What I should feed to catch skimmers on the pole?

“When pellets are working, they’re unbeatable for skimmers”

WITHOUT having more detail, I’d say there are two ways in which you could target skimmers.

The first is with groundbait and the second with pellets, but which one you go for is governed by the size of fish you want to catch and what’s actually in front of you.

While the water is still cool, I’d always say groundbait is a safer option because it’ll never be wrong and always brings bites.

But – and it’s a big ‘but’ – pellets are a far more positive approach because when they work, they catch a much bigger stamp of skimmer.

This is because bigger skimmers get used to feeding on pellets being fed for carp, so they see them as their staple diet. Bigger skimmers don’t always feed, though, but the smaller fish do and that’s where it gets a bit tricky!

It’s got to be fishmeal

Let’s kick off with groundbait. On commercials it has to be a fishmeal-based mix. You could use sweet fishmeal, but with the water warming up I don’t see any benefit in doing this.

My skimmer mix would be a 50/50 mix of Ringers Original Bag Up Mix and Ringers Dark. This is a very fine mix with a low food content, but lots of attraction. Most importantly, it’s one that skimmers and bream love.

When skimmer fishing, I’d want to feed four to six balls of groundbait at the start and then let the swim settle for at least 45 minutes, but ideally more than an hour.

In each ball I’d have a

smattering of loose offerings, like dead maggots, the odd grain of corn and a few dampened micro pellets. Letting the swim settle is important because it allows the fish to build up confidence before you start catching them.

Once I go over the initial feed, I’ll let the skimmers dictate to me when I should be topping up. If I go in and catch seven or eight skimmers straight away and then it starts to slow, I’ll top up with another ball.

Initially I’ll try to go straight back over the ball, but it might be that I need to rest it for five minutes to let the swim settle back down.

If I foul-hook a couple or start to miss bites, this is a good indication that I need to let the swim settle properly. It’s then a case of repeating the process to keep the skimmers coming throughout the session.

For hookbaits, two dead red maggots are always a banker, but it can be worth slipping a grain of corn on to see if there are bigger specimens about.

Ball in the pellets

When pellets are working, they’re unbeatable. There are, however, two different ways of fishing them.

The first involves the use of soaked micro pellets. Instead of feeding groundbait, I feed balls of soaked micros. These have a very high food content, so I don’t need to kick the swim off with five or six balls. Instead, I’ll normally look to feed just two satsuma-sized balls.

I feed the pellets in balls because this way I know they’re getting down to the bottom where I want them. If I fed them loose, they could go all over the place, particularly if the water was towing.

The same principle applies as when using groundbait, in that I allow the swim to settle before going on it.

It’s then a case of topping up with small 50p-sized nuggets of wetted-down pellets when the need arises.

Hookbait choice when fishing in this manner is usually a 4mm expander pellet.

Going a bit aggressive

The second way of fishing pellets is even more positive, but on the right day it can account for huge bags of skimmers. Normally, it involves feeding two small balls of wetted-down micros as mentioned earlier. Then it’s time to pick the catapult up and loosefeed wetted-down hard 4mm pellets over the top.

This is a very aggressive way of fishing but is also a great way of pulling more and more skimmers into the swim.

As a guide I’ll kick off by feeding 10 to 15 pellets every drop, but if the skimmers start to respond I’ll up this accordingly.

You’ll also find, if there’s a big head of skimmers in the venue you are fishing, that once you start feeding by catapult, they’ll start coming off bottom, so it can be well worth having a shallow rig set up at half-depth to take advantage of this.

Hookbait when fishing this way is a 4mm or 6mm expander. A 6mm is usually the better option when targeting the bigger stamp of skimmers.