Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Improve your feeder fishing – Andy May
Too many anglers regard feeder fishing as a chuck-it-and-chance-it tactic, so Dynamite Baits and MAP-backed Andy May is here to reveal how it should be done
THE problem with feeder fishing is that most novice anglers – the kind I coach day in, day out – seem to regard it as a second-class citizen. When faced with an open-water swim, it’s straight into the rod bag, feeder rod out, set-up in seconds, loaded, ‘splodged’ out, before sitting back and waiting for a miracle to happen. A bite in other words! If I asked these students if they would you treat a pole or waggler line with the same disregard the answer would be a resolute no. So, why do it when you are feeder fishing? Yes, comparatively, the feeder is an ‘easier’ tactic to fish. But you still need to master the basics to get the most out of it. Every method in angling has a right and a wrong way to apply it and it doesn’t take very long to get into bad habits. Once these habits creep in they are often very difficult to shift. The depth of the swim, the species you hope to catch, an understanding of the prevailing conditions and how your end tackle looks on the bottom are all pertinent questions that a serious angler should be constantly asking themselves, regardless of the tactic they are looking to adopt on the day. Just because the loose-feed and hookbait are close together – by the very nature of feeder fishing – is no a guarantee of success. Meadowlands Fishery, near Ryton-on-Dunsmore, near Rugby, Warwickshire, is the perfect venue to demonstrate the essentials of feeder fishing.
Plumbing up is vital
The first thing you do when pole and waggler fishing is plumb the depth. But how many of you do this when you’re feeder fishing? Not many, I’d guess. But, how can you expect to fish effectively if you have no idea how deep the water is where you’re chucking your feeder? Plumbing the depths on the tip is nowhere near as accurate as when float fishing, but feeder fishing does allow for this by its very nature. To gauge the depths, I cast out a 1oz bomb to where I’m looking to fish, then as soon as the bomb hits the water I trap the line on the spool with my finger so the mainline is tight to the bomb, counting the number of seconds it takes for the quiver-tip to spring back signalling the weight has hit the bottom. A one-ounce bomb sinks at roughly 3ft per second, so a count of three gives a depth of around 8ft-10ft. It also pays to count the number of reel turns when you retrieve the bomb, so if you get broken off or need to re-tackle you know how far out you were fishing.
Andy’s feeder set-up
One common error is use too heavy a set-up – rod and tip – especially when looking targeting carp and F1s. Today, I’m using a MAP 11ft Parabolix Black Edition feeder rod, which has a distinct through action and is quite soft. With carp particularly, the heavier the rod or quiver-tip, the harder you pull. And the harder you pull, the harder the fish pull back. This can result in you pulling out of more fish than you
land. This is the reason I use light pole elastics and why I like to use soft feeder rods and light quivertips – less than 1oz in general. For mainline, I’m using 5lb Optimum, which has a diameter of 0.20mm. This thinner line, causes less friction on the cast so the cast goes further, is easier to make and so improves accuracy. The last thing you want is to have your groundbait spread all over the place, so accurate casting is vital and the correct mainline will aid in this. The feeder is set free-running on a Dean Barlow Feeder Link, so it remains tangle-free, trapped on the mainline with a rubber float stop. I then twist around 10in of line below this to form a boom, leaving a small loop in the end to attach the hooklink which is 3ft of 0.12mm (3lb 1oz) Optex to a size 18 hook. As with today, when the water is clear, I like to use a longer hooklink because the fish will spook after sighting the feeder. If I’m getting skinned/ chewed maggots or deeply-hooked fish, I will take six inches off the hooklink, repeating this process until it stops and I’m getting positive bites. The only time I will start on a long hooklink is if I’m fishing the bomb with maggots for roach because the longer hooklink enables an ‘on-thedrop’ presentation, the same as you would when pole fishing.
Your feeder choices
Like floats, the number of feeders available is legion and it can very easily baffle people! For me, if the lake is deep – over 6ft – I’d use a plastic cage feeder with three holes in it, as well as a lightly stiffer groundbait mix to ensure the payload gets to the bottom. For water that is shallower than this, I will swap over to a metal cage as the tines are thinner so the groundbait will break down quicker because it has a greater surface area for the water to penetrate. For creating an initial bed of bait, a feeder with no holes is ideal. I then strike out the payload once the feeder hits the bottom. Today I’m using a small plastic 15g cage feeder with the weight at the bottom. This helps greatly with casting accuracy, especially in a strong side wind when a side-weighted feeder can easily blow off line. You need to judge this on the day the same as you would when selecting the right float to use.
What groundbait and when
Although there are loads of different types to choose from, you need to remember that in commercial venues fish love fishmeal, even roach, so you need to incorporate some in whatever mix you choose. With the water still being clear, I’ve used Dynamite Baits’ Black Swim Stim and added some Skimmer Mix. To finish off the presentation, I add a little F1 Sweet which helps to break up the fishmeal content a little. Although mixing three groundbaits sounds complicated, it is these little one per cent elements that make all the difference on the day, plus, I’m not going to use all three kilos. I mix the groundbait using a quarter bag of Black Swim Stim, a quarter of Skimmer Mix and only a handful of the F1. That means these three bags will last several sessions. To mix it, I combine all the dry ingredients, then add a little water. The crumb is left to sit for a few minutes prior to being riddled twice to remove all the lumps. Once the groundbait is mixed I transfer a few handfuls to a spare bait box, so I can add a few particles such as maggots, pinkies and casters. This enables me to alter the mix throughout the day so I can introduce more or fewer particles into the swim, depending upon how the fish are feeding on the day.
Fishing the session
With a brisk cold wind blowing, I have decided to target silver fish. To kick things off, I put out six medium feeders without the hooklink attached, before swapping back to my smaller cage for the session itself. For the roach, I will leave each cast for eight minutes. For skimmers you can afford to wait a little longer, around 10-12 minutes. A top tip is to twitch the hookbait every two minutes. This is similar to lifting and dropping your pole rig and it can really help induce bites you might not otherwise have got. Too many anglers cast out and then sit on their hands waiting for the rod to get pulled in. Just like fishing the float, you need to ‘work’ the swim to get the most out of the session. Make sure you cast accurately, use the right set-up and baits and remove impediments such as slime off the hooklink after you catch a skimmer. It is these little edges that can turn an average day into a great one. Feeder fishing is a very simple tactic, but it is by no means a second-class citizen to the float. Get it right and it can be as equally prolific as the waggler or the pole.