2014 World Feeder Championships- Adam's Story

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2014 World Feeder Championships - Adam Wakelin

Following on from an impressive bronze medal last year, the England World Feeder team travelled to Ireland, Inniscarra for this years championships. Would they repeat last years success, or could they do even better?

Adam Wakelin gives us his fishing story.

Preparation began early when the whole team went to a three-day feeder only festival. From a personal point of view, I had some fairly good catches but knew that a few tactics needed addressing before we went to the World Feeder Championships, which was only three weeks away!

I had to make sure I was on the pace right from the first day of official practice.

Hundreds of hooks were tied, reels matched up, rods in threes and fours were set up so that everything was set for some intense practising. We as a team are committed to each other and the nation and there was only one thing we went out to achieve, and that was gold!

There are some awesome anglers in the team who won’t stop until the correct methods and tactics are perfected. We began by fixing what we learnt in the three day feeder festival. The practice week is hard and unfortunately not everyone can be on the right methods all the time; this year in particular, we as a team were giving nothing away.

After five long hard days working through several ground baits, distances, hook baits and terminal tackle, we walked off the bank knowing that we had a strong chance of winning gold!

Bait choice and prepartion is one of the most important factors at a World Championship!

Tackle Choice

Rod choice is paramount in any sort of feeder fishing, I needed a rod that could cast up to a 44g large feeder and also give me some finesse when the fish were shy biting. I decided on a Dutch Master 11’ 8” rod with the number 2 tip.

This was then match to a 4000 PCR loaded with 0.08 Braidcast to a 10lb Power Max shock leader. This shock leader was important for a number of reasons. Firstly, there were some horrific snags in the venue and if I got stuck I’d just lose the feeder/shock leader. Second and more importantly, when fishing at speed I could just wind the fish straight in and as soon as I heard my shock leader knot go through the tip ring. Within three turns of the reel the fish could be swung in straight away and, more importantly at the right height for my hand. Alternatively, if it was a skimmer or a bream this was still the right distance to scoop them with my 4m Absolute Match Landing Net Handle.

The feeder rig was crucial too, you tend to get a lot of head winds in Ireland and to adhere to CIPS rules, rigs need to be free running with a minimum hook length of 50cm below the feeder. The team came up with a free running paternoster link that doesn’t tangle, which is essential, you need to be confident that you know your hook bait is in the right place. I chose a 0.15mm Precision Power hook length between 50-60cm coupled with a size 10 PR 344 hook.

The feeder of choice was a Wire Cage Feeder, which the whole team felt out-fished a standard plastic open end feeder.

The Venue

The Inniscarra Reservoir is a flooded valley and can be anything from 12 to 30+ metres in depth. Finding the right depth of water to fish in is crucial, we found 12 foot the optimum depth to find as you would be able to target all species of fish such as roach, skimmers, bream and hybrids.

Adam Wakelin; We found 12 foot the optimum depth to find as you would be able to target all species of fish such as roach, skimmers, bream and hybrids.

The Inniscarra Reservoir proved to be the perfect venue for the fourth World Feeder Championships!

Day 1

I was in B section, an area that we had practiced extensively throughout the week. I drew peg 12 in the middle of the section, which I was reasonably happy with. I stuck to the team plan and searched for the 12 foot of water, which I found at 20 metres. Interestingly the anglers either side of me fished much further out into the deeper water. Its times like this when you question your tactics but you have to stick to your team plan and remain confident.

I had a great first hour, catching around 30 fish which were a mixture of roach and smaller hybrids. The second hour was even better, I caught 7 skimmers in as many chucks followed by a load more roach and pearch.

The final stages of the first day saw me sneak 4 more skimmers along with a few roach and hybrids, but I knew it wasn’t quite enough for that all important section win. However I still got my head down and tried to get maximum points for the team.

I finished the match strongly catching a roach a chuck for the final 30 minutes. I had a total of 100 fish which weighed 8.92 kilos to finish 3rd in the 25 peg section. Not a lot was caught around me so I was happy with my performance from the area I was in.

The team put in an incredible first day performance, we scored 11pts which was comfortably leading the way by 11 points! This put us in a great position for the next day, but as our captain Tommy Pickering says, “It’s only half time.”

Day 1 Results

Dean Barlow- 4pt's
Phil Ringer- 2pt's
Steven Ringer- 1pt
Mick Vials- 1pt
Adam Wakelin- 3pt

feeder ace Mick Vials put in two sterling performances!

Day 2

The section draw for day 2 was done and was in B section again. Looking at the weights from day 1, the ideal pegs to draw were 1-5 or 20-25 as they were much more consistent.

After getting my bib from our coach Glen Lawrence, he told me I’d drawn peg 1. Although it wasn’t an end peg, it was where I wanted to be. Hopefully I could put in a repeat performance for the team.

I found the teams 12ft depth at 19 meters, a little closer than I fancied fishing but I couldn't change my plan of attack at this late stage. The teams either side of me fished further out again which I wasn't too worried about given yesterdays result.

I had a great start in the first hour catching 26 roach, and they were all bigger than I was catching on day 1 so I knew I was on target for a similar weight and hopefully a similar if not better position in the section.

A bad 2nd hour slowed me down, but fortunately no one else in my section was really catching either. Although I had a great run of 7 skimmers in the third hour which catapulted me back up the leader board.

Unfortunately, the rest of the match was hard going, getting only runs of 3 to 5 roach but I was still putting something in the net which is crucial on a World Championship's like this. I kept trying for a few more skimmers but sadly, they weren’t there.

My total of 85 fish weighed in at 8.5 kilos which was enough for 2nd in the section! The rumours were that we had the chance of both team and individual gold too which would be a massive accomplishment.

Adam showed his class and performed magnificently under pressure!

Day 2 Results

Dean Barlow- 2pt
Phil Ringer- 8pt
Steven Ringer- 1pt
Mick Vials- 2pt
Adam Wakelin- 2pt

Its safe to say that we had the tactics bang on, By targeting both skimmers and roach we managed to keep the fish coming for the duration of the match and even in the harder spells we managed to sneak a few fish to keep us ticking over. This unfortunately wasn’t the same for the Irish and Dutch teams who seemed to target either roach, or skimmers separately.

We’d managed to score 26 points over the two days, which was incredibly 36 points less than 2nd place. A hard-earned Individual Gold for the England Feeder team!