Specimen Fishing | Wind direction for tench and bream - Gary Knowles
Fish will always follow a warm wind, particularly a south-westerly, so I would look to fish into the face of it. This is particularly true on shallow and uniform lakes, where the wind will quickly push rapidly warming water into the bank.
After a few days of blowing in the same direction the undertow will take the warmer water to the opposite side of the lake, so follow a new wind, but do check the forecast.
Always keep an eye on the forecast
On gravel pits with a lot of lakebed contours it’s hard to predict the effects of the wind. But unless fish are showing I’d still always start in a swim where I’m looking into the wind.
A clonking 20lb 7oz bream
Specimen Fishing Tips | Areas to target for a personal best bream - Darren Goulder
Bream generally feed by grazing over a wide area, so look for somewhere that’s weed-free, with a smooth or firm silty bottom. The backs of gravel bars are good spots, if the lake has them, because fish often use these as transit routes to travel around a venue.
A feast of particles laid down in close proximity will stop them in their tracks. If the silt is soft and smelly, I’d advise you to fish on top of any gravel where it’s free of muck and rubbish.
Traditionally, bream are usually caught at range, but that is not always necessary as they can be caught down the marginal shelf too. Most importantly, keep your eyes on the water at dawn and dusk when bream can very often give away their presence by rolling on the surface.
Stay clear of weed for a big bream
Specimen Fishing Tips | Five rigs to try in 2020 with Dai Gribble
YOU need to have full confidence in the rigs you use. Big fish are generally thin on the ground – that’s one of the main reasons why they are big, and on occasions you can be waiting days or even weeks for a bite. You don’t want to slip up now!
In such circumstances you will be more focused if you believe you are using the right rig for the job. Here are five rigs that I use a lot and can recommend without hesitation.
1: Helicopter Rig
This rig has a short hooklink that spins around the mainline. It is my first choice for stillwater feeder fishing as it very rarely tangles and is very efficient at turning bites into hooked fish. Invariably the mainline is under slight tension due to undertow caused by wind, and this makes it difficult for fish to eject a bait once they have taken it.
2: Flatbed Method
No rig presents a bait better than the flatbed Method feeder, as the hooklink is completely buried within groundbait and this groundbait draws fish directly to the hookbait. It is ideal for fishing inert baits such as pellets, corn and boilies. Try different liquids in the groundbait and use Sonubaits Lava Rocks to draw fish to the feeder.
3: Korum Running Rig
I use this rig for nearly all my barbel fishing with both leads and feeders. The rig casts really well without tangling, thanks to the clever design which pushes the feeder or lead away from the hooklink. I always use hooklinks with a loop, as the quick-change swivel allows you to change them in seconds by sliding the tapered sleeve off.
4: Simple link leger
Very often simple is best, and rigs don’t come much simpler than this – a leger bead with a piece of line with shot attached, stopped by a couple of float stops and the hook tied direct to the mainline. By adding or removing SSG or AAA shot it is really easy to get the perfect presentation for the swim you are fishing, making this rig perfect for much of my chub and perch fishing.
5: Bolt rig for eels
One of the biggest challenges facing the eel angler is avoiding deep hooking while at the same time not missing runs. When eels are feeding on small baits such as maggots the bolt rig is the solution. A small, strong hook baited with
a bunch of maggots on a 3ins braided hooklink combined with a 2oz inline lead has served me very well, with few dropped runs and every eel I landed hooked perfectly in the bottom lip.
Specimen Fishing Tips | Winter essentials with Dai Gribble
A friend of mine refers to anglers who only fish in the warmer months as ‘solar-powered.’ Such anglers are missing out on some great sport, so here are six tips that will definitely encourage them to make the most of some great opportunities throughout the winter.
Layers of clothing
Layers enable you to remove clothes easily when walking to your swim or between swims. Getting too hot will mean you sweat, and as soon as you sit down you’ll quickly start to feel cold. I find the most important layer is a long-sleeved Merino wool under layer. I’m not sure why, but these tops are much better than anything else I’ve tried. Add a fleece or two and a windproof top.
Thermal boots
Nothing is more likely to see you heading for home than frozen feet. There are lots of good waterproof boots available and, combined with thick wool socks, they will keep you comfortable. Avoid polyester socks – they may look similar to wool but they won’t keep you anywhere near as warm.
