In message , Derek Moody
writes

If you're sensible you'll patent a self-heating spoon and assembly jig
and arrange a bulk supply of Pontefract cakes which you can repackage
as a kit with your own designer label.

Very funny, Derek, and very true. Obviously much of their popularity and
effectiveness is owed to the fact that they are used by anglers who fish
commercial venues overstocked with small farmed carp; the pellet is the
natural food of the commercial carp, as far as the fish are concerned.

I must confess, however, that I have found that they have their uses. I
loose feed with them, or add them to groundbait, when fishing for tench.
They seem to be very effective at drawing fish into the swim and
inducing them to feed. Likewise, I loose feed with them for barbel, and
when stalking in clear shallow water I've seen barbel move into the swim
very quickly once the pellets have been fed. Good in the very small
sizes in conjunction with hemp, as both sink quickly, tend to stay put
and don't particularly attract minnows.

I sometimes use the soft pellets (more like a pellet-flavoured boily,
I'd say) as hookbait, but I'm far more likely to fish a nice fat
lobworm. The thing I do like about pellets is that they keep more or
less indefinitely, so I always have a bag of them and a small tub of
soft hook pellets in my rucksack. Handy for spur-of-the-moment fishing,
when the tackle shop is closed. I keep tins of sweetcorn and luncheon
meat in stock for the same reason.

--
Steve Walker