How To Change Your Method Feeder Elastic

Commercial match ace Craig O’Brien can change his Method feeder elastic inside a minute. Here he shows us how, and explains why.

I tend to fish with either black latex or red Hydro through my Method feeders. If I’m catching big fish I’ll tend to fish red, matched to size 14 hooks and 0.18mm hooklengths or stronger. If allowed, I’ll use 4lb Fireline.

However, the red is quite severe in this short length and will rip smaller hooks out. So when I have to use smaller hooks like a size 16 or 18, that’s when I switch to black. I’ll have feeders set up with different tensions of black and red to suit various situations, but I always carry spares of both with me and can knock up a new elastic in about a minute.

The only time I will use a different elastic is when things are really tough, for example, if I’m fishing in sub-zero temperatures on a water such as Larford Match Lake. In this situation you might find me fishing double-fluoro pinkie or a piece of breadpunch on a size 20 hook for F1s, and then I’ll rig up a Method feeder with the yellow Maver Dual Core.

If I need a really light tension, the only solution is to have more elastic, so I’ve adapted a few of my feeders to carry a longer piece of tubing through the middle. In fact my own range of Maver Craig O’Brien Method feeders (that’s one of them pictured here) come in short and long-stem versions to reflect this.

Tie your chosen elastic to a Drennan 2mm link ring with a simple half-turn tuck and trim. Thread a long stringer needle right through your feeder and grab the elastic with the hook. Just pull the elastic through until the ring reaches the tube of the feeder.	Thread the loose end down from the top and through the plastic loop at the top of the feeder.
Clamp it to one side of the plastic loop using another half-turn tuck.	Push this over to one side of the plastic loop and pull tight.
At this point I check the tension by pulling on the ring using the needle.	Once you’re happy with the tension, clamp it to the other side using another half-turn tuck, and pull tight.
Now just trim the elastic – don’t cut too tight to the tuck.	The elastic traps itself and will never come loose – the tighter they pull, the more solid it is.