The concept of shelf life boilies being made with 'fresh fish' is one that seems oxymoronic to me. Still, I'm no bait anorak. Nonetheless the Mussel and Oyster baits I had decanted into a tub remained unused in my rucksack for some months. Until the final day of the river season in fact. I will concede that the Mussel and Oyster baits looked good and smelled fishy enough to catch though. Although harder than frozen baits they are not like little rocks.

I think it was desperation that drove me to stick one of these boilies on one rod. A five-pound chub took it pretty quickly. With less than four hours of the season to go another one of the boilies produced a ten-pound barbel. My usual baits had produced one small chub all day!

Not a conclusive trial, but now I know they catch fish I'll have the confidence to use the Mussel and Oyster baits more frequently in future. Well worth leaving a few in the rucksack for the days the tub of your usual bait slides off the car roof somewhere along the 100 mile journey…

Available in 10mm, 15mm, 20mm and 26mm shelf life, and as frozen in 15mm and 20mm.

Update:
After that end of season burst I ignored boilies for over twelve months, but have been using these baits a fair bit recently and, even though they are from the same packet - now almost two years old, they are catching well. Fish of a good average size too. I'm kicking myself for not persevering with them last term. Definitely a bait to have confidence in.

Dave Lumb

Posted August 2008 (Updated August 2009)

I'd always had a preference for larger hook baits - 14mm boilies and 21mm halibut pellets, so it was with some reluctance that I tried out Pellet Os as the largest available is 12mm, with 6mm and 8mm also supplied.

Originally made in just halibut and crab varieties I tried both. Maybe it's just chance, but the crab ones seemed to be the most productive. In fact they were very productive. I experimented with different numbers threaded on the hair to give me a bigger bait and took a lot of fish fishing five of them - which I call The Snake. It looks preposterous, but it works.

The crab Pellet Os in particular soon soften up, and fishing multiple baits meant that I could be sure the hair wasn't bare. Moving into autumn and then to winter I reduced the bait size and found a new confidence in small baits. A single 8mm crab Pellet O accounting for all my best barbel from November onwards, and some nice chub too. Every now and then, however, I'd reel in to find the bait gone. Opening a new tub up usually sorted that problem - don't allow the spares to get damp. As the season drew to a close I experimented further by combining different sized baits on a single hair. I'm not sure the fish gave a damn, but they still ate them!

Supplied in handy resealable tubs I save the Pellet Os for hookbaits and feed a mixture of other pellets - usually Tuna Spod Mix (see below) and various sized halibuts - by dropper or PVA. These pellets are so good that when I run low I buy more!

Dave Lumb

Posted May 2009

* The apostrophe is Sonu's, not mine...

It's not every day that a bait comes along that really is something different - that actually works. I approached Sonu's Tuff 1s with the same scepticism that I do all new baits. The original S-Pellets had been okay, but I found they had a habit of disappearing from the hair without warning. The small ones were a valuable addition to a PVA bag though. The oil release being the key, I think.

Tuff 1s are a different formulation and stay on the hair as well as a boilie does. The texture of the inner part of the bait is crunchy, almost biscuit-like, while the outer skin is softer but doesn't peel/wash off as the skin on Tuna Wraps does. If you aren't very good at tying your hairs the right length, or want to use a smaller bait, they can be easily cut in two with a pair of scissors without falling apart (as in the accompanying photograph).

You can leave these baits in the water for a couple of hours secure in the fact that they are still on the hair, and still leaking barbel attracting oil. If you are a lazy sod like me they'll even be dripping oil a few days later if you leave them on the rig when you pack up!

The Monster Crab and Mussel Tuff 1s that I have been trying out smell really good to me, and the barbel seem to like them. In my first three sessions using these baits I hooked five barbel, landing four - all over nine pounds, biggest 13 plus. Having used them when I was able to leave baits out for a long time, and when weed coming down the river forced me to recast every fifteen to twenty minutes I know these baits will work 'instantly' and as an attractor. They have become a high confidence bait. Even if the colour does wash out and turn them a vivid emerald green!

Dave Lumb

Posted May 2009

I'm not a great believer in wonder baits, so the arrival of some pre-release samples from Sonu Baits saw me sceptical. However, I had been thinking of using some faster breakdown pellets in my mesh bags, so I mixed some of the Spod Mix into a bucket of small halibut pellets.

Testing the Spod Mix in a tub of water showed that the various sizes and types of pellets do break down at different rates, and they certainly have a strong fishy aroma.

In use the mix certainly didn't put the barbel and chub off. In fact I had some good catches using them. Not conclusive in itself, but one thing I did notice was that I caught on baits fished in spots that were not the ones I expected to produce. Most of the season I had been fishing with one rod because the swims weren't conducive to fishing with two, or because there was only on spot in them that was likely to get a bite. In a couple of the latter such swims baits cast in unlikely places produced fish when used in conjunction with the Spod Mix. Again not conclusive, but a nice confidence boost. The Spod Mix has now become the basis for my bag mix, laced with small halibut pellets to provide a longer lasting bit of feed around the hookbait when leaving baits in place for a couple of hours.

The Tuna Wraps, on the other hand, I have had less success with. Admittedly they haven't often been used in banker swims. I'm not a great fan of shelf life boilies for one thing (although I have used them successfully), and these are particularly hard. Not that hard baits worry me either, having caught barbel on air dried baits in the past.

As the name implies, Tuna Wraps are what looks to be a bird seed boilie with a gelatinous, tuna flavoured outer wrap. This wrap washes off the bait to provide an flavour trail.

Despite fishing the Tuna Wraps with the Spod Mix I have yet to have a barbel pick one up. Chub, on the other hand, love them! On slow days the Tuna Wraps have saved the day by producing the only fish of the session - always a chub, including some nice ones.

As can be seen from the accompanying photos both the Spod Mix and the Wraps are supplied in sealed plastic buckets containing 3kg and 1kg respectively.

Dave Lumb

Posted December 2007

I'd always considered pre-drilled pellets to be a bit of a gimmick as I have always tied pellets to the hair using a Uni-Knot, but since trying them I have to admit that they are pretty handy things. Some I've seen have been a bit rough and ready though - wide bore holes that a camel could easily pass through and a rough, dry texture.

Available in a range of sizes to 20mm. Well worth the price of a kilo bag.

Dave Lumb

Posted October 2007

If the feeding frenzy that the limited edition Stinky French Garlic Spam created on the internet is anything to go by, barbel anglers like baits flavoured with garlic! So I assume that Dynamite Baits' new Garlic Frenzied Hemp will prove popular with barbel anglers who don't prepare their own seeds. I must admit that when I opened up the tin I was surprised to find that the garlic wasn't just added to the hemp as a flavour but as bits of chopped garlic. The other new Frenzied Hemp is Spicy Chilli, which again has actual chopped chillies in it.

As with most additions to feed it's hard to say if they actually improve catches. But having used both of these baits I can categorically state that neither puts barbel off, and both could give the angler a confidence boost.

One word of caution; take care when using the Spicy Chilli Hemp if you have cuts on your fingers, or even nettle stings - boy does it smart! I would avoid rubbing your eyes after handling it too.

Dave Lumb

Posted September 2007