Not every swim is a calm lake, and sometimes the bait has to go a long way out or hold still in strong flow. In this group you will find river and distance feeders as well as maggot, pellet and blockend feeders. They handle the situations where a standard cage feeder is not enough.
A river feeder carries a heavy, often flat-bottomed weight that holds it in place in the flow. When the feeder stays put, the groundbait always breaks out at the same point and the feed trail builds up downstream, drawing fish up towards your hookbait.
Distance feeders are shaped with the weight at the front, so they fly straight and far. They suit big lakes and days when the fish are feeding well out from the bank.
A blockend or maggot feeder is a closed feeder, and the maggots only crawl out through its holes once it is on the bottom. It works well in winter and in flowing water, when fish prefer live maggots to groundbait. A pellet feeder releases pellets in a controlled way at the same spot.
Choose the weight to match the strength of the flow and your casting distance, and carry a few different weights so you can adjust as conditions change.