Slow Sinking Feeders

I have been knocking around a few ideas for constructing a slow sinking maggot feeder for roach in deep water. This way you can search for them at different depths.

I have heard of 'bubble feeders' - which I think do the job I mention.

Has anyone heard of them?

If so how are they made up?

Are they commercially available?

Just do what I do and Take the lead of a drennan maggot feeder and put in a pva nuggett. The pva slows down the descent of the feeder and once it has dissolved the feeder is normally empty and gently resting on the bottom anyway, use a short hook length and watch the tip.

Good idea Trev. I'm looking at sloooooooooooooooooooooooooow. Near critically balanced, but wieghted so that it sinks. Will a nugget support 2-4 swan shot?

If you can get hold of a copy of Bob Robert's book on legering, there's an explanation of the bubble feeder method. It's intended for still or very slow moving water. The idea is that you use a Kinder egg or similar, which will actually float (just) with nothing in it. i find a small Thamesley feeder with the lead strip works.

Drill a few holes if using a Kinder and attach to the line free running, as you would a bomb (a tightish powergum loop running the length of the egg/feeder and very small swivel, which keeps the top on, is best). Use a tail of 18 inches - 2 ft, a single maggot on a small hookand a soft actioned quiver rod with a fine tip.

Fill with maggots, cast in, just tighten the lineand the weight of the maggots will cause the feederto sink very slowly. Bites come as fish take maggots escaping from the feeder as it sinks, one of which will be your slowly sinking hook bait. When the feeder empties, it will actually start to rise in the water, at which point, it's time to refill and recast. Not a mthodintended for fishing on the bottom, the method works best for fish feeding in mid water, usually in warmer conditions.

On its day, a great method.

Sorry. Should have read "small Thamesley feeder without the lead strip"...

I uise to use a dremman maggot feeder




I would take the lead off the bottom and stick a sheet of high density foam in its place. This would cause the feeder to float. However if you trim down the foam and or add weight to the feeder you can set the sink rate to suit.

Tight Lines

Lauries and Bobs idea is very similar to mine except that I use pva to hold the feeder up in the water, Ians use of foam is similar to that also. I understand that matchmen are using sugar puffs wetted down and moulded round a small float as a surface type feeder.

My method using the pva means that there is as little neutral boyancy as possible, once the feeder is empty its neither being pulled to the bottom by lead nor being pulled to the surface by foam. the pva melts pretty quickly but it will have held up the descent long enough for some bait to escape, that bait sinks at its own speed which is followed through the water column by the feeder which is exuding bait at the same time. There is bait at all levels in the water column and it works even better if some of the maggots have had a dip in coke or sprite first too cos they will go upwards when they get out of the feeder. All very confusing to the fish.

Thanks for the ideas lads, I'll see what I can do.