Fishing Baits - Loosefeeding

Actually Catching Something.
Advice for Parents of Young Anglers

Fish Suppers for Sailors
A guide to fishing for yachtsmen.

Loosefeeding - tanstaafl.

Tanstaafl: 'There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.' is the basis of loosefeeding. It is important not to overdo loosefeeding as the fish can be filled up before taking your bait but the principle is as follows.

Find a fish or a shoal of fish (or decide where you think they might be.) Observe the flow, tide and drift, work out where you need to drop a sample of your hook bait for it to arrive in front of the fish. Throw just enough free baits into that spot that the fish(es) will be deceived into thinking they are natural and hence safe to eat. If you give the fish too many it may learn the behaviour of the free samples too well and when you follow it with your baited hook the slightly different behaviour might look strange and so the fish may avoid it, especially if it has already has a reasonable meal.

Things to consider:

• The speed at which your bait sinks: It's easy to allow too little distance for the bait to sink to fish depth in a strong current.
• Eddies, boils and countercurrents: The bait may be swept off course in three dimensions.
• What happens if you put too much in at a time: Does the fish follow it as it drifts away out of the swim?
• How to make your hook bait look *special*: Save the biggest, juciest bait for the hook, trigger that little bit of carelessness that comes with greed.