The River Angler

Bait Droppers.

A very useful implement designed to get bait down on to the bottom of a river. A bait dropper can be filled with whatever loosefeed you desire. Whether it be maggots, casters, hemp. pellets or boilies, a bait dropper is designed to get the bait down on to the riverbed fast, in the area you wish to fish. It aids in creating a tight baiting zone. If you simply throw bait into a flowing river, the bait will obviously start to travel downstream in the flow. It may take several yards before it finally comes to rest on the bottom. In  a very fast flow, it could take sometime before the bait hits bottom, so your judgment needs to be precise. With a bait dropper, this guess work is eliminated to some degree.

The dropper is attached to your line with your hook.  The hook simply passes through the eye on top of the dropper and then hooked into either a piece of cork or rubber at the base.  To fill, you pull the catch up and open the door of the dropper.  When full, you close the door and pull the weight on the end down to trap the door closed.   Once the dropper hits the riverbed it forces the catch at the top up and deposits it’s contents onto the riverbed (Don’t over fill the dropper, or the door will not open).   The dropper is weighted and with the additional weight of the loosefeed inside, will hit bottom within a few feet of where you place it in the flow. It is an invaluable tool when baiting with seed or particle baits. In very little time, you can lay a large bed of maggots or hemp, for example, on the riverbed and be confident that your hookbait is nicely nestled in amongst it.

Bait droppers come into their own when used at close quarters, say 8-10 feet from the bank.  At this range they can be swung into position without causing any real disturbance.  However with practice they can be used accurately at range and appear to have no detrimental effect on fish activity in the swim.  They come into their own when used to bait an area just above a known holding area, say a deep run above some sunken bushes or trees.  This allows you to entice the fish out from the safety of their lair but enable them to return to the sanctuary if they spook.  If done correctly you can achieve multiple catches in this way, even during bright daylight conditions.