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| Sheltons, the largest tackle retailer in the Peterborough Area |
New Feeder Rod:
On arrival at the shop I was confronted with numerous feeder rods and was quite pleased when Richard the store manger came over to see if I needed any help, I told him what I was looking for and what I wanted to spend and he selected a few rods that he thought may fit what I was looking for. I selected 3 rods that I was interested in and then set about trying to decide which one would best do what I wanted and this was to fish for Bream and Skimmers on wide, deep natural venues. Anyway without boring you too much with the detail I choose the Shimano Beastmaster BX 12' medium Feeder Rod as this seemed to have quite a soft top section that would help avoid hook pulls when fishing for Skimmers. It also has plenty of power in the mid - lower sections to deal with much bigger fish or when you need to boss fish away from snags.
The rod comes supplied with 3 push in tips of 1,2 & 3oz test curve which are slow taper and blend in perfectly with the action of the rod.
I would just like to say a big thank you to Richard at Sheltons for his help in selecting my new rod and if first impressions are anything to go by I am going to be very pleased with this rod.
Full review to follow in the next week or two.
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| For a rod with the name Beastmaster this rod has remarkable finesse |
Its Thursday and I am off work, I have just bought a new feeder rod so I really need to get out and have a few hours to acquaint myself with it. So I have a quick drive down the North Bank to see if anybody is catching and on speaking to 3 anglers I found out that they had all had a few Bream in the morning but it had gone off after dinner. Ok I would give it a go in the evening and I returned after tea to give the new rod a try full of confidence that I would catch a few fish and get a real feel for the new toy. Well I was obviously suffering from delusions and all of that because after 2 hours without a bite I was a little pissed off and contemplating going home when the tip pulled around "bloody hooray" and I struck into something that turned out to be an 8oz Hybrid. I was never the less re-enthused and cast out again and within a few minutes I had my second indication but this time the fish was a lot smaller and just as I was about to lift it out of the water a Pike grabbed it and made off with my fish along with my hook. Well with that I decided that enough was enough and I packed up and headed home with plans already in mind for the next day.
Friday On The Middle Level:
I had decided to visit the Middle Level Main Drain at Pingle Bridge as I was sure that this would provide me with opportunity to catch a few decent Skimmers and give the new rod a test.
When I arrived there were a couple of anglers already there and so I had a quick chat with them to see what was what. One of them was fishing a fixed waggler into 14ft of water and getting a steady run of small Roach, Rudd and Skimmers and the other had caught a Bream and a few small fish on the feeder. I walked beyond the two anglers and settled for a peg between 2 trees with a reed bed across the far side. I set up the feeder rod with a standard Paternoster rig and a medium open ended feeder and after casting around elected to fish 3/4 of the way across into 15' of water. After a short while a started to get indications that looked like roach bites and on the 3rd indication I confirmed my suspicions when I caught an 8oz Roach, this was quickly followed by 4 more smaller fish. At this point I changed from Maggot to Sweet Corn to see if I could avoid the smaller Roach and although I didn't catch another one I still kept getting small indications on the tip. After an hour I went back onto the maggot and shortly afterwards received a more positive bite and I soon slipped the net under a Skimmer of about a pound. I carried on and caught a few more nice Skimmers over the next hour and a half before deciding to call it a day. Now I hadn't set the world on fire but I had succeeded in catching a few decent skimmers and I am pleased to report the new rod was perfect for the job with its lovely soft top section performing just as I hoped it would.
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| Skimmers up to 1.5lb in a short morning session |
Sunday On Ten Mile Bank:
Sunday arrived and it was my mates turn to drive, he had suggested that we go to the Welland but I wasn't overly keen on the idea and so we headed off to Ten Mile Bank on the Great Ouse.
We decided to fish the straight section between the railway bridge and the Farm 3 and 4 pegs above the barn on the far bank. We both set up similar feeder rigs and fished just past the middle into a good 18ft of water, the sun was out but there was a good ripple on the water and so it wasn't any worse than previous weeks. On my first cast I had a decent Roach of 10oz and a 4oz fish on the next cast then it went quite for a few minutes before the tip pulled around and dropped back. I missed the bite and cast out again and just as a tightened down to the feeder the tip pulled right around and I lifted into something more substantial that turned out to be a small Bream of about 3lb. From this point onwards things went downhill rapidly with just the odd bite or two, I called it a day after 5 hours and had only added 2 decent Skimmers to the fish I had caught at the start. Graham had not done very well either and finished with a Bream and 1 Skimmer. All in all a disappointing return for a days fishing but that's the way it goes sometimes, we had a quick look at the river Welland on the way home and it had produced a few fish for the 3 anglers we spoke to. So I guess I should have just gone along with Grahams idea and fished the Welland but they always say hindsight is a wonderful thing.
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