Best bream of year goes 17lb 2oz

Prebaiting paid off for Craig Woolhouse when he made an huge haul of bream topped by the best specimen of 2016 so far.

At 17lb 2oz, not only is it a lake record, but it also smashes the 35-year-old’s personal best.

He visited his targeted venue in his home county of Leicestershire the day before he began fishing and prebaited a spot at 98 yards with two tins of corn and two kilos of pellets to get the bream grubbing around on the lakebed.

His tactics paid dividends as hair-rigged hookbaits saw him land an impressive string of slabs to back up his new pb. They included bream weighing 14lb 12oz, 11lb 10oz, 11lb 9oz, 11lb 4oz, 10lb 12oz and 10lb 8oz.

“I’ve had some massive hits of big bream in the past but to catch a lake record and beat my personal best of 14lb 8oz twice in the same session makes this pretty special,” Craig told Angling Times.

“The biggest fish fell to a fake grain and a real piece of corn that was popped up about an inch of the bottom.”

During his three-night session Craig fed his way through 15 kilos of pellets, eight pints of maggots and eight cans of corn.