Solid bags better than ever English

NASH KNOWHOW

NASH KNOWHOW

Solid Bags

Better than Ever

By Mick Henderson

Looking for an edge on waters overrun with chods and Ronnie rigs? Mick Henderson is enjoying great big fish results after re-discovering the effectiveness of solid PVA bags – and refining them to be better than ever.

I’ve been fishing solid PVA bags for almost 20 years now, and they remain one of my go to presentations – simply because they are so effective almost anywhere.

With experience you tend to find something that works and stick with it. In the early 2000s I used solid bags a lot, then had a diversion of a few years into chods because they suited the venues I was fishing, and today I’m back on solid bags and loving them again.

They offer reliable presentation and you can pretty much cast them anywhere, making them great as a stand alone tactic or over a bed of bait to draw attention to the hookbait.

The big mistake is to label solid PVA bags as a small fish method. Having caught two English 50lb carp this way I would disagree.

They were the famous Benson from Bluebell Lakes in Peterborough at over 59lb and

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the Woolpack Syndicate’s Paddle. Both were very pressured fish but were caught out with a solid bag of high attract mix.

The results on solid PVA bags today are probably more consistent than they were all those years ago. My current venue is not easy and yet solid bags have brought ten bites just on my last session – and at a time when others are struggling and beds of bait aren’t producing. A solid bag has so much to offer it really is a self contained carp trap.

All that has changed over the years is that I’ve refined how I tie the bags to make them cast further, fly straighter and allow me the versatility to change the link length and hookbait choice even when a bag is already tied.

WHEN AND WHERE • Anywhere - a solid bag is one of the most reliable go anywhere tactics of all • Often overlooked but as good for big carp as small ones • Brilliant for good presentation over weed and silt • Excellent for bringing bites when carp are indifferent or not feeding hard • Use to cast at showing carp or over baited areas

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NASH KNOWHOW

NASH KNOWHOW

YOU’LL NEED… • Medium Fast Melt PVA bags • Narrow Fast Melt PVA tape • In-line flat pear lead • 1mm D-Cam Tubing • Tail rubbers • Double ring swivel • 20 lb Armourlink • Citruz 12mm wafters • Size 7 Fang X hooks • 1mm Shrink tube

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In-line leads are essential for solid bag work. I use 2-4 oz depending on how far I am casting. I score a groove with a knife blade out of the camo coating down the centre of the lead.

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An important tweak is to slightly flatten the eye of a double ring swivel. The lead will be fished drop off style and reducing the diameter of the eye helps the swivel pop out more cleanly, dropping the lead quicker.

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The barrel of the swivel is pushed into the front recess of the lead, and the tubing locates in the groove along the top of the lead. With sharp scissors I cut the stiff tube to a point – this helps the lead drop out the rubber more easily.

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Pushing the tail rubber over the stiff tube out the back of the lead completes the end tackle. Dropping the lead quickly prevents a carp being able to use it to shake the hook back out and helps land more fish in weedy venues.

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My preferred bag filling is finely liquidized Scopex Squid boilies, put through a food processor until they are like powder. I then add the matching PVA friendly Scopex Squid Liquid Bait Soak to boost the attraction from the crumb.

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I use the medium Nash Fast Melt bags which are very tough, easy to handle and I can fish them confidently at 120 yards and more the way I tie them. To start I load the bag to halfway with the Scopex Squid crumb.

Because many of my venues have a ban on leaders I thread 12 inches of 1mm D-Cam tubing up the main line followed by a tail rubber then tie on the double ring swivel, knotting to one of the large rings.

For solid bags I use wafter style presentations, combining a size 7 Fang X with a pastel 12mm Citruz wafter and a curved shrink tube extension. Hooklinks are five inches (12cm) of 20lb Armourlink which is tough and sinks fast.

I then push the lead right to the bottom before packing more crumb on top of it and patting it down to really compact the bait parcel. Having the lead at the front makes the bag much more stable in flight.

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The top of the bag is twisted tight, the bag compacted and then twisted again so the bag is packed tightly with as little air in there as possible. Then a couple of wraps of Fast Melt PVA tape and a granny knot secures the neck.

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Another element of my bag tying unique to me is that I spend time rolling the finished bag between the palms of my hand to make it as uniform and cylindrical as possible – it helps with increased distance and accuracy.

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The bag dissolves quickly leaving the equivalent of a ball of broken down groundbait with a perfectly presented balanced hookbait in the middle of the attractive crumb.

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The corners of the bag need to be rounded off so the nose is aerodynamic like a bullet. Pluck the slack out from the corner of the bag, lightly lick the underside of the flap and pull it up the side of the bag and stick it in position using finger pressure.

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The hookbait and hook are passed through the loop to attach the link to the ring swivel without tying a knot or needing scissors. This adaptation means I can change hookbait or length of link even when a bag is already made up.

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Using a baiting needle I carefully pierce the centre of the base of the bag and then pull the ring of the swivel through the PVA film. The figure of eight loop knot at the end of the hooklink is passed through the ring.

The hooklink is folded back on itself and the hook point carefully slipped through the PVA film just above the corner of the bag. There’s no chance the hook point can be masked with crumb.

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