building up a swim

[northern mark]

It depends on how you mix the groundbait as well as the make up of it. Some mixes are designed to break into small pieces as soon as they hit the water and slowly sink to the bottom, others sink and braek up on or near the bottom.

 

If you expect a reasonable number of larger fish in your swim you are going to have to feed them to keep them there, if you put a couple of pounds of groundbait in as well as your loose feed you don't need as many maggots etc during your session.

 

Idealy you want your bait to fall through the water at different speeds so the hookbait is harder to detect.

 

That's the theory anyway

 

Mark

[Steve Burke]

Building up a swim is as much an art as a science. It's something that match anglers tend to be much better at than specimen hunters. Indeed, the top matchmen seem to have almost a sixth sense about when and how much to feed!

 

I spoke to Bob Nudd about this once, and he said that one of the keys was to estimate how many fish you have in your swim and how much they'd eat. In other words there's no magic formula that always works.

 

My own very simplistic approach is usually to "feed the bites". Whist I may lay down a carpet of feed initially, I top the feed up whenever I get a bite. This automatically reduces the common problem of overfeeding the swim - remember you can always add more feed, but you can't take any out!

 

What you're trying to do is to create a competitive situation so that that there's just the right amount of feed for the fish to have to grap at what they see before they get beaten to it.

 

How much I feed at once depends on what Nuddy said. For instance, I'd normally feed more each bite in summer than in winter.

 

Whether or not you use cereal groundbait rather than hookbait samples is a more difficult matter. It depends both on the venue and the species. One of the great advantages of fine groundbait though is that it's usually a good attractant without filling the fish up.

 

For instance, if bites stop altogether it could well be because the fish have vacated your swim. This can happen for a variety of reasons and you have to try and work out why and also how much feed is left. It may be because you've spooked them, or that a predator has done so. It may just be that the fish are full up and have drifted away.

 

In the latter case, to feed heavilly could well be the kiss of death. In this instance I'd probably start by stopping all loose feed but try and attract some fish back into the swim with cloudbait.

 

As as already been pointed out, the depth the fish are feeding at can be critical. Quite apart from the preference of the fish, sometimes you may want to catch high in the water, on other occasions it may be preferable to concentrate the fish on the bottom.

 

In general, if you want to bring the fish up in the water you feed less at once but usually more often, and vice versa.

 

In my experience, feeding is probably the most important factor in catching fish on heavilly stocked waters, whilst on more natural waters location is the key. Groudbaiting tactics are also different on waters like sparcely-stocked gravel pits. What I've suggested here is more appropriate to heavilly-stocked commercial venues.

 

It's also I believe the main reason for the difference in catches at commercial venues. So many anglers feed too much at once, but not often enough. The old adage of "little and often" will be right more often than it's wrong.

 

One of the best pieces of advice I can give is that you invest some time and go along to a match or two and watch what the matchman do. A lot of us can learn a great deal from successful match anglers.

 

And this applies just as much, if not more so, to specimen hunters!

 

[ 12. July 2004, 01:40 PM: Message edited by: Steve Burke ]

[RUDD]

kleinboet:

Frodo - look at it this way.  If you were in a classroom full of kids and threw a whole bag of sweets at the front, there'll be a brief fight, the sweets will be gone and it will be all over..... However if you throw five or six sweets every 5-10mins you keep the interest going the whole session!

SANG IN FOOTBALL STYLIE:

You've been watching to much Hayes,

You've been watch-ing to much Hayes!

 

One of his favorite and best bits of advice.

[RUDD]

The key to feeding is trying to picture or get an understanding of what is going on under the water.

Eg the fishes reaction to a ball of groundbait or a feeder falling through the swim etc.

 

During a match I will feed little and often.

If bites are slow I will reduce the amount put in but still put it in often.

If bites are fast and furious I will increase the feed but little and more often.

Its a case of getting the fish competing.

 

 

There is also the presentation side of things, you have to get your hookbait to act like the freebies.

 

I suppose at eh end of the day it will boil down to experiance.

[frodo_uk]

thx to everyone who replied to my post thats certainly given me plenty to think about and to try and put into practice on my next outing ...will let you know how I fared

[Leon Roskilly]

Match anglers have no option other than to try to 'build a swim'.

 

Never forget that pleasure anglers have the ability to use watercraft to locate feeding fish.

 

Having found the fish where they are naturally drawn to feed, there's much less emphasise on 'feeding the swim' than on getting the presentation right for the species and conditions you are fishing.

 

Tight Lines - leon

[deanbmw]

when the strech i regualy fish switches off usualy means theres a pike about...thats when the kids come in handy....they can spot a pike much better than me ...so out comes the wire traces and the trebles

[kleinboet]

Frodo - just a quick thought in passing. Liquefied bread (bread put in a blender and liquified or "crumbed") makes an ideal ground bait as it attracts the fish and actually encourages them to feed.

[DarrenBranks]

Accidentally thought this was recent but oh well

Edited August 23, 2012 by DarrenBranks

[Nicepix]

I suggest sticking to loose feeding maggots, tackle would be a stick float with all the shot at the float end, this will make your hook bait look more natural. What I do personally is plumb the depth, and that is how long my trace stays all day( except when I'm not catching. rare tho) when my float hits the water I throw maybe 7 or 8 maggots in with my hook bait sinking at the same pace, this method seems to pick up the bigger fish. If trying this then feed ten maggies per cast and leave a cast for 2 to 3 mins before reeling in and repeating.

 

Hope I helped.

 

Darren.

 

If it did Darren then well done. The last reply was eight years ago!