Method feeder fishing is an extremely popular method of fishing and it is commonly used by carp anglers fishing well-stocked commercial fisheries.
Method feeders allow you to cast small bundles of moulded fish-attracting baits, such as ground baits or micropellets, with your hook bait presented within.
After your method feeder and moulded bait hits the water, it will start to break down and fall away, leaving your hookbait within or on top of the small pile.
The oils, flavours, nutritional value and amino acids from your bait will start to disperse in the water and encourage nearby fish to come and feed on this small mound of bait and hopefully pick up your hook bait.
Although method feeders are commonly used by carp anglers, you may hook into other coarse fish in the process, or you may want to use them specifically to target another species of fish.
So, is method feeder fishing only for carp?
Is Method Feeder Fishing Only For Carp?
No, method feeder fishing is not only for carp fishing, and many other anglers will use this tactic for targeting other coarse species.
Depending on what type of bait you use, the size of hooks and also the size of your hookbait will all determine whether you will have the chance of catching other species of fish or not while fishing the method feeder.
As you can imagine, if you’re using large micropellets, 10mm boilies and larger hooks, then you’re not going to be catching any small silver fish such as roach or rudd.
This is commonly the case when carp anglers are fishing the method feeder in commercial venues, but they definitely might catch tench or bream who will both happily feed on “carp” baits and, if they’re a decent size will have no problem fitting the larger hook baits into their mouths.
If you want to target smaller fish, then you can scale down your feeder rig, use groundbait as your mix, which will break down in the water and also use tiny hooks and small hookbait such as a piece of small corn or a single or double maggot.
If you fish a set up like this, then you have the chance to catch all the silverfish that are stocked or live in the water.
The method feeder is often commonly used for fishing for barbel on rivers.
Heavy method feeders can be used to fish in medium to faster-flowing waters where they will sink to the bottom quickly, and hopefully the flat bottom and extra weight will anchor them to the bottom and stop them from moving with the current too much.
It is common for barbel anglers to fish a groundbait mix with larger baits added so the groundbait will flow downstream and hopefully pull the barbel to your feeder, where your hook bait and larger baits should be waiting.
What Fish Can You Catch Using a Method Feeder?
So now that we’ve established that method feeders are not only used for carp and can be used for a lot of other coarse species by tweaking the size of rigs and hook baits that you use, let’s take a look at some of the fish you can target while fishing the method feeder:
- Roach, Rudd, Dace, Chub and basically any other silverfish can be caught using method feeders if you scale down your hook size massively to tailor to their small mouths. Also, there are specific silver fish method feeder mixes that are finely made and great for attracting plenty of silverfish into your swim. Single or double maggots or small pieces of sweetcorn can be great as a hookbait.
- Barbel are also commonly fished for using method feeders on rivers like I have explained above.
- Carp are of course the most common fish targetted with the method feeder and various groundbaits or micropellets can be used. They are usually fished for with large boilies or pellets attached to hair rigs on the method feeder.
- Bream and Tench may also be caught if there is a stock of them in the water that you’re fishing. They grow to large enough sizes to be able to consume the same baits as decent carp and will also be attracted into your baiting swim.
That’s All
Method feeders are definitely not only used for carp fishing, and if you’re new to carp angling, it’s good to have some sort of idea of what species you may catch with the method that you’re using.
Method feeders can be used to catch a large portion of the coarse fish swimming in our waters with a few simple tweaks, whether it be changing out baits, scaling down hooks or fishing various hook baits.
I hope you’ve found this useful, and if you’ve got any questions, leave a comment below.
