Mini feeders
Match ace Grant Albutt reveals why you’ve got to get on them!
EVERYTHING seems to get miniaturised these days, and fishing tackle is no exception.
Nine-foot rods seem to be all the rage, but with so many small ponds and lakes available to fish it’s hardly surprising.
It’s not just rods that seem to be getting smaller, though. This year there’s been an explosion of new fish being stocked up and down the country. Seemingly from out of nowhere a new species has emerged – the ghost F1!
This mini species is apparently a ghost carp and crucian hybrid and is the ‘in’ species.
They’re pretty fish, but only time will tell what size they’ll grow to and whether they’ll behave differently to the non-ghostie F1 variety I’m used to!
Even the colour of bait seems to be subject to change too!
I’ve always classed Woodland View in Worcestershire as a ‘red bait’ venue, but turning up here today I’ve discovered that all the fishery pellets are now blue. Yes, blue! We’ll have to see if this coloured pellet craze catches on.
SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL
Short-range feeder fishing at 25m or so is simple, and the same principles apply as with all fishing methods. Get the feeding right, cast into the right spot, use sensibly balanced tackle and you’ll catch more.
You don’t need expensive gear either. Both the rod and reel I’m using today, for instance, retail for less than £60, yet they’re ideal for this style of fishing. Today’s set-up is simplicity itself. I’ve rigged up a free-running feeder on robust 6lb reel line down to a quick-change bead. To this I attach my ready-tied hooklength. For feed I’ve wetted half a bag of the fishery’s blue 2mm pellets to soften them up, and I’ve got some hard 6mm pellets for the hook.
These will be popped into a pellet band which is hair-rigged to a size 16 hook.
That’s all I plan to fish with today, although I’ve got a tin of sweetcorn and some dead maggots on standby, just in case.
THE RIGHT FEEDER
A small 15g to 30g feeder is ideal. Lighter feeders make much less noise on impact so are less likely to spook the fish, but I’d step up the weight if the far bank was steep and the feeder kept rolling back towards me.
Where to cast is a common dilemma. Here on Barley Pool at Woodland View there’s about 18ins of water tight across, with a slope over the next three metres back towards me. It’s not summer yet, so I’m not expecting to have to touch the far-bank grass to
get bites. The fish at the moment seem quite happy to sit in 2ft-3ft rather than having their backs sticking out of the water.
I clip up for accuracy and line things up with a far-bank marker, then kick off the session casting a couple of feet short of the far bank. You can always peel some line off the reel and try tighter later on.. or closer in.
Always check fishery rules. Method feeders aren’t allowed here, for instance, but you can use a pellet feeder. Traditional cage and open-enders are also allowed, and are a great all-round option.
I’ve deliberately kicked off with a 20g Gripmesh Feeder today with a 12ins (30cm) hooklength.
This is a good starting gambit, and ideal when you want to feel your way into a session. The pellets should spread over a small area, and this slightly longer length of hooklength can work well when fish are wary.
I’ve managed a number of fish on this tactic over the first 90 minutes. Now, however, my 1oz quivertip is constantly rattling as soon as the feeder has hit the water and I’ve started to get all sorts of liners and missed bites!
I’ve shortened the hooklength down to around 7ins and this has partially helped, but I’m still getting more phantom bites than I’d like. The solution is to swap to a pellet feeder and a much shorter 4ins (10cm) hooklength.
As soon as I do this the difference is remarkable. The fish have clearly been hungry and attacking the feeder to get at the pellets.
Tucking the hookbait just inside the loaded feeder and then capping it off with a thinner layer of pellets has brought an instant response from ghost F1 stockies in all shapes and sizes, some much larger fantail carp and, of course, those Woodlands commons and mirrorsr.
It’s a busy method, so make regular casts and keep plopping it in and the fish will come. Pulling my nets out I’m pleasantly surprised to see what I’ve managed in just a few hours. A short rod, a few feeders, half a bag of pellets, a few hookers and a netful of fish.
Oh, and those blue pellets worked a treat!