How lakebeds should dictate your feeding

Everyone knows that you can wreck a session in the opening minutes by putting too much bait in but it isn’t just about the quantity. I think you should take a step back even further, as before you put any bait in, you should know what sort of bottom you are fishing over. Where your freebies end up is where you are encouraging the fish to feed but it might not be anywhere near the spot that you are presenting your rig, and this could be for a number of reasons.

For a start, if the bottom isn’t flat, e.g. if it’s steep sided margins or a hefty bar that you are fishing over, any round baits that you put in will roll to the bottom of the slope and you could be baiting up well away from where your rig is landing. If this is the case, then chop them up so they don’t roll.

Additionally, if the bottom is flat but there is weed around, you need to know about it as you could be simply scattering bait on top of the weed encouraging fish to feed up there whilst you are dumping your heavier hookbait into the weed where it will be nigh-on impossible to effectively present a bait.

Think about the way your free bait will be lying on the bottom of the lake as wherever it ends up it will be where the fish will feed. If it’s hung up in weed or at the bottom of a slope, it could be miles away from your hookbait.