swimfeeder at sea

[chazyboi]

This might seem mad and you may think chazyboi has lost his marbles but has anyone ever tried using a swimfeeder from the beach or pier ect stuffed with various mackerel innards and other scents to atract fish into the area of thier bait i was thinking of trying it got the idea after watching some lads eeling one had a swimfeeder stuffed with scented cotton wool to attract the eel to his bait ,,i think it sounds daft but as sea fish have an acute sense of smell i think it would work specialy in a harbour breakwater for wrass doggies ect ,,,seriouse coments only please lol

[pingu]

tried as an odd idea when floundering cant say any more success rate
was wondering for the ray, but freezing whole thing down first for castin

dave

[chrismc]

sounds a good idea ,would it get the crabs attention more ,line bites and all that?

[pistonbroke]

used a method feeder once on a charter boat out of Langstone for the bream with groundbait on the hard side and loaded up with maggots .and squid strips as hookies. I caught fish ,but the skipper wasnt happy with maggots dropping on his deck whilst casting.

[Portland Pirate]

It's a fair question Chaz.

I have tried a swim feeder for Bream from a boat and to be honest it had no more success than my normal set up.
I have never used a swim feeder from the shore, but I have used PVA bags in the harbour and I did try it from the beach. Number one problem is you can't cast any distance from the shore with a big lump on the end of your rig. On beaches like Chesil where I fish you need to be able to cast at least 100yds with bait 80% of the time and I don't care how far you can cast on a field, you cant cast a 100yds with a PVA bag or feeder on the beach.

Yes I could cast it in the harbour but it didnt seem to make any difference to my catch rate for flounders. For Eels, I can see it working. Doggies and Wrasse will home in on your normal hook bait any way, so why go to the bother.

But here is the tip of the month. Garfish love particles in the water, so use a method feeder float with oil soaked bran or old brown crab if you can get it and chopped up mackerel with a 12" snood underneath the float with a size 6 Kamasan and a thin strip of mackerel as bait and you will catch. It often takes Mullet in the later part of the year (Oct/Nov)

[chazyboi]

not sutch a stupid idea then i was thinking of an in line feeder just to get scent into the water yep i can see the crabs giving liners but no more than on a normal bait ,,i was fishing this harbour and found the fish would go mad then dissaper then come back same all night i thought they might be patroling round the harbour in shoals and that feeder would put some guts ect on the sea bed and keep em there ,might it work at close range for bass rolled into a gully ect ???????

[barbelblanker]

If I'm mullet fishing I get a bucket of sloppy cheap bread and plaster is between rocks so the tide washes it out as it rises. Not so good when there are tons of sea birds though. Seems to bring them looking. Other than that, I've had the same thought too. Be an interesting one . Probably join Dans "little list of bloody stupid things anglers ask" , but hell, no one asks we never know.

[geejayy]

i've rarely used them but i've seen them regularly used in the past when targeting rays,with some success. 35mm film cases with a little adaption work well.

[NICK R]

i use a spod when mullet fishing

[gullyworm]

Not so sure about swimfeeders but bait droppers and putting a steady supply of bait into the water deffinatley work.
I've used bait droppers when Bream fishing and they work and when Bass fishing with bread flake or smokey bacon a steady stream of bait attracts the fish.