How a Rudd can get hooked squarely in the bottom lip on a size 8 chod and an 18mm Crazy Nut boilie I'll never know, but it did. So do the bream although not the skimmers thankfully. The other culprit for taking my baits is Tench, which is a bit of a surprise on a river to be honest. I expected the Bream, but I've had just as many Tench, some nearing 6lb.
It's always good when fish are eating your bait, any fish and the more they do the more I like it. On rivers this is important because their feeding will attract Carp to the area and as the river flows, pull more fish up. Getting bites from so called nusience fish can be advantageous. Like I said it tells you that your bait works, it tells you that your rig is working and that the area you have chosen is a place where you can catch fish from, all important things when added up together.
Once you have dealt with the fish, put in some more bait. Now you have the added situation of a swim that has old and new baits lying around in it, you're building the swim.
I think that sometimes heavy baiting is necessary and works well but it can be a gamble, so i'd rather build a swim over a session than just pile it all in at the start. It does depend on the situation and the only way you ever find out is to try it.
Either way, you'll be putting in a lot of bait in a river, teeming with fish, that hardly anyone fishes for.