Hints and tips for storing your PVA
All of you are aware that PVA and moisture don’t mix; well they do if you are trying to dissolve the PVA or destroy it. I will ask a question. How many of you will keep your PVA products in your tackle box? I bet most of you do. The problem with this is that every time you need an item of terminal tackle whether it’s a boilie stop or a baiting needle, you will have to open the box up.
When you are setting up or changing rigs your tackle box will again be open. Every time your box is open it is allowing any moisture that is in the atmosphere to get into your box. If you change a lead and put the old one back in the box I bet it is still damp, and this moisture has to go somewhere.
It will cling to every thing in your tackle box including the packets that your PVA is in. If you have a slight hole in the bag, or you haven’t sealed it properly, then the damp will find its way in and start to destroy the PVA. The last thing you want as an angler is to have just spent a tenner on a pack of 50 bags only to have them ruined before you have even used them.
What I do is to have a separate container or bag for all of my PVA products and things that I would need for tying up bags. I used to use a small plastic box, and inside it I put a handful of trout pellets and some dry rice. The idea being that if any moisture did manage to get in the box then they would soak it up. I would also store a baiting needle and a pair of scissors that I would only use when using PVA, keeping a separate baiting needle and scissors in my tackle box for when I wasn’t using PVA.
Within the last couple of years however I have stopped using plastic boxes and started to use purpose made bags for PVA called PVA pouches. I had my first one from Chubb, but since I have been a Wychwood consultant for the last couple of years I designed one with them, and obviously now use that. These pouches are excellent as they have different sealed pouches inside to store a variety of different size bags as well as your tape or string. They also have a larger area for storing PVA mesh on tubes. These pouches are invaluable as I can often be carrying several hundred pounds worth of PVA around with me at any one time. If somebody on the bank asks me for some, which happens most days that I’m out, then I have enough to give them, normally for free I hasten to add.
I normally, like you, use a lot of pellets for my PVA fishing, and with that in mind I carry a bucket with a mixture of pellet and oils and glugs and only use this pellet for PVA and not for free bait. I’m just being careful, as there is nothing worse than trying to tie up bags with damp bait. If you look after your PVA and only take out what you need and reseal the bag immediately then your PVA will last for years.
All of the fish shown in our photos are English fish caught during 2006 from Wellington Country Park. All fish have been caught using Temple Products PVA, Dynamite Baits and Monster Tiger Nut boilies.
Home :: About PVA :: Storing hints :: Tying PVA :: Dissolve times :: Pellet advice :: Solid PVA range :: Waffle style :: Bargain mesh :: Price list