Sonu "S" pellets

I managed to find a shop in Gloucester that sold these "S" pellets having heard rumours that they are good pellets that stay on the hook but are soft as well.

Yesterday I was talking to a matchman friend of mine and he said he had tried them but found they go rock hard after being exposed to the air for 20 minutes and the tackle shop owner had warned him of this when he bought them. This of course defeats the object of using them if I want hard pellets I buy hard pellets.

Has anyone tried these pellets and found this to be the case? I have 2 packets at ?2.99 each and I am unwilling to open them until I use them on the bank to test this theory.

i think this will happen to all soft pellets Graham.

I think its beneficial though if you manage this drying out. I only use expanders and to keep them soft I put them in a bait tub and cover them with a slightly dampend cloth. But i like to take a small handfull out at a time and leave them on the tray to start drying out so they form a tougher outer skin on them. Done this way i can get expanders to stay on the hook no problem, even on a long feeder chuck.

I've used the Halli Hookers and they've been fine. I've had a packet for just over a month and I opened it about 3 weeks ago. I haven't noticed any difference to the softness of the pellets in this time.

Not always Beecy, I have some demon baits soft pellets that I bought at the Go Fishing show 2005 when very cheap on "special show price" and they are still soft enough to hook.

I firmly believe a fish will take a soft bait in preference to a hard bait but the problem with a lot of soft pellets is they are produced for pole anglers where no casting is involved but they won't withstand a thump out with a waggler or feeder. The selling point of the S pellet is that it is soft, hookable and stays on the hook, if they do go hard after a short exposure to the air then they don't do what it says on the label, assuming this is the case of course which is why I asked the question.

You didn't say which size you had bought, Daddio.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a chap who had some out on a tray to dry a little on purpose. He was shipping them out 13metres and found they needed drying a little more. They were the smallest size, 4mm is it?

I was using 8mm Halli and S-Pellets and found them ok even on a long cast. Neither of the Sonu pellets caught for me, it was the old Mistral Rosehip ones that caught. Mind you, I still struggled for just 3 fish whereas the other chap by switching baits had over 30lbs.

I don't doubt that on the right day the Sonu will work, but I have had another problem with the big 11mm ones since. First time I tried to hair rig one the needle skewed to one side, came out and went straight through the tip of my middle finger. Seeing a baiting needle stuck in your finger with what effectively is a barb is not nice and there's only one way to get it out. Yes, I pulled it out quickly with blood flying everywhere.

My main problem though with the 11mm Halli-hookers is they aren't staying on the hair. Even pulling the rig in after two minutes in the river, the pellet had gone. Yesterday, I did a test and put 6 Halli and 6 S-Pellets into water. After a few minutes the Hallis started crumbling and today when I finally looked (21 hours) the Hallis were all-but crumb whereas the S-pellets were still whole and firm-ish.

I have some further tests to do now using the S-pellets, but fingers crossed it's just a bad batch of Halli-Pellets I have. Rest assured though that Graham Marsden will feed all of this back to the Sonu people and corrections will be made is necessary.

Open them by all means Daddio, but reseal the bag and keep it like that. They should be ok then.

Graham, I've had a packet for about a month,opened them out of curiosity as soon as I got home.Used them for a while on opening night.
They are still ok,make sure you reseal the packet.

Jeff, I have the 8mm ones, I prefer that size, not too big not too small but one big advantage is that when bites are scarce I cut soft pellets in half in attempt to encourage a bite, any bite. Incidentally I really like those Mistral Rosehip pellets, they will catch anything from good carp down to 2oz roach, and they stay on the hook and they stay soft, have you had anything decent using them on the river? I'm coming to the end of my two tubs and I must find a supplier somewhere, there aren't that many shops that sell them which is a problem especially around here where tackleshops are few and far between.

Fred that sounds encouraging anyway, the fact that the package is resealable (which I hadn't noticed) suggests they may harden up with exposure. I have now taken 2 or 3 out and left them on the table so I will see what happens to them.

"have you had anything decent using them on the river?"

I don't use small pellets in the river, usually. With river fishing it's either lumpy baits for chub or barbel, these 11mm Sonu ones are a trial as far as I'm concerned. Or, if I go for roach, perch, bream etc., I'll fish maggot, caster, sweetcorn on the river or best of all - big worms.

Perhaps I'm missing something though. Ian Welch obviously likes to use those 8mm pellets on a hair rig for barbel, so he says.

Tried out the Hali 8mm as hook baits a month ago. Found them easy to hook, stayed on the hook with a hefty chuck on the waggler and caught a couple of Rudd, 3 Common, a Bream and a nice Crucian. After these I had to change bait as it died off, but loved the ease of use.

Seems they are a fairly likeable bait for a number of species.

