Method Feeder

What you need

• An inline method feeder (30–60 g for commercial waters, heavier for distance).
• Short ready-tied hooklinks — soft braid or supple mono, 4–8 inches, size 12–16 hook.
• Method groundbait or micro pellets dampened to the squeeze-and-hold consistency.
• Quick-change swivel or loop-to-loop connection to your main line.

Tying it

1. Thread your main line through the body of the inline feeder.
2. Tie a small swivel or quick-change link to the end of the main line. Pull it back into the recess in the feeder body — it stays seated until a fish strike pops it free.
3. Attach a pre-tied hooklink to the swivel/clip. Length matters: 4 inches on commercial carp, 6–8 on bigger water for shy bream or tench.
4. Mould groundbait around the feeder using a method mould — pellets first, then bait pressed into the middle, then more mix moulded over the top.
5. Tuck the hookbait (sweetcorn, mini boilie, fake corn) into the side of the moulded ball so it sits on top of the pile when the feeder lands.

Tuning

Mix consistency is everything: a ball you can compress into shape but that breaks down within 2–4 minutes of hitting the water. Test a ball in the margins before casting at distance — if it's still intact after 5 minutes, soften the mix.

When it shines

Commercial carp fisheries and natural stillwaters in warmer months. The method delivers a tight parcel of feed exactly where the hookbait sits — fish find the bait first, eat the hook second. Devastating on F1s, mid-size carp, big bream and big tench.

How to fish it

• Cast to the same spot every time — clip up to a marker on your line. The feeder works by repetition; each cast adds a small parcel of feed.
• Re-cast every 5–10 minutes regardless of bites. The feed gets the fish patrolling; no feed in, no fish.
• Don't strike at small taps. A method bite is the rod arching round — the fish has already hooked itself on the bolt effect.
• Heavier feeders for distance, lighter for short range. A 40 g feeder is the all-round commercial size.

What goes wrong

• Hookbait buried inside the mix → fish find it last. Always tuck the hookbait into the side, not the centre.
• Mix too wet → it doesn't break down on the bed and the hookbait sits on top of a wet lump. Drier mix, broken down within 3 minutes.
• Casting to different spots → no concentrated feed, no fish concentration. Pick one spot, hammer it.