What Is Feeder Fishing Basics: A Beginners Guide.
Method Feeder fishing has been my go to way of fishing over the last couple of years as it has been the most productive for me so far, again this is my own preference and others may find other ways work better for them but for myself this has by far been the best, please read below for more information on my experience while method feeder fishing.
What is A Method Feeder
A method feeder is what you can see in the image on the left, there are many designs/types but this one is shown as an example.
The method feeder is one of the easiest ways to quickly setup your Rod and start fishing, it really only requires one knot to attach this system to your main line making it a really effective way for beginners as its not to technical to set up. This is obviously not just suitable for beginners these are used by professional match fisherman and experienced fisherman a like.
The method feeder is basically acting as an in line weight and a device that holds your bait in a nice neat pile as you cast out. The idea is that once you have set up your feeder lets say with Pellet or Ground-bait along with a hook length and hook bait (more on this later) you would then cast out to your desired location and your feeder system would hit the water then sink to the bottom of the lake hopefully landing bait side up on a relatively flat lake bed making for a perfectly presented pile of bait at the bottom for fish to feed from and in the process sucking up the bait along with the hook and hook bait. I have added pictures to this page showing the feeder with and without bait giving you more context to the information given.
Items Needed For Feeder Setup
Now I have covered this before in one of my previous posts but just in case you have not seen it then I will happily explain again what you will need to set up to match what is shown above.
Below is a short list of components I used to set up a quick and easy method feeder system, as mentioned prior there are slightly different ways to set up but this is my most common one to use and it is tried and tested by myself and it was absolutely the best and easiest way for me as a beginner.
- Hook length ( 4inch or 6 inch)
- Method Feeder
- Quick Release Bead
As you can see this does not consist of many parts to make up this rig and is also a cheap an option for fishing on a budget.
Which Type Of Method Feeder To Use
This will come down mostly to personal preference but that been said I have used a few different types and makes of feeders over the last few years and nothing comes close to the Preston ICS feeders (same as the picture). I have used ones which are basically the same shape size and weight but they have not had the same effect when fishing with them, I think that it’s the specific weighted design that makes this one so effective.
I did experiment by having two different method feeders setup on two different rods both cast out to relatively the same area/swim and every time the Preston ICS prevailed throughout my sessions. Now someone could argue that it may have been a host of things that caused this but I am almost certain that it was the design of the Preston feeder as I believe it is just weighted perfectly to land bait up nearly every time giving you the best chances of catching.
Be sure to do your own experimenting with different feeder systems and see which works best for you, above is my own experience and I know other people may have there proffered way so its best to try new things and sometimes decide for yourself, just use the information you receive as a guideline and you can’t go wrong.
Hook Length and Hook Size
As stated above the generic lengths for the feeder systems I use are 4 inch and 6 inch hook lengths, I cannot comment too much on the difference between the two sizes as I haven’t really noticed much change when fishing with either of them.
What I will say is that it’s probably best to not go for a too larger hook size, I generally use size 14,12 or 10 but mostly I use the size 12s. If you are planning on fishing for basically anything like silver fish or even Carp then a size 12 or 14 would be more than sufficient, I wouldn’t get caught up too much on larger hook sizes unless you are solely out for Carp fishing in which you may want to use bigger hooks etc but this is a discussion for a later date. If you are just starting out on your fishing journey then I recommend just using the sizes stated above, you shouldn’t go to far wrong with these if you are just looking to catch any species, they also sit very nicely within the method feeder type mentioned above.
Conclusion
Going forward I hope that I have given you a good brief on the basics of method feeder fishing, please use the pictures shown above to give you a good idea of how to set up the method feeder and how it should look once it has been prepped ready for casting, if you are looking for more information on how to tie the knot needed to attach a method feeder or any other information then head over to youtube as there are plenty of videos showing you how to tie the knots needed and also the mechanics of using a method feeder.
If you have any questions about this topic or would like some more information added to the post to help yourself and other people then please leave a comment in the comments section below and I will advise as quickly as I can.
Again thank you for reading and hope to see you again soon.
martin@lakeamenity.com
