If you would like to ask any of the Sonubaits consultants a question about bait then you can do so here and they will get back to you as soon as possible!
Below are just a few Frequently Asked Questions, you may find the answer to your question below, if not please feel free to ask, and we will as always try to help.
Q: Could you tell me how oily the pellets in tuna spod mix are? Are they high or low in their oil content? And are they suited to summer only or year round use? A: The Tuna Spod mix pellets have different levels of oil in them to provide an instant and sustained feeding area. The lowest oil pellets have 10% oil and the highest oil pellets are 40% however there are much fewer of these. So the overall oil content is more than a standard carp pellet but lower than halibut pellets.
With regard to winter and summer use, it is suited to using in both conditions, however personally I would reduce the amount I was using over winter for most waters to a couple of accurate spods rather than mass baiting. That said there are some waters which respond to a fair amount of bait throughout the colder months.
Q: Can you use hali hookers in winter for barbel? A: Hali Hookers work well in winter for barbel, although they are high in oil it, and other attractants will still leak out even in cold water. I have found that over winter it is best to fish in high water conditions as the water will be warmer and so the barbel are more likely to feed.
Q: I am going to be starting Catfishing in the UK this year and wondered if you make 22mm or bigger tuna wrap as I thinks it would be a killer for cats. A: Tuna wraps do work well for catfish, if you look at the gallery section you will see a 68.4 caught last summer. Sonubaits will be releasing a 20mm Tuna Boosted Wrap at the end of April and another one to watch out for will be the 20mm Halibut Boosted Wrap which will be available at the same time.
Q: I have just received a range of your sonubaits tuna products through subscription to a magazine & am wondering the effectiveness of Tuna Wraps in winter due to oil content? A: Sonubaits Tuna Wraps have proven to be very effective in cold water, although they are high in oil it is far from the only soluble attractant in the wrap, there are many others which dissolve easily at low temperatures. Also you will find that although the paste wrap dissolves more slowly in cold temperatures it will still put out more attractants than normal boiled bait, it is fairly common that anglers will wrap their baits in paste over winter so they give off more attractants quickly. A little tip for fishing with the tuna wraps in cold temperatures is to put some of the Sonubaits Tuna Dip in a pot with some Tuna Wraps to be used as hookbaits. This will soften the paste wrap and make it dissolve more quickly in low temperatures.
Q: What is the best way to mix Sonubaits Mix 1 A: Andy Findlay prepares his mix the night before he fishes by adding 600ml of water to a bag of Sonubaits Mix 1, he shakes this through the mix and leaves it to absorb all the water. At the bank in the morning he riddles the mix to get air into it so it breaks down quickly in the water.
Q: Can you tell me if I crushed a boilie up and mixed the powder into a tub of paste, would I be fishing legally if boilies are band but not paste and pellets A: That is a very good question. Obviously before a boilie is boiled it is a paste generally made from different cereals. So to crush a boilie back to powder form to make into a paste should not be an issue. The owner may have different reasons for banning boilies so I would recommend speaking with them first to see what their opinion of the matter is.
Q: Me and my son have started fishing our local canal and we were wondering whether to give pellets a try. Our local tackle shop has a wide range of pellet products so many in fact that making the right choice is very difficult. A: Hi Jonny, thanks for the question.
The answer would depend on which canal you are fishing and what you are fishing for. Canals are so varied with depths and fish species etc. The best advice I can give you is to do your research, find out where the fish which you are targeting are getting caught from. For example are there any basins which produce the fish you are after on a regular basis. Most fish can be caught on pellets now and if you are targeting species such as tench, bream or carp I would certainly use pellets such as the Sonubaits Fin Perfect Feed, and as a hook bait I would use S-Pellets as these will attract most fish species.
Q: Are the sonubaits flavours PVA Friendly A: They are not, they have been designed to add to maggots, pellets, corn, meat, groundbait, particles etc or to customize your own pellets and pastes. The sonubaits flavours can be added to the mix at any stage and a recent trend is just cupping the flavour or dye out with a few pellets in the cup.
Q: What is the best flavouring to add to my worm and caster chopie ?? A: If I was fishing for carp or bream I would use sonubaits.com halibut flavour. If fishing for roach then the strawberry flavour. It’s about which species of fish you are fishing for, a good all-round one would be the sonubaits.com pineapple flavour.
Q: What size pellet is the best to use with a large pellet feeder and what bait would you use? A: I would use on the hook or hair rig a 8mm or 11mm S pellet use it in conjunction with a Korum quickstop. In the feeder I would use sonubaits mix 1 groundbait or soft feed pellets 4mm size. Just soak them for 4 minutes then drain the water out and after a few more minutes they become sticky and will stay in a feeder or on a method feeder.
Q: What oz tip do you use for a Korum small elasticated method feeder? A: The best tip is the 3/4 once one. With most rods only one tip is balanced to that rod and it is nearly always the middle one of the range.
Q: How does an angler get sponsored? A: Sponsored anglers are generally picked up by companies who have been watching their results for a long time. There are lots of good anglers but they don’t produce winning results consistently. You always have to push yourself into fishing the big opens and then producing the results.
It is the same within specimen angling, keep producing the results from the circuit waters and publicising the catch in the papers and if manufactures are looking for new anglers then they will approach you.
