Feeder Fishing for Beginners

A feeder is a small cage or tube that you fill with bait. It is also your casting weight. Every time you cast, the feeder takes a little bait out and leaves it on the bottom, right next to your hook bait.

Instead of a float, you watch the end of your rod. A feeder rod has a thin, brightly painted tip called a quivertip, which pulls round when a fish takes the bait.

The feeder lets you fish further out than a float or pole, and it works in deep water, wind and flowing rivers. It catches almost everything: carp, bream, tench, roach, chub and barbel.

Method feeder: a flat frame you press damp groundbait or micro pellets around, with your hook bait pushed into the mix. Fish swim up to eat the pile and find the hook. Brilliant for carp, F1s and tench on commercial fisheries.

Cage feeder: an open mesh cage packed with damp groundbait. It breaks up on the bottom and draws in shoals of bream and skimmers.

Open-end feeder: a tube filled with maggots, casters or pellets, with a plug of groundbait at each end to hold it in.

Maggot (blockend) feeder: a closed tube with holes. Live maggots wriggle out slowly. The best choice on rivers for roach, chub and barbel.

Feeders come in different weights. Use the lightest one that holds the bottom.

A feeder rod of 9 to 12 feet usually comes with two or three quivertips of different strengths. Use a light tip on still water and a stiffer one on rivers, where the current would pull a soft tip right round.

Pair it with a 3000 or 4000 size reel loaded with 5 to 6lb line. For the hooklength (the short bit of line the hook is tied to), use 3 to 5lb line, depending on the size of fish you expect.

Method feeder: most are inline, meaning the line runs through the middle of the feeder. Use a short hooklength of about 10cm (4in), so the hook bait sits right in the pile of feed. Pellets and boilies go on a hair rig or a bait band.

Cage, open-end and maggot feeders: clip the feeder on a link that slides on your line, stopped by a bead and a swivel. Use a longer hooklength of 30 to 60cm (1 to 2ft) so the bait sits near the feed and moves naturally.

Always use fish-safe rigs: if your line ever snaps, the fish must be able to shed the feeder. Ready-made method feeder kits are designed to do this.

Feeder fishing only works if every cast lands in the same place, building a pile of bait.

Pick a marker on the far bank, like a tree or a post, and cast straight at it. When the feeder lands where you want it, wind in any slack and tuck the line under the line clip on your reel's spool. Now every cast stops at exactly the same distance.

As the feeder reaches the clip, lift the rod up behind you so it stops gently. This stops the line snapping or the feeder bouncing back. Before you unclip, wrap the line round two sticks or a pair of distance sticks so you can find the same range next time.

Cast, let the feeder sink, then put the rod on two rests at an angle to the line, so you can see the quivertip side-on. Wind in gently until the tip has a slight bend.

The tip pulls round: strike by lifting the rod smoothly. On the method feeder, the rod often pulls round hard and the fish hooks itself.

The tip springs back straight (a drop-back): a fish has picked up the bait and moved towards you, lifting the feeder. Strike! Bream often bite like this.

Little taps and rattles: small fish picking at the bait, or line bites from fish brushing the line. Wait for a proper pull.

At the start, recast every few minutes to build up a bed of bait. Once bites start, leave it longer between casts.