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Print versionSaltwater Swimfeeders
We sea anglers are very slow to learn from our freshwater counterparts. Take swim feeders, only a tiny minority of saltwater types bother to use them, and mostly it's competition anglers looking for that extra edge that have experimented with them.
Swim feeders are a simple modification to add to your end rigs, but offer big advantages in both increasing the overall catch, but also in targeting individual species.
This feature aims to first give you a step by step guide on how to make a cheap, but very effective feeder suitable for sea work, but then to highlight some of the areas where you'll benefit by using them.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR SWIMFEEDER
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Ask any chemist or drug store that sends film away for developing and they'll have plenty of empty plastic film canisters which only get thrown away. They should be free for the asking! It doesn't matter whether the canisters have the snap over lids, or the push in type. You'll also need some 18 gauge stainless steel wire.
STEP 1
Take an empty canister and using a 3/16 drill bit make five vertical lines of 3 holes around the outside.
The canisters are thin walled and you can make the holes simply holding the drill bit in your fingers and turning it with gentle pressure.
STEP 2
Make a small hole just big enough to take the wire through the centre of the lid and again through the base.
Either use a small 1/16 drill for this, though I prefer to heat one end of a length of the stainless wire with a cigarette lighter flame and melt the centre holes through. This seals the hole edges at the same time making the punctures stronger.
STEP 3
Cut the stainless wire into 4.5" lengths and make a small eye in one end using the ends of the tapered jaws on a set of long nosed pliers.
You make the eye by rolling the wire around the jaws bending it in short sections as you go until the end butts up against the wire.
Pass the wire through the canister using the centre holes and then form another small eye the same as before. This is should leave you with about half an inch of free stainless wire between the top of the canister and the bottom of the top eye. This allows you enough
room to pull the lid upwards to load the container with feeder mix.
That's the finished product. Easy, isn't it!
SETTING UP THE SWIMFEEDER
Having the eyes at each end means you can connect the feeder to the base of any normal rig using a Mustad oval split ring. A second split ring attached to the feeders bottom eye takes the lead weight. This is the best option for close range fishing.
For longer casting, it's better to do away with the integral wire, but fix the canister on to the wire of a long tailed lead. This is easiest if you cast your own leads and increase the length of the tail wire to take the canisters forming the connecting eye in the tail wire after
the canister is in place.
Assembled like this, they cast extremely well with minimum overall loss in casting range.
If you want the feeder running on the actual rig body, then I suggest you use a length of thin hollow tubing to run the line through, rather than allowing the canister to have direct contact with the rig line.
This method os attachment is worth considering when you want to place the canister directly in line with the bait which then sits smack in the middle of the canisters scent lane for following fish to find. You stop the canister from sliding down by using a stop knot or telephone wire on the line below the feeder.
You can increase or decrease the amount of time it takes to release the scent and contents of the feeder by the size of hole drilled in the walls. The 3/16 holes are a good compromise and keep scent in the water for about 15 minutes in average tide conditions. Go up to 1/4
holes and the release time is down to just 5 minutes. Obviously the more holes you drill also has a bearing on release time.
A general rule is to choose a slow release feeder during the strongest tide run, then go for the larger holed canisters as the tide drops back to slack water.
WHERE TO FISH THE FEEDER
Fishing a feeder works especially well inside estuaries when after flounders and eels. By placing each cast within the same area you set up a feeding station that draws fish from far and wide, but more importantly, holds them there!
Try it off the open beaches at close range. The added scent in the water pulls in dabs, whiting, flounders, school bass, pout, dogs and coalies.
At long range, especially in to deep water over sand, you stand a much better chance of taking rays if you've a feeder quadrupling the amount of scent your bait is putting down. Rays are lazy and only follow up fresh, strong smells. Weak scents to a ray mean that the food is probably a long way off and may already have been eaten by other fish.
Using feeders over rough ground can really hammer home just how effective they are. A fish based mix really makes usually lazy conger take notice. By fishing a feeder and casting to the same spot each time again and again, the groundbait and small fish activity can make
reluctant to move eels leave their holes and work their way in to feed. Feeders also increase your chances of huss and dogfish over the same ground.
FEEDER MIX INGREDIENTS
A simple, but very effective mix for all fish is minced mackerel with a little pilchard oil added, then mixed with animal feed bran to make a thick, stodgy mix. This works well on rough ground fish like conger and huss, and rays over sand.
Another one to try is mixing tinned cat food with small amounts of bran. Dogfish get really tuned on by this!
When using crab baits for bass and flounders, take off the left over bait from the hook and push this into the can. Not all the juice will have washed out and this, plus a freshener of peeled crab legs adds enough scent to the water to attract searching fish.
To target whiting, cut fresh or frozen chunks of mackerel and herring and add them loosely to the can so that the sea water washes both scent and little tidbits of flesh free.
Crab chunks and shelled mussels make good feeder additives when fished close for winter coalies.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The best way to carry feeder ingredients is by pre-mixing them at home and carrying them either fresh, or frozen in sealed plastic bags. You don't need much for a session. Work on four casts per hour, that's 16 casts for four hours, so carrying something the size of a 1lb sugar bag should get you through.
It doesn't matter whether you aim to set the world alight on the competition circuit, or make the headlines with a string of specimen fish, using a feeder brings those dreams that just that little bit nearer reality.
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