I'm off to a tried and trusted commercial carpery, tomorrow: hopefully the milder weather will wake up some of the fish! I've replenished bait supplies, and was tempted by a bag of these 'halibut pellets', each one about the size of a large acorn, but with the consistency of a charcoal brickette! I need a quick answer to a simple question: do I soak them before I use them, or should I simply drill and hair-rig them (dry)? Advice appreciated.....

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Hi ya m8, if there the ones from dynamite then they have loads of oil in them all ready and to be honest they dont need any more, id just drill and hair rig them.
Only bit of advice i can offer you is look for the broken pellets in the bag these tend to be the bits that get the bites.
Regards Clint

If you break your drill use super glue to stick them to your 'hair' loop or even two of them 'double bubble' style.
Be careful to use a leaf or similar to apply pressure to the hair side of the glue - you would'nt want to go gluing your thumb to the rig now would you!

forget halibuts mate,too much oil for winter,id get some normal sticks of pepperami mate,excellent winter carp bait,try it!its a bit of an animal!!!
fluffy bunnys!

Don't over feed the pellets in this weather but they should still be a good bait. Use them on a bait-band for simplicity. Also, it's worth taking a blade from a hacksaw with you and cutting a groove roung the pellet before you put the band on it. The band will sit in the groove and stay on better.

I caught my PB barbel on just such a method and pellet this year!

Advice about the bands came too late, but thanks anyway! I decided that, in my kitchen anyway, I could push a baiting needle gently through the pellet without splitting it. Easy at home... on the bank, with frozen fingers, I pushed the needle right through, deep into my finger tip! It bled for ages.... Had two runs but no fish: people around me were catching roach on waggler-fished maggots, but I'd only taken my two carp rods. Never mind: it was a peaceful day away from the family: I needed a break after the Christmas period!

Halibut pellets make excellent chewy sweets on cold winter days.

I bet that they would go well with strawberry flavoured luncheon meat!