Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Adam Rumble
Feeder fishing on reservoirs doesn’t always mean casting to the horizon, as Adam Rumble proves...
Short range bream action
WHEN fishing large waters for bream, there’s a temptation to cast as far as possible and then put the line in the clip regardless of where the feeder lands. This is particularly common when there are no noticeable features to aim for.
Preston Innovations’ Adam Rumble has spent a large part of the summer targeting vast reservoirs and witnessed this ‘ chuck and chance’ approach being used by many anglers.
Adam, however, makes a more considered decision when deciding where to cast his rig and insists that people would catch more if they avoided this common mistake.
“Faced with an expanse of open water it can be tempting to whack it out as far as you can. People are surprised when I say that I’ve been catching from less than 15m and explain that it is the depth of water that makes it achievable.”
Short line success
Many reservoirs are similar in topography when it comes to their depth.
They are extremely shallow close to the bank and then slope down as they go out, getting deeper along the way.
But there is often a point where the bottom flattens out and the depth then remains consistent all the way to the middle, regardless of how big the venue is.
“Bream like to sit in deep water but if you have the same depth at 15m as you do at 50m it makes sense to chuck as close as you can,” he said.
“If you are chucking two or three times further than you need to, you are only making life harder for yourself. Not only is it tougher to feed and remain accurate, it also takes longer to get the fish in. If you fish at the start of the deepest point rather than launching it to the horizon you’ll catch more because you aren’t spending as much time winding them in.”
The easiest way to find the deepest water is to cast out an unloaded feeder and count how long it takes to hit the deck. Tension will remain in the tip as the feeder falls and your cue to stop counting is when it suddenly goes slack, signalling it has hit bottom.
“I start by casting 10m and counting it down. I then go to 15m and do the same. If I notice a difference I go out another 5m and keep doing so until I get the same result on the count. Once I do, that is where I will fish.”
Positive baiting
Bream are a greedy species and a shoal can hoover up a carpet of bait in no time at all.
Once the bait has gone, they’ll move on, searching for their next meal. Adam therefore believes putting down a hefty banquet at the start is essential.
“I don’t think it’s possible to overfeed a shoal of bream in late summer! I’d have no hesitation in putting down three pints of bait before I even cast a baited rig over the top.
“I use a large Preston Innovations Distance Cage Feeder and cast this out 10 times. It is loaded with an even blend of Sonubaits Sweet F1 and Green Fishmeal each time, along with plenty of casters, corn and dead maggots.”
This is done with a separate rod to what he fishes with. This is because a fair bit of backbone is required to chuck such a heavy feeder while a more subtle tool is best when actually fishing.
“Once I’m ready to start fishing I switch to a much smaller feeder and recast every five minutes to keep the swim topped up. A rod with plenty of cushion that won’t lead to hook- pulls is really important because losing a fish close to your target zone can unsettle the shoal.”
Adam’s choice is a 10ft Preston Innovations Supera SL.
Catch on the drop
Although bream are widely regarded as bottom feeders, that isn’t strictly the case.
A bed of bait will soon convince them to get their heads down but the bigger fish often sit off the deck and pick off any loosefeed that is wafted up by their more naïve shoalmates.
So with a feeder sat on the deck, is it just a matter of crossing your fingers and hoping these big slabs will eventually drop down and pick up your hookbait? Not if Adam has anything to do with it!
“The secret is to use a 2ft- 3ft hooklength on your rig. I often get bites a split second after the feeder has hit the deck and at that point the hooklength is still falling slowly, fooling those bigger fish that think a loose offering is floating past their noses.”
A double maggot hookbait is a good starting point due to its light nature although changing to a slightly tougher offering such as a worm head can help fend off any small fish that attack it on the drop. There’s a lot more skill in fishing the feeder than first meets the eye and finding a suitable depth within metres of the bank could be the trigger to bigger
bream catches.