Winter Bream (seriously big)

[Dick Dastardly]

I'd pretty much echo that.

 

Yes, bait is of course relevant to a degree but not nearly so much as the two factors that Andrew mentions. I reckon that choosing a bait that avoids eels is much more important. Firstly if an eel has eaten it a bream can't. Secondly catching an eel can scare the bream off.

 

Baiting up and topping up the feed are both something that can scare the bream at Wingham. Yet getting the feeding right can make a huge difference. Alex is a master of this.

 

 

Yes I very much agree with both Steve and Anderoos points. I also feel that every year that passes the numbers of bream drop and so these points have become increasingly important.

 

Sorry we are allowing Wingham bream to take over a bream thread again!

[Dick Dastardly]

Interestingly Budgie, what made me look at the carp boys, is they so often catch some of the biggest bream by accident. So, it's worth looking at what they do and how it can be adapted to bream, tench and any other quarry...

 

I really think that its to easy to be misled into thinking that just because carp anglers are catching big bream then they have sussed the method!From what I have seen its simply a numbers thing! If everyone's carp fishing then the only fish that will come out will be to carp tactics! Simple numbers.

 

Now taking things from another branch of angling to solve specific problems is a different matter.This (providing you understand the thing in question correctly) is good angling and common sense.

 

I really dont think either rigs or baits have a fraction of the importance that location does (after all truly big bream are very few in numbers on ANY water). I would be interested in how you go about locating them.

 

EDIT: You can tell its getting closer to March!

Edited February 11, 2012 by BUDGIE

[azrael]

azrael,

 

I said that 20 times before I realized it was no longer funny, even tounge in cheek to Brits. It is not only NOT wanted, it is against the law in some instances. You want to eat what you catch I guess you can come to the US and fish with me. They already know we can eat caught fish and don't really care. (that's from 4,000 miles away and worth what you are paying - nothing).

 

thank you for the correction phone

 

i only wish to share the best in cooking with everyone as english food is so bad they could do with the assistance to make things better

 

i will need to reconsider what i post as they have not been understood very well and i think most peoples have had the dirty end of the stick and think i eat all the fishes i catch when i buy my fish maybe not the gudgeons but they get used as bait all the time it does get very confusing about what you can and cant do there is plenty of the multi sdtandards that seem to go but i am learning very well

 

its wrong to take home the eels or pikes that have swallowed the hooks not saying happens often but it is hard with the eels when yuou are not expecting to be catching them and so are damaged and might die and will make the water go bad if rotting in it but lots of anglers damage the fishs face and pull bits off by fishing with the wrong tackle and bash them on the ground with out mates and do very bad job at tacking the hooks out and do this to the same fish over and over and over and then some more overs until the fish has no head left and this is ok thing to do?

 

i enjoy reading about all the best anglers here but i think i may be upsetting the fragile minded ones or the ones that get the sexy feeling when they play with the carps

 

i will take more care to be understanding to the fragile ones and not to be upsetting them and so will not give good bream receipe i bet you thought there is no good bream receipe but there is and know you will never know what it is as will remain family sercet know

i like my time here but maybe i am radical and so not very good to understand and so might be better not to do the postings but will still like to read what other anglers put as that should be ok i think so that might be goodbye we see how i feel another day i feel a little sad now

 

take one bream size 1 to 2 kilo is best...................................

 

you will never know now

[Steve Burke]

Yes I very much agree with both Steve and Anderoos points. I also feel that every year that passes the numbers of bream drop and so these points have become increasingly important.

 

Sorry we are allowing Wingham bream to take over a bream thread again!

 

I think we also have to be wary of drawing conclusions about low stock density bream waters just based on Wingham. The only LSD bream water that many of us have fished is Wingham. Of the Wingham members who post here I know Budgie has fished other such waters, including former record water Queenford, so his experience is wider.

 

This wider experience is why I'm particularly keen to read what others such as Steve D and John Weddup have to say, plus I'd love them to come to a Wingham Fish-In.

[Anderoo]

Yes I very much agree with both Steve and Anderoos points. I also feel that every year that passes the numbers of bream drop and so these points have become increasingly important.

 

Sorry we are allowing Wingham bream to take over a bream thread again!

 

Yes I agree. The diminishing returns is why I've fished as hard as I'm able for them over recent seasons, and I'm really glad I did. I'm not planning to fish for them again this year though, although I might try for big bream on a different water in the autumn if the weather suits that more than the zandering.

