The Method Feeder and the ways it can be fished,

dezza · Jul 5, 2012

Over the last two years I have fished the method feeder as I never have before, and I was using it in 1969. I believe what we call the method feeder is one of the most effective methods (pardon the pun) of catching still water, and on odd occasions river fish, that has ever been contrived.

But how do you rig it?

For myself I use the flat in-line method feeder most of the time as supplied by Drennan. I use a 6 to 8 lb reel line and a 5 to 7 lb fluorocarbon hook length when fishing for tench and bream. For carp, I step up to 12lb reel line or even higher depending on the size of the fish and the presence of snags. Nearly all the baits I use, which are either pellets, boilies or sweetcorn which I hair rig in a pretty conventional manner. Hooks vary for size 14 up to size 6.

I usually fish two rods, 11 feet FM Concepts which have 1.5 lbs test curves. Reels are Shimano DL4000 FA baitrunners and Delkim alarms are used in conjunction with Fox swingers. If I used one rod only I might use the quiver tip. But I like to use two rods as one of them is the "fish catcher" and the other one is the experimenter.

The hook length can be anything between 2 inches to 24 inches. Sometimes I put the hookbait into the method ball, other times I let the hookbait sit some considerable distance from the method ball. Both have caught fish, but at this stage I would say that the short hooklength catches most fish and the long hooklength catches the biggest fish.

My method mix normally comprises of a standard packet feed together with 3mm pellets. This year this has been daubed liberally with one of the Goo additives. For tench, the hookbait has been 8mm boilies, the drilled boilies by Sonu baits has been particularly successful. I have also used 8mm pop-ups on weedy and soft bottoms.

So what do you use, and how successful has it been for you?

peter crabtree · Jul 5, 2012

What did the 1969 version look like?

blounty65 · Jul 5, 2012

on the pool i personally use i fish the method my choice is the preston inline flat method feeder with 8lb mainline and a 3" hooklength of gravel bottom braid on a size 12 hook hair rigged with pellet, pop up corn in conjuction with real corn, i also use a maggot ring with artificial maggots. the method mix i make myself from scratch, which contains my own bread crumb, cat biscuit, egg shells, and corn flakes, i scorch 2mm feeder pellets and add them, for added flavour 50ml of mollases in about a 1/2 pint of bottled water. cast out and leave it if bites are slow i reel in about two turns till the sidewinder is touching the rod then i pull the line in by hand to move the feeder across the bed about 2 inches normally gets a bite for me

dezza · Jul 5, 2012

peter crabtree said:
What did the 1969 version look like?

Good question.

This type of feeder consisted of a spiral of wire (from a coat hanger) around a bomb shaped lead. above this, about 5 to 6 inches was tied a swivel and then a paternoster hook link which was about 6 inches long. About 10 inches above that was another small swivel and another paternoster link about 4 to 5 inches long.

The feed was cooked maize which was then fed through a meat mincer. The resulting mix was than moulded around the spiral of wire and lead. Finally the hook from the bottom paternoster link was embedded into the minced maize feed.

Hookbait was cooked maize or even sweetcorn on a size 4 or 6 incurved (bent) hook. The whole set up was capable of being cast a considerable distance, certainly over 100 yards in those times.

The whole set up was designed so that the fish would hook itself. The rod was placed into two rests and a dough bobbin was squeezed on the line beyond the rod tip. This did two things, it acted like a swinger on a modern rod set up, and it helped pin the line as close as possible to the bottom, very similar to what the back lead does today.

I hope this answers your question.

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blounty65 said:
i pull the line in by hand to move the feeder across the bed about 2 inches normally gets a bite for me
__________________

This business of twitching the feeder is interesting. I was doing this the other day and a 6 pound male tench pulled back very hard!

The well known early specimen hunter and big tench catcher of the 60s - Frank Guttfield developed twitching a bait to a fine art, especially for tench.

How many of you also twitch your baits?

nicky · Jul 5, 2012

I use a homemade milkbottle top method feeder with a short microbraid hooklength 3" in length 8 - 10lb mainline ultima powerplus.

Usually the cheap frozen sweetcorn hair rigged using the korum quick stops for simplicity.

I find the perfect mix comprises of 2 parts of 3-4mm pellets and 1 part finely ground vitalin.

This is an absolutely killer combination and i have had to force myself lately to try other methods as i was concerned about becoming a 1 method angler excuse the pun.

I use a 32 gram version for use with the quiver tip and i find the fish hook against the quiver tip as much as the bolt effect of the weight
I make a heavier version for use with carp rod and bait runner as i want the fish to hook against the weight of the feeder this may be 2-3 ounces

flightliner · Jul 5, 2012

Every bream angler in fenland used to twitch their baits from the moment ledgering became the favoured method, it was often the thing that decided many a match with an extra fish or two.
Talking of method feeders being used in the late sixties(africa?) an oft used variation on fenland matches was the simple expedient of squeezing stiffish groundbait onto the ledger weight, paternostered but with a short hooklength , this was often seen in the mid sixties on the Witham when all the roach had all been wiped out with columnaris and it was a "bream or bust" situation
In my carping days in the eighties/early nineties I used to do the same when fishing short distances,
Maybe not the way it is today but the thinking and basic principles were one and the same.

nicky · Jul 5, 2012

how do you post a picture directly into the thread?

