Correct feeding – more than anything else – makes the successful angler, only those who master feeding techniques will consistently make good catches
Feeding how much and how often ? Many anglers can find the right fishing spot, fish in the right method and present the lure cleanly. Still they don’t catch much. Wrong feeding is often the reason. Small to medium roach, bream, dace, chub, barbel, perch and roach live in schools. Most of the time they revise in search of food. Where they find food, they stay. If you don’t feed, you will catch a fish only once in a while, even if whole schools swim by. To attract the fish and keep them at the fishing spot, you have to know what to feed, how much and how often to feed.
Bob Nudd, 1990 World Champion, with a day’s catch. With the right feeding technique, any good angler can make such catches.
What to feed?
Bait can be divided into two types.
First: Loose feed, z.B. Maggots or other bait that would otherwise be on the hook are introduced by hand, catapult or a swim feeder that is closed at one end.
Second: Groundbait, d. h. moistened breadcrumbs. It is introduced by hand, catapult or a swim feeder open on both sides. You can add maggots or casters to the groundbait. It is important to know when to put in groundbait and when to put in loose bait. Bream and roach are usually attracted with groundbait. roach, dace, chub, barbel and perch prefer loose food. If you feed with groundbait in clear, cold water, you easily make your fishing spot "dead". Because the throwing scares away the fish. Loosely thrown in feed is appropriate here.
Feeding. There are two types of catapults for putting in loose feed: With mesh basket (top) for longer distances; with pouch (bottom) for more targetability in close quarters.
Without a catapult, you can’t bring in loose food like maggots outside your own reach. The elbow is pinned to the body and the catapult held still before shooting off.
Feeding, how much and how often ?
Bait should attract the fish and keep them at the fishing spot without saturating them. The old rule "little, but often" is correct here.
Little; If you feed sparingly, you force the fish to fight for each piece of food. You can put in more feed when there are more fish around. But it is better to start with little food, so that the few fish at the beginning are not overfed. You start with a walnut-sized ball of groundbait, about a dozen grubs, or both. If the fish bite is fussy, take half of it. If the fish are biting well, double the amount.
Often; Continuous feed input builds up a steady stream of feed in the water. This will attract the fish throughout the fishing session. If you fish with the drifting float in flowing water, you should enter decoy feed with every cast. In stagnant or slow-flowing waters, feed every five minutes.
Exceptions; The main exception to the "little-but-often method" is bream fishing. Bream don’t like feed constantly being entered over their heads. Therefore you lay out a carpet of food on the bottom of the water with a lot of food. Bream are caught before you put in new feed. When you refeed for bream fishing, the bream should have their heads down when feeding, so that they take little notice of it. If too many small fish make fishing impossible, you can scare them away by suddenly throwing in a lot of feed.
The "little-but-often method"; when fishing in flowing water, feed on with each new cast. If you are fishing in stagnant or slow moving water, every few minutes.
Aimed feeding
Precise feeding is very important. If you distribute your feed widely, you also distribute the fishes. Accurate feeding keeps the fish on the fishing spot. The golden rule is not to fish too far out. The farther out you fish, the harder it is to hit the same fishing spot over and over again. If the wind gets stronger, you may not be able to reach a spot far out. This is what you should think about before you start fishing.
Baitdropper is used to feed in very fast flowing water just below the rod tip.
The Baitdropper prevents the strong current from washing away the feed before it reaches the fishing bottom or is eaten by small fish. The hook is passed through an eye and into the cork on the back of the Baitdropper. The Baitdropper opens automatically on the bottom.