IF YOU TRY ONE THING
Lee Kerry explains how using two different types will catch you more
Make a feeder switch to keep catching. Lee Kerry explains how.
SOME people swear by fishing the pellet feeder, others the Method, but what makes one stand out from the other? Is there a place for both in your armoury?
Both will have their day, but choosing the right one from the word go will make a big difference to how well you catch. They may seem similar in the sense that they both involve fishing short hooklengths and putting the hookbait in amid a small pile of feed. But once in the water, the bait is being presented in very different ways. The trick is knowing when to use each style of feeder.
To begin with, it’s worth talking about what the pellet and Method feeder actually offer you – it all comes down to bait protection. The Method leaves the pellets and hookbait very exposed, whereas the pellet feeder keeps much of it inside the feeder, offering a gradual release of feed. Let’s take a look
at each type of feeder and their pros and cons…
The Method feeder
Method feeders work perfectly in conjunction with a short hooklength because they deliver the perfect package of bait into your swim with the hookbait sat nicely in the middle. You need to have your bait of the perfect consistency to ensure it gets to the bottom in one piece and, once there, it then needs to be very easy for any approaching fish to see.
Imagine the scenario. Fish come down to inspect the package of bait, and as they begin to eat, they suck your hookbait in and it’s fish on! All pretty straightforward, so why doesn’t it always work like that?
One of the disadvantages of the Method is that the bait is very exposed, so even a flick of a carp’s tail can spread it everywhere to leave you with a big piece of metal and a hookbait with no feed around it – hardly appealing!
With modern commercial fisheries being so densely stocked with aggressively-feeding fish, you can quickly end up with a lot of indications on the tip as all of your free bait gets eaten, but the hookbait ends up being left alone.
The pellet feeder
The pellet feeder, just like the Method, delivers your hookbait into the swim alongside your feed, the big difference being that the shape of this style of feeder offers more protection for the contents.
This creates a completely different reaction in your peg, because any fish present now know there is some bait to eat, even though for a while it’s protected by the feeder.
However, your hookbait is the last thing to be loaded and is creeping out of the feeder as the fish fight for the food. That means that your bait will be one of the first things to eat and as a result it’ll soon be fish on!