Recently, I was up at Tamar Reservoir for the Teams of Four, Feeder only, four-day event. I always look forward to this festival, it’s always good fun and a few fish can be caught too!
Sadly, I haven’t been able to fish as much as I would like due to personal circumstances. This meant there was plenty of prep time. I made up a load of 18 through to 12 hooks tied up using Edge Premium Mono as well as some hair rigs. A new feeder box was filled with a wide range of Edge Feeders in various weights and sizes. Finally, my rods were sorted. I decided to take the Cadence CR10 11ft #2 Feeder Rods, these rods provide a soft cushion for skimmers, but they have a bit of backbone too. I paired these with the CS5 4000 Reels spooled up with 8lb Edge Specimen Mono. I also took some CR10 12ft #2 rods as well, for when the wind gets up, which it often does on the Tamar.
Day 1
I was given the middle of the Devon bank, not an ideal area, but it could have been worse. I think it was Peg 24. I chose to fish one hole at 24m, where I found some favourable ground. The CR10 11ft #2 is perfect for fishing at this distance. The reason I only fished one line was so I could give it my full attention, then work anything out for the following days. My day was steady, picking up skimmers regular, but by no means was it fast fishing. I was mainly on the pellet feeder, while catching a few on the conventional setup in the quieter periods. At the end of the day, I had 9kgs, which I was pleased with. I had beaten a few people and was not far away from some top Tamar anglers.
Day 2
Peg 17 on the Cornwall bank was on the cards today, a long walk from the car park. This is an area that I had never really fished before, I did know it was shallow. On the first day, most of the Cornwall bank weights came from catching roach short at around 6m, so this was going to be my main attack. Of course, I had to set a line up for skimmers as well. I started short where I was getting into a few roach, but it wasn’t as fast as I would have liked. After an hour, I moved to the second line and nicked 3 or 4 fish. I then swapped and changed the lines through most of the day. Trying to catch a few fish on each and then change. In the last hour, reports were coming in of some good numbers of skimmers being caught at the other end of the section. I decided to fish for them. I caught 14 skimmers in the last hour, giving me a weight of 12.4kgs. The same as the first day, I beat a few people and was not too far off the pace. I feel I got a bit wrong, I should have fished for skimmers more, but, hindsight is a wonderful thing!
Day 3
This felt like a turning point for me. I was given Peg 32, which was the White Buoy, a good peg. I set up a short line, this time at 10m because of the rocky ground. My second, longer line would be at 26m. I would use the CR10 12ft #2 for this as the wind was blowing in my face and I felt I needed more of a rod to punch the pellet feeder out. I fished the short line for the first 45 minutes, picking up roach, perch and the odd skimmer. Moving to the longer line, this kicked off straight away, producing ten skimmers on the bounce. The rest of the day was spent fishing the longer line, catching a steady stream of skimmers for a good hour and a half. I was making constant changes to keep bites coming. The wind was howling, and it wasn’t easy to main my accuracy, but the 12ft rods, certainly helped. I finished the day with 16kgs, which I was really pleased with, especially when I found out I had come third in my section, beating some class anglers either side of me.
Day 4
After day three, I was on a high, but, I was handed Peg 3 on Seed Drill, an area that fished well for the first two days and very poor on the third day. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Due to the depth, I opted to fish longer to find some deeper water. A line at 14m and 38m was the plan. The CR10 12ft #2 came into its own casting the pellet feeder at this range. My day started slowly. After two hours, all I had were three skimmers and a handful of roach. With others catching around me, I felt a disaster coming. I finally managed to get a few bits at 38m, but I still had a lot of catching up to do. I kept plugging away at 38m, catching skimmers steadily and making changes to keep the bites coming. In the last hour and a half, I managed to get a run, and it was a skimmer a chuck on the pellet feeder until the end. It was brilliant fishing and just what I needed to catch up with the other anglers around me. I put just under 15kgs on the scales, another fantastic weight! Again, I beat some incredible anglers around me and managed to take the section as well.
I felt the last two days it clicked for me. On the first and second day I got the basics right but on days three and four, I fished really well. Overall, I feel I put in a good performance. The changes I made I did at the correct times and they seemed to work. A personal target of mine was to catch 40kgs over the four days, which I smashed with 53kgs. On the team front, we didn’t do very well, but, there is always next year!
I can’t wait to return to this stunning venue.
