Is there ever a time when I should fish the feeder on a snake lake?
“Find an area where you can get as tight to the far bank as possible”
THE answer is without doubt yes. The feeder does have a part to play on narrow snake lakes, even in summer.
Sometimes the feeder can be deadly, particularly if it’s very windy and you can’t hold a pole properly or the fish are spooking from having the pole waved about above their heads.
This is where the feeder comes into its own. You know that you are fishing properly and there is nothing over the top of the fish to spook them. Fishing the feeder also stops foul-hooking because you only pick the rod up on a proper bite.
The right rod
The first thing to consider is rod choice, bearing in mind that most snake lakes are between 13m and 16m wide. A short, soft rod is a must because it makes casting and playing fish a little easier. Go for a 9ft or 10ft rod – any longer and a short cast becomes awkward.
There are two ways to cast such a short distance. The first is overhead as normal, but the downside to overhead casting is that the feeder tends to go in heavily, making lots of noise.
This can spook fish, so I prefer to cast underarm. This isn’t as easy as you’d think, but once you get it right it’s far more effective, and the feeder lands much better. The underarm technique is well worth mastering when it comes to feeder fishing at close range.
Feeder choice is important, not so much whether you fish a Method, Hybrid or pellet feeder, but more the feeder’s size and weight.
When casting such a short distance, small feeders are key. If I’m fishing a Hybrid feeder it will be either a Mini or Super Mini size. Small feeders enter the water really quietly – there’s nothing worse than crashing a great big feeder into shallow water at short range.
I will start on a Mini-sized feeder and if the fishing is good, I will stick to it. If the going is hard I will drop down to a Super Mini. The smaller feeder will go in quieter and, with fewer fish in the swim, should prevent them from spooking.
The balancing act
Feeder weight varies depending on how steep the far-bank slope is. If it’s nice and flat then 18g or 24g will be fine, but on a steep slope I will step up to 30g to make sure that the feeder doesn’t move, and balances on the slope correctly.
I like to fish nice and slack with next to no bend in the quivertip. This is to try and stop the feeder moving when I get a number of feeding fish in the swim. Bites are then seen as either proper pull-rounds or drop-backs. Drop-backs are easily picked up as you can watch the line between water and tip. When it all falls slack you know there’s a fish on.
Find shallow water
The key to the success of the feeder on snake lakes is depth. You need to be able to cast into very shallow water, no more than 12ins-18ins. Much deeper than this and the feeder isn’t that effective in summer. It’s as though the fish are reluctant to feed on the deck in deep water.
You should also try to find an area in your peg where you can get as tight to the bank as possible. If you have an area of rushes and then an area of bare mud bank, I would try to fish against the bare bank. This might mean fishing at an angle to the left and right of you, but it’s worth doing to make sure you can get tight to the bank.
Another little tip is to try and have two or even three areas to fish, so you can rotate them.
You will find you get a run of fish before things go quiet. When this happens, the swim often just needs a rest. If you can switch to a new spot for 15 or 20 minutes, you may get another run of fish while you are resting the original spot.
If I can find two decent spots to target I will loosefeed both with a catapult. This involves firing in 4mm or 6mm hard pellets against the bank.
I can then keep a spot primed and ready, even when I’m not actually fishing it.