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2012-07-05200735.jpg picture by contender12 - Photobucket

---------- Post added at 19:32 ---------- Previous post was at 19:30 ----------

2012-07-05201007.jpg picture by contender12 - Photobucket

---------- Post added at 19:33 ---------- Previous post was at 19:32 ----------

heres a couple of my home made jobbies made from bottle tops but there are loads of ways to make them i started off using the flad lids of aerosol cans which are good if you want to get more bait into the swim

barbelboi · Jul 5, 2012

nicky said:
how do you post a picture directly into the thread?

---------- Post added at 19:30 ---------- Previous post was at 19:14 ----------

2012-07-05200735.jpg picture by contender12 - Photobucket

---------- Post added at 19:32 ---------- Previous post was at 19:30 ----------

2012-07-05201007.jpg picture by contender12 - Photobucket

---------- Post added at 19:33 ---------- Previous post was at 19:32 ----------

heres a couple of my home made jobbies made from bottle tops but there are loads of ways to make them i started off using the flad lids of aerosol cans which are good if you want to get more bait into the swim

Place the pic in your album
Enlarge it and right click - on the menu left click and then right click on 'Copy Image URL'
Go to the 'Insert Image icon ' on the row above where you type and left click to open then right click and paste.
You should see the pic when you go to preview.
Jerry

nicky · Jul 5, 2012

ta ill try it shortly

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i was thinking lately about trying the rig but with the hooklink between the feeder and rod tip trapped between two float stops and beads as this would basically be the same as the roach bolt rig and maybe better bite indication for the more subtle species like roach and skimmers. not that its needed for carp

Robert Woods · Jul 23, 2012

I use Reflow Powerline for my method rigs, can you use the likes of Kryston Silkworm braid or a coated one...?

skullsat · Jul 23, 2012

Ron The Hat Clay said:
This business of twitching the feeder is interesting. I was doing this the other day and a 6 pound male tench pulled back very hard!

The well known early specimen hunter and big tench catcher of the 60s - Frank Guttfield developed twitching a bait to a fine art, especially for tench.

How many of you also twitch your baits?

:w

something i've done for years,specially when float fishing tight on the bottom with worms.

nicepix · Jul 24, 2012

There is a reference to a 'groundbait-ledger' and attaching a ledger on the line between two split (as opposed to free running) in 'Fishing' by Horace Hutchinson, 1904.

Also from the same book:

To bait the tackle, prepare some ordinary bread paste and put a flattened good-sized lump of it over the lead, and a similar, but smaller bit, over the three shots; this is to act as ground bait and assist in deluding the carp, as they find it harmless. For the hook bait, Mr. Overbeck uses sweet paste made of stale bread crumb worked up with dry powdered loaf sugar and honey, well kneaded with clean hands, and not. made so tenacious as to hinder hooking or so soft as to soak off. It is semi-transparent, and when the hooks are baited with it they must be dipped in pure honey.

As regards baits, carp have been taken with all kinds of paste, with gentles, wasp grub, boiled peas, boiled potatoes, cherries, worms, crust of bread, dough, etc, and recently I saw in a French angling paper, La Piche Moderney that M. Hory, a shoemaker of Tournus, who is a keen carp angler, caught six carp on 30th September 1902 in the morning, weighing over 93 lbs., two of 20 livres, one of 19, one of 15, one of 10, and one of 9. The bait he used was la five cuite, but what kind of bean and how baked I know not.

Still more recently I noticed in another French angling paper, Le PScheur, that Austrian anglers at Vienna are said to catch carp up to six or eight pounds during the winter (and it is generally pretty severe in Vienna), fishing with cooked chestnuts. I confess I cannot understand winter fishing for carp, and must write to a friend in Vienna for further particulars. But I do not see why cooked chestnuts should not be a good bait for carp. To prepare them they are to be put into a melting pot (pot en fente-a sort of fireproof earthenware pipkin, I imagine) with a little water, in which they are to cook for about an hour, when they will be soft and tender, and delicious to eat with a little cider poured over them. A few bits of nut are thrown in as ground bait and a small piece put on the hook.

(The bean bait that was used to catch the six French carp in 1902 was probably broad beans, commonly pronounced 'fehvres')

little oik · Jul 24, 2012

Using 5lb to 7lb fluro as the hooklink on a method feeder would in my mind be undergunned . A 3inch length of 5lb fluorocarbon would snap with a 2lb or 3lb yank on the stuff as there is no give in it at all surely ?

laguna · Aug 3, 2012

nicky said:
I use a homemade milkbottle top method feeder with a short microbraid hooklength 3" in length 8 - 10lb mainline ultima powerplus.

I haven't checked out your picture of the milkbottle top Nicky, but it seems to me that any method feeder that doesnt have raised ribs (homemade or not) is better designed potentially preventing hooks from snagging.

Edit.. just seen them, pretty good mate just a thought though, have you considered moulding the lead with a hole through for the rig tubing? alternatively maybe press one down on a hot nail to make a U shape before fitting to the lead.

Who was it that originally coined the phrase "method feeder/fishing", anyway? not very imaginative when you think about it... :wh

peter crabtree · Aug 4, 2012

I think it was called 'the method' so the anglers who cottoned on to it's potential in the early days could talk about it in the company of other anglers without giving anything away.....

The Method Feeder and the ways it can be fished,

dezza

Well-known member

peter crabtree

AKA Simon, 1953 - 2022 (RIP)

blounty65

Well-known member

dezza

Well-known member

nicky

Well-known member

flightliner

Well-known member

nicky

Well-known member

barbelboi

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nicky

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Robert Woods

Senior Member

skullsat

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nicepix

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little oik

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laguna

Well-known member

peter crabtree

AKA Simon, 1953 - 2022 (RIP)