Using sea fishing swimfeeders and fishing for small-eyed ray

USING SALTWATER SWIMFEEDERS
Sea anglers have been slow to catch on to the merits of swim feeders. Yet when bites are scarce having a strong scent trail wafting downtide can pull in fish to your bit of beach and make a huge difference to the catch rate.

You'll also be surprised at the species that respond to swim feeder fishing. Expect bass, eels, flounders, dabs, whiting, rays and obviously dogfish. In fact most fish!

Freshwater swim feeders aren't really suitable for saltwater. Ideally we need a feeder that will fit on the long tail of a lead. By placing the feeder on the tail of the lead we retain good casting performance as the feeder travels in the air pocket broken by the lead and the combined weight of the loaded feeder and weight travel as one giving a clean cast.

Saltwater swimfeeders for extra bite

You need to make your leads with slighter longer tails than normal and without a formed eye. The tails need to be long enough to carry the canister, plus allow the lid to be flipped open to allow filling. You can then form the eye in the tail for rig connection.

The best feeder fillers I've found are standard fishmeal and herring meal mixes. I mix these stiff, sometimes with old bread as extra binder and maybe add a little mackerel oil for added scent. Bits of chopped up mackerel, peeler crab, lugworm and mussel also work, but must be chopped finely or put through an old food blender. Basically you can take it as far as you like.

Feeders work best in conjunction with long hook snoods, say around 24-inches, and one down, one up rigs that keep the hook baits close to the feeder. I like to use hook baits that are juicy and from a different ingredient than you have in the feeder. You want the fish to be able to identify the hook bait scent amongst the feeder smell.

Something else I've noticed. In calmish clear water, adding bright red colouring to the feeder mix increases the catch rate. Sight must also play a part.

TIPS AND TRICKS
Cut a 5-inch by one-inch strip of rubber from an old tyre inner tube. Use a bottle top to cut one end to a round shape. Tape the flat end of the rubber strip to the butt of your rod immediately below the reel position with the strip lying towards the butt cap.

Pulled up and held over the spool with your thumb, this simple device massively increases your thumb grip pressure on multiplier spools when casting and eliminates spool slippage under power. The instant you release the strip it falls back to its original position below the reel.

SMALL-EYED RAY TACTICS

It's the season for small eyed!

The main areas for small-eyed's are the Hampshire beaches, the Isle of Wight. The coves and rock marks of Cornwall, the Bristol Channel, west and mid Wales.

They love clean sand just out from rock marks, but are happy in very shallow water and will be close in amongst the breakers on some surf beaches. A good guide is to check if there are sandeels resident on the beach as sandeels are a main dietary item for small-eyed's. Areas holding good numbers of small pouting also attract small-eyed's. On surf beaches, fish fairly close to rocks or reef structure for the best results.

Try to time your fishing to the three days either side of the spring tides, but off the rock marks it is less vital. They feed best during the flood tide, especially if it coincides with dusk and darkness. The bigger fish seem to move inshore just after a good blow when the sea is coloured but calming down.

There is a myth that you need to cast huge distances to contact small-eyed's. Often the rays are within 50-yards of the sand line during the flood tide and most anglers will be casting over them. In fact the smaller rays may be in just a foot of water 20-yards from the beach.

The best baits are whole medium sized sandeels threaded up the hook with the point near the head and bound with a little elastic to hold them for casting. Take a couple of sandeel fillets off and whip these alongside the whole one for extra scent. Squid is a good big small-eyed bait too, either on it's own or as a combination bait with mackerel. A fillet of pout is also effective.

A one-hook clipped down rig or long and low rig in conjunction with a release wire lead works best. Hook sizes need be no more than 3/0, either single or pennel. Small-eyed's are one of the better fighting rays and will take line in short runs. They bite by showing as tiny trembles on the rod tip, then purposefully pull it over. A good one weighs 10lbs.