FACED WITH SHALLOW WATER OR ISLAND MARGINS? IT’S TIME TO REACH FOR THE FEEDER!
If nuisance fish are a problem, switch hookbait from maggots to pellets.
Plumbing the depth is done with an SSG shot nipped on the hook, my aim being to leave the bulk of the insert bristle of the float on show.
As for hooks and lines, my favourite hook is the Guru Super LWG in a size 16, matched to a 6ins hooklength of 0.13mm N-Gauge and 5lb reel line. This balanced set-up will let me land almost anything I hook.
FEEDING
It’s all about loosefeeding to get bait falling through the water and letting you catch on the drop or just as the bait settles.
Maggots are a good all-round feed but they can attract little fish, so if I was after carp I’d fire in hard 6mm pellets with a catapult, around six to eight at a time, and use either a 6mm hard pellet or a 6mm expander hookbait. For maggots, the same amount is fed with double red maggot for the hook.
The only change to this regime will be to feed more if I am having trouble with small fish or if I am getting lots of bites and there are obviously plenty of hungry fish in front of me. Then, I will up the amount being fed, sometimes firing in two helpings of bait per cast.
MAKING CHANGES
What do you do if things aren’t going quite right? The waggler is susceptible to any movement on the water created by the wind, and can move through the swim as though it were a river!
If this happens, I’ll add more depth to the rig and try and have one of those No9 shot resting on the bottom in an attempt to slow the movement of the float down.
Changing where you are casting can make a difference as well. If bites are slow in coming, land the float a few yards to the left or right or farther out than where you’ve been fishing, as it may be that the fish have backed away a little bit.
Another option is to abandon your main line and move closer to the bank, where the presentation of the rig will be better and the effect of the wind not so bad.
I’d only scrap the waggler totally if I was sat waiting too long for a bite and had several other methods up my sleeve to try.
WHEN TO USE IT
As an open water method, I think the feeder is not great as it can be a struggle to keep the fish on the bottom. For me, that makes it the thing to use for casting to islands, the far banks of lakes or at times, in the margins – basically, wherever there is shallow water.
This is an approach that you can fish all day long and it kind of looks after itself by always ensuring there’s some feed around the hookbait. It’s also a winner in bad weather when floatfishing becomes impossible. You can be very accurate with a feeder, keeping everything in a tight radius on the lakebed.
WHERE TO USE IT
Any swim with 3ft or less of water, a depth where the fish have little room for manoeuvre to come off bottom. Only if the lake was shallow all over would the feeder come into play for casting into open water. It’s also well worth considering if your swim has a big margin, as it’s possible to catch carp early on from here.
On the whole, though, I’d treat fishing the feeder in the margins much the same as I would fishing the pole, waiting until the final few hours of the session before concentrating my efforts here.
HOW TO USE IT
Almost all my fishing on carp waters is done with the Guru Hybrid feeder now. A Method or a pellet feeder will work well too, so it’s all down to personal preference. It’s more important to use the right size and weight of feeder, and that boils down to the swim you are fishing and the species being targeted.
For a long cast, the feeder needs to have some weight to it so a large Hybrid will do, whereas a short 25m cast to an island doesn’t need anything beefy. A mini or small Hybrid is ideal.
Remember, the bigger the feeder, the more noise it will make on landing. This can actually push the fish out of the peg.
If I am after carp, a feeder with a good capacity for feed is
needed but for F1s and skimmers, less feed is better so think about that before tackling up. This is mirrored in the tackle I would use.
Carp fishing involves a 4ins hooklink of 0.19mm N-Gauge to a size 10 Guru GM1 hook. For F1s, I scale down to a 0.17mm link and a size 16 QM1.
FEEDING
The days of using just groundbait in a feeder seem to have gone, but I’m sure it would still work. But 99 times out of 100, I’d pack dampened micro pellets with a little bit of Ringer Baits Boilie Crush around the feeder as these stay in the feeder well on the cast.
To begin with, I’d be chucking every three or four minutes to get bait down for the fish to find. Once I begin to get bites, I can then ease back on the regularity so not to make too much noise with the feeder landing.
Hookbait choice is really down to you. A chocolate orange wafter in 6mm for F1s or an 8mm/10mm for carp is a good starting point. Other good baits are a banded hard pellet, three dead maggots or a cube of meat.
MAKING CHANGES
I’d rarely abandon a feeder line, especially if fishing to an island, but there are little tweaks you can make. Changing where the feeder is going in is a starting point, and I do this if I am getting too many line bites or if I know fish are present but not taking the bait.
A cast to the left or right of your original spot is worth a go and if the island or bank you are casting to has bare earth, or a ‘mudline’, landing the feeder right up against this in the shallowest water can make an amazing difference. Resting the swim can also help, so I’ll give it a 20-minute break. Before coming off this line, though, I’ll put on a bigger feeder and make four casts