PB 16lb 10oz bream from low-stock pit
LEE MCMANUS ended a frustrating campaign - that had resulted in just two bites in over 720 hours of fishing - with this impressive 16lb 10oz personal best bream.
Measuring a mile in length and half a mile wide, Swithland Reservoir in Leicestershire is a notoriously hard water at the best of times - but has proven to be even tougher this year due to vast weed beds that all but choked the venue during the warmer months.
Even though the majority of it has now died away, Lee had to call upon all of the knowledge he’s gained over the last 17-years on the water to get the better of its resident bream.
After suspecting that the fish would be out in the middle of the lake and out of casting distance, the specialist from Birstall, Leicester, used a bait boat to get his simple leger rig and a couple of handfuls of hemp, corn and casters to a spot at 190 yards.
And it was these tactics that resulted in only his second bite in 30 sessions and beat his long-standing personal best of 13 years.
“I’ve been fishing this water since 1995 and it’s always been hard. But this year has been the toughest of all because the weed has been a nightmare. I was beginning to think that I was going to have to wait until next year to get another crack at the big ones,” said Lee.
“I persevered, though, as the bream will always continue to feed up until the water temperatures really begin to plummet.
“Not only was it a great feeling to get a bite after so many nights sat behind silent alarms, but to beat my old pb by 1oz made it all worthwhile.”
16lb 11oz bream for low-stock pit
A relentless pre-baiting campaign finally paid off for Dave Harman this week when he slipped his net under this fine 16lb 11oz bream from a rock-hard Lea Valley pit.
The former Drennan Cup winner took the fish alongside six other double-figure specimens to 13lb 8oz during a two-night trip to Langridge Lake on the Essex and Herts border.
The ‘classic’ bream bait of a stack of sweetcorn - comprising a mixture of real and artificial grains - did the business for the 47-year-old all-rounder from Addlestone in Surrey, who comfortably beat his old best for the species of 15lb with the capture.
It was just reward for a summer spent battling against chronic floating weed problems at the 180-acre windswept venue, as he explained.
“Before every session I’ve been spending upwards of an hour clearing the huge banks of weed, which extend for about 70yards in front of the swim. If I didn’t bother, I’d be waking up in the morning with a car-sized ball of the stuff attached to the lines!” said Dave.
“Then, whenever I’ve hooked a fish, I’ve had to keep the rod high and walk to the back of the swim, without giving any line.”
To keep the bites coming, Dave has been priming his spots regularly with a big hit of particles, introducing 30kg of sweetcorn, hemp and wheat every week since July. Bites have been few and far between for most of the campaign, although that all changed on his latest visit, when the bream uncharacteristically chose to feed during daylight hours.
“Nearly all my fish over the past month have come at between 6am and 2pm, which is really weird because in the past it’s always been night-time action on there. I got the take from the big one at quarter to seven in the morning, and to begin with when I looked in the net I thought it was another 12 or 13lb’er. It was only when I lifted it out of the net that I saw how thick across the back it was,” Dave added.
His successful rig was made from 15lb ESP Strip Teaze coated braid, coupled with a size 8 hook and a 4oz lead on a safety clip.
17lb 4oz bream caught on float gear
Is this a picture of the biggest bream ever landed on a float fishing set-up?
That’s the question being asked this week after Grant Dunn slipped his net under a massive 17lb 4oz specimen from a crystal-clear gravel pit in Derbyshire.
It’s only the second bream that he has ever caught from the ultra-tough stillwater in more than 20 years of targeting it, and fell to a lobworm hookbait presented under a leger float a few rod lengths out over a bed of pellets and chopped worm.
Grant, who lives in Swadlincote, banked the new personal best on his only bite of the session, and beat it with the help of 6lb mainline tied straight through to a size 6 hook. The capture caps a successful spell for the all-rounder, who landed a slightly smaller bream weighing 16lb from the same venue just a few weeks ago.
“I’ve fished this venue on and off for two decades or more and, until recently, I’d only really caught a few big carp, eels and other bits and pieces. I’ve certainly suffered more blank sessions than I care to remember, so you can imagine how much this bream means to me,” Grant told Angling Times.
“The fish in the pit don’t see much in the way of boilies and other high-protein baits, so I decided to go back to basics and use a leger float with a light bomb attached, then fed worms and maggots over the top.”