[Dick Dastardly]

If I'm up to it I will most likely have a go from when I first start over Wingham (sometime in March weather/temperature depending) until its Eel time. Just feel I kind of owe giving Kens location method a go just out of curiosity and in respect to the guy for sharing it.

[Steve D]

Hi Guys,

I’m not suggesting that a carp style approach is the way to catch Big Bream. What I am saying is we can learn from some of their methods and adapt them to a different species. The way we approach fishing has changed in the last few years, certainly towards specimen fish. The methods for catching chub, barbal, and specifically tench is similar to some carp methods, in particular, the bolt-rig. I might add, I never use a bolt-rig, for me, it's far too crude, but that’s just a personal view.

 

My example of the way I have adapted a chod-rig is purely for a certain situation, in this case fishing halfway down a shelf. Like John W, I too as a rule of thumb use a conventional approach, i.e. cage feeder, etc. However, I will try different approaches in order to catch better fish. Also like JW, I don’t enjoy fishing heavily stocked waters. I dropped off Ardleigh Res and Hatfield Forest simply because it was, one too easy, and two, the fish were just not big enough. My favourite venue is Hem Grey, a 65-acre lake that has only a handful of fish. I love the place because it’s tranquil, largely un-fished, and capable of producing something very special. I also agree with JW, with regard to the amount of time 48 hours often producing one bite at best; the important bit is that one bite could be a fish of a lifetime.

 

I do believe we can learn a lot from the carp boys, and as much as we may not want to agree with that, we must consider how many big tench and bream in the last few years have fallen to carp tactics. The size of both tench and bream has grown out of all proportions to other species> this is largely due to the quantities of high-protein food going into the venues, generally by the carp boys. On one venue, I fish, Nazeing meads, there are three lagoons, the north, south, and middle, all connected by a set of weirs. The south and middle are the most heavily fished by the carp anglers, whereas the north barely sees an angler one day to the next. No coincidence that the average size for bream in the north is 9lb whereas the south and centre it’s nearer 12lb. These fish are the original stock that moved in from the upstream relief channel many years ago.

 

The record for bream, whether you go with the 20 pounder, or the original 19lb 10oz fish came from a carp lake caught by a carp angler. That hurt me and I want the bream record going to a bream angler. Personal opinions all set aside, you can’t get away from the fact that they do catch our quarry, and often they are big ones. In my humble opinion, fishing is about learning and adapting. I never sit there and think, ‘oh, they’re not having it today’. If I know the fish are nearby I will change methods/baits continually.

On the subject of baits, I have fished many waters where only certain baits work. If you go and fish Hatfield forest, then try to catch the Bream on anything other than worm, trust me, you won’t.

All only my opinions...

 

Steve

 

Very interested in a winter ticket at wingham. Interesting, the guys on lea valley have offered me a winter ticket.

[poledark]

Without asking for any "state secrets" to be disclosed, are there many actually fishing thro the winter for bream/carp on the coarse lake Steve?

 

Some of the big bream (12/13lbs) get caught in the depths of winter on some of the MKF waters, so I can see no reason why not at Wingham. There are only a handful of decent sized doubles in the MKF waters so the stock numbers are probably comparable............indeed, Wingham may have more

 

Just being curious

 

Steve, I know how you feel about using carp tactics for bream, one of my ambitions was to catch a double on "bream tactics" But now I look at it from a different angle, insomuch as if I were starting fishing now, and wanted to catch a big bream, I would find out how most of the big ones had been caught. This would then become my chosen method.........unless a better one came along

 

Re the hair rig, going back a few years I fished for barbel with a couple of guys who wouldn't use a hair rig. Neither had ever caught a double. In the first season with them, I had 8 doubles on hair rigged baits, they had none.

 

Den

Edited February 11, 2012 by poledark

[Steve D]

Den, my point exactly. It's all about adapting to the ever changing situation. Interesting point, a few of the carp guys I know are now using 10 mm boilies, for two reasons, one, they recon the carp have started to recognise 15/18mm's and secondly, they are seeing bream and tench anglers snaring carp using small baits. Now I know small baits for carp isn't a new thing, but it would seem there is a big movement towards 10mm, non least by the manufacturers such as Nash, Richworh, ect. I know in the shop, the sales of smaller boiles has gone up massively, not just during the cold months.

 

Steve

[poledark]

And, provided you avoid fishmeal based ones, the your Eel problems almost cease, I can say that, because the lake I fish is full of big eels and I have only caught a handful this season. 10mm Nash scopex squid and robin red. Catches some nice big Rudd as well

 

You really should stick with the hair rig, lord knows how many pickups you might be missing.

 

Den

Edited February 11, 2012 by poledark