Do-it-yourself bait for the feeder - the best recipes

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Every fisherman knows well: in order to catch fish, you must first feed it well. Complementary food is delivered to the fishing point in many ways. Feeders use large feeders, carp anglers use spods and cobras. Floaters prefer to form balls and throw them with their hands; when feeding over long distances they use slingshots. Thus, the following tools for delivering bait mixtures have been developed in amateur fishing:

• Slingshot (used to deliver small balls of bait over distances of up to 40-50 meters)
• Parachute (made from a plastic bottle and attached to the main fishing line, used for throwing balls 100 meters or more)
• Feeding troughs for the feeder (used for starting feeding)
• Rocket, Spomb (an excellent device for throwing a large amount of bait to the fishing point at close and long distances)
• Cobra (used for feeding the area with boilies)
• Bucket (used for feeding grains, boilies, pellets and other baits)
• Ship (used for delivering food to the fishing point)
• Boats and cutters (used for abundant feeding of fishing points)

These tools will be useful for carp fishermen, bream fishermen, feeders, float fishermen, and bottom fishers. Let's take a closer look at the features of each of them.

Slingshot

Sports fishermen, and more recently amateurs, often use a tool such as a slingshot for feeding fish. It is available in the arsenal of floaters, feeders, bottom fishers and carp fishermen.

The main elements of a slingshot are the rod, rubber, and a cup for bait. With its help, you can easily throw bait balls at distances from 20 to 100 meters. Here are the different types of slingshots:

The fisherman has several types of slingshots. As you can see, each type has different containers for bait. You can add bloodworms with soil to one, maggots with bait to the second, pellets or feeding balls to the third.

Another important element of any slingshot is rubber. It's good to have a slingshot in which you can quickly change the rubber band. They come in different thicknesses and different hardnesses. Tire sets are sold separately in stores. Soft rubber is used for short-distance casting, while harder rubber is intended for long-distance casting.

Note the excellent accuracy of throwing using a slingshot. If you aim, the balls can be placed with an accuracy of 10 cm. For training, it is better to use pebbles of a suitable size. By throwing pebbles at different distances, you can learn how to make accurate throws.

Devices for casting bait

The use of various devices for throwing bait is very justified when fishing with a match fishing rod. Narrated by Andy Liv.

Whether you will have a rich catch or not see a bite very often depends on whether you feed the fishing area or not. It’s good if the edge on which the fish is holding runs close to the shore, so you can accurately throw lumps of bait into the right place without much effort. And sometimes feeding maggots gives good results, but in this case you won’t be able to cast them far... You have to use special devices that allow you to do this without difficulty!

One such device is a slingshot. With its help, you can cast a variety of baits of various consistencies far and accurately.

In principle, you must have come across devices for feeding bait in fishing stores. There are many of them, but basically two types can be distinguished: for throwing maggots, corn or worms, and also for throwing compact dense balls of bait. Let's take a closer look.

Various slingshots are used to throw animal baits (worms, maggots) or corn grains, hemp seeds, etc. They come in both small and large sizes (see photo) - it all depends on how much bait you want to throw.

Small slingshots with small elastic cups for bait are usually used when fishing in standing water (ponds and canals). There is no need for large doses of bait, or long casting distances. At most, such a slingshot can throw bait at a distance of 20–25 m, which is quite enough for such reservoirs.

Large slingshots are used for feeding in rivers with strong currents, and also when you need to throw bait over a long distance (about 30 m or more). During the current, the bait is quickly washed out, and therefore more of it is required. Large slingshots allow you to increase the dose of bait supplied.

Slingshots for casting bait have a more elastic harness, as well as a rigid cup. Small dense balls of bait can be thrown using such a slingshot at a distance of up to 60 m. Such situations arise, for example, when you fish in large bodies of water where the fish may be far from the shore.

Carp fishermen usually use slingshots with very elastic cords and large bait cups. This allows them to throw corn grains or hemp seeds over a distance of about 40 m.

They also often use special boilie catapults (pictured #1). With their help you can throw boilies at a record distance - more than 100 m! Of course, this requires certain skills, because accuracy at such a distance is very difficult to achieve. But everything can be learned!

