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Feeder fishing a deep weir?

S

Steve Quinn

Member
Evening folks, long time lurker and here's my first post! Genuine question that I have zero idea about so need some help.

I've been lucky enough to get invited to fish a weir pool on a big river by the lock keeper. Though he has no interest in fishing he obviously knows the geography of the weir. He tells me over the far side there is a very deep hole (roughly 12 foot deep) and is the spot to fish. I've obviously feeder fished before and fished weir pools so not daunted by this (and have the gear to do the job) but not quite this level. I'll be fishing during the day so was going to opt with constant casting of a big maggot feeder. Question is what ounce feeder should I go for as I want to get it down as quick as possible and should I tape the feeder to stop the flow of the maggots being washed out as the feeder drops down? Any other tips you could give me then let me know. Maybe you think I should just not bother with the maggot feeder and go for a different approach all together? Perhaps glugged and sticky pellets squeezed tight into a open end feeder?

I'm all ears 👍
 
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Hi Steve, although I've not seen said weir, I would approach it with 6oz open end feeders with most of the holes taped up and the bottom end also...and then plug the top with a really sticky mix.
You then have 2 attractions . And can switch through baits , I e. Maggot, pellet, boilie. Etc
Good luck 👍
 
As you’ll probably know weirpools can be snag pit, especially the deeper holes where the snags (and fish) will settle. So if it was me I would spend a bit of time leading about and seeing where the flow takes different sized leads to get an idea of where to place a lead/feeder of a certain weight to hold bottom and avoid the snags and expensive feeder losses! Then in my opinion just fish with nice smelly pellets/boilies….fish in weirpools tend not to be fussy eaters as they don’t have much time to be before the food gets swept away.
 
Alan Palmer said:
As you’ll probably know weirpools can be snag pit, especially the deeper holes where the snags (and fish) will settle. So if it was me I would spend a bit of time leading about and seeing where the flow takes different sized leads to get an idea of where to place a lead/feeder of a certain weight to hold bottom and avoid the snags and expensive feeder losses! Then in my opinion just fish with nice smelly pellets/boilies….fish in weirpools tend not to be fussy eaters as they don’t have much time to be before the food gets swept away.
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I will ask him about snags. He didn't elude to any to be honest. My first visit is really a pleasure session and a learning curve so I'm not putting myself under any pressure apart from enjoying myself and seeing what happens.

Thanks for all your help.
 
Actually it's pretty amusing, the more I think about it, the more I realise that perhaps I'm not as well prepared as I thought. It's dawned on me that I will have to dust off a old (but decent) Shimano 2 1/4 TC carp rod as I doubt my Greys X Flite 2lb TC will be up for the job. Also I'm thinking about feeders, the Korum River Feeders I have up to 130gram (which is I guess 3 1/2 oz) fully loaded with pellet will be obvs heavier. Do you think that will be enough to suffice? Jim mentions above 6oz feeders, with that loaded with bait will be like a brick! And seems a daunting weight to cast. I will be using 12lb GR60x as mainline.
 
If you can get tight up to the apron of the weir it's surprising how little weight will hold & allow the bait to drop into the hole. I think the flow would whisk away your maggots so a big lump of paste or double lobworm might be a better bet & you'r not losing £££ of feeders either.
 
Julian Marshall said:
If you can get tight up to the apron of the weir it's surprising how little weight will hold & allow the bait to drop into the hole. I think the flow would whisk away your maggots so a big lump of paste or double lobworm might be a better bet & you'r not losing £££ of feeders either.
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Yep, those Korum feeders are not cheap...
 
Steve Quinn said:
Actually it's pretty amusing, the more I think about it, the more I realise that perhaps I'm not as well prepared as I thought. It's dawned on me that I will have to dust off a old (but decent) Shimano 2 1/4 TC carp rod as I doubt my Greys X Flite 2lb TC will be up for the job. Also I'm thinking about feeders, the Korum River Feeders I have up to 130gram (which is I guess 3 1/2 oz) fully loaded with pellet will be obvs heavier. Do you think that will be enough to suffice? Jim mentions above 6oz feeders, with that loaded with bait will be like a brick! And seems a daunting weight to cast. I will be using 12lb GR60x as mainline.
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130 grams is 4.6 ounces.
 
