Tench and bream bests broken in same session

A self-confessed river fishing fanatic who only began targeting tench and bream for the first time this season was given double reason to celebrate this week after he smashed his personal bests for both species.

For the last 20 years Steve Fenton has focussed on catching specimen barbel and chub from his local River Lea, but he’s admitted to becoming ‘addicted to the challenge of stillwater fishing’ after banking bream to 13lb 8oz and a 10lb 8oz tench.

The 59-year-old, from Hertford, used simple inline maggot feeders presented over a bed of loosefeed to catch 14 bream, eight of which were into double figures, and his impressive tench, during two short day sessions.

“Many anglers are of the opinion that big bream are a boring fish that just doesn’t fight very hard, but I’ve loved every minute of targeting them since I decided to give stillwater fishing a proper go a few months ago,” said Steve.