PALLATRAX STONZE SYSTEM
Price: STONZE (Small, Med & Large) £ 1.25STUMPY RIGS £ 1.99STONZE KIT £ 2.95

Let’s get one thing straight before we start. Stonze are not coated leads. They are real, genuine stones.

They are not of uniform shape, they vary through round (ish), stumpy, flat, elongated, irregular, oval. In fact they are all shapes except square – just like stones, which they are!


Flexi ring swivel attached – compatible with all types of rig
It’s possible that your first reaction to Stonze is, “so what?” They’re stones with a built-in swivel, but apart from that they’re just something to give your tackle enough weight to cast and to hold it in position once it’s there.

Let’s look at some bullet points as listed by Pallatrax

  • Environmentally friendly
  • Natural in colour, shape and size
  • More likely to settle on the bottom as opposed to crashing like a lead, therefore better for fishing silty bottoms
  • Stonze can be left in water to encourage algae growth – resulting in further natural camouflage
  • Can’t get a more natural product to do the job of a weight
  • Flexi ring swivel attached – compatible with all types of rig
  • Camouflage – most lakes formed by gravel extraction, gravel river bottoms
  • Fish learn by association – anything unnatural (lead) can indicate a possible danger
  • Leads and their uniform shape are consistently used on pressured waters, which can make them difficult waters
  • Stonze, being porous, will take on a flavour
  • Excellent for using with a method mix


Pick the shape that suits the situation – a nice flat one like this will hold bottom better in a flow when river fishing
The test

If you’ve ever watched a wary carp, or maybe a barbel, examining a bait in clear water then you immediately realise the potential of fishing with these natural weights. More than once I’ve seen barbel approach a bait lying on a patch of gravel and immediately its pectoral fins have begun to quiver, apparently nervously. It approaches the bait, circles it and, it appears at least, to be looking for ‘suspicious’ objects. Most often it spooks when it comes close to the bomb or feeder. A cylinder of plastic or a lump of lead isn’t exactly matched to a gravel bottom.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to work out that a real stone is going to blend in very nicely indeed. A real stone on its own, even on a silty bottom, is going to be more natural than a lump of lead or plastic.


The Stumpy Rig complete with Stonze attached
So, that’s the theory, but there’s nothing like the proof of the pudding, or the proof of the Stonze in this instance. So I fished the river Dove the other evening, while the water was still incredibly clear and the barbel extremely spooky.

I fished the complete Stonze System, using the Stonze weight and a Stumpy Rig, the one that incorporates a 12lb fluoro hooklength. I had some misgivings about the shortness of the hooklength at 3ins (ideal for pop-up baits, which I wasn’t using) but thought, what the hell, with the bait lying so close to the Stonze this will really test it.

I fished the same boilie and used two methods, the first being a small bag of pellets hung on the hook, and the second was to clamp a wad of Method mix around the Stonze, mixed so that it would break away from the Stonze when it hit bottom.

My mate Dave fished the same swim, using the same bait, with a Method feeder for the first half of the session then a conventional lead bomb for the second half.

The result was that I caught two barbel of about 7lb apiece and Dave didn’t get a bite. And he usually does.

Agreed, there is nothing conclusive about that trial. It needs to be tried on a great many more occasions to validate it, but it’s a good start for the Stonze and causes me to look forward to trying it in some more situations where a camouflaged rig may fool some very spooky fish.


The Stonze System
There’s a lot to be said about the environmental aspects of the Stonze. Think about this: if a million anglers lose an ounce of lead a year that’s 62,500lb of lead going into our waterways every year. That’s a pretty conservative estimate as well.

The Stonze System – Stumpy Rigs

The system includes eight hand-tied (in England) Stumpy Rigs. You just add a Stonze and you have a complete terminal set up.

The choice is 12lb or 15lb fluorocarbon, 12lb or 15lb braid, size 6 or 8, barbed or barbless hooks.

The rigs are approx 3″ in length.

The Stonze System also includes six items:

  1. Tulip Beads – 15 soft rubber tulip beads – RRP £ 1.75
  2. Rubber Beads – 15 soft rubber beads in a mix of green and brown – RRP £ 1.40
  3. Shrink Tubing – 15 pieces (approx. 1″) of shrink tubing with an extremely high shrink ratio – RRP £ 1.75
  4. Size 8 Swivels – 15 swivels – RRP £ 1.75
  5. Stonze Kit – A simple starter kit which includes 1m of rig tubing, 5 beads, 5 tulip beads and a medium size Stonze – RRP £ 2.95
  6. Rig Tubing – 2m of rig tubing – RRP £ 1.40

The Stonze system is now available from Pallatrax stockists, a list of stockists can be found on the Pallatrax website: www.pallington.freeuk.com.

FISHINGmagic VERDICT

Three things to be aware of:
1.They can’t be bought by weight. Obviously not, Stonze are real stones that don’t come off production lines in graded weights. You buy them in large, medium or small sizes, and even then they will vary a little.

2.Even the elongated ones are not the ideal shape for extreme distance casting. Not that that will worry the majority of anglers for most of us fish well within the distance that the Stonze can reach.

3.The weight of a Stonze is about half the weight of a lead of the same bulk.

With only a little imagination I can see lots of potential for the Stonze in situations where educated big fish are wary of plastic and lead. Apart from that the Stonze are an excellent boost to the environment and environmentally conscious anglers are sure to welcome them.

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