To properly cast bait using a slingshot, you need to take its handle in your right hand (if you are right-handed). And with your left hand, pull the tourniquet, holding the cup of the slingshot. The tensile force should be taken into account - the stronger it is, the further the bait will fly, and vice versa. In addition, the distance the bait will fly will depend on the angle at which you hold the slingshot relative to the horizontal plane. The shallower the angle, the closer the thrown bait will fly and the noisier it will fall into the water. The optimal angle is approximately 45 degrees to the horizontal.

To achieve maximum range, it is important that the point from which the “shot” occurs is located as high above the ground as possible. This means you better get up.

Accuracy depends on the skill of the fisherman. Therefore, it is worth paying attention to developing casting accuracy using various bait devices. Consider factors such as wind strength and currents. If there is a strong crosswind, you should slightly adjust the direction of the throws, moving them to the side from which the wind is blowing. And in the current, the ball with bait, by the time it touches the bottom, usually has time to be pretty carried away by it. Therefore, it is important that the ball falls into the water slightly above the place where you are going to fish later.

With regular use, the harness on the slingshot deteriorates quite quickly and eventually breaks. Since this can happen suddenly, you should always have a spare harness with you so that you can quickly replace it while fishing. If there is no special harness, then in principle it can be replaced with a piece about 30 cm long of a car or bicycle inner tube.

Finally, a special tube is used to feed large balls of bait. It is a handle made of a thin tube slightly less than a meter long. A segment is rigidly fixed at one of its ends

plastic pipe of larger diameter (7–10 cm) and 20 cm long.

The ball of bait is placed in this container and thrown into the desired place. This device is two-handed, which means that the force of the throw, and therefore the range, can be very significant.

Parachute

A working and budget option for delivering bait is a parachute. This device will allow you to accurately throw bait 100 meters and even further. It is easy to make from a two-liter plastic bottle. The top part is cut off along with the neck. Cutouts are made in it to form petals. The parachute looks like this:

Holes are made on the sides into which a loop and a nylon thread are inserted. A carabiner or swivel is attached to the thread, which is connected to the main fishing line. Any rod that has a test comparable to the weight of the feed is suitable for casting. A spinning reel is attached to the rod. The bait is placed in the bowl and a standard cast is performed. A parachute is convenient for throwing bait balls with the diameter of a tangerine. As you can see, this option is suitable for all categories of fishermen, since it is very cheap.

Feeding troughs for feeder

Before starting feeder fishing, you need to make a starting feeding. For this it is very convenient to use a large-volume feeder. You can do it yourself. Here are the main feeder options:

As you can see, such feeders are several times larger than ordinary ones. They do not weigh much, since the volume of food is large and its weight compensates for the small mass of the feeder. If we used a regular standard feeder when starting feeding, we would have to make 10 casts. Using a feeding trough, we make several casts.

The feeding method is no different from regular casting. After determining a promising point, we clip and throw the feeder into the same place. This method is good because during fishing you can change the feeder to a feeder at any time and add more food to the point.

Rocket

To quickly deliver a large amount of feed to one point, it is convenient to use special rockets such as Spomb. This is a favorite tool of carp anglers. Literally any complementary foods of varying degrees of viscosity are placed in it. These can be boilies, pellets, porridge, bulk bait. The rocket holds from 100 to 300 grams of bait. It looks like this:

As you can see, the food is placed inside the rocket and is hermetically sealed. When it lands on the bottom, it opens and all the food spills out. To deliver 2 kg of bait, on average you have to make 10 casts. The rocket is attached to the main line of the carp fishing rod via a carabiner. On average, rockets weigh 60-80 grams. The spomb is usually attached to a spod rod with 200 grams of dough.

Conventional missiles of this type are also used:

They hold approximately the same volume of feed as spod rockets. However, when it falls, the food does not spill out immediately. So that it remains at the bottom, after the rocket lands, the rod is sharply raised up several times, as feeders do when starting feeding, and the food will fall out of the rocket body.

Cobra

Cobras for delivering bait have excellent range and accuracy. With their help, it is easy to throw boilies of various sizes, bait balls, and pellets. They look like a curved tube into the hole of which feeding mixtures are inserted.

The end of the tube has a neoprene or rubber handle. Actually, the name itself was not chosen by chance. The shape of this device resembles a cobra. Another important advantage of cobras is their noiselessness when casting bait. To make the throws work, you need to practice a little, just like with a slingshot.

Good cobras are light in weight and have a thin handle. The material must be durable. The bend of the tool is made in such a way that during the throw the ball of bait rotates in a certain way. In this case, it will fly far and quite accurately.