Hot drinks
A flask or small stove to supply hot drinks will help keep you warm. If I’m fishing on a river I always use a flask, but on stillwaters, where I am likely to move swims less, I prefer a small stove – you can’t beat a freshly brewed mug of Yorkshire tea! I keep things simple by boiling my water in an enamel mug, which saves carrying a separate kettle.
Hat and gloves
The old saying that on a cold day you lose 70 per cent of heat from your head is exaggerated but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t wear a warm hat. I also always take a pair of insulated gloves. I don’t wear them while actually fishing, but they make a huge difference when carrying tackle to my swim and are also great for warming my hands up after handling a cold fish.
The right chair
If I’m fishing close to the car and unlikely to be moving a lot, I take a big padded chair with a high back which keeps my head and neck out of the wind. Thick padding is comfy and really does help keep you warm. If I am roving on a river I take a Korum lightweight chair made from a mesh-type material that doesn’t absorb water. This ensures that if it does rain it will dry quickly, rather than becoming waterlogged, which inevitably results in a damp backside.
Towel
Wet hands will soon become cold hands, so a good-sized towel is essential. Put one in your bag, as it is very easy to take a dirty towel out at the end of a session and forget to put it back – this is an error I have made on more than one occasion!
Bream fishing tips | How to catch specimen bream.
Are you after your biggest ever bream this summer? If you are then here are six fantastic tips to get you going from former Drennan Cup champ Dai Gribble.
1) Do your homework
Bream are creatures of habit, perhaps more so than any other species. In my experience they regularly feed in specific parts of a lake at the same time every day.
The top of gravel bars and large areas of shallow water surrounded by deeper water are my favoured spots for finding big bream.
Unlike tench, I have found that bream prefer to avoid weedy areas, so this means that in weedy lakes any area where the weed is absent or thinner is well worth investigating.
You can start your search by looking at overviews of the lakes you’re planning to fish on Google Earth.
2) Watch for rolling fish
Big bream are generally nocturnal feeders and often have a tendency to roll on the surface, particularly just as the light falls at dusk.
If you observe bream rolling at the surface it is very likely that they will feed in that area, so any time spent finding rolling fish is well spent.
Sometimes bream roll with a classic ‘porpoise’-style roll and are unmistakeable, but on occasions they can barely break surface – with just the tips of their dorsal fins visible.
Investing some of your hard-earned cash in a good set of binoculars can really help you to spot such behaviour.
3) Talk to other anglers
Carp anglers can often be a good source of potential bream swims because on most waters they outnumber other anglers and inevitably catch bream.
In my experience they are generally happy to share information about where and when they have caught bream.
A swim where bream have been caught recently is well worth trying but bear in mind that most carp anglers don’t weigh bream so the size of bream might be smaller than claimed!
4) Fish into the wind
In the absence of any obvious clues as to where to fish, a good place to start is fishing into the wind as far out as you can comfortably cast and bait up.
The undertow created by the wind will take a trail of attraction from your baited area out into the lake, maximising the chances of bream being drawn into your swim.
By fishing as far out as is comfortable, you maximise your chances of drawing fish from as far away as possible.
5) Get a bed of bait out
Given their nocturnal nature, laying down a large bed of bait prior to dark is the best approach. If boats are allowed it makes life much simpler – if not, a Spomb is the easiest and most accurate method of baiting up.
A small number of big bream can eat a lot of bait and even on low-stocked waters I introduce plenty of bait 4kg of crumb or fishmeal based groundbait, 2kg of 2mm or 4mm pellets and a couple of tins of corn.
The aim is to ensure bream will stay in the area for a long time and I don’t want to risk feeding more bait over the top of feeding fish as that’s likely to spook the shoal.
6) Add hookbait samples
I introduce very few – perhaps 30 – hookbait samples, and try to spread them out. I want the bream to search for them among the masses of smaller items.
The size of my baiting area depends on the size of the feature I am fishing to, but typically I aim to cover about 8m wide by 2m deep. This allows me to fit three rods on to the baited area, even if it is very windy.
Introducing this amount of bait takes time, but effort equals reward. I like to bait up in late afternoon so the swim has time to settle down. The only disturbance will be casting my rods out, ideally about an hour before dark.
How to use a swing tip while fishing
It’s easy to get stuck in an angling rut. We tend to use the same tactics for the same fish, sometimes even the same approach for a number of different species.
