Steve Waters looks back on a session where the resident bream certainly took a liking to his Method Feeder approach.

As I had a quiet weekend I decided to have a practice on Grimsbury Reservoir in Banbury for a forthcoming charity match. I’ve only fished this reservoir on one previous occasion this year so I wanted to get a better idea of tactics.

As the water level appeared to be a bit lower than previous visits and was also very clear I decided to fish a little further out than normal. I therefore cast out and ‘clipped up’ at 60 turns on a 3000-size reel. I set up three rods; one with a large cage feeder for ‘spodding’ out some bait, one for the Method Feeder and one for the bomb.

I started off by introducing 20 big cages of micro pellets and wetted 4mm pellets, as groundbait is currently not allowed on this venue. I then started on the bomb with an 8mm pellet over the top.

I never had an indication on the quivertip for some time but I wasn’t too concerned. This can be expected when bream are the quarry, as they can take a while to settle or find the bait on a fairly large open expanse of water like this.

After an hour of inactivity I started to get the odd liner, so something had obviously moved into the peg. I was now feeling really hopeful of a pull round. Then, all of a sudden I had a big drop back, struck and hit fresh air! This happened three times on the bounce. I couldn’t believe I had missed three so it was time for a change…

I was soon casting out with the Method, baited up with a hair-rigged white Scopex Syrup 8mm Bandit Dumbell. Seconds after casting out I had a pull, quickly followed by a proper 7lb slab – just what the doctor ordered! I carried on with the Method Feeder for the rest of the session, managing 12 bream, all between 6lb and 8lb.

I’ve switched hook baits between the Bandit Dumbells in Crab & Krill (pink), Pineapple Punch (yellow) and the Scopex Syrup (white), although I’ve caught on all three colours/flavours it was definitely noticeable that the white seemed to get a quicker response than the others. Despite introducing pellets as feed I’ve only had one fished on a banded pellet, which surprised me as I naturally thought it would be the better choice. It just goes to show that chopping and changing hook baits can make all the difference.