Be.nice see where? Be like the old days, how and where u would fish this peg/weir etc...
 
I fish the weir at Topcliffe on the Swale whenever I can, it goes down to 17 feet (according to the bailiff) and is very snaggy. My experience below is based on a small - mid-sized river like the Swale, so might not be suitable for larger rivers, but this weir is a fair piece of water.

There's a lot of barbel held up in this weir, which allows for experimentation on hiw best to then; I typically find that depth is the most important key to success.

When starting a session, I have a good plum about for both snags and depth with a 3oz bomb. I find two areas with slightly different counts of how long it takes the bomb to hit the deck. Ideally 1 on a 6 count and 1 on an 8 count; and it goes deeper than this.

Normally, one depth will outfish the other and typically this year it has been the shallower depth.

I generally fish 4oz groundbait feeders loaded with a variety of pellets and plugged with softened 3mm Halibut pellets. There's sometimes the option to fish from an island in this weir, facing up to the weir and I've got away with 3oz feeders, when my lines are pointed upwards, into the flow. Longer hooklinks outfish shorter ones as well, as I imagine there is some spread of bait fishing in that depth and power of water.
 
Michael Gorman said:
I fish the weir at Topcliffe on the Swale whenever I can, it goes down to 17 feet (according to the bailiff) and is very snaggy. My experience below is based on a small - mid-sized river like the Swale, so might not be suitable for larger rivers, but this weir is a fair piece of water.

There's a lot of barbel held up in this weir, which allows for experimentation on hiw best to then; I typically find that depth is the most important key to success.

When starting a session, I have a good plum about for both snags and depth with a 3oz bomb. I find two areas with slightly different counts of how long it takes the bomb to hit the deck. Ideally 1 on a 6 count and 1 on an 8 count; and it goes deeper than this.

Normally, one depth will outfish the other and typically this year it has been the shallower depth.

I generally fish 4oz groundbait feeders loaded with a variety of pellets and plugged with softened 3mm Halibut pellets. There's sometimes the option to fish from an island in this weir, facing up to the weir and I've got away with 3oz feeders, when my lines are pointed upwards, into the flow. Longer hooklinks outfish shorter ones as well, as I imagine there is some spread of bait fishing in that depth and power of water.
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Great post. Enjoyed reading that 🎣
 
How deep is the rest of the weir pool then. In the summer i personally would avoid the deeper holes as the shallower water will be more oxygenated.
 
I have fished collingham weir a few times... its a rotating weir, so anything that goes over that's large is smashed up akin a tumbling motion until it's small enough to spew out. The only depth here is just under the weir sill, I'd say 10ft max tbh. It's largely gravel too and comes up quite and levels out. The middle isn't snaggy at all but the left hand corner is. The weir isn't straight either it's slightly concave, which pushes anything small.to the corners. Fishing wise, a big chuck to the sill, feel it down, as it hits the bottom, u could be on a gravel rise up to the sill, pull back until it's in the dip and hold on... if your anywhere but not in the dip it's a waiting game....
I once hit 50 Barbel here on a day session in a little over 11 hours, on one rod, to 2 Barbel being caught in the proceeding 10 pegs downstream.
Ooh tactics, 6 pints of casters, gallon of hemp, 3 fake buoyant casters, on the loop of a D rig and a size 8 hook
I don't need to go back as it was a one off and there's better more challenging pegs in other areas.
 
I fished the weir yesterday for six hours during daylight. Decided just to keep things very simple and straight forward. 4oz gripper lead, 4 bait stringer and hook bait wrapped in ccmoore liver paste, bait was heavily glugged 20mm bloodworm boilies. Recast every hour. Did not catch but I was glad to find the spot was deep and snag free took 5 to 6 seconds to hit bottom and nailed to the spot. 2lb test curve just about made the cast (which is quite a chuck, 6 ft from the opposite bank/wall) I think with continued, regular casting with a heavily loaded feeder I would of struggled.

Next time I go for the day, and unless we get mountains of rain, I will go for Jon's approach above (which I was toying with anyway) as I think big baits in day time isn't the way forward. I'd rather trigger them into competing with hemp and caster, a trick, as you all know, has been known to work for years. For that though, I think I'm gonna need a bigger rod 😉 (maybe a 13ft barbel rod would be the way forward)
 
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