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What are PVA materials?
Dissolvable PVA materials are an ingenious convenience that has been used by carp anglers around the world for many years. They primarily allow you to precisely introduce bait around the hook bait on the hair, making it much more attractive.
This enables you to create a small trap around the bait to entice any nearby feeding carp into quickly taking it.
PVA materials are especially effective during the early spring and late autumn when fish are not as active as in the rest of the season. A subtle baiting around the rig and a PVA mesh or bag on the bottom of the reservoir have proven their hellish efficiency time and again.
In the carp market, you can find a wide range of PVA materials. Manufacturers offer bags, meshes, foams, tapes, and threads with either slow or fast dissolving times.
PVA MESHES
These are undoubtedly the most popular PVA materials in the carp world. They are most commonly used for baiting via a boat, but with proper threading of the mesh onto the leader or using special swivels and metal clips for PVA, they can also be effectively used for casting. The main advantage of meshes is that you decide their size. They come in different diameters, which allows you to choose the right one for you. Smaller diameters are generally used for casting due to less air resistance, while larger ones are used for boat baiting. PVA meshes tie very quickly and conveniently. You can pack crushed boilies, pellets, stick mixes, or grains adapted to PVA materials into them. You can also gently pour liquid over the whole thing, but remember to check that it doesn't dissolve your mesh. After using the mesh on the original tunnel, you can simply buy a refill for it and use it again. Meshes come in slow-dissolving and fast-dissolving versions, allowing you to select the right one for the season.
PVA BAGS
PVA bags are also a very versatile solution because you can use them for both boat baiting and casting. However, with bags, you are limited to the size you have purchased. It is therefore worth having several sizes of bags with you so that you can adapt to the conditions you find at your spot. Smaller bags are definitely dedicated to casting and are often used to create so-called Solid Bags or PVA Bag Rigs. Larger ones are usually used exclusively for boat baiting. Like meshes, bags also have a great advantage - they are completely waterproof. This means you can also load them with liquid, which can create a lot of disturbance on the bottom of the reservoir. Bags also come in quick and slow-dissolving versions. So you can choose them according to water temperature without any worries.
PVA TAPES AND THREADS
Although they differ in the material structure they are made of, I think they can actually be put into one bag since they have very similar applications. They are primarily dedicated to creating so-called stringers, i.e., balls or pellets strung on tape or thread. Such materials are a very good solution if you do not use small particles that must be retained by a bag or mesh. This definitely allows you to reduce costs, because the thread is much cheaper than, for example, bags and lasts much longer. You can also use tapes and threads to secure the tying of PVA bags and meshes, which is very important during heavy casting. Tapes and threads also come in slow and fast-dissolving versions.
PVA FOAMS
PVA foams are probably the least used by carp anglers among soluble materials, although I believe they are really worth having in your assortment. They are very useful especially when fishing overgrown spots. Threading a foam onto the hook point ensures that no plants will snag on it while the rig is descending to the bottom. Another situation where it's worth using PVA foam is when fishing spots with a thick layer of silt on the bottom. The foam makes the rig gently land on the silt layer and not sink into it. Thus, your bait becomes much easier for the carp to suck in while feeding in your spot. You can also use PVA foam if you are fishing spots where there are many small sticks on the bottom that could snag on the hook point during rig placement.
Nowadays, practically every manufacturer that offers accessories for making end rigs also has all available types of PVA materials on the market. So I think you can confidently find the right material and size that will allow you to achieve even better results during your fishing sessions!
