Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Katie Crooks
Revealed: The four cup feeding system
HOW much bait to put in is a dilemma that every angler is faced with at the start of a session.
In winter the decision is easy as the fish are guaranteed to have a reduced appetite, but when it’s warm it’s a very different ball game.
Factors including the weather, the amount of pressure a venue has been under and where on the lake you are sat all play a crucial part in how much you should currently feed.
FishOMania NXTGEN competitor, Katie Crooks, reckons all the dithering at the start of a session can become a thing of the past if you follow the foolproof feeding routine she has adopted.
“Putting the wrong amount of bait in is going to lead to you getting fewer bites, but there is a simple way of making sure that you don’t ruin the whole day,” she assured us.
“I rely on four cups of different sizes and work through a system as to which to use.”
Build it up
If you were to line up 10 pole anglers and ask them to start fishing, the chances are that at least half of them would reach for the biggest pole cup they have. A generous helping of bait would be fed on their starting line and then the rig would be shipped out over the top. Yet this common practice is an error in Katie’s eyes. The Matrix and Spotted Fin- backed angler favours a more cautious approach.
“You could be on a peg that is stuffed with fish before you start. Putting in lots of loosefeed is only going to make them tougher to catch.
“After all, the job of loosefeed is to draw in a shoal and the more food there is on the deck, the less chance there is of them picking out your hookbait to eat.”
Katie starts any session feeding absolutely nothing, hoping that any fish in the area will simply take the hookbait and get her off to a flier.
That often produces a couple of fish, but it is then a case of teasing back a slightly rattled shoal.
“I then start feeding with a pot. I have tiny, small, medium and large and I work my through them in ascending order.”
Finding the balance
Katie’s first pot only holds a pinch of bait. She cups the contents in and if after five minutes there is no response, another cupful is fed.
If the second bait introduction fails too, then she steps up to the next size cup and repeats the sequence.
“I keep doing this until the amount of bait I add triggers a response. If I start foul- hooking fish, it means there are too many in the swim and I go right back to the start and feed nothing.
“Having too many carp present is a recipe for disaster and starting from scratch thins them out a little. I can then go from the tiny cup again and work my way up until I start hooking fish cleanly in the mouth again,” explained Katie.
The great thing about this easy to follow feeding strategy is that it will work in any commercial fishery scenario, whether it’s tight to an island, down the margins or in open water.
Effective bait tweak
Certain baits are more appealing to fish than others and you can usually get away with introducing fewer of such offerings.
This is because the fish are desperate to eat them and are more willing to get stuck in for a
modest munch. Pellets are top of this list but, since they are fed so heavily on a daily basis by others, fish have slowly wised up to them.
“They still love the taste but they need disguising a little to give the fish the confidence to come in and hoover them up.
“I dye mine red and it makes a world of difference. To the carp, it looks like a totally different bait and they get their heads down without worrying about what will happen next.”
Doncaster’s Hayfield Lakes is packed with carp to double figures, but they certainly don’t give themselves up easily.
Armed with her four pole cups, Katie started the day feeding nothing when the IYCF cameras joined her. Shipping down the margins on an inform swim on Adam’s Lake, the rig went in. It felt bizarre feeding nothing, but it was simply a trial to see if any carp were lingering from the off.
On this occasion they weren’t, so she fixed the tiny cup onto the end of her top kit and sprinkled in a small nugget of dyed micros.
Again, two top- ups of this size failed so the small cup came into play. Just two minutes after adding a little more bait, the float dipped and a big carp shot out into open water.
Carefully playing it, the fish soon tired and a 6lb mirror was in the net.
“I’ll feed exactly the same amount now and hopefully the result will be the same.”
It fooled another carp quickly before another lull in sport prompted Katie to pick up the medium- sized cup that was attached to her cupping kit.
Feeding this slightly larger dose of bait attracted a run of four carp before she started getting line bites and eventually foul- hooked a big fish that escaped.
“It’s time to cut the feed completely and work my way back up,” she said.
Starting from scratch, Katie built back up and found that the small pot was best. By the end of the session, she’d netted 12 carp to double figures down her right- hand margin.
“Had I piled in the bait from the off I’d have attracted lots of fish, but I’d have been frustrated by foul- hookers as they competed for food. The small cup has definitely been my banker today, but on another day it could easily be the large version that proves more effective.
“Whatever you end up needing to feed, start negative and work your way up until big carp are coming thick and fast.”