Posted by Hooked Tackle on 2nd Nov 2026

Feeder Fishing for Beginners: Rigs, Feeders and Quivertip Bites

By Hooked Tackle · Last updated 2 November 2026
We are a tackle shop in Newmarket, and this is how we set up first-time feeder anglers for rivers, lakes and commercials.

Quick Answer

Feeder fishing means casting a small weighted container of bait next to your hookbait and watching a sensitive quivertip for bites. Start with a 10–11ft feeder rod, a 4000-size reel and a simple running rig on a feeder link, with a hooklength of about 45cm. Use a cage feeder for groundbait or bread and a maggot feeder for maggots. Pick the lightest feeder and tip that will hold, cast to the same spot every time, and recast regularly to build the swim. In winter, scale everything down and cast less often.

What Is Feeder Fishing?

Quick answer: legering with a feeder instead of a plain lead, so every cast puts a little bait right next to your hook.

A feeder is a small cage or tube with a weight on it. You fill it with groundbait, maggots, pellets or bread, cast it out, and the bait spills out on the bottom around your hookbait. Bites show on the quivertip, the fine, flexible end section of a feeder rod.

It is the method to reach for when a float will not work. It copes with wind, reaches fish too far out for a float or pole, holds bottom in a flowing river, and keeps a steady trickle of bait going into one spot. It catches roach, skimmers, bream, tench, chub, barbel and carp, all year round.

The method feeder is one type of feeder, built for carp and F1s on commercials, and our method feeder guide covers it in full. This guide covers the traditional cage, open-end and maggot feeders you use on rivers and lakes. If you would rather start with a float, our float fishing guide is the place to begin.

Which Feeder Should You Use?

Quick answer: a cage feeder for groundbait or bread, a maggot feeder for maggots, and an open-end feeder for groundbait plugged with particles.

Feeder What goes in it Best for From our shop
Cage feeder Groundbait or liquidised bread Bream, skimmers, roach and chub; rivers and lakes Drennan Stainless Oval Cage, £2.29 (10–35g)
Open-end feeder Groundbait plugs with casters, pellets or corn inside Bream and tench on lakes Drennan Oval Groundbait Feeder, £1.99 (15–60g)
Maggot (blockend) feeder Maggots or casters Roach, skimmers, chub and barbel, especially on rivers and in winter Drennan Oval Blockend, £2.49 (1–2oz); Korum Window Maggot Feeder, £2.99 (60–150g) for stronger flows
Method feeder Method mix or micro pellets moulded round it Carp and F1s on commercials See our method feeder guide

For weight, use the lightest feeder that holds where you cast it. On a lake, 20–30g covers short to medium range. On a river, you need enough weight to stop the feeder rolling downstream, which can mean 40g or more when the river is pushing through.

What Tackle Do You Need?

Quick answer: a 10–11ft feeder rod, a 4000-size reel, mono mainline, feeder links, ready-tied hooklengths and a front rest.

Building a kit from nothing? Our beginner tackle guide covers the rest, and you need a rod licence if you are 13 or older.

How Do You Set Up a Feeder Rig?

Quick answer: a running feeder rig. The feeder slides on a link above a bead and a swivel, with the hooklength below.

The running rig is the simplest feeder rig there is, it rarely tangles, and it is fish-safe: if the line breaks above the feeder, the feeder can slide off and the fish is not left towing it.

  1. Thread a feeder link onto the mainline. The link slides freely up and down the line.
  2. Add a bead. The bead protects the knot from the link.
  3. Tie on a quick-change swivel or bead. This is where the hooklength attaches.
  4. Clip the feeder onto the link. Swapping feeders now takes seconds.
  5. Loop on a hooklength. Start at about 45cm (18in). Shorten it if bites are fast and you keep missing them, and lengthen it if the fish are wary and bites are slow to develop. Over soft weed or for very shy fish, a hooklength of up to a metre lets the bait settle naturally.

For long casts on big lakes, many anglers switch to a helicopter feeder rig, where the hooklength sits on a swivel above the feeder, because it tangles less at range. Learn the running rig first, as it covers most beginner fishing.

Hook size depends on bait, not on the fish you hope for: a 20 or 18 for a single maggot, a 16 or 14 for double maggot, caster or corn, and a 14 to 10 for bigger baits for bream, tench and chub. Our hook size chart matches every bait to a hook.

How Do You Cast and Feed?

Quick answer: clip up so every cast lands in the same place, put in a few quick casts to start, then recast at a steady rhythm.

Feeder fishing only works if the bait builds up in one spot. Cast out, pick a mark on the far bank to line up with, and put the line in the reel's line clip once you are at the distance you want. Every cast after that stops at exactly the same range.

At the start of a session, make four or five quick casts to put a small bed of bait on the spot. After that, recast at a steady rhythm. On a commercial or a lake in summer, every five to ten minutes keeps bait going in when bites are slow. In winter, slow right down, as covered below.

Get the groundbait right. Add water a little at a time, mix well, and leave it to stand for 10 to 15 minutes so the crumb soaks it up evenly. Then pass it through a riddle or sieve to break up the lumps. It should hold in the feeder through the cast and then break up on the bottom. If the feeder comes back still full, the mix is too wet or packed too hard. If it empties before it lands, it is too dry.

With a maggot feeder, bait the hook first and fill the feeder last, or the maggots crawl out while you are fiddling with the hook.

How Do You Read Bites on a Quivertip?

Quick answer: set the tip with a slight bend, strike at a firm pull-round or a sudden drop-back, and leave the twitches alone.