Tubes of various diameters are available for sale. They are used to throw boilies and balls of various diameters. The most popular cobras are those with a diameter of 18 mm. They allow you to throw boilies ranging in size from 16 to 20 mm far. In order for it to fly well and accurately, the ball is made dense and perfectly round. If you don't get the consistency right, the ball may break apart during flight.

What you need to know to prepare bait for your feeder with your own hands

Any feeder bait consists of a base and additives. Their ratio ranges from 80/20 to 50/50. To simply attract fish, one basic is enough. But to really interest her, to make her stand in one place waiting for another tasty morsel, you need a properly selected supplement.

as a base : dry cereal with a fine fraction (semolina, oatmeal, oatmeal), crushed baked goods or confectionery products, pureed cake, crushed peanuts, sunflower or pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, coriander grains, milk powder, fish meal.

The task of the base is to provide the necessary consistency, crumbly or viscous, which will create a feed cloud in appropriate conditions. What exactly your bait should be depends on the characteristics of the place where you will be fishing.

• The stronger the current, the more viscous the bait should be so that it does not wash away too quickly.
• A mixture that is too loose will easily scatter when casting when it hits the water and will dissipate before it has time to sink to the bottom.
• The components of the base are interchangeable, but each of them behaves differently at different temperatures, transparency, and other characteristics of water.

In addition, the base should be dusty enough to attract the attention of fish even from afar. And then the additional ingredients come into play.

additive particles are larger in size. They are used to ensure that the fish, attracted by the base, find something to eat and linger in search of new delicacies. The additive loaded into the feeder should not scatter far, causing the fish to circle around the baited hook. At the same time, the radius should be sufficient so that even the most fastidious gourmet forgets about caution and cannot deny herself the pleasure of eating your treat.

For this, steamed bran, wheat, pearl barley, peas, corn, and various cereals are used. Of the animal components, chopped worms, bloodworms, and maggots are added to the bait.

• An important rule: the bait must contain a delicacy that is used as bait on the hook.
• To cook porridge for bait, just bring the cereal, filled with water in a ratio of 1:2, to a boil, then wrap the pan and put it in a warm place overnight. A small amount of cereal (for example, a glass) can be steamed in a thermos.

In addition, the bait for the feeder contains flavorings and natural flavor enhancers that stimulate the fish’s appetite. For this use:

• aroma oils;
• fruit syrups;
• honey;
• caramel and caramel essence;
• coffee, chocolate, cocoa;
• vanillin, cinnamon, ginger;
• other fragrant spices.

Modern industry offers an artificial substitute for each of these ingredients. However, experienced fishermen claim that fish like natural products more and bite on them more often.

How to fill a feeder feeder with bait

Filling the feeder with a mixture of base and additives or laying them in layers is not important. In each specific case, you can try both options and decide which one works better in your conditions.

Much more important is how firmly to compact the bait . The feeder should be released within 5-10 minutes to form a stable bait spot. This is what determines the desired density and viscosity of the prepared treat.

Ladle

An original and effective tool for feeding at close distances is a bucket. This device is used by carp anglers, as well as floaters and bottom fishers when fishing at distances from 15 to 25 meters. There are several types of buckets. Some have a short handle and are used for feeding the coastal zone. The second type has a threaded connection to which the handle is screwed. The images show both options:

Pellets, cereals, boilies and other baits are placed in such a ladle. A standard bucket holds 300-400 grams of bait:

What do I add to the bait?

Additives are a mandatory component, which, in fact, distinguishes the “base” from full-fledged bait. But the set of additives that are present in one or another type of mass-produced bait does not always correspond to the fish’s mood. On other days, some of them turn out to be clearly unnecessary. It’s like buying a modern smartphone: most of the options that the manufacturer includes in the device remain unclaimed. And you have to pay for the service.

Advertising constantly pushes us towards some additives, so many fishermen start using them without thinking. Although this should always be done carefully and carefully.

Animal component. Today this is the most popular ingredient in ready-made groundbait. Athletes actively use animal supplements both in competitions and, most recently, in advertising. So active that many amateur fishermen already consider the “tenacious” to be a kind of lifesaver that can only improve the fishing result.

All this is true, but provided that you then fish with the same bloodworms or maggots, and also if the animal component in the bait looks a little less attractive than the bait on the hook, and if the amount of “tenacious” added to the bait turns out to be reasonable. And when all these “ifs” merge into one puzzle, the fishing result can be magnificent.

