Method feeder for carp, bream and big roach

[itsmrb]

I picked up a couple of 25g flat drennan methods recently but I haven't used them yet. I was hoping to target the carp, bream and the bigger roach in my local so was planning to use 6mm mini boilies (tutti frutti) as hook bait (band banded to a size 14). I also have some sonubaits krill 8mm soft hookers which I thought I'd try as well but perhaps these are getting a bit big for the bream and roach? I have a bag of fin perfect 2mm pellets to mould to the feeder. Any thoughts? Thanks

[Phone]

itsm,

 

Sounds like a plan. What sort of venue?

 

Phone

[RUDD]

I use two or three dead maggots straight on hook. Corn, soft pellet or small boilies on a hair or hard pellet in a band tied to a hair. White boilies seem to work best. 2mm pellets are the same as I use soaked for two mins, I add supermarket brand horlicks into the water before soaking to make them more sticky.

If you have trouble getting ferder and pellet out of mould sprinkle some fishmeal or krill powder in mould before putting in pellets.

[lutra]

From experience a 1.5lb skimmer can pick up a snowman made of two 12mm boilies. I'm not sure how big a big roach is, but Ive had roach 8-10oz take good size lumps of bread flake 15-20mm across on a size 8 hook.

[itsmrb]

Its a mixed species 4 acre water.

 

What about groundbait vs pellets for the feeder? I thought the pellets might stick better.

Edited February 20, 2013 by itsmrb

[pearbo]

From experience a 1.5lb skimmer can pick up a snowman made of two 12mm boilies. I'm not sure how big a big roach is, but Ive had roach 8-10oz take good size lumps of bread flake 15-20mm across on a size 8 hook.

 

Can beat that...3lb bream, size 2 hook, 4 20mm halibut pellets. hooked in the bottom lip. had one on a third of a tin of spam too.

[Andy Macfarlane]

Most of the big Roach I've caught in the last 2 years have been taken on method feeder and sweetcorn, intended for tench.

[RUDD]

Its a mixed species 4 acre water.

 

What about groundbait vs pellets for the feeder? I thought the pellets might stick better.

 

Like any type of fishing you have to gauge what the fish are wanting on the day.

Some days they want groundbait and on others pellet. This is more of a rule on commercial waters containing alot of carp, if anglers are catching using paste you can bet the fish want groundbait on the method and pellet will not work very well. On mixed lakes I have found pellet to be favoured most of the time.

If you find the fish backing off the feeder after catching a few which I have found to happen on mixed fisheries,

a switch to a pellet feeder can work, failing that I will try a pellet cone and sometimes just a straight lead.

I also feed the method line with the occasional pellet cone by catapult when resting it and add a hook sample to the cone to mimic my method feeder.

On commercials (on rare occasions I fish them) I fire hard pellets over the top of the method, if the fish follow the bait down they find the method, if they come up in the water its time for the pellet waggler.

A final tip and perhaps the most crucial - like any feeder fishing make sure you are accurate with every cast - unlike other stillwater feeder fishing where once you think your feeder has emptied you draw your hookbait into the feed, with the method once its hit bottom DO NOT move it, just let line sink and tighten up very gently so the feeder stays in place with the feed on top where it will start to expand and drop down the sides of the feeder (in effect it camoflages the feeder), if you tighten up to hard and move the feeder the feed goes all over the place, your hookbait is not amoungst the feed and the feeder sticks out like a sore thumb.

On a final note - bites are unmistakable - your tip will twitch and dance as fish move into the swim - (I use some weighted tubing above method to pin line to bottom to try and prevent line bites), do not try and strike, wait until your tip slams round - and a word of warning, keep a hand on your rod at all times - if you need to do something with your hands open the bail arm or turn on bait runner - some bites are so violent that the rod gets dragged round and get get pulled into the water as the fish bolts - even by Medium sized fish such as Tench or Crucians.