Once the feeder settles, tighten up until the quivertip has a gentle curve in it. Place the rod on a rest at an angle to the line so you can see the tip clearly against the background.

  • Pull-round. The tip pulls steadily round. Strike with a smooth sweep of the rod.
  • Drop-back. The tip suddenly springs straight. A fish has picked up the bait and moved towards you, dislodging the feeder. Wind down quickly and strike.
  • Liners. Sharp little knocks and twitches are usually fish brushing the line. Striking at them spooks the swim, so wait for a proper bite.

Different fish bite differently. Roach and skimmers give quick, sharp pulls, so be ready to strike. Bream often tap and tremble the tip for a while before a slow, steady pull-round, so sit on your hands until the tip moves round and stays there. Chub and barbel tend to wrench the tip round hard.

Use the lightest tip that the conditions allow. A soft 1oz tip shows bites best on a still lake. On a river, the flow bends a soft tip too far, so step up to a stiffer tip until it sits with a slight curve.

Before every cast, check the line is not wrapped round the tip. It happens a lot when you are new to a quivertip, and it is the most common way to snap one.

Feeder Fishing in Winter

Quick answer: scale everything down. Use smaller feeders, finer hooklengths, smaller hooks and less bait, and cast less often.

The feeder is one of the best ways to keep catching through the winter, especially on rivers, where roach, chub and skimmers feed in cold water. The key is to scale down.

  • Smaller feeders and less bait. A big feeder full of groundbait in cold water feeds the fish off. Use a small cage or maggot feeder and a smaller amount of feed.
  • Finer hooklengths and smaller hooks. Drop a hook size or two, to an 18 or 20 with maggots, and use a lighter hooklength.
  • Accuracy. With fewer fish feeding, every bit of bait needs to land in the same place. Clip up and line up with your far-bank mark every cast.
  • Cast less often. When the water is very cold, once every 20 to 30 minutes is plenty. Recasting too often just disturbs the swim.
  • Maggots and bread. Maggots in a blockend feeder are a reliable winter combination. On rivers, liquidised bread in a cage feeder with a piece of flake on the hook is a deadly method for roach and chub.

Our chub fishing guide covers the bread feeder for chub, our roach fishing guide covers maggot and bread feeders for roach, and the best winter fisheries around Newmarket are good places to try it.

What Most Beginners Get Wrong

Quick answer: feeders that are too big, tips that are too stiff, and casts that land all over the place.

  1. Too big a feeder. Start with the lightest feeder that holds bottom. A heavy feeder is harder to cast accurately and lands with a crash.
  2. Too stiff a tip. A heavy quivertip on a still lake hides bites. Use the softest tip the conditions allow.
  3. Casting all over the swim. Without a line clip and a far-bank mark, the bait gets spread over a big area and the fish never settle.
  4. The wrong groundbait mix. If the feeder is still full when it comes back, nothing is going into the swim.
  5. Striking at liners. Wait for a proper pull-round or drop-back.
  6. Line round the tip. Check before every cast, or you will snap a quivertip sooner or later.
  7. Leaving the rod unattended. Carp, tench and barbel can take a feeder hard enough to drag a rod off its rests. Stay within arm's reach of the rod.

FAQs

What is feeder fishing?
Feeder fishing is legering with a small cage or tube of bait instead of a plain lead. Every cast puts a little bait next to your hookbait, and bites show on the quivertip at the end of the rod. It works at range, in wind and in flowing water, where a float struggles.

What feeder should a beginner use?
A cage feeder for groundbait or bread, or a maggot feeder for maggots. Start with the lightest weight that holds bottom, usually 20–30g on a lake and heavier on a flowing river. On commercials for carp and F1s, a method feeder is the easiest place to start.

How long should a feeder hooklength be?
Start at about 45cm (18in). Shorten it if you are getting fast bites you cannot hit, and lengthen it if the fish are wary and bites are slow to develop. Method feeders are different and use a short hooklength of around 4 inches.

What quivertip should I use?
The lightest tip the conditions allow. A soft 1oz tip shows bites best on a still lake, while rivers need a stiffer tip because the flow bends a soft tip too far. You want the tip sitting with a gentle curve when the line is tight.

How often should you cast a feeder?
Make four or five quick casts at the start to build the swim, then recast at a steady rhythm. On commercials and lakes in summer, every five to ten minutes when bites are slow. In very cold water, once every 20 to 30 minutes is plenty.

How do you tell a bite on a quivertip?
A real bite is a steady pull-round of the tip or a sudden drop-back where the tip springs straight. Small sharp knocks and twitches are usually fish brushing the line, called liners, and are best left alone.

What line should I use for feeder fishing?
Mono is the easiest to start with: 3–4lb for roach and skimmers, and 6–8lb for bream, tench and chub. Some anglers use braid for better bite indication at range, but many commercials ban braid, so check the rules first.

Get Kitted Out

A complete starter setup is the Guru 10ft Feeder Rod and Reel Combo (£99.99), a few Drennan Stainless Oval Cage Feeders (£2.29) and Drennan Oval Blockend Feeders (£2.49), a pack of Drennan Feeder Links (£4.15), some ready-tied hooks and a Korum Angle Tilt Quiver Rest (£5.99). For groundbait, Sonubaits Maggot Fishmeal (£9.99) suits skimmers and bream, and Dynamite Baits XL Crumb (£4.09) is a cheap base for roach and bread mixes.

Prices correct as of November 2026 — check the product page for current pricing and availability.

Want to know which fish you are likely to catch? Our UK coarse fish species guide covers them all. Pop into the shop for bait and advice, or get in touch.