Some of the deadly ‘old school’ methods have been neglected, a shame, as there’s some fantastic ‘forgotten fishing’ to be had – like swingtipping for bream.
Not only can this put together a big bag of bream, but it has its place in the specimen world for tricking big bream too.
For me, the advantage the swingtip has over the quivertip is that smaller, tentative bites are easier to spot and hit. You’ll often find that on pressured waters fish will sit over the feed and often only move just enough to tighten the line. Then, when they suspect something isn’t quite right, they drop the hookbait.
However, with a swingtip in place you can see this movement much more easily, and be ready…
Setting up
I find that the best way to set up while swingtipping is to sit at a slight angle from where you are casting to and where the rod rests are placed. This way you can see the tip with ease, and bites are more easily spotted.
I also tend to have the rod rests set at a height so that when the line is slack, the tip is under water by a few millimetres.
Then, when you can tighten up by just a fraction, the tip eye is just above the surface and allows you to retain the benefits of ultra-light resistance and still be able to spot drop-backs – the tip simply dips below the surface.
When you see any indication, even if it’s just a small tap of only half-an-inch, try following the bite with the rod.
Often this will trick the fish into thinking the bait is safe, and you’ll find that those tiny plucks turn into the classic sail-away bite.
However, at other times the bites are big sweeping takes that are impossible to miss!
Baiting up
Because my fishing is usually based around short after-work sessions, I don’t tend to fill the lake or river in with bait, which often tends to be the way with bream fishing.
I feel that by doing this, I’m missing out on the chance of a quick bite. To begin with, I feed little and often, and only when I am confident that there are fish coming in to feed will I increase the baiting to keep them there.
Bream are quite capable of hoovering up a swim and then disappearing in a short space of time, so keep them interested if you want to keep catching!
Famously, bream will feed on pretty much anything you throw their way but I tend to stick to a simple worm and caster, or a pellet and boilie approach.
There is so much pellet and boilie going into venues now that these baits will appear just as natural to fish as anything else.
The first thing I would look out for are rolling fish. If you’re fishing where they are, then you’ve got every chance of catching them.
It’s also worth remembering that bream don’t always follow the rule book. I’ve heard it said so many times that bream don’t like hemp, they don’t like weed, and they’re all at range. However, I’ve caught some of my best bream over hemp, in weedy areas and even from right in close.
The one thing I have noticed is that most of my better catches have been in deep water, be that a 6ft margin or 30 yards out in 12ft of water.
I also feel confident if there is a nice chop on the water, as I feel this breaks up the skyline for the fish and they feed with more confidence.
Simple rig
I use a running rig, as it doesn’t impact on the low resistance qualities this tactic has to offer.
I like to start off with a 6lb mainline, which I feel is more than enough to safely land the largest of bream.
It also gives you the benefit of being able to play the fish and feel the delightfully fast lunges the species can make – something I feel is lost when catching fish on overly strong tackle.
I use a small bomb or cage feeder which is attached to a link swivel threaded on to the line.
Next comes a rubber bead to absorb shock of the link bouncing against the swivel, which has a 4lb-6lb hooklink attached. Hook size depends on the bait used, but I tend to use a size 14-12.
My starting hooklength is 5ins-6ins long, but I will lengthen or shorten it until bites are forthcoming – it really can pay dividends if you make subtle changes until you find what is right for the day.
So, next time you’re out thinking that the fish are there but you can’t buy a bite, try something a bit different and go swingtipping!
Best way to catch a big bream
Gravel pit bream use patrol routes like underwater highways, every so often stopping to graze on beds of tiny invertebrates, driven by the need to find more food to fuel their huge bodies.
A tempting bed of particles carefully placed in the right place with an effective rig ready and waiting, will see you catching every time – says Dynamite Baits specialist Paul Elt.
By following his three-point plan, you too can catch bream you thought were the stuff of dreams…
Step one – Location
After spawning, bream will be looking to fatten up, but this in itself isn’t enough to guarantee success. First you need to locate the shoals.
Paul recommends talking to the locals on the water you’re targeting. Carp anglers in particular – who spend a lot of time on a water – are a great source of information as to where they have been catching bream or seen them rolling.
Once this homework is done you have to get down on the water, have a good look around and seek out signs of fish rolling, bubbling or kicking up silt.
The final stage involves a marker rod. This is one of the most essential elements of an angler’s armoury when fishing large gravel pits and lakes.
