PVA mesh was popularised a few years ago by Steve Spurgeon who at the time was working for Korda, however it is our understanding that Rod Hutchinson was using a similar mesh before Steve had "invented" it.

It was almost definitely sourced originally from the medical scene, where it was used in operations... and no more clues on that one ;)

Early mesh`s suffered badly from laddering, meaning when you tried to refill your tube from the refill spool, the whole lot would ladder as you put it onto the tube rendering it useless.
Modern developments, incorporating different techniques of manufacture have resulted in mesh`s that do not ladder.

Generally in the magazines you can see the mesh filled with pellets, however it is not necessary to follow the crowd, and you can acutally use many things inside the mesh. 10 or 12mm boilies is seldomly used inside the mesh, and gives you an edge. As does injecting liquids directly into the bag with a syringe. Non water based liquids such as Minamino or those with an oil base such as pure peanut oil help the fish home into your bags as soon as they are cast out.

Preparing bags on the bank is an edge to save you time. During a quiet period its easy to sit down and tie up the bags in readyness. What you have to be careful of is the oil content. If you are using trout pellets for example, they usually have a high level of oil which seaps into the PVA mesh. When this happends the disolving time extends, and during the summer this isnt usually a problem however it is something you must be careful of in the winter.
This however can be used to your advantage if you are fishing rivers, or deep (20m+) waters, the increased pressure of fishing deep waters, and the current in the river both help to shorten the dissolving time of the mesh.

One last tip before we finish this mini article off is to roll the pva mesh in something before you cast it out. Bearing in mind what we mentioned earlier about high oil contents, its important to be a little selective with what you roll your pva mesh in, however commercial boilie dips are perfect.

This wraps up this mini article for now, to be revised at a later date...