What do you call heavy feeding

[Dave Spence]

You often hear people saying they had to feed heavily in order to catch, but, how heavy is heavy? I would get through 6 pint of bronze maggots in a Trent match, I would consider that heavy. Ken and I once got through a 56lb bag of crumb and a gallon of maggots whilst sharing a peg on a bream lake. On the flip side, I was talking to a mate who had just won the match on my local commercial and he said he had fed really heavily, when I asked him, it turned out he had fed 1kg of groundbait and a pint of pellets. What do you lads think constitutes heavy feeding?

 

[Lee Richards]

Loaded question that can't be answered Dave as there are far too many variables that impact on the amount you feed.
Put a kilo of pellets in on a canal peg and you are probably feeding heavy - on a Carp lake in Summer it is a trickle yet on the same pool in the depths of Winter it could be heavy.

 

[Arry]

I only ever take 3 maggots... 1 on the hook one for loose feed and a spare if I need it

 

[Zerkalo]

Float fishing a river, I've had 6 pints of bait (hemp, maggot, caster) last me under 4 hours, I would call that heavy feeding. But feeder fishing (with a large black cap feeder) I've found I can make the same 6 pints of bait last me 'all day' even with the most regular casting, a point I've crudely tried to make before, that I find it difficult to 'overfeed' with a black cap feeder on a certain type of river peg, but I'm not complaining about that as it keeps my bill down.

 

[Silverfisher]

I never feed heavy really. A say tops 7 hour session on the Thames or a natural style lake will often see me loose feed around a couple pints of hemp or a couple pints of maggots (or a combination of both totalling 2-3 pints) plus say up to half a dozen balls of groundbait. There’s quite a few sessions when a lot less is sufficient though. The nearest angler is rarely that close or the water that deep or quick so it doesn’t seem to require any more to catch well. Even elsewhere I doubt I’ve ever used much more than double that.

 

[rd115]

A fat birds last hurrah the night before joining slimming world.

 

[robert d]

I only ever take 3 maggots... 1 on the hook one for loose feed and a spare if I need it

Is the feeding maggot attached to a number 6 elastic to retrieve it and give it the kiss of life and when it's revived throw it in again

 

[RMNDIL]

It really does depend. Time of year, conditions, target species, target weight, venue etc etc

12 - 15 packed balls of GBait in summer might be 'nothing' and you will top up regularly. But even 1 similar ball in winter might 'kill' the peg. That said I have 'fed' 15+ balls in December on a clear Thames BUT they were soil & leam not GBait and with very, very little in. Because the actual feed content and food value was really very low caught slowly but steadily (when I balled them in at the start people thought I was mad - but not when I weighed in !). You can 'kill' a peg by catapulting one large pouch of maggot at the start yet the same qty fed sparingly over 5 hours is totally different.

 

[robert d]

You often hear people saying they had to feed heavily in order to catch, but, how heavy is heavy? I would get through 6 pint of bronze maggots in a Trent match, I would consider that heavy. Ken and I once got through a 56lb bag of crumb and a gallon of maggots whilst sharing a peg on a bream lake. On the flip side, I was talking to a mate who had just won the match on my local commercial and he said he had fed really heavily, when I asked him, it turned out he had fed 1kg of groundbait and a pint of pellets. What do you lads think constitutes heavy feeding?

I dont feed enough in summer when theyre having it , i usually use 6 pints of pellets, some put double that in . Im always weary of over feeding but shall try a throw away swim and fill it in and see if it messes things up or makes me a hero

 

[Neil ofthe nene]

All depends on venue, time of year, species etc.

But I would say I feed at least one spot heavily when fishing Wellingborough's snake lake in Winter. By that I mean I will start with 200 mil of micros and top that up with another 200 mil after an hour or so and then possibly a third after three hours. Surprising how the fish can settle on that during a day when the water is 4-5 degrees. I put this down to the fact that the fish are hungry. The lake has a large head of silvers plus some carp but being mainly pleasure fished very little bait gets fed.

Contrast that to Decoy in the Winter when even an egg cup full of bait could be too much. Being match fished regularly I don't believe the fish are hungry most of the time.

A pint of maggot or caster per hour on the Trent would seem average to me, but then I haven't fished it seriously for a long time.

Probably the best margin angler in my match club has great success feeding huge amounts of corn in Summer. 24 tins would not be unusual.

 

[NoCarpPlease]

I'm definitely a sparse feeder ... starve them on to the hook being my mantra.
In the summer that's often as little as a pint of casters and half of hemp.
I'll feed a fair bit more when targetting chub in winter ... up to 4 pints of maggots and two of hemp on narrow venues.
Many years ago - when there were more chub and bait was cheaper ... I'd use up to a gallon.
The most I've fed was 12 pints of maggots (back in the 80s) at biggin lake.
On the Wye at Belmont - I put a load in - but still catch nowt!

 

[Dave Spence]

It really does depend. Time of year, conditions, target species, target weight, venue etc etc

12 - 15 packed balls of GBait in summer might be 'nothing' and you will top up regularly. But even 1 similar ball in winter might 'kill' the peg. That said I have 'fed' 15+ balls in December on a clear Thames BUT they were soil & leam not GBait and with very, very little in. Because the actual feed content and food value was really very low caught slowly but steadily (when I balled them in at the start people thought I was mad - but not when I weighed in !). You can 'kill' a peg by catapulting one large pouch of maggot at the start yet the same qty fed sparingly over 5 hours is totally different.

I take your point mate and I agree that 12 to 15 jaffas is heavy regardless of the venue (I’m not talking pre baiting a big lough here). You would be unlikely to ever feed heavy on a canal.

 

[Arry]

Is the feeding maggot attached to a number 6 elastic to retrieve it and give it the kiss of life and when it's revived throw it in again

Ssssshhhh.... don't tell em all me secrets.... FFS...!!!!

 

[BTMS]

I only ever take 3 maggots... 1 on the hook one for loose feed and a spare if I need it

Have you got Scottish heritage

 

[rudd]

Have you got Scottish heritage

He is using maggots not grains of corn!

 

[Arry]

Have you got Scottish heritage

Yup... me mum was a sweaty

 

[Peter]

As others have said it's totally dependant on venue and target species and to some extent where in the country you fish.
I know I often take the mickey out of @Dave but when he first ventured down south to fish some of the venues I fished at the time, he was genuinely taken aback at the quantities of feed needed on some of the venues and it took him a while to come to terms with it.

In fact I'm still not sure if he's ever really recovered.

 

[OldTaff]

In the past I have tanked the feed in - 20kg bags of crumb on bream lakes with many pints of maggots & casters whereas now on my local lake half a kilo of feed pellets will last me all day and keep the rod bent throughout.

On the Medway in summer a pint of maggots lasts me 5 lunchtime sessions of bite a chuck but I will happily ladle in 3 or 4kg of groundbait laced with chopped worm, hemp, maggot and caster to get the bream feeding and hold them in front of me. The same level in winter would be the kiss of death and a fraction of that is all that’s required.

 

[davylad]

You really had to shovel it in to get through a gallon on the Trent, I always took a gallon, but usually came back with at least half of them. Fishing the waggler and catapulting loose feed, it was hard to get through more than maybe 4 pints, that was me anyhow.

 

[warrington63]

I only ever take 3 maggots... 1 on the hook one for loose feed and a spare if I need it

And a plaster to put on the one that's been hooked when you remove it .