A guide to solid PVA bag fishing and PVA bag rigs

PVA or poly vinyl alcohol has been one of the more useful and interesting materials introduced to the fishing market, and although it has been around for many years it is still incredibly useful when it comes to catching carp, and these days is a lot more user-friendly.

The reason why it is so useful for fishing is because this polymer dissolves when it comes into contact with water, meaning that it has all sorts of potential applications for anglers.

When did anglers start using PVA

Originally PVA for fishing came in the former of a material for tying ‘stringers’ – which were basically a few boilies, or other baits, threaded onto some PVA sting and attached to the hook, such that once in the water, the PVA melted leaving a line of boilies next to your hookbait.

The original PVA was horrible to use, being thick and plasticky in texture, and if the water was too cold or you didn’t leave a gap between your baits, it was quite possible that you could wind it in a few hours later, still attached and undissolved!

The early PVA bags, which could be filled with bait along with your rig, were equally as unfriendly for users, either melting at the merest hint of moisture, sticking together, or tearing/splitting as you tried to fill them. Plus, they left a horrible residue when they did melt in the water.

Thankfully modern PVA has come a long way since then and is much better both in terms of quality and performance these days, actually making it very easy to fish methods such as solid PVA bags.

What is a solid bag?

A solid PVA bag is literally just a bag made from PVA, which can be filled with bait, plus your lead and rig, sealed, and cast out into the lake.

Once it is in the water on the lakebed it starts to dissolve, and ends up leaving your rig sat right in the middle of a small pile of bait. A method which can be deadly and is popular with some very successful anglers, including Korda Koach Rob Burgess, and even Danny Fairbrass himself has been a more recent convert to just how effective solid bags are.

In order for them to work, they need to be durable enough to make it easy to fill them, and also able to take the force of a cast without disintegrating or splitting, plus they need to reach the lakebed before they start to dissolve and burst open, otherwise your bait will end up everywhere and not in the neat pile you intended.

You can fish a PVA bag over any type of bottom, and on weedy waters you'll know you are still presented, and the same goes for silt, plus of course they work just as well over clean gravel.

Korda Solidz PVA bags - more attraction than a single hookbait

The Solidz PVA Bags have been designed so as to be as angler-friendly as possible and to make the whole process of using them as stress-free, and effective, as it possibly can be.

The first thing you’ll notice when you take Solidz out of the re-sealable packet is just how easily each bag separates from the rest and how easy it is to open it, which of course makes filling it much simpler as well.

You do of course need to still keep them dry as any moisture will begin to react with the PVA, but as long as you do keep them dry then they are very strong and robust, and won’t tear even when really trying to tighten the bag up as much as possible to ensure that it casts well.

Once in the water, they will melt quickly and will leave no residue or smell, as they are pH neutral.

If you are fishing in deeper water, then usually you would need to double up the PVA bags to ensure that they reach the bottom before they melt and burst open, but a Solidz Slow Melt version is also available which is perfect for those sort of situations and is more than double the thickness of the originals.

The Solidz PVA Bag System Slow Melt bags are also perfect for long ranging fishing, particularly in the XS or Small sizes, and is able to withstand even the hardest of casts without being ripped open by the force.

Four different sizes are available to help you achieve whatever baiting situation you want, whether that be a pinch of bait or a larger handful around your rig.

What bait should I put in a solid PVA bag

You can use pretty much any bait in a PVA bag, as long as it isn’t wet with water, which will react with the PVA.

Even particles though, like hemp and corn, can be used in PVA bags as long as the water they come in has enough salt content – PVA doesn’t dissolve in salt water – or are coated in oil or something that won’t react with the PVA.

Ideally though you want to stick to smaller baits, such as 3mm or 6mm pellets, boilie crumb, chopped nuts, groundbaits, or anything else similar which will allow you to pack the bag tightly and with no air gaps – something you can’t achieve if filling it with boilies or larger pellets (where you are better off using a stringer or PVA mesh bag).

You can even use liquids, such as the Korda Goo, as long as it isn’t water based, and these are perfect for squirting into the bag once it has been tied – with Goo simply push the end of the nozzle in through the side of the bag and squeeze out the liquid.

The Solidz bags are capable of withstanding this and can still be cast without splitting, and you do in fact want a few holes in the bag anyway – stabbing it a few times with a pair of scissors works – to allow any trapped air to escape, otherwise your bag will sink slowly and could drift, or in an extreme case could even float until it melts!  

Best rigs for solid PVA bags

Given that the rig will be folded up inside the PVA bag, then most anglers tend to favour a supple braid such as Korda Super Natural or Dark Matter.

Typically hook links are very short, even just three inches or so for some anglers, and the idea is that the PVA is pretty much a mouthful of bait for a carp and when it is eating it, the fish isn’t going to be moving as all the bait is on one tight spot, so once your hook bait does go in the mouth, you want to hook the fish quickly, before it can spit your hookbait out, and the best way for that to happen is that it feels the force of the lead as quickly as possible.

So, you want to give the hook link enough movement that the bait can actually be taken in, but at the same time want it to tighten to the lead as quickly as possible, helping to drive the hook home and also causing the fish to bolt.

For solid PVA bag fishing some kind of inline lead is essential, and if you are fishing in very weedy conditions then you could use a drop-off inline to jettison the lead on the take.

The Korda Solidz Inline Leads have been specifically designed for this type of fishing and is not only the perfect shape for fitting into a bag and being present amongst its contents, with quite a flat profile. But it also features a special groove around the outside of the lead which has been designed for your leader to sit neatly into when fishing drop-off inline style.

The Solidz Leads have also been designed to make them as effective as possible when it comes to hooking a carp, and although the shape may look a little strange, it is so the swivel is sitting as close to the centre of gravity as possible, such that when the fish does tighten your hook link and feels the lead initially, as much force as possible from the lead is felt, and hopefully secures a good hook hold even before the carp bolts off.

You obviously don’t have to worry about tangles even with a supple braid, as it is all inside the PVA bag on the cast.

Like anything in fishing, when it comes to rigs for this style of fishing everyone will have their own slightly different ideas, but typically it involves a fairly short hair without much of a gap between the hook and bait, and generally the hook bait, is quite small – usually this means using a smaller hook to match it than you might do on other popular rigs such as a Ronnie rig, and a size 6 or 8 hook isn’t unusual for bag fishing.

The type of hook again comes down to personal preference and the exact rig you are using, but many such as Rob Burgess swear by the Korda Longshank, and fix their hair in place so that it exits opposite the barb.

Some sort or kicker or shrink tubing extension is also popular with this rig, to help make the hook flip over and take a hold as quickly as possible.

You can even buy ready tied rigs specifically for fishing in solid PVA bags, such as the Korda Solidz PVA Rig Wide Gape, if you don’t fancy tying your own.

Best hookbaits for solid PVA bags

Typically, anglers tend to use relatively small hookbaits in a solid bag, and often something that has a degree of buoyancy to it.

This often takes the form of small pop-ups, wafters, dumbbell shaped hookbaits, or plastic corn and maize, such as those found within the Korda Fake Foods range, and often brighter coloured.

The idea being that the bag presents a mouthful of bait – or small patch in the case of the largest sized PVA bags – and when a carp comes in and eats it, you want something that will go into its mouth just as easily as all the smaller food items that you’ve put inside the bag. Especially as with these smaller food items the carp will be feeding differently to when taking in larger single pieces of food, such as a 20mm boilie for instance.

How to tie a solid PVA bag

There is more to tying up as solid PVA bag than simply chucking everything inside, and although anglers all do it slightly differently, you won’t go far wrong using the following steps.

Firstly, place an inch or so of your pellet/PVA bag mix in the bottom of the bag, then lower your rig in lead first, so that your hookbait is still hanging out of the top and over the side.

You want your lead to favour one side of the bag as this will dictate how it lands on the lakebed, and once positioned add some more pellets/bag mix until the lead is just covered.

The bag should now be about half full if using the small size, and you then need to add your hook/hookbait, but positioning it on the opposite side to the lead – this ensures that your hookbait never ends up on the lakebed underneath the lead, and is always free to be eaten by a carp.

Then it is simply a case of filling the bag up with more of the same mix, so that the hookbait and all of the hook link are covered, but make sure not to overfill the bag.

Bring the open corners together at the top of the bag and start twisting, whilst also tapping the bottom and top of the bag on your palm. This will ensure there are no gaps and you end up with a tight bag, which is essential and the harder and tighter it is, the better.

To seal the top, some anglers favour licking and sticking the bag, but by far the best method is to wrap some Kwik Melt PVA Tape around the bit you’ve twisted, working your way down as this will also tighten the bag even more, and tie two overhands knots to secure it – this makes it much easier to keep the bag tight, versus the more traditional ways of licking and sticking it.  

Then work on the two bottom corners, pulling them as tightly as you can before licking and sticking them to the bottom of the bag, holding in place for a few seconds so they adhere properly – modern PVA like the Solidz range is veery robust and you can get away with a lot, so try and ensure it is as tight as you can get it.

Once you’ve trimmed off any excess PVA around the top, you then need to make a hole in it with a pair of scissors, and this should be right next to the hookbait. This is needed to allow any air in the bag to escape, and also means that once the bag has settled on the lake bed it won’t move – without the hole it can roll around as it starts to breakdown, and also won’t sink as fast either.

The tighter your solid PVA bag, the further and more accurately you will be able to cast it, plus it will also sink faster, ensuring that it actually lands on the lake bed where you intended it to. If you’re having issues with casting PVA bags, then the chances are you need to work on getting them tighter.

Can I tie my PVA bags in advance?  

If you want to fish PVA bags effectively then you will need to have some tied up in advance, ready to attach to your main line and cast out whenever you catch a fish or decide to recast.

Making up a PVA bag properly takes times and will potentially cost you fish if you are doing it each time you want to cast out, so take the time inbetween bites to have a good supply ready to go, and then keep it topped up as you use them.

This also makes it more likely that if you don’t get the cast quite right, you will wind it in and have another go, if it is as simple as just attaching one that is ready to go.

In order to be able to quickly and easily attach one to your line, you will need some sort of leader, which is then quickly attached, or detached after use, loop-to-loop style.

There are several leaders available from Korda which are suitable, and depending on the lake rules, and this includes the Solidz PVA Leaders, which are made from our Kable leadcore, as well as some in the Dark Matter range which are designed for things such as drop-off inline leads, and are made from a fused material with tungsten collars to ensure it sinks. All of them have a fused or spliced loop at the top, making it easy to attach to your line.

You will of course need quite a few leaders if you are planning on using solid bags on three rods, and having enough spares ready to go. This is where the Solidz PVA Leaders are ideal, where allowed, as you get three of them in a pack and they’re more affordable.

You will of course also need somewhere to store the bags that you’ve made up – after going to all that effort you don’t want any risk of them getting damp and starting to breakdown.  

The Korda PVA Kontainer System is perfect for this as it all fits inside one sealed bucket, and includes two sealed containers, with a removeable divider, for various pellet and PVA bag mixes, so you can have up to four different ones and makes it very quick to fill your PVA bag – these can of course also be used for storing bags you’ve tied. Plus, there are storage trays for all your rig bits and another tray that is useful when actually making the bags.

This PVA Kontainer System definitely makes things easier with everything together in one place – you can literally keep it in the car and only take it out if you know you’re going to be solid bagging. Obviously if you are adding any sort of liquids, then you want to do that just before you cast out.

Do I need special tackle for PVA bag fishing?

When it comes to rods, reels and line, you don’t need anything special for this type of fishing, but you do need to make sure your gear is up to it.

Depending on the size of PVA bag and the weight of the lead, a finished PVA bag can end up being heavy, so you will need a rod that is capable of casting it, and that tends to be higher test curve models, such as the Kaizen Green in 3.5lb or 4lb.

It isn’t just a case of managing to cast a bag out, but being able to consistently hit the range you’re fishing at and doing so accurately, and these heavier test curve rods will make it easier to punch out solid bags and do so efficiently, so you aren’t wasting loads with mis-casts.

The same applies to the main line that you are using, and it needs to be able to withstand the force of casting the size of bag that you have chosen. If you’re trying to cast out large bags with 10lb line and no actual shockleader (as opposed to the short leader attached to the bag), then you are going to get crack-offs, and when you do, you are leaving a live rig out there which has a high chance of being picked up by a fish.

You really want to be using at least 15lb line, depending on range, or some sort of tapered main line.