WORKING YOUR SWIM WILL GET YOU MORE BITES!
MOST anglers begin their feeder fishing session by simply casting downstream at roughly a 45 degree angle.
This is normally fine if you’re casting down and across to just upstream of a feature, but most of the time on bigger rivers you will probably be faced with a swim which looks pretty much the same in front of you as it does downstream.
When this is the case, there is a far more productive way to ‘work the swim’ and get more bites over the duration of the session as a result.
Imagine the river is flowing from right to left. Start off by casting slightly upstream and ‘feeling’ the feeder down to the bottom so that it’s anchored directly in front of you when it comes to rest. If it moves, add more weight or switch to a larger feeder to help it to stay in position on the riverbed.
To further help it stay put, pay off some line from the reel as you put the rod in on the rest. This forms a bow in the mainline and reduces pressure on the feeder. Bites from this position are usually unmissable dropbacks as the fish hooks itself. You need do little more than pick up the rod and play the fish.
Keep casting to this position for about two hours. During this time, if the bites start to dry up, you can tweak little things to help restart the action, such as varying how long the feeder is left in or lengthening the hooklink in case the fish have backed off a little bit.
After two hours, if you’re still not catching, then it’s time to try casting a bit further downstream. Quite often this will result in a few more fish straight away.
Repeat the process just mentioned, and if bites start to dry up again after a couple more hours, it’s time to cast further downstream once more.
This means by the fifth hour of your session you might be casting well downstream of where you began.
Over those five hours you’ll have covered a lot of water and given yourself a far greater chance of catching well than you would have done by casting to just one spot all day long.
So, the next time you’re feeder fishing, be sure to work the swim fully. Your catch returns will soar as a result!