“It seemed to really did the trick, so now that I’ve found the winning method I’m going to persevere with it. A few weeks ago when I landed the ‘sixteen’ I honestly thought that I’d never catch a bigger bream, but now that I’ve upped my pb to 17lb 4oz, it’s not ridiculous to start thinking that next time I could up that figure again by another couple of pounds. I’m sure fish of that stamp are in the pit,” he added.
Long range tactics produce 14lb 10oz bream
Long range feeder tactics produced a brace of mid-double figure bream for Steve Sutton, the best of which weighed 14lb 10oz.
Having earmarked a tough north west reservoir, the Wigan-based angler peppered an area around a marker float 120 yards out with a staggering 150 balls of groundbait, which consisted of a mix of 50 per cent Van Den Eynde Gold Pro Bream and 50 per cent brown crumb. This was laced with dead maggots, hemp and corn, and was catapulted to a clear gravel patch in around 16ft of water by the 33-year-old.
“All of my six bream came in darkness, and this also included a fish of 13lb,” he said. “I fished two rods on semi-fixed bolt rigs, with one baited with three worms and the other a maggot clip packed with red maggots.”
He tied his winning rigs with 6lb hooklinks and size 14 Drennan Super Specialist barbel hooks.
Sanders bags Bury Hill bream win
Daiwa Dorking captain Steve Sanders took time out from his team commitments to fish the latest open event at Surrey’s Bury Hill Fisheries and managed to take victory with 101lb of bream.
After drawing peg 11, the KC Angling co-owner decided to fish an expander pellet over a bed of micros on the long pole line and netted slabs to 5lb and a solitary 4lb tench.
Runner up Terry Harrison rotated between the groundbait feeder and pole for his 90lb haul of bream.
15lb bream caught from low-stock venue
Targeting a 20-acre stillwater holding only a handful of bream could seem a daunting prospect to many anglers, but not Dave Smith, who was rewarded for rising to the challenge when he slipped his net under this 15lb fish.
The Gloucester-based rod made the journey to Bluebell Lakes in Northamptonshire specifically to target the big slabs in Mallard Lake, and landed the new personal best after it took his snowman rig comprising of a 10mm Dynamite Baits Robin Red bottom bait and an 8mm banana pop up.
Several carp to 20lb also graced his net during the trip, and Dave told Angling Times: “There are fewer than 10 bream in the water but I’ve landed four doubles from it in the last couple of years.
Bream may not have the kudos of big carp but, for me at least, this was better than a landing 40lb mirror or common!”
Trio of slabs weigh over 35lb
Ben Ward continued his assault on the bream stocks at a tough Hertfordshire stillwater with the capture of a trio of big fish weighing more than 35lb in total.
Targeting the venue for a four-day session, the all-rounder from Leighton Buzzard took slabs weighing 15lb 4oz, 11lb 14oz and 9lb 15oz on critically-balanced corn hookbaits on lead clip set-ups over the top.
“It was a really enjoyable trip and I even got the chance to do a bit of coaching with a bloke who wanted to learn more about bream fishing,” said Ben.”
Pop-up boilie produces 17lb 2oz bream
Gary Knowles proved how important confidence is when targeting big bream by smashing his personal best for the second time in a fortnight with this huge 17lb 2oz specimen.
After being buoyed by the capture of a 15lb 12oz fish from a rock-hard Cheshire mere a little over a week ago, the specialist from Warrington returned to the venue more in hope than expectation.
In order to combat the dense weed blanketing the 80-acre stillwater, 48-year-old Gary used carefully positioned marker buoys as a target to deposit a bed of boilies, particles, pellets and corn over two clear areas.
He then presented a simple leger rig over the top, baited with a 10mm pineapple pop-up, and received the all-important take just a few hours after casting out.
“Quite frankly I could have hung up my rods a happy bream angler having landing the ‘fifteen’ the week before, so to then top it with a fish of this magnitude was frankly mind-blowing,” Gary told Angling Times.
“I really didn’t expect to get another fish this season, but I was so confident knowing my bait and rigs worked that I just had to give it another go. It just goes to show how important confidence is when targeting tough venues like this one.”
Gary used both a braided mainline and hooklength that were attached to rigs featuring 3.5oz inline leads and size 10 Korum X-Pert specimen hooks.
18lb 3oz day-ticket bream caught
This huge 18lb 3oz bream was caught by Joel Mcintyre during a 36 hour session targeting the carp in Mallard Lake on the Northamptonshire Bluebell complex.
The 29-year-old Nottinghamshire-based rod baited a silt patch at 60yds with half a kilo of boilies and offered a glugged 14mm Innovate 365 hookbait over the top in conjunction with a PVA bag of pellets and crushed boilies.