Bream follow various patrol routes, following the bottoms of bars and cruising the plateaux like highways. By finding these underwater features and baiting heavily around them, you’re looking to give yourself the best chance of stopping one of the shoals as they move through.
Gravel pits aren’t dug out flat. The diggers exploit the richest seams of gravel in certain areas of the pit. This means that the lakebed resembles a moonscape – holes and depressions, plateaux, bars and gullies – and by using a marker set-up, you can quickly locate these areas and put yourself in a position to take full advantage of them.
It also allows you to locate the ‘clean’ areas. Bream hate weed, and won’t feed over it.
Step two – Feed ’em
A double-figure bream will soon engulf a kilo of pellets, so you need to give them plenty to eat.
Paul’s preferred mix is a bag each of 4mm and 6mm Dynamite Halibut pellets, half a jar of hemp, two or three tins of corn, a bag of Dynamite CSL Spod Mix, and a few crushed Complex-T boilies with a good glug of CSL Liquid.
To kick off his swim, Paul puts in 20-25 Spombs, topping up after every few fish to ensure there is enough food to hold a large shoal.
Then he will place three baited rigs over the loosefeed, ensuring accuracy by measuring the cast with marker sticks.
Over a 10-yard feed area, he will place a rod in the centre and the other two on the edges, so all bases are covered.
Step three – The rig
Bream aren’t rig-shy, and they don’t tend to bolt like carp – so Paul uses a simple helicopter
set-up with a 6ins hooklink.
The heli rig is virtually tangle-free, perfect when casting reasonable distances. The short hooklink means the bream feel the feeder when they right themselves, and self-hook.
It’s really a scaled-down carp rig, with a 2oz open-ended feeder packed with Marine halibut and Frenzied Hemp groundbait, and a 10lb Supplex hooklink to a size 11 hook. Hookbait is either use a trimmed-down Complex-T boilie or a worm and sweetcorn cocktail.
Having Spombed this out, Paul recasts the feeder every 30-40 minutes to refresh the swim without too much disturbance.
How to catch more bream on a feeder
The basic principles of groundbait feeder fishing for bream were laid down decades ago, but numerous tweaks have made it even more effective on the modern-day match circuit.
Mark Pollard was a big fan of the groundbait feeder ‘back in the day’ and has rekindled his love for it recently. This week he reveals exactly how he uses it to keep the slabs coming.
Versatile rig
“If you set a Method or pellet feeder rig up there is very little you can change without having to start from scratch. But that isn’t the case with a groundbait feeder – it can be adjusted to stay in touch with the fish.
“I will always use a feeder bead with a quick-change swivel so I can change the feeder whenever I like. Start the day with a bigger feeder to get some bait down and then switch to a smaller one for topping up as you fish.
“A lot of commercial fishing these days requires regular casting but I will leave the feeder in for at least 15 minutes before winding in and re-chucking it.
“I start with an 18ins hooklength but will extend this by 6ins if I’m not getting bites. I’ll keep doing this until I find the fish. On the flip side, I will shorten it if I am getting line bites that tell me the fish are near the feeder.
“I go with a 3.8m Matrix Horizon S-Class rod that will reach the required distance with ease when combined with a Matrix Super Feeder 5500 reel. Mainline is 4lb with a 30g Matrix Dome feeder run on it to a 0.12mm Matrix Power Micron hooklength and a size 18 Matrix SW Feeder hook.”
Bait choice
“The groundbait mix is very important. The wrong blend will not appeal to bream and you’ll struggle to put together the big catches that could be possible.
“I use three different products mixed together. Dynamite Baits Silver X Roach is packed with attractants, Frenzied Hemp Black Match darkens it off and brown crumb binds it all together.
“Cocktail baits are brilliant for bream fishing and I always have worms, red maggots, casters and pinkies on my side tray.
“Any combination of these can work, and it is a matter of trial and error on the day to see which is the most effective.
“On some waters where a lot of pellets are fed I will try a 6mm banded pellet or maybe even a mini boilie.”
Explore the swim
“You might start catching really well and think you’ve cracked it, but then bites could suddenly stop, leading you to think the bream have gone.
“But it is highly likely they have backed off ever so slightly. Unclip and go a few metres further out and your tip will often go round on the very next chuck.
“Although you want to keep the bait fairly tight, don’t be afraid of covering an area perhaps a metre across, as you want to create a table of feed that a big shoal of bream can graze over.”
