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Introducing loose feed?

If you get the consistency of your groundbait right you should be able to strike the contents out soon after it hits bottom. It seems to work for me anyway!
 
Terry Simner said:
I agree, to a degree @Cliff Turner ... but you hear people say "To get a good bed of groundbait down I cast out a packed feeder 20 times before putting a hook link on". Now maybe that can be a more precise way of baiting up, but only if you're willing to wait a fair while (esp in slow water) between casts to make 100% sure that feeder has emptied its contents on the bottom before reeling in (especially if feeder is "packed") In some situations 'balling in' can be more precise, and a 'bed' can be established in a shorter time ... then maybe topped up via a full feeder every cast. IMO.
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For a larger bed of bait I agree with you Terry, but Im not sure in what situation that is required, maybe on somewhere like the tidal Trent. For rivers like the Wye and Severn I think the feeder is more than adequate and on smaller river with less fish Id just be loose feeding a small amount of freebies.
 
Cliff Turner said:
For a larger bed of bait I agree with you Terry, but Im not sure in what situation that is required, maybe on somewhere like the tidal Trent. For rivers like the Wye and Severn I think the feeder is more than adequate and on smaller river with less fish Id just be loose feeding a small amount of freebies.
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Totally agree Cliff, but I have 'balled in' (esp via a 'Deliverance') on the Lower Severn ... and paid a snotty price :mad:
N.b.. but retrieving a feeder (or a bait dropper) too quickly after casting can result in releases of feed 'mid-depth', only for it to be washed away downstream. Some underwater videos reveal what amounts to a 'comedy of errors'.
 
Terry Simner said:
but retrieving a feeder (or a bait dropper) too quickly after casting can result in releases of feed 'mid-depth', only for it to be washed away downstream. Some underwater videos reveal what amounts to a 'comedy of errors'.
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Absolutely!
droppers are terrible things for hanging on to their contents until you get them coming back. Half the problem is down to the fact that fully loaded, the weight of the bottom pin is never enough to to get the things to hit the bed feet first every time. A little light nudge before retrieving often does the trick but the proper fix is simply add more weight to the pin and get the thing to work properly on impact.
feeders I honestly wouldn’t have a clue on how to judge that.
I guess experimenting in clear water with it would be the only way to work out when they are ready to come back. Groundbait on the nene is just asking for trouble. It’s rammed full of bream so you’d definitely have some all day action if you were to get a bed of that out.
 
I’ve found that locally if I put a bed out, I’ll blank. Too many times I’ve missed fish that become preoccupied with my bed for a short period before buggering off. They don’t spook, they just leave after about an hour of arriving, having never hooked themselves. Incredibly frustrating. To start with I drew the conclusion that it was the bed of bait that caused them to spook, after playing around more and driving myself mental I’ve come to a different conclusion.

By introducing smaller quantities they appear to compete more and will return for longer. It also seems that they are more inclined to pick up the hook bait. It’s as if when there is too much choice they simply won’t take the gamble on the one piece of bait that’s behaving slightly differently.

There may only be one, (if I’m lucky) or a handful of fish come onto my bait. Having watched them, they come in, pick up a few bits then drift off. They will repeat this a few times then bugger off. I have to edge my bets to pull them in but also cut down their opportunity to pick up as much as they want without picking up the hook bait.
 
Terry Simner said:
How do you know?
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I don't want to sound like a know it all but I have been feeder fishing for years. If you use a very dry active groundbait in a cage feeder for instance you can get most of the contents emptying on hitting the water. Good for fishing on the drop with a long hooklength on a stillwater, but no use on a deep powerful river. If you get the consistency of your groundbait right you should be able judge when it releases. You should be able to tell when the feeder hits the bottom from looking at your rod tip or feeling the line. Wait a second or two then strike. If the ground bait doesn't release straight away there will be a lot more resistance. At the end of the day what I am trying to create is a slow moving plume of bait and flavor on my chosen line so if some bait releases early or late so what. I then usually fish a second rod well downstream on the same line with the idea of intercepting afish investigating the plume or hanging back. Not rocket science but it seems to work for me so I must be doing something right lol! I hasten to add the lead and pva approach is likely to be better when you are expecting low numbers of fish to be present or the fish have seen this tactic too many times.
 
Stephen Cotton said:
I don't want to sound like a know it all but I have been feeder fishing for years. If you use a very dry active groundbait in a cage feeder for instance you can get most of the contents emptying on hitting the water. Good for fishing on the drop with a long hooklength on a stillwater, but no use on a deep powerful river. If you get the consistency of your groundbait right you should be able judge when it releases. You should be able to tell when the feeder hits the bottom from looking at your rod tip or feeling the line. Wait a second or two then strike. If the ground bait doesn't release straight away there will be a lot more resistance. At the end of the day what I am trying to create is a slow moving plume of bait and flavor on my chosen line so if some bait releases early or late so what. I then usually fish a second rod well downstream on the same line with the idea of intercepting afish investigating the plume or hanging back. Not rocket science but it seems to work for me so I must be doing something right lol! I hasten to add the lead and pva approach is likely to be better when you are expecting low numbers of fish to be present or the fish have seen this tactic too many times.
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Good post.
I just wonder about the efficiency of the "cast a full feeder 20 times before putting a hook link on" approach. There must be a real temptation to reel in a bit too early after the first few feeder-fulls, creating an 'arc' of groundbait/feed between you and your feeder. To be 100% sure that the feeder is empty before reeling in each of those 20 feed-fulls must take getting on for an hour.
 
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