Feeder fishing: a masterclass

Among our growing team of wonderful - and committed - coaches, we are blessed with a number who are nationally recognised experts in their respective fields. Everyone, not just the young people whom they coach and nurture so well, can benefit from their knowledge.

This month our Northwest Lead Coast - and resident perch guru - Justin Cavalier offers us all a superbly crafted insight into fishing with a feeder: wisdom personified.

In our December newsletter, we talked about what equipment to use when introducing new anglers to the sport. My recommendation is a natural progression from elasticated whips to take apart poles and/or fishing the waggler float on rod and reel. The next piece of equipment to consider is another rod and reel technique called feeder fishing.

Feeders come in all shapes and sizes and they also vary in weight depending on how windy it is, whether the water has flow or the distance you are trying to cast. The most common style is a cage feeder which, as its name suggests, is made from a plastic or metal mesh. Other styles include method, hybrid, block end and even floating variations.

A feeder’s main job is to deliver a parcel of bait close to your hook bait so that fish attracted to the area are more likely to find it and build confidence as they eat the free offerings. Because they are heavy and sink, feeders can be cast long distances and can be fished in any depth, in still or running water and this eliminates the need to use a plummet. You can gauge the depth of water by counting down how long it takes for it to reach the bottom after hitting the surface of the water.

A feeder rod usually has several interchangeable thin tips of various sensitivity, and these are painted in a fluorescent colour such as yellow. When the fish bite, the tip of the feeder rod will move either backwards or forwards depending on the direction the fish has swum after picking up the bait. This is why it is important to use the reel and tighten the line up to the feeder so that there is a slight bend in the tip. If the fish swims towards you, the tip will spring backwards as the tension disappears from the line. We refer to this as a drop back bite and in both situations, either forwards or backwards movements, it is time to quickly pick up the rod, strike and reel in smoothly, keeping the tension in the line.

Feeders can be fixed to your main line or fished free running. From a fish welfare point of view, the latter will ensure that in the event that your line breaks, the feeder will drop off and fall to the bottom so that the fish is not tethered to it. Fixed feeders have the advantage of self hooking the fish, but a word of caution when using this style. It is extremely important to not leave your rod unattended, because if the fish you have hooked is powerful enough, it has the potential to pull your rod and reel into the water. This has never happened to me yet, but I have witnessed it, especially when young anglers have lost concentration after a while with no action and wandered off to chat with friends nearby.

If you do need to walk away for whatever reason, loosen the drag or clutch on your reel - or even better, purchase a bait runner-style reel. Bait runners usually have a lever that, when pushed, activates a free spool mode that will allow the fish to pull line off the reel without taking the rod with it. To deactivate it, simply turn the handle a few times.

Feeder fishing is also a great way of practicing accurate casting. Ideally the feeder needs to be cast back to the same area every time so that the angler concentrates the shoal of fish into a tight space. There is more chance of them finding your hook bait in this situation.

The feeder rod can also be used with ledger bombs or lead weights. Although these don't deliver any additional food, they can be cast to areas where the angler has thrown or catapulted some free offerings in. The ledgered weights can also be placed inside a dissolvable bag made of PVA along with additional food. This method is often combined with a self-hooking hair rig and is used in many types of specimen fishing.

If you are fishing a lake with large fish or you are having to cast very long distances, it may be time to move to a stronger, more specialist style of fishing rod, and by this point you have now mastered two of the primary coarse fishing styles.