PVA bags have been used for Carp Fishing now for around 30 years. They have been partly responsible for revolutionizing Carp Fishing enabling anglers to catch more fish. They are successful because they accurately place a small pile of bait around your hookbait meaning there is a stronger signal for the fish to find and therefore increasing your chances of catching.
There are 2 options when using PVA bags, either putting your whole rig and lead into the bag, or just the hooklink. If you are fishing inline leads most people put the whole rig (which is usually shorter than usual) into the bag as it generally gives a better presentation.
If you are fishing leads on a lead clip then there are generally more choices as you can put the lead into the bag alone, and have the hooklink outside, or you can put the whole lead and rig into the bag. The advantages for putting your rig outside of the bag is that you can generally fish with a longer hooklink and it also leaves a little extra space in the bag.
The most common mistake we have seen people make is to try to fill the bag too much. This gives you little room for error and usually results in dropping the bag, or starting again.
It is better to fill the bag around 3/4 full giving a little extra room to close the bag properly and neaten things off.
PVA bags are usually closed in 2 ways, either using PVA string to tie around the bag, or by licking and sticking the bag.
We prefer using the PVA String method as it gives a neater bag and also enables you to fill the bag a little fuller.
With experience the more you use the bags the fuller you can get them and with a combination of PVA string and twisting the top, with a little saliva you can get a really neat aerodynamic bag that can easily be cast 100 yards or more with the correct tackle.
One recent tip for using the solid style PVA bags is the inclusion of additional attractors inside the bag. Powered attractors such as Betaine, Green Lipped Mussel (GLM) extract, Corn Steep Liquor powder and Liver powder etc can be added directly into the bag further boosting the attraction.
The same can be said for non water based liquid attractors (generally oil based), Multimino, Salmon Oil, Corn Steep Liquor, Hemp Oil, and liquid mollases can be added. As all of these attractors mentioned are naturally based it is nearly impossible to use too much, what we advise is finding a good thick attractor carrier and adding the powders to this to boost the attraction. Thin liquid`s usually disperse very quickly from the bag as soon as it has melted, whereas thicker liquids generally linger about longer, so it depends on the angling situation and what you think will work.
We hope you have found this little article useful, and like all of our articles we are interested in hearing your thoughts and will revise them again in the future.