Shearwater tackle test

I have been waiting to try out my new Browning Black Viper feeder rods for a few weeks and finally the opportunity arose, Tony and myself got to the lake at around 8 o’clock and decided to fish off the woodland bank about halfway along where I judged the depth should be around 10 feet deep.

My tackle for the day was simple, a 14ft Black Viper feeder and Black magic reel for fishing in the middle of the lake at 60+ turns and an 11ft Black Viper rod with an Ultimatch attached.

My groundbait was a 50:50 method mix and micro pellet that I prepared the night before and as soon as the platform was in the margins I was fishing.

I started the session on a 45g Guru elasticated method feeder with a 10cm hooklength made of 0.20 Cenex line to a size 14 Guru QM1. My hookbaits were banded pellet, white Boilies and pepparami all mounted on a baitband, the pepparami and Boilies have the band pulled inside the bait and the pellets were banded as normal around the pellet.

The day started quite slow and after about 30 minutes of casting every couple of minutes to the clip at 60 turns I decided to try dead maggots as hook bait. This resulted in a small skimmer, so as I was not blanking I decided to bin off the maggot as bream were not my target (Tony had other ideas).

I changed to a skinned piece of pepparami and this was the changing point of my session as I pulled into a carp and a couple of better skimmers in the 2-3lb class over the next hour or so. Then lifting into another bite I just hit solid resistance that I could tell instantly was a good fish, I got it halfway back before it decided that it would run past my line clip and then take another 15 minutes to land.

The Black viper performed admirably and the only time that My casting suffered was as a direct result of my not paying attention whilst casting.

Over the course of the day I extended out to 65 turns and regularly hit the clip well above the water so I think that with a bit more practice and getting used to the kit it wont be long until I am fishing at 80+ turns.

I finished the day on 10 Carp and 9 bream, Tony had 14 Bream and 3 Carp I think and so therefore won the Bream match. He was fishing a lot closer, at 40 turns and only managed to mug his carp out from down the edge on the method close to the end. All in all a very enjoyable day, and one to be repeated very soon.