He said: “It was a twitchy take and although I could tell it was a bream from the off I was stunned when I saw the size of it.”
Joel’s rig consisted of a size 10 hook and a 10ins 15lb fluorocarbon hooklink.
Northern bream haul topped by 18lb specimen
It’s one of the most impressive catches of bream ever, four fish for 61lb including an 18lb 9oz
monster, and what’s more it came from a ‘rock hard’ Lancashire Stillwater.
Specimen hunter Steve Sutton was shocked to bank others of 16lb 6oz, 14lb and 12lb 1oz during a memorable overnight session on the water, which has a history of odd double figure bream but nothing in the league of an 18lb fish.
His lump is the latest in a string of over-sized bream to be reported this spring, including a new British record 23lb fish landed in April from Cambridgeshire’s Ferry Lagoon for Scot Crook, who also took one at 18lb 8oz.
Wigan-based Steve set up to fish two rods over the same spot, one being a Method feeder and the other a standard cage feeder with a long hooklength, but it was the Method which accounted for all four bream. The 32-year-old earmarked a clear spot 100 yards out in 14ft of water, which he set about baiting with a bombardment 50 balls of groundbait via a catapult and a marker float as his target.
“This venue has a few big bream in and a few doubles do get caught, I’ve heard rumours of a 16lb fish before. I’ve been experimenting with putting various amounts of bait in recently but this time I decided to put more in and fish further out. I got there at 6pm but the action didn’t kick off until 12am when I had a screamer and the 14lb fish. Half an hour later I was in again and when I brought the fish out of the water I was shocked at the size of it, it got even better as I weighed it, it was like winning the lottery!
“The fish were like clockwork as another half an hour later I had the 12lb fish, then an hour passed before the 16lb 6oz bream came along. I’d have been happy with any one of these fish as they all beat my previous biggest which was 10lb. It didn’t sink in for two days!” he said.
Steve fished a semi-fixed Method Feeder with 8lb mainline and a 3is hook link of 6lb line. He left his hookbait, consisting of five red maggots on a size 14 Super Specialist hook, out of the feeder, and used a 50:50 mix of red crumb and a red Gold Pro bream groundbait.
Double figure bream haul on corn
Many anglers use pellets, boilies or maggots to target big bream by design, but not Lincolnshire-based specialist John Shucksmith, who put his faith in sweetcorn to compile a great catch of five-double bream, topped by this 15lb 2oz specimen.
The experienced all-rounder, from Bassingham, set his sights on a local gravel pit, where he cast a Method feeder to a clear area 70yds from his own bank.
As well as the big one, John banked fish weighing 12lb 10oz, 12lb 8oz, 12lb 2oz and 10lb 2oz. All of his fish were beaten with the help of 10lb mainline and a short braided hooklink.
Giant bream on the feeder
Experienced all-rounder Paul Garner was finally rewarded for persevering at a tough gravel pit complex with this sensational 16lb 6oz bream, one of the largest examples of the species landed this season.
The impressive fish was taken towards the end of a two-night session at the Berkshire venue, which the Redditch-based angler has been targeting for the past three years, and beats his old best of 14lb 2oz set at the same complex last May.
After struggling in previous trips, Paul thought he was in for another frustrating time after failing to entice a bite for most of his stay. However, his fortunes changed in dramatic fashion after a tense hour of twitches and line-bites eventually culminated in the all-important bite.
Paul told AT: "Most of my time on the complex has been spent on the adjacent lake, which holds a good head of very big bream that are notoriously difficult to catch. On this trip though I decided to fish the neighbouring lake as my first choice venue has been exceptionally slow for several weeks. The lake I was fishing has perhaps an even smaller head of bream, but seems to respond better when the conditions are poor."
Rather than adopt standard bream tactics and launch a huge barrage of bait into the lake, Paul decided to adopt a different approach. "The bream in these lakes are often found in small groups, and if you introduce too much bait you can ruin your chances of getting a bite. With the water still being quite cold I used a small Nash spod to introduce just two pints of Scopex Squid flavoured maggots spread over the gravel and then used a medium sized block-end feeder to top up the swim from time to time.”
Paul was targeting a narrow seam of gravel surrounded by thick silt 30yds out into the lake when he received a steady lift on the bobbin followed by line slowly being taken from his reel.
"The fight was one of the best I have ever had from a bream. The fish held deep and took line before kiting to the left and I had to give it the rod butt to stop the fish from snagging me,” he added.
