Balls or bait dropper

[Andy M]

I am off to fish for barbel on new venue tomorrow which is quite a small river and was thinking of investing in a bait dropper never having used one before I was wondering what the advantages of using a bait dropper are over throwing in small balls of stiff groundbait laced with the same feed you would be putting in the bait dropper? And on same theme about what is a sensible maximum range at which a bait dropper is effective? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Personally I prefer to use a bait dropper only if feeding within sat 2 rods' lengths out, (for accuracy) over that distance then I always use balls of ground bait laced with feebie hook samples.

The main thing to mention with a bait dropper is . . . accuracy, in my opinion and that takes some practice.

Just my personal preference, I'm sure others might have different thinking

 

[thecrow]

Bait dropper on small rivers would be my choice although I have used loose feed before, the distance at which you can use a dropper is up to how accurate you are with it personally if fishing say half way over the Trent or somewhere similar I prefer a big feeder to get a bad of feed down.

 

[Andy M]

Thanks for the responses gentlemen. I ended up loose feeding because my local tackle shop does not stock bait droppers (not much call in this region I guess) and I forgot the ground bait! But caught a couple to about 6lb so quite content.

 

[trotter2]

It's obviously easier to use ground bait and quicker.
On some rivers or very low clear rivers groundbait can sometimes put the fish off the feed. If that's the case the bait dropper can have some advantages.