Bream record broken

The British bream record has been beaten following the capture of a fish weighing in at a colossal 23lb.

It was banked from the rock-hard Cambridgeshire stillwater Ferry Lagoon by a carp angler, and is the same fish which was caught at 22lb 9oz in September 2009 by another carper, Mark McKenna, and also by James Rust at 19lb 10oz back in march 2005.

On its latest visit to the bank, the heavyweight specimen was taken with another huge bream weighing 18lb 8oz, enabling the lucky captor to lay claim to landing the biggest brace of the species in history, even though he wasn’t targeting them at the time.

The two fish are thought to be virtually the only bream in the 200-acre venue, which is located near Holywell in Cambridgeshire and is part of the complex of gravel pits that makes up the Fen Drayton Lakes RSPB reserve.

Most members of the syndicate which operates on Ferry Lagoon target its low stock of very large carp, and indeed the last three captures of record-busting bream have been taken by carp anglers.
However, one man who has been targeting the venue’s bream by design over the past few seasons is well-known all-rounder and former Drennan Cup winner Tony Gibson.

He told Angling Times about the challenges facing specimen anglers on the vast stillwater : “I’ve fished some tough venues over the years, but Ferry is arguably the toughest of the lot – this is my fifth season on there and I have yet to land a bream, just the odd fish of other species.”

“You can only access about half of the lake from the bank, and the fish don’t show themselves at all. Then there is the low number of fish in the place – I wouldn’t be surprised if the chap who caught the brace last week has in fact landed most, if not all, of the bream in there.

“There have been times when I’ve sat there thinking ‘Am I fishing for ghosts?’ At least this capture proves that the fish are still alive and well, and I’m planning to start back on Ferry in a few months. I’ve got unfinished business on there.”