Paul's tackle consisted of an 11ft Nash Peg One Transformer Carp Rod, Shimano Baitrunner reel loaded with 10lb Nash Bullet line. His rig comprised a 1.5oz inline block-end feeder and 8ins of 10lb fluorocarbon to a size 14 forged hook baited with four maggots.
"Complicated rigs are not required for big bream - location and inducing the bream to feed are the most difficult aspects of catching them. I am convinced that the complex holds bigger bream than this and I will be continuing my campaign over the next few weeks," Paul concluded.
Unfancied swim produces 14lb 5oz bream
A decision to fish an unfancied swim paid off for big fish expert Mick Dinnigan when he banked this 14lb 15oz bream during a two day session at an East Midlands stillwater.
The Wickersley Angling tackle shop employee decided to use a Method feeder with dampened pellets and placed a trio of rubber casters on the hook.
It was a tactical decision that worked wonders, with the big slab and six others to 12lb 14oz falling for the approach.
Although the session went to plan, Mick admits the peg he targeted was one he would have normally avoided.
“My friend went to fish the venue and called me to ask whether he could borrow my bivvy as he had forgotten to take his with him. When he had finished I decided to give the spot a try myself and although I didn’t fancy it I am glad I stayed put as the runs just kept coming,” said Mick, who used an 8lb hooklink to a size 12 hook.
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.
Method feeder approach results in double figure bream
Stuart Jessop returned to a venue that he hadn’t fished for five years and smashed his bream personal best with this impressive 14lb 10oz specimen.
His only bite of a session at a local Lincolnshire stillwater came after he laid a bed of pellets at 60 yards range and then put his faith in a Method feeder approach.
Scolded pellets around the feeder and then the same bait hair-rigged on a size 10 hook was the winning combination or Stuart, who’s personal best for the species previously stood at 12lb 7oz.
“Carp anglers have started fishing this venue for the last few years and the high-protein bait that’s been going in has really seen the bream start to pile on weight,” said Stuart.
Bream pb broken twice in one session
Craig Woolhouse broke his bream personal best twice in one session after landing six double-figure fish, topped by this 14lb 6oz specimen.
Targeting a local gravel pit in Leicestershire, he presented four red maggots on a helicopter feeder set-up and kept the bream rooting about in his swim by lacing it with over 50 balls of groundbait, six pints of maggots and three tins of sweetcorn during his highly-productive 48-hour session.
Craig’s other ‘doubles’ scaled 10lb 8oz, 10lb 15oz (twice), 11lb 10oz and 13lb 2oz. he also landed a smaller fish of 9lb 12oz.
“My personal best used to stand at 12lb 10oz, so when I banked the ‘thirteen’ I thought ‘Right, let’s see if I can catch a ‘fourteen’ by the end of the year. I couldn’t believe it when I achieved my goal the very next day!” said Craig.
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.”
Club boosts silvers stocks at trio of waters
The committee of a popular angling club have responded to requests from members to introduce more silverfish by spreading 1,000 bream between a trio of venues.
West Yorkshire’s Todmodern AC control a variety of waters and officials have revealed that Cliviger Top Pond and Portsmouth Reservoir have welcomed 400 new fish each while Ramsden Wood has taken stock of 200 skimmers.
For more details on the club visit www.todangling.org
Slabs dominate at top commercial
A commercial complex has shocked visitors by producing a raft of specimen bream in recent weeks.
The northern venue has been in great form all winter, with roach, carp and F1s providing plenty of action but these fish have been forced to play second fiddle since the mild weather arrived, with slabs up to 9lb dominating match and pleasure catches.
“We always knew these fish were here but they’d never shown in numbers but now they are coming out every day. In a recent match, one angler had three bream for over 20lb and won the event!” explained one local fisherman.
For more details on the day ticket fishery and the tactics required to land a potential personal best bream, pick up a copy of next week’s Angling Times, on the shelves from Tuesday March 6.
Hot silverfish action at Gold Valley
The silverfish shoals in Gold Valley Lakes appear to be oblivious to the cold snap with a number of big roach and skimmer bags being taken in the past few days.
A simple pole and maggot attack helped matchangler.com rod Dave Johnson tempt 30lb 10oz of redfins during the midweek open at the Hampshire complex, with second place Will Raison netting 20lb 15oz.
Just days later sport got even better with Daiwa Dorking’s Mark Goddard landing the spoils thanks to a 35lb haul of roach, perch and bream.
