Carp on banded pellet

I fished a club pool (not a commercial) using float-fished banded pellet on a QM1 barbless size 14 yesterday and had two issues. I fed a mixture of 4 and 6mm coarse pellets about a rod's length out and started with an 8mm on the band. It's a shallow pool (average 2 feet of water over a silty bottom) and the float was set about a foot overdepth.

The first issue was that the carp were feeding more strongly than I've ever seen before - throwing in a handful of loose pellets had them bubbling furiously over the bait, backs and tails breaking the surface, but they seemed to ignore the one on the hook.

The second issue was hookpulls. I was using a 12' through-action 1.5lb t.c. rod and 6lb line - 4 of the 7 carp I managed to hook powered off and the hook pulled as I applied side-strain to stop them reaching a reed bed. The 3 landed weighed between 5 and 6lb; those I lost I think were bigger, but not huge (low doubles, maybe).

Next time out I intend using a softer float rod and centre-pin reel in the hope of minimising the hook-pull problem. The only other thing I though of trying was using a microbarbed hook instead of barbless (club rules allow microbarbed up to a size 12), although I'm not sure if that will make a difference.

As for the other issue of fish ignoring the hookbait, I tried scaling down to a 6mm pellet on the band, but this didn't seem to help much. I've also ordered some Drennan bands in a dark brown - the ones I have at present are a natural latex colour and stand out like a sore thumb even on a lightish coarse pellet. The water is permanently coloured in this pool though and I'm not convinced the fish can actually see the pellets they're eating.

I daren't fish any lighter line and I imagine increasing the hook size won't help - any ideas, anyone?

Have you tried a soft hooker pellet or paste? Bites on these can be more true. When they are bubbling and kicking up silt it can be hard also to avoid foul hooking at times on banded pellet.

I did think about paste, but there are a lot of skimmers in that pool that tend to destroy soft baits quite quickly. Mind you, when the carp move in, the skimmers should clear off if they have any sense!

I was fishing banded pellet on my old match rod with 8lb mainline and 6lb hook to nylon, but I was constantly getting snapped off, so I changed up. I’d say you should go up in hook and pellet size. In my recent experience of banded pellet waggling at the Leg of Mutton lake in Bushy Park I have been using a size 6 barbless hook tied direct to the mainline (12lb mono) along with Robin Red 12mm pellets attached using 3.2mm natural latex bands. I use a 10g pellet waggler float with doubled up float stops. This is all on an old Shimano 2.5 TC 12 foot two piece rod, with an old Shimano baitrunner reel.

This has brought in many commons from about 4lb up to 12:8, all of them fighting like hell, with only the occasional fish (e.g one a day) slipping from the hook. In this configuration the hook is visible on the pellet along with the natural coloured band, but it doesn’t seem to worry the fish at all. This is in a busy venue where the fish have plenty to be wary about, and in a max depth of maybe 2’ 6” of clear water at present.

Cheers, Bob

Check your hooks, particularly if like me you use hooks to nylon! Whether just plain hair rigged or banded should be irrelevant to the hook pulls! I always feel awkward advising on a subject like this but one learns from experience! Getting back to the hooks I am amazed at the differences between sizes and qualities. Some bands are rubbish, some size eighteen are bigger than a fourteen ! Sorry but My iPad keyboard sometimes will not let me access numerals!!!

I also find that such hooks are always tied with a knotless knot to a spade end and sometimes I have lost the hook if the knot unravels or breaks.

The ones you pulled out of were probably foul hooked. Try meat and corn, I have had issues recently with the carp feeding over pellet and not picking up the pellet hook bait, I seem to have solved it by feeding corn and meat, and using meat as the bait. Also I would reduce the laying on to 2 inches. Des "the fishing god" Shipp says do not feed pellet on a silty bottom because you will get fizzing and they are a nightmare to catch when it is fizzing, he says if it starts fizzing start a new spot 1m away. Oh he also says feed very little on a silty bottom.


If you promise not to tell anyone I will let you into a little secret, I have had great success with meat that has been liberally coated with garlic salt and left to marinade overnight or frozen and thawed. Remember, don't tell anyone.

Mike, spade ends cannot be tied with a knotless knot, they are whipped on, different beast altogether.

sagalout said:

Mike, spade ends cannot be tied with a knotless knot, they are whipped on, different beast altogether.

Click to expand...

I thought those two techniques were one and the same! One lives and learns! I will try the garlic salt on my next batch! I have used spam for many a month with great success but on the last two trips I used Plumrose without any interest! Probably merely a coincidence but I will stick with spam from now on! Thanks for the tip!

I told David not to tell anyone

Use bacon grill not luncheon meat. It's tougher and less greasy and is what Des "the fishing god" Shipp uses. I have always used Lidls bacon grill but they seem to have stopped doing it as have Aldi, so at the moment it is Morrisons for me but I intend to look in B and M and Poundland over the weekend (Mrs Lout thinks we are going away because it is her birthday but it is actually so I can look for cheap bacon grill, now for kerist's sake don't no one tell her).

Thanks for all the suggestions - I've used meat with success on that pool before, so I think I'll keep the pellets for use on another club pool that isn't silty...

David Rogers 3 said:

The first issue was that the carp were feeding more strongly than I've ever seen before - throwing in a handful of loose pellets had them bubbling furiously over the bait, backs and tails breaking the surface, but they seemed to ignore the one on the hook.

Click to expand...

Possibly the turbulence created by the 'carp were feeding more strongly than I've ever seen before' was lifting your hook bait up in the water and out of vision. If so, the lift method, or similar, may be the way to go to anchor the bait to the bottom. This would also explain the 'possible' foul hooking............

If your banding your pellet direct to the hook i.e putting the band and pellet direct on the hook I would try and incorporate a hair to ensure the hookpoint is not sitting flush to the pellet and impeding penetration. In addition up the hook size. These two things may help to improve your hook holds.

As for the fish avoiding the hookbait try feeding less. The water sounds very well stocked so I would fish over small amounts of bait to stop too many fish moving in at once and improve the chance they will take your hookbait rather than the free feed.

As Philip says cut down on the feed, I would try a lasso instead of a band unless the bait band is on a hair rig.
I use the same style and size of hook but for 4mm and 6mm pellets, If I use 8mm it is with a quick stop on a hair and a Size 12 hook.
I would try either dead depth or fish shallow at say half depth and feed a couple of pellets each cast and match the hatch so to speak, ie feed 4mm, fish 4mm. another way is fish shallow and feed a marble sized ball of softened 2mm pellets each cast.When the bottom of the pool starts fizzing, the carp are grubbing in the silt for food, that's why the feed less scenario comes in,and also that's why you should start a new swim a small distance away,

Thanks - I'll give all those suggestions a try. I have been using Drennan Carp Bandits (which have the band on a very short hair), but, not having complete confidence in the line they're tied to, or the knots they're tied with, have recently been just nicking the hook straight into a pellet band.

Most of the issues are probably due to having shallow water over a silty bottom - 2 feet of water and 2 feet of silt! I might also try experimenting with semi-bouyant baits that ought to sit on top of the silt instead of sinking into it.

I fished the same pool yesterday, and taking advice from posters on this thread, gave pellets a miss entirely. Instead, I fished at dead depth with hair-rigged, paste-wrapped 15mm boilies on a size 10, and fed only a few pieces of paste. This resulted in 4 carp up to 10lb, with no fish lost or foul-hooked. I'm glad I asked!