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 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.
Below is a video how to use PVA bags, it may take a few seconds to show...