Through my website I get a lot of questions. Of course most of them are about catching barbel. Sometimes I get a question and I can’t give an answer right away.

One man asked me what bait would stay on the bottom if he fished river Waal. This is a huge river with big ships loaded with containers or iron or anything else. When a ship like that passed none of the feed stays on the bottom. At least that’s what we think. In the beginning I feed only big pellets (22 mm). I hoped that some would stay on the bottom. The river Waal is normally 8 meters deep, and the banks are sand or little gravel. So to get an answer I went to another river.

This river is called Grensmaas and is a typical rain river. In summer the water level is very low. The ground is only gravel and some big rocks. It’s easy to walk into the river for the first 20 meters as it is shallow. That day I carried a few bags and bucket to the water, all containing different sizes of feed and pellets. I had also a bar of pressed feed. I broke it in 4 parts; each part was about 4x4 cm. When I threw it into the water it went to the bottom, but to my surprise it keep on rolling, and rolling and rolling. In a minute it was so far away, I couldn’t follow it anymore. Then I took some 22 mm pellets. I threw about 50 into the water, almost the same happened as with the big parts. Most of the pellets kept on rolling and didn’t stay on the bottom. At some places with bigger gravel and rocks the 22 mm pellets got stuck between the stones. The pellets I threw in the water were spread over a length of 60 meters. Some kept on rolling and drifted away. For 30 minutes I tested a lot of particles and different sizes pellets. At the end I created a mix of pellets, corn, hemp and cereals. I was stood in about 40 cm, the smaller the sizes the better they stayed on the gravel. Hemp and little 3, 4 and 6mm pellets, stayed right by my feet. Corn from a tin rolled about 10 meters. Just like the 8 and 10 and 12 mm pellets.
 
To be sure what will happen under water when the water is very wild (when a big ship will be passing) I put my hands under water and created a big whirlpool. I was very surprised to see that most of the small particles and pellets stayed on the gravel. Some bigger sizes pellets and corn drifted away. I did the same with my feet, and the same reaction.
 
I walked to a deeper part of the river and the repeat my testing. I got the same reaction. These two tests convinced me that even feeding in the biggest river like the Waal was useful. I ‘m convinced the same happens in a deeper river with the same gravel bottoms. So when anybody asks me if feeding is useful on the river Waal my answer will be for sure!!