Swim Feeders

[Fred]

I do, we use to make them by rapping stripes of lead around lades curlers or film canisters but I use shop bought ones now.

[Match Aerial]

You can make open ended feeders very easily..
Use a strip of plastic off a coke bottle staple together to form a tube. Burn the holes into the sides with a soldering iron.
Then just add a strip off lead flashing to the bottom.

[Olly]

Old film or microfiche - when the office closed and the microfiche was redundant - except for open ended swim feeders!

Film canisters - pill containers for block type feeders and ladies hair curlers (that was 1960ish) for open ended feeders.

Nowadays so many variations - and so much money some of them!

[Stuart Whiting]

Don't use blockend feeders unless you want to spread your bait all over the river. It doesn't come out sitting on the river bed.

Used correctly you ain't gonna spread bait all over the river, got more chance in doing that with a cage or open end feeder
The whole idea of a blocked feeder is to use maggot or hemp n caster and the force of the flow from the river pushes the bait out of the feeder so it trickles a few yards downstream and then draws the fish up into your swim

Stuart

[Stathamender]

For slow or still waters I use (and have since I first started using these over 40 years ago) a large blockend with the top end taken off, either altogether and discarded or loosened off (I tend to use blockend feeders with the lead strip taken off and a length - c 6" - of line passed through the feeder with several swan shot attached below the bottom of the feeder and a swivel at the other end). I think they call these drop feeders nowadays. The smaller feeders closed both ends I use with maggots or chopped worm only. I'm not convinced other baits (corn, hemp etc) disperse all that well from them other than in fast streams where they dissipate very quickly anyway.

On the other hand, I think that for some of the uses that swimfeeders are put to (e.g. hemp or corn), people would be better off using bait droppers instead. Incidentally I've recently changed the way I use droppers reasonably close in: I used to use a cheap telescopic rod with a Mitchell spool filled with old line and a large hook, attach a reel to the spool only for bait dropping, then put the reel back on the rod being used. Loop the line through the dropper bracket twice before inserting hook. But for some time now I've been using a cheapo telescopic pole (6-7 meters) for preparatory plumbing (I fish a lot of canals and small rivers that aren't all that wide) and that also works for (very precise) bait dropping. Maybe some day I'll actually get round to fishing with it.

I lke to mix Carnation in with liquidised bread when I use it in a feeder.

[Chubman]

feeder fishing looking up at a rod tip is not for me, boring, trotting a float is more fun and i think a lot of bites go undetected ,touch ledgering is more effective and makes a true traditional angler, bernard venables im sure would not approve of it

[Stuart Whiting]

For slow or still waters I use (and have since I first started using these over 40 years ago) a large blockend with the top end taken off, either altogether and discarded or loosened off (I tend to use blockend feeders with the lead strip taken off and a length - c 6" - of line passed through the feeder with several swan shot attached below the bottom of the feeder and a swivel at the other end). I think they call these drop feeders nowadays. The smaller feeders closed both ends I use with maggots or chopped worm only. I'm not convinced other baits (corn, hemp etc) disperse all that well from them other than in fast streams where they dissipate very quickly anyway.

On the other hand, I think that for some of the uses that swimfeeders are put to (e.g. hemp or corn), people would be better off using bait droppers instead. Incidentally I've recently changed the way I use droppers reasonably close in: I used to use a cheap telescopic rod with a Mitchell spool filled with old line and a large hook, attach a reel to the spool only for bait dropping, then put the reel back on the rod being used. Loop the line through the dropper bracket twice before inserting hook. But for some time now I've been using a cheapo telescopic pole (6-7 meters) for preparatory plumbing (I fish a lot of canals and small rivers that aren't all that wide) and that also works for (very precise) bait dropping. Maybe some day I'll actually get round to fishing with it.

I lke to mix Carnation in with liquidised bread when I use it in a feeder.

Stuart

[Stuart Whiting]

feeder fishing looking up at a rod tip is not for me, boring, trotting a float is more fun and i think a lot of bites go undetected ,touch ledgering is more effective and makes a true traditional angler, bernard venables im sure would not approve of it

That's why when roving for big roach and chub on small rivers 9 out of 10 I'll touch ledger

Stuart

[Stuart Whiting]

It is a myth that force of flow empties a blockfeeder. There is very little flow on the river bed except in fast turbulent water, where you're unlikely to use a feeder anyway. It comes out when it's sinking and when you're reeling in. I wouldn't rely on a fish emptying it for me. And how taping up holes causes it to empty I don't understand.

It's not a myth mate, a blocked feeder does empty if using maggot in a river even with little flow , seems to work ok for me, admittedly it may take 10 minutes or so to empty but it does normally empty, that's why a lot of known very good anglers use this tactic for Stillwater roach and tench with good affect,

I use to think this, that in a Stillwater they don't come but they do and it obviously works otherwise no one would employ the tactic

The only time maggot does not come out of a feeder so easily is if the water is cold but however if there's enough flow in a river it'll still push it out, very good tactic for clear water winter chub

Stuart

[Stathamender]

feeder fishing looking up at a rod tip is not for me, boring, trotting a float is more fun and i think a lot of bites go undetected ,touch ledgering is more effective and makes a true traditional angler, bernard venables im sure would not approve of it

Use a swing tip instead of a quiver tip, at least as sensitive as touch legering. The phrase 'le(d)ger line' used in a fishing context has been around in print since the late 17C at least (I think the angling use predates the musical one), so the practice must have been around even longer. Sounds pretty traditional to me.