The same bloodworm works well in cases where the fish is inactive (in cold water) or spoiled by a large amount of bait (in competitions). And on amateur fishing, it often happens that the effect of adding bloodworms to bait is much more modest than the costs that the angler will incur when purchasing it. In general, I am always very careful about adding ruby ​​worms to bait. For me, it’s easier to sprinkle a few handfuls of scalded, (frozen) maggots or chopped worms into the prepared food.

Priming. A very important component of any ready-made bait. Especially if you have to fish in the current or in cold water. The ground also produces excellent results when fishing with float rigs. It noticeably makes the bait heavier, making it more convenient for delivery to the location of the fish. In some cases, the share of soil in the bait can reach 80% of the total volume of the finished mixture.

What kind of soil to use - loose, viscous, heavy, light - depends on the goals that the fisherman sets for himself. That’s why there is a lot of advice on which type of soil is more suitable for fishing. Most of these tips are based on personal experience, so, naturally, they need your careful analysis and adjustment. But if you choose your own soil recipe for a specific body of water, your fishing results will certainly improve.

When working with soil, you should remember one simple but very important rule: you should add this component to the bait at the very end, when the rest of its ingredients are already well saturated with water. Otherwise, instead of bait, you risk getting earthen slurry.

Leavening agents. These additives to the “base” are needed in order to make the bait lighter. For example, so that a ball of bait, once in the water, quickly falls apart. Of course, you can simply under-moisten or, conversely, over-moisten the bait - and the effect will be approximately the same.

But in this case, you run the risk of being bitten by small things. The same roach, due to its natural caution, is usually in no hurry to get up for bait. But the particles of bait that will break out of the ball after some time will clearly attract her.

The most accessible baking powder is the above-mentioned bran. They absorb flavors well and sink slowly in water. One of the significant disadvantages of bran is their ability to quickly turn sour.

Coconut flakes are an excellent leavening agent with a pleasant taste and smell for fish. Even longer than bran, it takes on water. Sold in grocery stores. Just like with bran, you need to be very careful with coconut flakes. Especially if bleak or other small things are active. Particles that dynamically float in the water strongly attract this category of fish. To reduce this effect, you can soak coconut shavings overnight and add them to the bait in this form.

Among the store-bought leavening additives, I would like to mention copra-molasse , produced by many bait companies. Made from coconut, this additive is even finer than coconut flakes, has a brown color and good attractive properties.

Flour products. They are already present in the “base”, but sometimes, in order to enhance the attractive effect of bait, they need to be added additionally. When fishing, I most often use several of these products.

Lightly toasted corn grits work very well in warm water on carp, crucian carp and bream. In baits for these fish, this additive can account for up to half the volume of the entire mixture.

Roasted and ground in a Hercules coffee grinder. A very successful additive to bait for currents. But it must be introduced into the mixture very carefully - oatmeal has a strong binding effect.

Biscuit and pastoncino (large biscuit crumbs) are one of the main components of any branded bait. These additives can be purchased at fishing stores. You just need to make sure they are fresh. And in order not to end up with stale product, I prefer to improve my baits instead of biscuits with the help of a loaf rubbed through a sieve. It’s good if it’s slightly stale, it’s easier to pierce it on a sieve. When using this product, you should remember that you will have to add it to already moistened bait, and an overly moistened bun can turn the bait into plasticine.

Here semolina is the joker in bait. I use it extremely rarely. It works well on fish, but if added excessively it can cement the bait more strongly than oatmeal.

Flavorings and attractants. You can’t imagine modern bait without these components. But everyone uses them differently. And I can give many examples when the thoughtless use of food flavorings spoiled fishing.

Among the fishermen I know, I often meet fans of such food additives as coriander, cinnamon, vanillin, etc. There was a time when I also heavily used food flavorings. But time does not stand still. And once I tried high-quality chemical “smells” at work, I realized that they were the future. The taste preferences of fish still differ from ours, and offering it the same vanillin will not always be correct.

Food flavorings owe their popularity primarily to the fact that, firstly, they are cheap, secondly, they are accessible, and thirdly, people really like their smell. Synthetic fragrances are not always pleasant to our sense of smell, but they still work!

By starting to use synthetic flavors, I have noticeably increased the predictability of my fishing trips. Just like food flavorings, synthetics should be added to bait carefully, primarily guided by the principle of “do no harm.” Especially if the water temperature is less than 12 °C.

