How to attach Hard Pellets

Over the last 2 years there is one thing that has hugely increased in number in my shed and holdall, and that is pellets. Pellets aren’t a particularly new idea and I remember them really starting to take venues apart in the late 90's early 00's when they starting to spike in popularity and it was all still a bit of a novelty. Since then pellets have come a long way, in various different sizes, styles, shapes and flavours. They have gone from strength to strength and consistently form the main stay of many match anglers "go to" bait. In all honesty I steered clear of pellets for as long as possible, believing that more natural baits would produce as well as any pellet, but the more venues I visited and the more lakes I fished, it was clear to see that although natural baits were effective, they just didn't consistently compete with pellets. Wanting to have as successful a day as possible on venues where matches are fished I switched over to pellets and to be honest, I haven't looked back. There has been a bit of trial and error, and when asked recently how I was hooking the hard pellets (on this occasion I using a hair rig) I had a look at my topkits and explained that I had few rigs set up to cover my options.

Fishing Basics - Loop Tying - Preston Loop Tyer

I’ve recently encountered some trouble with my Seymo Loop Tyer, and although the knots have never failed me, they seem to be getting bigger than I require. So I decided to give the Preston Innovations Loop Tyer a whirl. It was a bit of a school boy error, but I managed to pick on up without instructions! So I had to spend a little while working out how to use this little fella, but once I did I was very pleased with the consistent and small loops I was creating. This little tool will be in my tackle box from now on.

If you have one, but are not sure how to use it, here’s how.

BBC2 - Big Fish

Have you ever watched Fishing Guru's, Go Fishing, River Monsters... or even Robson Green's Extreme Fishing and thought "I could definitely do that"...

Here is your chance! 

Fishing Basics - Knot Tying - How to tie a Lasso knot

This is just a quick post in response to a question I was asked a few weeks ago when out fishing using Pellets. I was alternating between a few rigs which had various hook set up's (using the pole), these were;

• A haired 8mm pellet,
• A banded 6mm pellet, and
• A lassoed 6mm pellet. 

I was then asked how I tied a lasso knot, as the angler asking didn't have any pellet bands with him. I admitted of the three methods I like the lasso least as I think the presentation of the pellet is not as good, when compared with either the haired or banded approaches. However, I proceeded to show him how I was taught to tie the lasso knot, and for those wondering, here's how you can too!