I have not fished the local reservoir for several months, in fact only once this year. So when Reg Talbot, Trustee of Angling heritage visited for the weekend we decided to have a fun match for a few hours trying to catch bream fishing in the seldom used swing tip method.
Before we started I showed Reg a recent photograph that had been loaned showing the deep end Darracott Reservoir when it was empty. However, as we were in a warm dry spell we decided to fish the shallower end with cage feeders. Where our styles differ is that I use a size 10 and a larger bait (normally luncheon meat) whereas Reg uses a size 16 with maggot from his match fishing roots.
We had a fun couple of hours with Reg catching the most fish, about 25, whereas I caught just under 20 but were larger fish. We both wondered why we don’t use this method more because the bite indication is fantastic and you can tell the difference between actual bites and line bites too.
The main fish caught were bream to about 2lb but intermingled with nice rudd and roach to around 8oz, but the prettiest fish of all was a roach/rudd hybrid with the most brilliantly coloured fins that I have seen on a fish; worth the day ticket just to see that alone.