Swim Feeders

[OldTackle]

Perfect Mark. Best of luck.
One more thing. I tie the side arm asymmetric. I the line is hanging down, the feeder is at the end of the line. The side arm is knotted slightly above on that side that has by the top knot the direct contact to the reel. Should the line break you will be left on the strong end with the hook.

I do it the following way:
I take a good fraction of line already attached to the rod of course. I leave a good meter to my right and twist the line with both hands counter wise to achieve a twist. a distance between your hand should be 15cm. If you now lay both ends together you will get a twisted side arm. lock that with a figure 8 knot. take the end of the line and put the feeder on. Now let it hang and put the rest 3/4 of the line back up to the main line above your side arm. There lock it with another figure 8 knot. The twisted side arm has already a loop to attach a short hook link loop by loop. I use somewhat about 5 cm. lengths. When the package is hanging ready to cast the bait on the hook is slightly above the feeder and you will barely get a tangle.
Hope my description makes sense.

[WoodBurnerMatt]

Good morning Chris and all,

Which feeder do you use Chris?

Woodburnermatt

[Shaun Harrison]

I use them, the trick is to cast out, let it "sit" for a minute then twitch it back a foot or so... hey presto.. your hook bait is sitting amongst the tempting contents of the feeder

Good advice on a still water Paul but not on rivers, try and keep the feeder where it lands in any sort of current or else it will move in towards you on a diagonal away from the main feed it is trickling out to attract. A foot twitch of the feeder will often have it trundling several feet on a river.

[Reedling]

Reading through this thread reminded of me making a swimfeeder from one of mums curlers when I was a nipper, had a search on Google about it and came up with a previous thread from TFF, talking about Swim Feeders and the making of....

viewtopic.php?t=1135

[Dave Burr]

Shaun makes a good point. Feeders really work best when they sit fast on the bottom where they land. It's the trail of scent and food particles that does the attracting and this is not very effective if your feeder is rolling towards your bank. A good feeder angler hits the same spot every time so, no pressure Mark

In a strong current (which is a relative term depending on location and size of feeder usable for your tackle), cast slightly upstream and allow a bow of line to form so that it pins everything to the bottom. When you put the rod on the rest the line will be entering the water downstream which feels weird as your bait is 'up' but bites are very distinguishable. Any fish that picks up your bait lifts the weight of the feeder (which is critically balanced), and you will get a pronounced bounce on the rod tip followed by slack line. Wind like heck and the fish is on.

A series of bounces usually means a fish is swimming downstream with your bait and the feeder is bouncing along the bottom. Again, the strike is just a formality. Should your rod bend upstream, you have a fish moving away from the pressure of line and lead and it has probably already hooked itself.

In slower conditions bite indication is much more accurate but infinitely more difficult to interpret and hit consistently..... just like with any lead rig.

Feeders can scare or attract fish! Varying the hooklink can have a massive effect on bite detection and strike rate and the frequency of cast is another lesson to learn. But its all fun finding out and the old baiting engine can bring huge rewards.

[Stathamender]

I use them a lot. For still water, small canals and slacks in slow moving rivers I usually use a small one from the 1970s I found in an old tackle box, I've taken off one of the end caps and the original lead (many feeders these days are just far too heavily leaded), threaded a 6in 'rotten bottom' through the feeder and the centre of the remaining end cap and fixed it with two SSGs, the other end is fixed to a standard swivel which I then attach to a snap link swivel on the main line. In anything over a few feet of water the contents should disperse on the way down but a small twitch after it hits the surface helps.

For river fishing: bigger heavier ones with the cap on. Never quite got the hang of cage feeders, the contents nearly always seem to splatter out on the way to the target, maybe I should practice more or there might be something I'm missing.

[Shaun Harrison]

You simply need to get your bait mix right Strathamender. I only ever use open end on rivers as there is much less water pressure to move the feeder, thus getting away with less lead. In my mind if your feeder moves in a river, then you have moved off of your bait, so a fresh cast and adding extra weight is the only sensible move.

A lot of the swims I fish on the river Trent, as soon as the current moves your feeder then it is snagged, so more weight than is really required is essential for holding in place to be ready for drifting weed, leaves and other debris. Otherwise you are tying a fresh rig every cast which isn't good for the environment.

I often get a swim going with the feeder and then revert back to a straight lead rig via a quick release system for a few casts. This way you can get away with much less weight on your line to hold and cheaper if you do get snagged.

[Olly]

So many sorts of feeder now. Open ended - block end - method. With a dozen different makers/designs for each one.

I found some Fox feeders have removable caps - enabling 1 feeder to be a block end - half block end or open ended. Saves carrying a huge box weighing a ton. They also have interchangeable weights.

I mostly fish them helicopter rig style if heavy and a paternoster or sliding with a light, 1oz or less, feeder. The helicopter enables a tangle free method and easily interchangeable feeder and lead system.

[Stathamender]

I use these occasionally http://www.decathlon.co.uk/rigid-antita ... 06231.html with a bead or a gummy just above the stop shot.

[Olly]

Designed by and sold by John Roberts amongst other thing - now retired. Excellent piece of kit, if you buy the parts you can make up any length required.