3 SIMPLE STEPS TO SUCCESS

MEASURE DISTANCE ACCURATELY

CASTING randomly is no good at this time of year. You need to be certain where the feeder is landing each time and using measuring sticks is the most effective way to get the range.

My advice is to have two rods on the go and, using the line clip, measure up for one to fish right on the feed that’s gone in at the start. That leaves the second rod to be fished a metre or so beyond the range of the first, just in case the fish have backed off further into the lake during the day.

THINK SMALL ON EACH CAST

WITH the opening hit of feed safely in the peg, there’s no need to be adding a good extra helping on every cast.

This defeats the point of baiting up at the start, so for the actual fishing, I go for a feeder that’s at the opposite end of the size scale to the beefy baiting up tool.

Tiny feeders that hold just a pinch of bait are perfect, allowing me to keep the peg simmering nicely without overfeeding the fish or scaring them off, as could happen if I was chucking out a bigger feeder.

BIG FEEDERS FOR BAITING UP

IF YOU’RE wanting to get a bed of bait down quickly, there’s no point in using the same feeder that you’re going to be fishing with. This will be too small, waste too much time to make up to a dozen casts and also make too much noise, which could make the fish spook and swim out of the peg completely.

Big baiting up feeders have been a revelation to get this job done. In just three or four casts, you can put a surprising amount of bait into the peg in no time.

I’ll fill mine with groundbait, dead maggots, pinkies and casters but I prefer to lay off feeding any chopped worm.