16lb 12oz fish tops run of huge bream

Paul Garner is just one of many anglers who have this week proved why you should be out there fishing for big bream when he banked this 16lb 12oz personal best.

His first ever trip to a tough gravel pit provided the Peg One consultant and Angling Times columnist with his dream start to his bream fishing campaign after preparing his swim with 40 balls of groundbait laced with pellets and boilies.

The fish, that beats his previous personal best by 7oz, was fooled with a grain of imitation corn that was fished in conjunction with a size 10 hook, a 10lb mono hooklink,  a 2oz inline lead and cast over the top of a patch of silt that was situated 130 feet from the bank of the midlands venue.

“I’ve had a ticket to fish this lake for about four years, but never got the chance to fish it,” said Paul.

“So to see the frame of this incredible fish come over the near shelf and into the light of the head torch in the crystal clear water really was an awesome sight.”

“I leave my imitation corn sitting permanently sitting in a little tub filled with Nash tangleberry  flavouring and this is what I had the fish on. I’ve had so much success on ‘boosted hookbaits and really is something that more anglers should give a try.”

A heavy bombardment of groundbait also did the trick for Ryan Hayden when he coaxed this 13lb 2oz specimen over the frame of his landing net.

The bream falls just 1oz short of his current personal best and provided the Northhants-based specialist with the only bite of a session at a low stocked venue after he put his faith in a Method feeder with a three-inch hooklink that was finished with a critically balanced grain of buoyant imitation corn.

“It was really windy during my session  so I used a length of heavy tubing and back leads to keep everything pinned down to the deck,” said the Drennan employee.

“When targeting big fish like this you don’t want anything that might spook them when they’re grazing over your baited area.

Leicestershire’s Lee Snow followed up the recent capture of a 15lb 9oz bream from a 30-acre local gravel pit when he hit the jackpot once again with a 13lb 2oz fish.

He proved why this species are synonymous with large amounts of bait when he introduced eight kilos of dead red maggots, hemp, pellets, boilies and corn.

It was an imitation grain of corn that also did the business for Lee who presented his bait at 80 yards.

“I started my campaign early this year and it’s really paid off as this is my fifth double so far and its only April,” he said.

Last but certainly not least is Callum Lee who also brought this season’s tally of double figure bream to five when he fished a northern day-ticket water to bank a brace weighing 10lb 4oz and 10lb 1oz.

Hair-rigged bloodworm pellets fished in conjunction with a free-running groundbait feeder was the winning combination for Callum, who beat both fish with 6lb main line and a 4lb hooklink.

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