The Ultimate Solid PVA Bag

I first started using solid PVA bags in 1992 and at the time only mesh stocking type PVA was being used. This had its own issues in colder water and the good thing about a solid PVA bag was that it was guaranteed to melt in the coldest of water. In really warm conditions and deeper water it’s often advisable to ‘double bag’, placing a made up solid bag into a second one to ensure it hits the bottom before melting.

I always tie my bags up as I need them. You can pre-tie them but I’ve found in hot, humid conditions or cold, damp conditions the bags can become spongey, stretched or even begin melting, which is not what you want.

Tailoring your lead size and colour is important for the range and substrate your fishing over

The idea of a solid bag is that it’s one mouthful of food. The carp will drop down and suck the whole lot up in one go. Due to the nature of fishing the rig inside the bag, with a mouthful of free offerings around it, you can cast the solid bag over almost anything and guarantee that you’re fishing effectively. It will sit on weed, land on silt or present on gravel and is an almost fool-proof method, as long as you tie it correctly. The size of your PVA bag needs to coincide with your lead, which I will always use an in-line style for. You need to tie and compact you bag as tightly as possible, so having pellet that is too big or a lead that’s too big for the bag will keep too much air in the bag and make it take much longer to hit the lake bed. This can cause it to melt on the way down which completely destroys the mouthful of food you’re trying to present. You also need a lead heavy enough to drag it down to the lake bed fast enough for the same reason too, but bear in mind the weight of the pellet you’re adding too. If you’re using a small bag you need a small lead of around 2.5oz, which will give you a combined 5oz weight or there abouts, so make sure your rod is up to casting that weight too. You can add a fine powder like groundbait to fill the gaps in your bag or choose a smaller pellet, but its imperative you make the bag as compact as possible, with as little trapped air as you can.

I use a short rig for fishing in solid bags, and a size 8 bottom bait hook is plenty big enough. The nature of housing the rig inside the bag means it cannot tangle, and having the very short length means the feeding carp will be in contact with the lead, which sets the hook very quickly. All you need it to do is enter the mouth and turn as it’s blown out, the quick reaction of the rig is what you’re looking for, with the rig sitting nice and straight in the bag. I recommend 2 to 3.5 inches depending on the size of your PVA bag. I keep it very simple and tie a simple knotless knot with uncoated braid so it’s completely supple, remember it can’t tangle inside the bag. I’ll add a small shrink tube kicker to help it turn and hook the fish better, but also a piece of silicone to hold the hook bait close to the hook, again aiding the hooking potential. I’ll fish with a 14mm barrel bottom bait as this is plenty big enough to stand out in the bag of small feed, I don’t want a pop-up sitting above the pile of feed, it’s just to obvious in my opinion. I will also rub some tungsten putty up the braid to help keep it pinned to the deck.

A small piece of silicone and a shrink tube kicker keeps the hook bait close to the shank, giving you better hooking potential

A drop-off lead set-up gives you a more direct contact with the hooked fish, and prevents them using the lead to eject the hook

For the lead arrangement I will always use an inline lead as I mentioned earlier, tailored in colour and weight to the situation and size of PVA bag I’m fishing to ensure it sinks and presents how I want I to. On most occasions I will fish the lead to drop-off, which gives me great control over the fish and stops the carp having a weight close to the hook which can cause the line to slacken off and give the fish freedom to ditch the hook. If I’m fishing a water where lots of bites are likely, then I will thread the lead onto the leader, otherwise it becomes very expensive. I’ll fish my leader a coupe of feet in length to ensure everything’s pinned to the bottom and a small quick clip to attach the rig with a boom of some description to allow it to move freely.

A simple halibut pellet mix is perfect for packing out your solid PVA bags and I like to use a few sizes up to 4mm, ensuring that the mix will fill all of the little gaps within the bag. I also crumb a few boilies and layer the bag, after ive covered the hook bait with pellet to ensure no pieces of crumbed boilie mask the hook point in the bag. If your pellets are leaving a lot of air in the bag, then a powder will reduce this. The crumbed boilie will add a fleck of colour into the mix making it stand out and make it the same as the bait on your hook, that way the only large bait in the mix is the same colour, but equally it still stands out and is something to hone in on. This bait will cover and engulf the lead if the bag is tied correctly so all that can be seen is the perfect mouthful of food. Add that, providing they’re tied correctly, you can cast these at long range and you’ve got the most accurate mouthful of food possible. I often see people catapulting or spreading boilie in the area they cast a solid bag to, but to me, that completely takes away from the mouthful of food you’ve just created, so I always fish these on their own.

Tailoring your lead size and colour is important for the range and substrate your fishing over