UK Coarse
Leger · Technique journey
A straight lead, no cage, no frame. When the splash of a feeder is too much, or you want a PVA bag and a single bait on the spot.
Improverfeedercommercialriver
The bomb is the quiet version of feeder fishing: an olive, bullet or pear lead, a hooklength, and a bait. You feed with a catapult, a PVA bag, or by throwing nothing at all on a baited spot.
It catches picky F1s, pressured carp, tench over a bed you put in earlier, and river fish in a crease when a feeder would snag. If you cannot be accurate without a feeder's weight, practise, or clip up with a slightly heavier bomb.
Picky fish that have seen a thousand method frames. After you've already put a bed in with a cage. PVA bag work. Clear water. A snaggy crease where a cage would lodge.
When you still need to feed through the lead every cast (use a feeder). Long range in a big wind with a 1/2oz bomb. Complete beginners who haven't clipped up yet.
From the graph
Species
Catfish
A smelly bait on the spot they live
Species
Zander
A small deadbait legered
Species
Pike
A deadbait on a running leger
Species
Eel
A worm at night — unhook and return
Species
Perch
A worm on a running leger
Species
Barbel
Pellet or meat on a running leger
Species
Chub
A bait under a bush
Species
Bream
After the bed is in
Species
F1
Picky days
Species
Carp
Picky or pressured fish
Venue type
Commercial fishery
Day-ticket lakes built for sport: islands, pegs, F1s, carp, and a café. The easiest place to learn, and still a place you can fish very well.
Venue type
Natural stillwater
Pits, meres, estate lakes and waters that were not built as day-ticket carp mills. Lilies, silt, snags, and fish that do not have to eat your bait.
Venue type
River
A crease, open season
Bait
Wafters
Slow-sinking hookbaits that sit over a method mix. The default commercial carp and F1 change bait when corn and pellet are ignored.
Bait
Corn
Cheap, bright, and eaten by almost everything that swims in stillwater. One of the best 'I've only got this' baits in British coarse fishing.
Bait
Pellets
A PVA bag or catapult
Bait
Boilies
Pits
Bait
Bread
Flake for chub
Bait
Worms
Perch and eels — return eels
Bait
Luncheon meat
Barbel and margins where allowed
A starting point, not a shopping list you have to finish. Match the water in front of you.
10–11ft bomb or feeder rod, 4–8lb line, 1/2–2oz bomb, 12–24 inch hooklength for most stillwaters, longer on a river.
On the peg
Catapult pellets or corn around the bomb, or a small PVA bag of pellets. On a baited tench spot, you may not recast at all for twenty minutes.
Running bomb or a helicopter/inline lead. Hooklength to a hair or a direct bait. Clip the distance to match the feed.
The same features as the method, just quieter. Margins, islands, the hole in the weed, the crease.
A single bait on the deck, sometimes a small bag of feed around it. Pop-ups and wafters for silkweed. Straight corn for tench.
If you're using PVA, first casts are the feed. Then leave it. Searching with a bomb every two minutes is just a worse method feeder.
Clear, bright, pressured. Also a heatwave margin with a single bait. Cold water when a pile of mix looks wrong.
A straight lead, a hooklength, a bait. Feed with a catapult, a PVA bag, or nothing at all if you already put a bed in with a cage. Clip the distance so every cast is the same peg.
This is the quiet version of feeder fishing. Searching with a bomb every two minutes is just a worse method feeder. Cast, tighten to the lead, put the rod on a rest, and wait.
On picky F1s, a wafer or two bits of corn. On a barbel crease after 16 June, a pellet or a cube of meat on a running leger. On a snaggy river, a bomb lodges less often than a cage.
Starting routine
0–10 min
Clip up. If you are using PVA, the first casts are the feed. Otherwise catapult a few pellets or grains of corn around the lead.
10–30 min
Leave it. A bomb is a waiting method. Watch the quiver. Give shy F1s a second on a tap.
30–60 min
If nothing, you are not on fish, or they want a pile — pick up a feeder. If taps, smaller bait. If weed, a pop-up or a backlead.
A pull, a drop-back, a quiver tap. Give shy F1s a second.
Lift and lean. A long hooklength needs a slightly fuller sweep.
Same as feeder fishing. Keep them out of snags — you have less of a feeder to bump over a bar.
A 3oz gripper on a 3ft commercial. No clip, so every cast is a new peg. Feeding with a feeder and fishing a bomb somewhere else.
No indication: too light a bomb in the wind, or slack line. Taps: they're there — smaller bait. Weed: a pop-up or a backlead.
Beginner setup
1oz pear, 18 inch hooklength, two bits of corn or a wafer, catapult 8mm pellets around it. Clip up. Wait.
More advanced
Fish a bomb on the line you fed with a cage an hour ago. Solid bags on a pit. A small stringer of pellets if PVA bags are banned but string is not — check.
Technique
Method feeder
When you still need to feed through the lead
Technique
Cage / open-end feeder
Put a bed in, then bomb it
Technique
Paternoster
A different way to hang the bait
Technique
Barbel fishing
Straight lead on a crease
Technique
Specimen carp basics
A single bait on a lead
Technique
Maggot feeder
Same spot, no feeder splash
Technique
Hybrid feeder
Even quieter
Technique
Rolling meat
When you want it still instead
Technique
Pike fishing
A running leger is the usual tool
Technique
Zander fishing
Running leger
Technique
Chub fishing
A bait under a bush
Technique
Bream fishing
Once the bed is in
On the bank
I haven't had a bite for an hour
Change one thing: depth, spot, or bait. Don't change everything. Then look at the water, not the rod bag.
On the bank
I'm getting liners but no proper bites
Fish are in front of you, usually above the bait or just off the spot. That's information, not a broken rig.
Catches
Nobody has shared a catch using this technique yet. When someone does, it will show up here — we do not invent anglers or photos.