Best ways to feed to catch all day long
YOU could pile in the entire contents of your bait bag in summer and pretty much guarantee that commercial carp would soon hoover up every morsel!
However, while feeding lots may attract a huge shoal, it can also be a recipe for disaster, simply because the fish become too full to take your hookbait!
England Feeder team boss and Maver-backed star Tommy Pickering is a big advocate of playing it safe on the feeding front, and believes one little accessory can make a huge difference to what you catch this week.
“The aim of feeding is to attract fish – not to actually give them a meal that leaves them full up,” he says.
“After all, you want them to find your hookbait quickly. You can improve your chances of that by topping up with a tiny pole pot.”
POLE POT CHOICE “If you fed lots, dozens of fish would come into the swim and cause chaos. They would compete heavily, and that would cause them to brush up against your rig and drag it under.
“You’d instinctively strike and foul-hook fish.
“But if you trickle just a few pellets in then you reduce the number of fish there but dramatically increase your chances of keeping them calmer and hoovering up your hookbait.
“If there is less bait in the swim then they are forced to eat the hookbait much quicker.
“I use three sizes of small pole pot and rotate between them. If I am not getting bites I will step up to a slightly bigger one, but if I start foul-hooking fish I will drop down a size.”
ESSENTIAL POSITIONING “A lot of anglers use small pole pots, but a good proportion of them have them positioned too far down their top kit.
“The aim of the pot is to put a small mouthful of bait directly over the top of your float so it ends up on top of the hookbait.
“The fish then come in, take one slurp and suck up the hookbait at the same time. But if your pole pot is well down the top kit your loosefeed and hookbait will be well separated and it will take a lot longer to get a bite. Having your pot 3ins away from the end is ideal. This puts the loosefeed over the rig but the pot is far enough from the tip to prevent your rig tangling with it.”
BAGGING BAITS “Right now on commercials you can’t beat pellets. All species are used to feeding on them, but it is important to use the right size.
“When fishing in water less than 2ft deep you can use 2mm pellets, as the chance of small fish intercepting them on the way to the deck is reduced.
“In deeper water it’s best to feed over 4mm or 6mm pellets, as these sink quicker. A 6mm banded pellet is the ideal hookbait.”