Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Open your window of opportunity
Swimfeeders with adjustable windows to free your loosefeed help you catch more fish, asserts England international Rob Wootton
USED almost exclusively in Ireland for almost a decade, the window feeder has only begun to make inroads in the UK fishing scene in the past couple of years. Originally invented by the angling legend that is four times World Champion Bob Nudd, they offer the feeder angler a different way of delivering loosefeed into the swim. One angler who knows more about feeder fishing than most is England Feeder Team member and top matchman Rob Wootton. Having feeder-fished extensively in both the UK and around the world, Rob’s broad experience has shown that the type of feeder you use on any given day will make a huge difference to what you catch.
“Having fished a lot in Ireland and internationally, the team and I have found that the way the feeder deposits its payload can be the difference between hauling and a dry net,” the Dynamite Baits-backed star told us. “Too many novice anglers especially, treat feeders as something you fill with groundbait and/or a few particles before ‘splodging’ it into the water, without so much as a thought to how it is releasing that loosefeed.” Rob’s words of warning obviously required more investigation so we met the 35-year-old Leicestershire rod at Shardlow Marina, near Derby, for a day going through the square window as they used to say on a certain 1970s children’s program!
Window feeder wonders
Anglers spend an inordinate amount of time, money and effort in making sure their pole float is ‘just right’ for the job in hand. But, when it comes to their choice of feeder, and how it acts in the water column, their thought processes only seem to stretch as far as ‘what have I got in my tackle box’! “Every feeder reacts in a subtly different way,” explained Rob. “How they empty; how they cast; how they sit on the lake/riverbed; how they fall through the water and how much feed escapes as they fall are all questions you should asking yourself because it can be the tiny things that make the biggest differences to catches.” Over the years, Rob has even noticed that whether the feeder is a wire or plastic cage can make a difference, as crazy as that may sound.
“The way the feeder deposits its payload can be the difference between hauling and a dry net”
The beauty of a window feeder is two-fold. Their first advantage is that they have the lead weighting in their base. Add to this their aerodynamic profile and they cast like bullets. This makes them superb in strong head or side winds, where a side-loaded feeder could be blown off course. “Successful feeder fishing relies on three major factors – accuracy, accuracy and accuracy,” said Rob flippantly to make an important point! “If every cast lands in a different place, even just half a metre off course, you’re not building up the swim as well as it could be and also spreading the fish around the swim, which will cost you bites in the long run.” The second advantage of the window feeder is its main attribute – the window. Being adjustable, you can make the opening larger or smaller and it is this that helps with the depositing of the payload. When using live baits – maggots or pinkies – you might wish to slow their rate of release, so you can close the window slightly. With inert baits – hemp, pellets, casters etc – you open it to its widest setting so the entire consignment is easily released in the swim. “The other factor regarding maggots, on shallow commercials for example, is you’re never sure if they have emptied into the swim, or have been pushed out of the feeder as you retrieve the rig, leaving a thin trail of grubs from where the feeder landed to the bank. “With a window feeder they can all escape within seconds if it’s been fully opened.” To ensure none of the particles escape on the cast, Rob will fifill his feeder to the brink, then cap offff the opening with the thinnest smear of groundbait – in this case a 50:50 mixture of Dynamite Baits’ Frenzied Hemp Black and brown crumb.
The crumb helps to hold in the loosefeed until the feeder hits the deck. Also, fish don’t always want just groundbait, preferring more particles to pick over. The window feeder enables you to feed as much or as little of both, depending upon the day. “I look at a window feeder akin to using a pole pot at range,” Rob continued.
“It enables me to easily loosefeed baits that would naturally bind, like hard pellets, casters or grubs.”
Open the window
Looking to fish at about 30 yards, Rob selected an 11ft light feeder rod. If he were fishing between 30 and 50 yards, he’d choose a 12ft and at 50+ he’d break out his 13-footer. The mainline is a 0.10mm Power Pro braid. The beauty of braid is that it has almost zero stretch, so as well as easier casting and better accuracy, bite indication is massively improved and it doesn’t take as long to ‘set the tip’ as it would if you fished a mono mainline. But, as braid is more aggressive, Rob always uses a 20ft length of 8lb mono as a shock leader. The feeder itself is a small Browning Window Feeder that is rigged to fish free running on a 3in paternoster of twisted power gum. “The link enables me to pull into the fish rather than the feeder on the strike,” said Rob. “I find the bites tend to be more positive too.” The hooklink is 3ft of 0.12mm (3lb 6oz) to a size 18 Series 18 Tubertini hook. Rob much prefers a larger hook even when fishing for silvers because he has found they find it more difficult to eject after a pick-up. It’s the thickness of the hooklink where the rig’s finesse comes in. In the feeder he has hemp, pinkies or casters, while on the hook, he has a single maggot. “As the feeder falls past, it and the fluttering hookbait should be enough to pull these fish down to feed,” he explained. Fishing it, even at this time of year, is a very positive affair for Rob. He is looking to cast, let the feeder drop on a tight line, wind down to the tip and get a bite almost immediately, striking at any indication regardless of how tiny. “By casting every three minutes, I’m looking to get a column of feed almost constantly falling through the water,” he said. “Silverfish don’t want to sit on the bottom, so you have to force them down there with feed. This is why a little-and-often feeding regime comes into play.”