NOT all the best rods are designed to launch a bait over the horizon – and Preston Innovations’ two new Supera SL Feeder rods are the fishing equivalent of middle-distance runners.
Both the 10ft and 11ft versions deliver those shorter casts when bream, roach and skimmers are the target.
A soft, seamless through action prevents hook pulls that can lose you a match, yet the rods double up as the perfect winter commercial fishery tools for F1s and carp on maggot feeder and straight lead tactics.
That much I’d already been told through reading the blurb, but to confirm these claims I treated myself to a day’s live testing of the 10ft short feeder rod on Decoy Lakes Fishery near Peterborough.
The famed Beastie Lake plays host to plenty of skimmers and roach, while its gravel bottom is paved, not with gold but with F1s, barbel, and a truckload of fit and fat carp. However, like many fisheries that get bashed by matches all weekend, Monday is go-slow day for the inhabitants.
I plonked myself on a peg renowned for its head of skimmers – the fact that it had also delivered 100lb of carp the day before meant I felt confident of getting a few pulls, while also getting a feel of the very rod Lee Kerry used to win the Feeder Masters final last year. I tried to ignore the weather – it was cold enough for icicles to form on a polar bear’s bum.
The Supera SL is ideal for skimmers at short range R1Q9157.jpg
There are a couple of commercial fishery tactics you can rely on in the cold – a straight lead set-up with corn, or a small blockend carp feeder with maggots. Both have their moments, but the maggot feeder seems the better bet for silvers when you’re faced with cold and slightly coloured water.
Given these conditions, most matchmen favour lightweight feeder or bomb rods – normal carp or Method feeder rods don’t have enough finesse to be teamed with light hooklengths and small hooks. What you really need is a rod with a softer action – enter the Supera SL.
My session was progressing very slowly, so I began to fine down my end tackle to a point where I might reach critical mass if a decent-sized carp rocked up.
As I was pondering this, round went the 0.75oz tip, not to the delicate inquiry of a roach or skimmer but the full-frontal assault of something far meatier.
It was clear to me at this point that the rod had undergone some serious field-trialling from the talented Preston match team – the blank’s seamless action was peerless. Not only did it deal brilliantly with the little chaps, but the carp squad too. Neither overgunned and pokey, nor sloppy and soppy, it performed like an A-list celeb.
Classy Sea Guide rings are perfectly placed along its two-sectioned high modulus carbon body, while a reduced length cork and EVA handle make it manageable to cast and set up. It comes with three graded quivers of 0.5oz, 0.75oz and 1oz.
Summing up, the Supera SL is an ideal all-round winter commercial lead rod with plenty of flexibility. In its 10ft incarnation with the lightest 0.5oz quivertip fitted it’s a proper little charmer, ideal for snake lakes (naturally), small pools and ponds, in fact anywhere that demands light lines, small hooks and short casts.
MARK’S VERDICT
IT’S true that many matchmen use the same feeder rod both summer and winter, but these are the same people you’ll hear bawling out expletives when they lose a fish at the netting stage.
Take it from me, this isn’t going to happen when you fish with a Supera SL, and you’ll be so much more popular with the angler at the next peg. Who needs splashy dramatics from your near neighbours when there’s coin to be won?
PRICE: £159.99 (BUT SHOP AROUND)
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