bream spod mix

[lutra]

Anderoo how many times must you be told? you know absolutely nothing about big bream fishing so stop posting about it and above all stop catching them................

But I don't believe this thread was ever about catching a big bream from a water that only holds a few big bream or what you can get away with when fishing places like that.

 

It don't matter how big the bream you wingham heads post up are, spoding ground bait isn't good practise when general bream fishing if there could be any movement in the water.

 

ps. Nice one nappyboy.

[Anderoo]

Lutra - yes, you are probably right. My first post on this topic wasn't suggesting it was the way to go, just that IF you did want to bait up with groundbait accurately beyond catapult/throwing range, you CAN do it with a spod. It wasn't even specific to bream. It's just a method of bait delivery that some people may not have considered, and that may work for their particular circumstances.

 

(By the way, it is very effective for tench - all my big hits of tench have come over small amounts of spodded groundbait in shallow (4-6ft) water.)

 

(I realise also the size of the Wingham bream are irrelevant. If there are only big fish to be caught, you can only catch a big fish.)

 

Last summer I did a fair amount of experimenting with baiting at a local gravel pit where there are some fairly easy shoal bream of about 4-7lb. The spodded groundbait worked extremely well there too, but because of the amount of fish I needed a lot more food items in the mix to hold them. It was fairly similar to Wingham in that I was fishing to specific features and needed to be accurate. I found that the bream stayed longer in the swim when the food items were delivered in groundbait than if they were spodded out on their own. Almost as good was a pellet-based particle mix softened with water and flavoured with a sweet liquid additive, but on this lake at least, the groundbait kept them there longer.

 

Thanks for the 'nice one'

 

Vagabond - there is some guesswork/gut feeling involved, but over the past few years I've been trying to log details of undertow in different swims in different conditions (gathered from fishing them in different conditions), and it does seem to be a lot more predicatable than I thought. I try to pick swims that have little or no tow, so if I get it wrong and the bait does end up all over the place, I doubt I'd have caught a bream anyway. The swim this one came from has no tow at all in a SW but severe tow in a NE. So I only fish it when the conditions suit.

 

Aside from past experience of the swims, stuff on the surface gives a rough idea of what's going on. Leaves/willow seed/etc. (depending on time of year) will always be either moving with the wind (surface drift), static (no water movement despite the wind - no, I can't explain it either!), or moving against/across the wind (undertow). Not very scientific, but I think it gives you enough info to decide what to do. If there are no leaves etc. to watch, an empty spod will do the same thing.

 

As I said, if I thought there was severe water movement, as there often is on these big pits, I wouldn't fish the swim, and so the worries about what and how to bait go away. I aim to mix the groundbait so that it has completely broken up a couple of feet off the bottom, so it eventually settles as a fine coating. Even if some does never settle, I'm sure that the majority does, and the little other items in the groundbait all do.

 

The other thing I like about groundbait is that once fish come in and start nosing around and feeding, it clouds the water. I think that can only help, especially if the water is clear and you've put out a nice dark mix.

 

But I am not suggesting it is the 'best way' or that it always works.

Edited August 30, 2011 by Anderoo

[Steve Walker]

Well done, a huge lump!

[Anderoo]

PS it was while experimenting with smaller gravel pit bream that I finally got over my fake baits for bream hang-up. When the bream were feeding well over the baited area, it didn't seem to matter what was on the hair, fake corn being as effective as anything else. So because of nuisance species and the amount of time the bait may be sitting out in the lake, fake baits became the top choice. This fish also took a single piece of fake corn.

 

(Cheers Steve!)

[Dick Dastardly]

But I don't believe this thread was ever about catching a big bream from a water that only holds a few big bream or what you can get away with when fishing places like that.

 

It don't matter how big the bream you wingham heads post up are, spoding ground bait isn't good practise when general bream fishing if there could be any movement in the water.

 

ps. Nice one nappyboy.

 

I was really just making light of a subject where two people whose opinions I respect had some what clashed Brian!

 

For what its worth I to rate spodding as a pretty poor method of introducing feed when bream fishing (regardless of size of fish or type of venue) but as "Nappyboy" (I like that it may stick ) said unfortunately sometimes its the only option available.

[Dales]

"Nappyboy" (I like that it may stick )

 

That would be unfortunate but very funny

[Vagabond]

there is some guesswork/gut feeling involved, but over the past few years I've been trying to log details of undertow in different swims in different conditions (gathered from fishing them in different conditions), and it does seem to be a lot more predicatable than I thought.

 

Ah, so - have you considered float-fishing at depth with a slider float? - would give you something to do in daylight, when the bream are not feeding, and you are not sleeping or spodding out

 

Could yield a lot of information on undertow at depth, and even a nice perch or two

[tiddlertamer]

Hello all. I've had my nappy changed (as Tigger so nicely put it ) and calmed down, apologies for any insults on my part.

 

Anyway.

 

John is right, somewhere in the Big Bream topic I talk about a home-made 'sinking spod' that comes in backwards, that is balanced so it sinks very slowly through the surface layers, the contents shaken out, and retrieved. Kind of like a big feeder, but one that doesn't deposit a pile of bait on the bottom, but spreads it out so once it's settled you get that nice fine coating.

 

I did make one and it did work. However, I came to the conclusion that it didn't actually have any benefit over a normal spod, so long as you take any surface drift and/or tow into account when mixing the groundbait/deciding what bait items to use. (Rich was right on that one.) I've tested both and settled on the normal spod. The other benefit the normal spod has is that it stays on the surface and doesn't cut through the water column, which in some circumstances might be more disruptive to fish.

 

On a water where you want to get your bait to a specific spot and which does not allow the use of boats or baitboats, and where you want to get a decent bed of bait out relatively quickly, I still think a spod is the best option.

 

I realise that the following only proves that spodding little balls of groundbait doens't not work (if you follow), but at the weekend I spent almost 2 hours doing just that (between 11am and 1pm) and at 8.45pm this hit the spreader block:

 

 

 

17.06 and a new PB.

 

I wouldn't dismiss it without trying it.

 

Tip-top fish.

 

What a fantastic way to highlight your return to the Anglers Net forum.

 

Ignore nappygate.

 

Your advice is always appreciated and you have shown, well and truly, that you can catch specimen bream.

[Dick Dastardly]

Tip-top fish.

 

What a fantastic way to highlight your return to the Anglers Net forum.

 

Ignore nappygate.

 

Your advice is always appreciated and you have shown, well and truly, that you can catch specimen bream.

 

 

Dont go encouraging him TT! He will be telling us he can catch chub next!

 

"Nappygate" Superb!

[Anderoo]

Ah, so - have you considered float-fishing at depth with a slider float? - would give you something to do in daylight, when the bream are not feeding, and you are not sleeping or spodding out

 

Could yield a lot of information on undertow at depth, and even a nice perch or two

 

I have in the past, and you are right - it's about the best way to see what the drift/tow is doing in a new swim, or an old swim in new conditions.

 

However - and this is only my personal opinion - I think that to have the best chance of a bream you should ignore everything else and be really single minded. Fishing for the other species creates compromises, I think.

 

(I do fish for the perch at other times )

 

EDIT: the above applies to all species BTW not just bream. It might just be me, but I can't properly fish for two species at the same time, I have to pick one and go all-out for it. It's just what I enjoy doing.

 

EDIT #2: except when I'm trotting!

Edited August 31, 2011 by Anderoo