Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations A new method for evaluating Pondmeister's fish.

After many frustrating attempts to get a pellet on a hook, I've come up with a way to get the pellet to stay on enough for at least two casts.

During previous tries, I've found that dry pellets break apart when you try to drive the hook through them. If you wet the pellets they will go through two unsatisfactory stages.

The first stage I call the "premature phase". After one to five minutes of soaking the pellet seems soft enough on the outside, but when you try to hook it, you find that there is a hard core in the middle of the pellet. Most times the pellet collapses when the hook meets the hard middle.

The "swollen stage" occurs after five minutes or so, when the pellet soaks all the way through. Unfortuneately, the pellet's outside has become too soft and the whole pellet turns to mush. Over and over again I try to get the pellet to hold together during hook penetration, but the mushy pellet collapses again, or worse yet, stays on until the cast is made. Worst case scenario is that the pellet comes off when it hits the water, and time is wasted while the poor fisherman has yet to discover that his hook is naked.


THE NEW METHOD

What I've found is that you can observe the pellets in the water and when they start to enter the swollen stage you can place them on a dry board and leave them out in the sun. Premature pellets are on the left and swollen pellets are on the right.



This image describes the process visually. Also I have provided a picture that shows all of the necessary tools.



As the pellet is drying off it will, for a period of time, become uniformly clayey, enough to run a hook for it. You will need to experiment a little bit to find out how dry the pellet needs to be for best results. I like to place pellets on the board that have been exposed to water for varying periods of time so that there will be pellets available at ideal hardness during your fishing excursion.

I've found that a thin wire hook with a pinched barb penetrates best. I like a hook that has a long enough shank to get a second pellet on as shown here. I also like a small bobber to facilitate casting. Interestingly, I found that the bobber hits the water first and seems to absorb some of the casting energy and makes the pellets hit the water more lightly. Sixteen inches is about right for distance between the bobber and the pellets.



The end of the hook should be exposed for best performance.

I know for a fact that the pellets will withstand at least two casts, but I was never able to get in a third cast for the simple reason that the fish would not leave it alone.

I got strike after strike! I captured two wipers, two big bluegill and another interesting pond occupant pictured below.



Keep in mind that I am a very sensitive individual, so if this method has been described on Pond Boss previously, or if you all have already been doing this I would like to NOT be informed so I can continue to believe this was my idea.

Good luck and somebody report back if they try this out with success.

Bruce, where did you get this amazing ability to see neat things that I've never noticed when they were right in front of me for extended periods of time? It's like when I wanted a way to tell when fish had gone bad, and you pointed out that I had a nose - all I had to do was smell!

I've had completely-soaked-and-then-dried-to-various-stages pellets in front of me EVERY DAY for the past 2 1/2 months (uneaten fish food removed from PBR every day). I have been contemplating how to get "pellet professional" fish on the hook for three weeks. And I never thought of this. I WILL be trying it out.

I may try stashing correct consistency pellets in an air-tight container (in the fridge - I don't want them to go bad, now that I smell things) to see if they will stay hookable until fishing time.

You're my hero!

While still catering to Bruce's sensitivity; but simultaneously understanding that certain other persons with less extroverted personalities may have considered the various moisture stages of pelleted fish feed and the possibilities that the mingling of said moisture and contents of the pellets may, in fact cause the mixture to allow penetration by certain sharp objects and that the mixture MAY stay immobile upon aforementioned sharp object; I believe I remember that MR. Cody MAY have actually given a recipe of appropriate amount of neutral moisture and fish rations to approximate the above conditions. In any case, that is a startling Independance Day discovery. If you have fireworks in the area, the turtle should let go of the pellet when they start. Happy 4th.

All I could ever hope for in life would be to sit, perched atop the broad shoulders of a great like Bill Cody! :p :p

Perhaps I subconsciously integrated a previous post of his into the vast wasteland I call my mind.

Bruce's pellet softening technique is a slightly different version of my pellet soaking method. Both methods are effective for making fish food soft. Keep in mind that pellets with lower protein content (less than 40%) will not soften like those Bruce described. Lower protein pellets always get way too mushy when moistened with water. I think the lower protein pellets have less binders in them, thus they get mushy when wet.

Bill is correct that I was using Aquamax Grower 600, which is over 40% protein. It hadn't dawned on me that lower protein pellets wouldn't work for this method.

The intermingling of 2 of the greatest minds of pondom. Nowhere else but PB forum. Thanks. Where's my PB?

I use dog food (size of wheat chex) to catch catfish by using drilling a hole with a small drill bit that is used to clean a cutting torch; I let the hook hold the bait in middle of handfull of feed I throw in water. The catfish just gobble it up thinking it is just more food.

I gave this a shot today with 32% protein feed. It is indeed a little too frangible for best results. I don't think any of the pellets stayed on during an actual cast (and I tried ones that I would say ranged from too wet to too dry), however I did catch 4 BG in 10 minutes just dangling a pellet on the hook at the edge of the pond.

I had good luck with the moistened/partially dried pellets holding their "level of wetness" in a small closed container overnight in the fridge. I will retry with 40% protein feed in the (near?) future.

I don't exactly remember where I read this but I think it was a Don Smith reply, soak the pellets in water, make a paste, shape them to your desired size, then refrigerate. I believe the frige dehydrates them , but they remain soft enough to push a hook through.

I use Owner hooks w/ the chisel point. You can drill right thru the pellet w/ just a couple twists of the wrist.

Really? I must not be using the chisel point because my Owner hooks split the pellet clean in half.

I thought about using my dental drill, but I was concerned about the office smelling like dead fish the next day.

When I've used double pellet on the hook I've gotten almost 100% on bites, and a little better buoyancy.

I'm sorry, Bruce, but there is absolutely no way you will ever convince all of us that your office has never smelled like dead fish. :rolleyes: