Bag up with... a bag! PVA tricks and mixes to try this weekend.

Mesh or solid, we show you how...

EARLY spring can be a tricky time for carp. Daytime temperatures can be into double figures, but the water in lakes will still be cold – which means you need to be careful about how much you feed.

It’s best to err on the side of caution – after all, you can’t take out what you’ve put in – so the best way to feed at this time of year is with a small PVA bag attached to your rig.

PVA (Poly-Vinyl Alcohol) is a water-soluble substance that can be made into solid sheets, tape and string, or woven to create a continuous mesh-type stocking.

Once in the water, the PVA will dissolve to leave a neat pile of freebies around your hook. Feed introduced in PVA traditionally needed to be completely dry, but ‘PVA-friendly’ oil-based liquids are now available, and won’t melt the PVA on the bank.

WHAT TO FEED IN PVA

The usual advice is to use only dry feed in PVA. However, ‘wet’ baits such as particles and nuts can be used if some dry groundbait, boilie base mix or salt is added.

Pellets are probably the most common filler for PVA bags and are first choice at this time of year.

Try using a brightly coloured pop-up boilie over the top of a small pile of PVA-introduced pellets and your chance of a carp will be good!

Another way to feed ‘wet’ baits is to coat the inside of a solid bag with an oil-based PVA-friendly liquid, then add the damp bait.

STRING The traditional way to use PVA, but one that has gone out of fashion recently, PVA string is used to create a ‘stringer’. A number of baits – usually bottom bait boilies are threaded on to the string, which is then attached to your hook. RIG...

Try a bright hookbait with a PVA bag.