A single bite brings best bream ever

Jamie Cartwright only had one bite during his latest session on a midlands stillwater - but he wasn’t complaining as it resulted in this new personal best bream of 15lb 6oz.

The 36-year-old Northampton Specimen Group member had upped his pb with a fish of 12lb 8oz a few weeks earlier, but went one better on his latest session.

Targeting a clear channel in the weed at around 60yds-70yds range on the 25-acre lake, he offered three hookbaits consisting of a stack of artificial corn over a bed of corn, pellets, mixed particles, dead maggots and whole and crushed 10mm CC Moore Odyssey XXX boilies.

“I use four pieces of fake corn, two pop-up and two sinking, so that the rig is nicely balanced,” Jamie told Angling Times. “At the start of the session I put out 2.5kg of bait and kept the spot topped up. I must have got through about 10kg over the duration of the trip.

“On the second morning, just before it got light, I received a small drop back bite. It was a typical slow and ponderous big bream fight but I didn’t see exactly how big it was until it came up under the rod tip.

“I’ve had several fish around the 10lb-11lb-mark from the venue this year but things have really gone up a gear in recent weeks. The lake has a decent head of bream which average double figures. It has done a fish over 18lb in the past so hopefully I’ll be able to up my pb again soon,” he added.

Jamie mounted his hookbaits on scaled-down carp rigs comprising size 10 ESP Curve Shanx hooks and 15lb Korda N-Trap hooklinks.