It’s a swimfeeder that closes at both ends but one of the ends can be opened to allow you to put bait in. They are also known as maggot feeders as that’s the main feed used with them, although a ‘caster and hemp’ approach is very effective on rivers. The bait stays in the feeder on the cast, but when it sinks to the bottom it escapes through the holes (or in the case of hemp and casters on rivers is washed out by the flow) creating an area of feed close to your hook bait to draw fish to it.
For the feeder to be effective in running water, it needs to hold bottom, but only just. You fish with the rod pointing at a 45-degree angle upwards with the flow putting a bend into the tip. The idea is to balance things so that the feeder holds bottom, but if you get a bite, it’s dislodged. This registers with the tip dropping back (a ‘drop-back bite’) and usually the fish is already hooked. To help you achieve this you can add staple leads that fold into the holes in the feeder. Putting a bow into the line between you and the feeder also helps the feeder hold bottom. On stillwaters you need to balance things between the distance you need to cast, how much you need to feed, and the time of year. For long-range work look for the bullet-nosed feeders, which are very aerodynamic. Generally speaking, in winter a small feeder that doesn’t create too much disturbance when it hits the water will be best.
Some feeders have mechanisms that can close up some of the holes and that will result in the bait coming out more slowly. You might want to do this when bites are hard to come by, or when fishing in deep water to stop bait coming out as the feeder sinks. Another way to slow things down is to wrap electrical tape around the side of the feeder, meaning that the bait can only escape through the holes in the top. On rivers when fishing caster and hemp, it’s a good idea to enlarge the holes with scissors to ensure all the contents are quickly released from the feeder.
Educated specimen fish that have been caught before can shy away from the sight of a light-coloured swimfeeder and so many specialist anglers try to choose a coloured feeder that will blend in with the bottom. A good tip is to camouflage your feeder using a permanent black marker pen.