Resealed pack and still easily hooked three weeks later. Nice oil release when squeezed too.

Hali-hookers come off the hair, found this on river and still water. Much MUCH made of these baits, SONU advertising everywhere, particularly in the gullible learners' magazines. That's what happened, I don't have confidence, I'm afraid....

Those pellets that I left out are definitely hardening after 3 hours but still hookable. Wow, that oil is absolutely dripping out of them, I have never seen a pellet that oily, ever.

Looks like I've answered my own question thanks to Fred pointing out the bag is resealable but thanks all for your comments.

Graham, i have used the 8mm hali pellets and i love them! I have caught so many fish on them. I too have had my packet over 3 weeks, and they are still as fresh as a daisy!

I've used the 8mm S pellets tonight Graham, and I caught..... drumroll drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, a tinca of 3lb ish.

They hook easy and stay on even after casting a few times, they swell quite a bit too and smell like chum mixers used to.

They got me out of jail really, all things considered. The weather was dead changeable, wind, rain, and for a brief time sunny. I couldnt get a bite on corn or worm which has been my mainstay on this lake so far this summer, but using the pellet fished over a small bed of micros and a few loose s pellets gave me my only bite!

I was catching barbel regularly on opening night,in the flood, on garlic spam,and had a quiet spell,so thought I'd try them,on my second rod.
Result?
The smallest by far, of my barbel, a pup of about 12ozs!
Then the spam started up again.

I have just checked those pellets again and though they are considerably firmer than when I first took them out they are still hookable, still oozing out loads of oil too.

It would seem they will keep better in an airtight container, I use those cheap airtight food containers from Woolworths of various sizes for all my pellets and boilies, so it isn't really a problem. I'm glad I started this thread though because I may have ignored those pellets on the basis of one persons experience of what is reputed to be an excellent fishcatcher.

Although in this case one persons facts weren't quite right I long ago learned not to ignore matchmens advice simply because lots of matchmen fishing regularly generally sort out the wheat from the chaff, they know what works, where it works and when it works purely because of the pooling of experience. Want to know which is the lightest strongest pole, best line, best hooks for the job, best bait, ask regular matchmen they usually know what is reliable and what isn't.

Re my problems with the 11mm Halli-hookers.

Last night I went out with the 11mm S-Pellets instead, mounted one on the hair with a small dumbbell stop and cast it out. (Please note: forgetful me [catching it off Marsden I think] forgot to take any loose pellets for feed)

After about 7 mins I decided to have a look so started to wind in and it must have annoyed a pike because I had him. Only 5 pound and the hook was right in the side of his mouth, but they don't count so Graham M tells me.

Put the bait back in since the pellet was fine. Five minutes later had another bite and landed (Ta-Daaaaaaa) an 8 lbs 4 ozs bream and I think the best river bream I have ever caught.

Ok she was gravid and I then cast a new bait to slightly different location, but still caught another bream of around 4lbs. Bait still ok so cast to another spot in faster water and the bait stayed out for about 40 minutes - nothing. The bait was starting to break up being on gravel and it had been in the water in total for 50 minutes.

Re-baited cast to another spot and after 10 mins another bream of around 5 lbs this time. So the S-Pellets do work, do catch fish and all I can think is that the Halli-Pellets must be part of a bad batch. A full report is going in to Graham M for Sonu.

See the smile on me last night!

Nice to hear Jeff, if I hadn't put this thread up and you hadn't read it...........

I have heard that these guys who fish the match carp lakes reckon they are the bees knees, catching fish on pegs that are usually considered pool fodder pegs, is it because they are something new? Remains to be seen I suppose.

Had all my fish in the news item on the Halli Hookers. They stay on well on either the hair or the hook. They do tend to expand slightly after a while and the 8mm end up more like 11mm. I've broken one open and they are made of a fibrous material which is impregnated with oil. The dark colour appears to be a dye and it does wash out slightly after a while making the pellet a lot paler.

Tell you what shall I do a review in the review section?

I saw an advertisement in TCF for them and they show in the photograph 16mm ones. Whooohoooo! Bring them on.

Can we persuade them to bring out a real donkey-choker size - 25mm? You'd only get a dozen in packet. Our Thames barbel are greedy so-and-sos and would like some of them, I'm sure.

(They'll probably end up looking like Deanos if we feed them too many)

I have been using the 11mm S pellets for the last month on my syndicate lake. Have found that they can sometimes split when pushing a hook through, but generally last well. The oil keeps leaking into the water for around three hours. If you reseal the pack, they stay fresh for over a week.

I have had some great catches with them when combining them with the green swim stim pellets as loose feed. This has definatley triggered the carp and tench into feeding, on days when things have been slow.