River Fishing Tips | The best way to attach a PVA bag when barbel fishing - Jamie Cartwright

The best way I’ve found is to thread the PVA bags directly on to the hooklink using a long baiting needle.

I use a quickchange swivel and tie a loop in the end of my hooklink, which allows me to quickly take off the hooklink, thread on a bag of pellets and boilies and slide it down so it rests against the hook, then reconnect the loop to the swivel.

I use a lead clip arrangement when using mesh bags. A running lead can slide back up the line and you get too much separation between the lead and the bag, making casting difficult.

This is a vast improvement on just nicking a bag on to the hook, as more often than not the first part of the PVA to melt is the bit attached to the hook, and the bag can just roll away!

Threading a PVA bag down the hooklink is a reliable way to present loosefeed when barbel fishing