Attractants include salt and sugar. Adding these components to bait always significantly improves its performance.

Maslenitsa additives. A very effective additive to groundbait, but only if it is fresh. Many of my colleagues like to generously flavor their bait with purchased sunflower cake, forgetting that the shelf life of this additive is only a few days, after which it becomes bitter.

The same can be said about any other Pancake week crop - flax, peanuts, hemp. And that’s why I prefer to make these additives myself, just before fishing. You should always grind any Pancake week crop in a coffee grinder with a large amount of corn or oatmeal. This is done so that the final product remains crumbly.

Ship

The most expensive device for delivering bait to a point is a radio-controlled boat. It is capable of transferring 1.5-2 kg of bait at a time. The range of action of the boats is 100 – 800 meters. They are powered by a battery. As a rule, one charge is enough for 3-5 kilometers of distance.

Most models have reverse gear and are equipped with backlighting, which is useful at night. The boat hull is made of durable plastic and metal elements. Some models have two compartments into which bait is poured.

Many modern boats have echo sounders and GPS navigation systems. Such models inform the fisherman about the bottom topography and remember the coordinates of promising places. That is, you receive information about the depth and the presence of fish. Having fed once and memorized the coordinates, the next time you just give the boat the coordinates, and it will swim to the point and throw out the food. Such boats are used mainly by carp fishermen in bodies of water with a small current.

What kind of fish can you catch on a float in the fall?

In the autumn, you can catch both peaceful fish and predatory fish on a float. Next, we will talk about the most popular fishing objects and tell you where to look for them.

Roach

This small fish is of interest to coastal swimmers right up to freeze-up. Even with the onset of November, when the water temperature drops significantly, it does not completely go into distant holes. It can also be caught at shallow depths - up to a meter.

In autumn, roach actively moves around the reservoir in search of food. Some say that it goes exclusively along the coastline. And someone claims that it comes from the depths to shallow water and goes back. Both opinions have their place. After all, the behavior of fish depends on many factors: region, type of reservoir, weather, etc. But in any case, running after roach along the entire coastline, trying to finally catch it, is a thankless task. For this purpose, there is bait that will make it linger near the point.

One of the most promising places for fishing is an area with aquatic vegetation. The point should be fed not in the algae itself, but nearby. A short distance is only to your advantage. Thanks to it, you can make maneuvers when playing. And if you let the fish into the grass, a thin fishing line may not be able to handle it.

You can read more about roach fishing here.

Bream

It is quite difficult to predict and intercept the movement of bream in the autumn. It moves throughout the reservoir, constantly changing its “favorite” places. Traditionally, the most promising fishing areas include: pits, edges, dumps, sand spits, etc. Although in September, for example, it can be caught in other parts of the reservoir. In the early morning and late evening, bream often comes to silted shallows rich in bloodworms.

The bait is usually placed where the table borders an interesting bottom anomaly. For example, it could be a dump with gradually increasing depth. Or a plateau bordering the mouth of a river. You will find the top seven best ready-made baits for bream here.

crucian carp

Crucian carp is a heat-loving fish, which, with the onset of the first cold weather, tends to leave the coastal zone to settle in pits. To catch it, you need to constantly change tactics and carefully explore all the deep areas of the reservoir. Waiting for a bite near the shore is a failed idea in almost 99% of cases. Only lost small individuals come to shallow water.

Fishing time is an equally important factor to consider. A noticeable cold snap affects the behavior of fish. In the fall, crucian carp will remain active to replenish their protein reserves and prepare for winter. But for his forays he will choose the warmest time of day - from 11:00 to 17:00. During other periods, bites will be random.

Before purchasing bait for catching crucian carp, we advise you to familiarize yourself with our selection of ten ready-made and 100% effective mixtures.

Carp and carp

Autumn fishing for carp and its wild counterpart can be divided into two periods. The first is the very beginning of autumn, when the water is still warm. At this time, the fishing rules are the same as in the summer.

With the onset of the second period, when the water temperature drops noticeably, the situation changes greatly. In mid-autumn, carp come closer to the shore exclusively during warm hours, and then return to the depths.

It is important to remember that the holes where this fish likes to stand are not feeding areas. Accordingly, he often leaves there. True, he stays nearby, on the edge at the exit from the pit. Therefore, this particular section of the reservoir will be the most promising place.

Find more useful information about how to catch carp with a float in our article.