FEED...ON THE FEEDER!
Steve reveals how digging out your catty will get you faster bites on the feeder
LIKE most anglers, I am always looking for an edge to my fishing.
Just lately I feel I have really found one, and it’s a bit different from the norm.
The straight lead and pellet has long been a deadly combination, but recently I’ve had a great run of results by feeding as if I was on the bomb, but fishing a huge, pellet-packed Hybrid feeder instead!
This way I have been getting much quicker bites. I can only think this is down to the carp finding the bait that bit quicker, as there’s a lot more to home in than just a single hookbait.
The other secret to this tactic has been to fish right on top of
my loosefeed.
In the past I have caught lots of carp just off the back of the feed but just lately they have been bang on the loosefed pellets. Putting my feeder in the right place has made all the difference.
Here’s how to do it…
FEEDING YOUR SWIM
I like to feed as far out as I possibly can. If I can feed past those around me this gives me my own bit of water out of which to pull fish.
The next thing to consider is that I want the carp to stay on the bottom. The way I feed the swim has to reflect this.
Instead of feeding little and often, as I would normally do, I
have had a lot more success by what I call ‘double pouching’. As the name suggests, this involves feeding two big pouchfuls of bait one after the other.
My theory is that the carp are tuned into noise. They hear the first pouchful of pellets hitting the water and then, when the second lot hit, they follow them down to the bottom where the feeder is.
Feeding double pouchfuls also means you’re putting a lot of bait in. This helps to keep the fish on the bottom, which is obviously where you need them when you’re fishing the feeder.
One key element when fishing in this manner is to keep feeding. I’ll fire out a double pouchful over the feeder every two minutes to try and draw more and more carp into the swim.
ACCURACY IS CRUCIAL
A little trick I use to ensure my feeder is right in among my loosefed pellets is to feed first and then cast right on top of the loose offerings.
I like to clip my loaded feeder on so it’s ready to cast, feed twice in quick succession, and cast right into the rings the loosefed pellets have made.
I’m not a fan of casting and leaving the feeder out for ages, as most bites will come within two minutes when the carp are really having it. There’s no point sitting waiting for the tip to go round.
FISH A SLACK LINE
I like to fish a slack line with virtually no bend in the quivertip. This helps to reduce line bites, which lessens the chance of spooking fish out of the swim.
When a fish bumps into the mainline there’s every chance it will leave the swim, especially if that line is bowstring-taut.
Don’t worry about fishing slack and not spotting bites. When you get a fish the rod will bend in half!
Of course, if you get a drop-back bite, which is unlikely at such
short range, you can still tell. The line falls totally slack between the tip and where it meets the water.
MY HYBRID RIG FOR BIG FISH
My set-up couldn’t be much simpler. For waters like Barston and Boddington, feeder choice is the large, 28g Hybrid – I’m targeting decent-sized carp, and what better way to do it than with a big feeder?
The only change I make to the feeder is to remove the inline stem and replace it with the long, X-Safe stem loaded with black elastic.
I feel I lose fewer fish when using elastic, and when the hooked carp are 8lb-10lb this can make a huge difference to my final weight.
Moving down, the hooklength is 4ins of 0.19mm N-Gauge and the hook is a size 10 QM1.
Just recently I have been using size 10s for all my big-carp work and I haven’t found anything not to like about them. It might look like a big hook, but if you look at the size of an 8lb carp’s mouth then it suddenly begins to seem somewhat small by comparison!
WASHED OUT HOOKBAITS
It will be no surprise to anyone reading this to find that hookbaits are all about my favourite 10mm Wafters. The two colours I favour are the trusty orange and the washed-out yellow.
Over the last two years I’ve caught more carp on the Chocolate Orange Wafter than any other bait, so I’d be silly not to have it in my armoury.
However, when fishing the Hybrid feeder over loosefed pellets I have to admit if I had to choose just one colour it would be washed-out yellow.
Once in the water, this shade of Wafter actually looks very much like a loosefed pellet, and I think that’s why it has caught me so many carp on this tactic.