Q: How come there aren’t micro pellets in the s range would they not be ideal in winter for feeding smaller offerings when you need to cut back on feed? A: When winter fishing I use fin Feed 2 mm and squash a few 4 mm S-Pellets onto the feeder to give off the oil. Although we have developed an S-pellet feed which will be available in spring next year.
Q: Do you know what are the best pellets for carp? A: That is a very difficult question to answer. Carp pellets have been designed for feeding to carp on a commercial basis to help them grow. They have been designed to create a complete diet for carp to replace the natural diet which is omnivorous. Trout pellets were designed for feeding to trout and because of their carnivorous habits can be higher in oil and protein, and halibut pellets being designed for feeding to halibut can have more digestible protein and higher oil levels. Also because of the comparatively high price of halibut for the table market the ingredients used can be of a higher quality.
With regard to fishing the answer is related to the above. I like to use a combination of pellets when fishing for carp so I will mix a small amount of halibut pellet in with some Fin Feed and use a very high oil S-Pellet as the hook bait. But that said everyone is different, Andy Findlay uses softened Fin Feed round a flat method feeder with pumped expander or S-Pellet as the hook bait.
When fishing for specimen carp on low stocked waters I prefer to use a bigger mixture of pellets as they all have different breakdown times and so will offer the curious carp more than just one sort of pellet. I will also use higher oil pellets as they will offer a longer term feeding area as the oil is given off.
Q: I have problem at my local fishery groundbaits and method feeders are banned I want to use pellets on a feeder can you help me? A: Andy uses a pellet cone, he wets the pellets then shoves them inside a cone till the set in the shape of the cone, and then he threads his hooklink through it and clips it on. He uses a running bomb as the weight.
Q: What brand of braid is best to use as a hook length on the method? A: Andy uses smoke grey fireline in 4lbs mainly, occasionally for the bigger fish he steps up to 6lbs. He finds that both strengths brake well above the stated strength
Q: When fishing pellet in six feet of water what type and size of float should I use is there a rule of thumb I could use for fishing different depths A: As a rule of thumb that you use ¼ gram for every 3 foot depth so for 6 foot use ½ a gram. However this will be affected by lots of factors such as tow, wind, size of pellet and you should adjust accordingly although it is rare you will need to go above 1 gram
Q: I've recently been experimenting, using sonu's liquid squirts to catch shallow at length, firstly I was using a kinder- pot with 95% liquid and 5 or 6 6mm pellets but this seemed slow, so i then thought of just feeding neat liquid, thinking that if my hookbait was the only offering, bites would be more frequent and more positive. Trying this out last week i was impressed to start, but after a good first half hour landing 5 carp for 30lb, the bites completely stopped and the angler in the next peg started to catch shallow! Do you think my slick of liquid carried these fish off or was it the lack loose-feed, or maybe this would be a better idea in shallow water i.e. the margins or an island where there is less tow?.....thanks A: It is probably a combination of a few things, the liquid will quickly pull fish into the area but as there is no bait going in they will just as quickly move away to an area of feed. Also it may have been the fish following the slick away from his peg.
Andy said to start out the same but after the first few bites when there are fish in the area to start introducing pellet in with the liquid and to reduce the amount of liquid fed to reduce the amount which can drift. Fishing shallow with no tow you can keep the same amount of liquid going in.
Q: What is the best hooking pellets to use for all species of fish? A: There are many pellets which are available, often expanders are pumped and used but if you want to buy something off the shelf ready to use then I would recommend the S-Pellet. They are the best hooker pellets available as they stay on the hook well and are full of fish catching attractants.
Q: Can you use pellets to catch chub? A: The answer to your question is yes, I have been picking up plenty of chub on the river on S-Pellets and they are one of the best baits to use for them on still waters. I also know on fish farms where they grow chub they feed them with coarse fish pellets.
Q: Would dead red maggot fish better in my chopped worm mix as opposed to caster when fishing my local venue which has a large head of large skimmers and small to medium sized carp. I ask this as when fish wise up to my worm hookbait, red maggot works a lot better than caster....cheers A: I have found dead maggots best when using a feeder both on the hook and in the feeder mixed in groudbait. Most times on the pole I have found it best to mix casters with worms. I have on one venue found 3 dead maggots on the hook best so its trial and error remember every venue is different.
Q: How do you get tight to an island with a waggler without bringing it to far away when you sink the line? A: To get your waggler close to an island there are two ways. Clip up so when you cast the float it lands at the side of island with your rod straight in front the line hitting the clip so the line is straight. When it is calm don't sink the line. If it is windy soak your line in washing up liquid and water 50 50 mix then when the float hits the water put rod tip under water and flick it up sharp about a foot.
Q: My question is, I enjoy match fishing but I never really know whether to use a pole or a match rod. Which is more effective? A: No real answer to this but both catch fish. If you are fishing up to your pole length then it is best because you are fishing under your pole tip so you can fish lighter and your float is under your pole tip so you don't miss as many bites. Remember a rod or pole is only a tool to catch fish.
Prestons Innovation / Sonu Baits are registered in England, Registration No. 03318338
Registered office: Unit 1,Highbridge Court, Stafford Park 1, Telford, TF3 3BD.