20 fishing tips that will help you think more like a fish
Martin bowler walks us through his top 20 summer fishing tips to help you get to know your quarry and think more like a fish to help you catch more when on the bank. Some of the tips I offer here are quite basic, while others require you to think outside the box and put yourself in the place of the fish...
Polarised sunglasses
Buy yourself a good quality pair of polarised glasses to assist you with fish location. In bright conditions grey is best, if it’s dull go for yellow, while the top all-round colour is brown. Finding your quarry is the most important aspect of angling, in fact more so than any tip, bait or rig.
If you want to grab yourself a pair of polarised sunglasses then check out our buyers guide here
Get up early
Either arrive just before daybreak or sit outside your bivvy at the best time to see any fish showing. Finding the location of your quarry is much easier at dawn when fish rolling or jumping, or bubbles breaking the surface, are likely to give their presence away.
Assess the water
You can only catch what’s in front of you. Specimen fish don’t live in every venue, so be clinical with your assessments. In my experience angling myths very rarely become reality. They are just that – myths!
Pick the battles you can win!
Assess the venue’s potential against angling pressure. If time is limited, one with fewer big fish but receiving less angling pressure can be the better option.
Know your species
Try to understand your quarry, because every species of fish behaves differently. For example, carp don’t like disturbance and so I leave my baits in place at daybreak. Tench, however, are much more likely to investigate a recast or a fresh bout of spombing, so I always carry out these tasks at dawn.
Look to the sea
Take a carp rod with you on your coastal holiday. Bream, bass, pollack and wrasse are all catchable on lures or bait for minimal additional outlay.
Hire a skipper
Book a charter boat to go sea fishing this summer but realise, as with any other form of fishing, that there are good, bad and indifferent anglers or, in this case, skippers. Use social media to investigate a boat’s potential, find a good one and it will be a great day out.
Use fishmeal
In summer, when the fish are still recovering from spawning, most species adore fishmeal and its high oil content. Be it pellet, boilie or groundbait you won’t go too far wrong with this food source.
Lure them out on the feeder
Give the Method feeder a go for barbel. It’s a great way of baiting the swim without the need for PVA. Combine this with a short hooklength when they’re feeding aggressively, or go longer if bites prove hard to come by.
Think about the weather
If it rains the the rivers start to rise or colour up in summer, go barbel fishing. such conditions are sure to trigger them into feeding
Take your time
In margins over 12ft deep try a slider float and you will catch more than on the lead. The most crucial aspect of this type of fishing is plumbing up, so take your time to guarantee the hookbait is just kissing the bottom.
Give your groundbait a boost
When preparing groundbait, add any liquids to water used to dampen it, not directly on to the dry mix. This will guarantee even distribution.
Overcome suspicious fish
Wary barbel will look out for your hook when feeding and ignore the attached bait if they spot it. To overcome this in clear water I fish half a boilie on a short hair. The flat side falls over the metalwork like a cup, concealing it from view.
Don't leave it to luck
For a big bag of tench, rake the swim the night before fishing, and prebait. Luck alone is never to be trusted, but effort will pay off.
Visit your local tackle shop
Slightly better deals might be available on the Internet, but who will supply your fresh bait? Nobody knows the local waters better than your local tackle dealer, so give him your custom.
Move around
For summer chub, roaming the river with a gallon of maggots and a trotting set-up takes some beating. Find a shoal and then feed on a ‘little and often’ basis until you see their white mouths working in overdrive. The catching part is very simple by comparison.
Don't forget the roach
River roach populations are on their way back to healthy levels, and weir pools are the place to look for them in summer, when there is extra oxygen in the water. This is especially true at the start of the season.
Go mini
Bread, corn and caster all have their place in roach fishing, but don’t ignore mini boilies and pellets too, even on the rivers. They’re small fish-proof, and roach adore them.
Don't sit still
Don’t just sit there when things are quiet, as you can almost always win a bite. For example, sometimes carp aren’t interested in feeding on the bottom, so why not try a zig rig (above)or a floater? It always pays to have a back-up plan, be it a tactical change or baiting up another spot.
Try something new this summer
From a trout in a reservoir to a mullet in an estuary, most options are open to everyone and relatively cheap to put into action. We are very fortunate to live in a country packed full of angling opportunities, so do make the most of them.