Trotting with Pellets. He uses hard pellets but uses them with a Bait Band.

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Bait bands (or indeed large float rubbers if you can't get bands) i find are very useful. Id normally use a 6-8mm hard pellet on a size 12 hook and feed 3 or 4mm and have had great success on still water but can't see why it would not work on running water.
I have found that hair rigging the pellets brings a slightly improved catch rate however there is nothing wrong with just hooking the band straight onto the hook.