Steve Ringer FeederMasters tactics plus new Ask Ringer Q&A
Steve discovers the FeederMasters final venue is a tough one to tame…
ATITLE I’d love to have is that of FeederMasters champ, so after qualifying earlier in the year at Decoy Lakes I couldn’t wait for the final to arrive.
This year’s event was at a new venue – Upper Tamar Reservoir in the South West – and all seemed set for a cracker of a match!
I elected to go down there three days before the final to get some practice in, and it was soon apparent that the targets were roach and skimmers, living at two different depths.
Shallow water was the key to roach, whereas for skimmers you needed depth, ideally close in. This made the decision of which species to target relatively easy – if you didn’t have a six count with a 1oz bomb within 30m of the bank then roach were going to be key.
Likewise, if you found deep water you’d find very few roach, so it was to be a skimmer match!
A tough stArt
On day one, when peg 21 stuck to my hand, I knew it would be a struggle. The peg was shallow and set back in a bay, so it was probably going to be all about roach for my target weight of 30lb.
I set up two 10ft Tournament Pro Quivers to fish at 6m, two 11fts for 14m and two more 11-footers for 32m for skimmers, w1here there was a bit more depth.
With £12,000 at stake I wasn’t taking any chances!
My bait mix consisted of Ringers Dark and Original mixed 50-50. In practice, it seemed the roach were of a slightly bigger stamp on a fishmeal/pellet-based mix.
I also had a kilo of worms, three pints of casters, plus maggots and pinkies for the hook.
On the skimmer line I also planned on introducing pellets so I prepared two pints of wetted down Dynamite F1 Sweet pellets.
At the off I put in three large Guru Bait Up feeders of groundbait and 2mm pellets with a little fine choppy. Then in went two Bait Up feeders at 14m with groundbait, finely chopped worm and a few casters.
I started on the skimmer line in case there were a few about, but there weren’t, so after 25 minutes it was roach time!
In my head, for 30lb I felt I needed 180 fish – 30 an hour.
Coming in Close
Dropping in at 14m, I didn’t get any bites. Sometimes at Tamar you can struggle at 14m but catch at 6m, especially in a big wind when the water colours up close in. I decided on a quick look at 6m
and I started to get a few bites from 2oz-4oz roach and hoped it would improve. At the two-hour mark I was up to 46 fish – off the pace, but a big last three hours could see that all change.
From that point it just got harder and stringing two bites together was impossible. I did look back at 14m where I picked up two 8oz skimmers but things weren’t happening quickly enough.
I even tried chopping and changing feeders from a window to a cage, and over-wetting or ‘slopping up’ the groundbait, all to no avail. Those around me in the bay were struggling too.
With 45 minutes to go I was up to 87 fish, of which five were skimmers, so I decided to sit it out for skimmers until the end. I had four, but the last 25 minutes were biteless and I put 19lb 10z on the scales – a long way short of where I wanted to be. In a small-fish match it was damage limitation from here on in.
I was sat in 36th place, but with the top 20 being paid out I did feel that a 30lb catch on day two could see me sneak in.
A GOOD DRAW
Day two dawned, and when I drew peg 36 I was a happy bunny. The skimmers on day one seemed to be sat on the aerator pegs, and 36 is just one peg off one. Brother Phil was on the aerator and I had Tommy Pickering on my left, so I was in good company.
This area had been dominated by skimmer weights on day one, so I decided to go all out for them.
If I’d put 35lb on the board on day one I’d have perhaps looked at roach, but it was now a case of needing skimmers, and a miracle.
I set up three 12ft Tournaments to fish at 32m and a baiting-up rod. At 32m there was a nine count on a 1oz bomb, deeper than I wanted, but by going into deep water I was hoping there was a chance of a bonus fish or two.
At the off I put in three large Baiting Up feeders of groundbait, pellets and finely chopped worm. I then fished over the top with a three-hole, 30g Guru Slimline feeder with a 50cm hooklength and a single dead red maggot on a 14 Pole Special hook.
After an hour I’d had 10 skimmers of around 6oz apiece. But they were small fish with no bonus bream.
My second hour produced another 10 skimmers but again nothing of any size, and 30lb seemed a long way off.
With this in mind, I decided to go another 2m further out and start again. Only this time I’d try and push the swim by feeding lots of finely chopped worms – and draw in some bonus fish.
The next hour was a write-off, but with 90 minutes to go the swim started to show signs of life and the last 45 minutes were good. Interestingly, a bunch of redworms proved to be the best hookbait, and the bigger the bunch, the quicker the bites came!
I finished up with 71 skimmers but no bonus bigger fish, so I wasn’t surprised when the scales went round to only 26lb 4oz.
Looking back, I think I fished a decent match. There weren’t many bonus skimmers or bream caught on day two, and my end result reflected that.
Most importantly, though, I feel I gave myself a chance of catching 30lb-plus which, looking at the results, is what I’d have needed to make the top 20.
I’m my own worst critic at times, but without a doubt on this occasion the draw let me down on day one.
That’s match fishing, though – sometimes you get the rub of the green and sometimes you don’t.
CONGRATS AND THANKS
I’d like to take this opportunity to say a massive congratulations to Lee Kerry, who is the new FeederMasters champion with two awesome displays – a truly deserving winner.
I’d also like to thank Lee and Mick Vials for running this event. It really is an amazing final to be in, and while this wasn’t my best year I still can’t wait to have a go at qualifying when it all starts again in 2020!
Finally, a massive thank you to Preston Innovations – good sponsorship is hard to find, and what the company puts into FeederMasters is much appreciated by all the competitors.