3 bream trips - 3 doubles!

[Steve Burke]

Regulars will know that until recently I didn't fish overnight. Instead I used to wind my rods in about 10.30, set the alarm for a dawn start and get a good night's kip.

 

Gravel pit bream are notorious for being overnight feeders, and so I'd never fished for them before. I'd only ever caught one double during the day, and that was by accident.

 

However, the near-record bream from Wingham in April wetted my appetite. So I decided to leave my rods out overnight on 2 night/1 day sessions. The result: double-figure bream on each session! Talk about beginner's luck!

 

I'd already mentioned the 14-00 male and 15-02 female before the Wingham Fish-In. The last one went 11-10, and I hate to say it but it was an anti-climax as I'd been kept awake with line bites for ages! I was shattered in the morning!

 

Interestingly, all the bream came in the extreme margins, and all came during the night. With catching 3 in 3 trips, plus having so many line bites fishing close in, I'm convinced I've got more doubles in Wingham than I thought! Indeed, one of my carp members recently reported seeing 14 big bream in one shoal. I wonder how many shoals there are in the 40 acres?

 

I've reverted to fishing for perch during the day, and had 2lb perch on each trip. In fact, only 1 has been below this weight, but no 3lbers yet this year.

 

On Saturday morning until well after midday I missed several perch runs, although I landed 4 fish, one of which of 2-09 gave an impression of a turbo-charged tench! Interestingly, a friend fishing a nearby very heavilly stocked water had the same problem with missed perch bites that morning.

 

Did anyone else who was fishing on Saturday?

 

Whilst I've done well with the bream and perch, I've struggled to catch tench, having just the odd one amongst the perch. In fact, on the 3 sessions I've had specifically after tench I've blanked each time, including the week before the Fish-In. No tench turned up during the Fish-In, and other members have struggled with the tench too.

 

It could be the total lack of weed this year and the explosion of natural food, especially snails, on an already incredibly rich water. I've even had my feeders coming back covered with both snails' eggs and snails themselves! The swim I've blanked in each time is normally very reliable early season, and is usually even weedier than elsewhere but with less other features to attract the fish.

 

Any ideas, anyone?

 

[ 21. June 2004, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: Steve Burke ]

[phil dean]

no idea on the bream steve, but I can confirm that i struggled to hit the perch bites I was getting on Saturday afternoon, using tactics that usually result in fish.

 

I was striking early to reduce deep hooking (which I usually do when perch are showing), but still had more misses than usual.

[Ed Matysiak]

Go exotic for the tench. They will soon leave boaring snails alone for tuti-fruti 10mms . They love sweet flavours at this time of year.

[Steve Burke]

Cheers, Phil, very interesting! Did anyone else have the same problem?

 

I normally can't directly compare notes with many of you as I don't usually fish at weekends. However, Peggy was out all day Saturday, and so I decided to put my trip off a day to give the water more time to cool down after the heatwave. I especially wanted to fish Friday night, which was rightly forecast to be the first of a series of cold ones. Indeed, that's when I had the bream. The water temperature was down compared with Thursday night, but at 4.30am was still 71.5F!

 

Ed, I agree with you about fruit flavours, and so have been using maggots and corn with an Archie Braddock fruity additive.

 

However, I'm not at all convinced that boilies are the answer on a water like Wingham. Boilies were developed to avoid small nuisance fish, of which there are very few at Wingham. Rather I prefer a particle approach, especially as the fish seem to be pre-occupied with small natural food.

 

I suspect that cockles might do well, which a friend is about to experiment with. Being crustaceans, albeit sea ones, they're similar to snails. For the same reason I also bait with hemp as it at least looks like small snails.

 

However, anyone have any ideas why the Wingham tench are so elusive for everyone at present, but the bream are responding so well?

[Russell Fitzpatrick]

steve,

nice bream sir!i see the photos in the papers of a couple,looked big and you looked happy!asfor your elusive tench,wellthe same has happened at a smaller lakei fish numbers caught gone down,most beleive it due to spawning,the bream i beleive may have just finished hence them being on the feed.BTW have you still got them tony miles books in?

[Steve Burke]

Ratty46:

steve,

nice bream sir!i see the photos in the  papers of a couple,looked big and you looked happy!asfor your elusive tench,wellthe same has happened at a smaller lakei fish numbers caught gone down,most beleive it due to spawning,the bream i beleive may have just finished hence them being on the feed.BTW have you still got them tony miles books in?

The bream spawned before the Fish-In, but I doubt the tench have yet, although it's a sensible explanation. However, the tench have been elusive for many weeks.

 

As for looking happy, if a fish is worth a trophy shot I believe it's a fish worth smiling about!

 

Yes, I've a first edition Quest for Barbel, Big Fish Angling, plus the very scarce Silver Seasons, Golden Memories in stock.

 

[ 21. June 2004, 09:38 PM: Message edited by: Steve Burke ]

[edd]

u might laugh but last year i fished a pond near me and had about 20 tench all season.this year so far and only been bout 10 times so far ive had 30+ and most of them on worm flavoured expander pellets fished over stimswim 8mm pellets and hemp.give it ago and see wot happens.Working great for me

[Russell Fitzpatrick]

lol yes indeed smiles are what its all about

maybe angler pressure has made them wary of beds of bait?or they have yet to spawn and are waiting not activley feeding?or tightly grouped ready to spawn .>>cheers again for the books info mate, payday friday!

 

winghams a fair size water i beleive bit difrent in terms of temprature and movements of fish compared to a small pond, i do like the sound of these worm flavoured expander pllets!

[*Ant*]

Stop it Steve, i'm drooling here!

[Steve Burke]

Edd, I haven't tried pellets yet because of the cost. Wingham has so much natural food that it takes a lot of bait to get the fish interested in anything new. As Gaffer remarked after an earlier AN Fish-In, there's so much food in any weed you retrieve that it crawls back in! However, pellets are certainly on my "to try" list.

 

When you add in the low stock levels and the huge number of bars and humps you can perhaps begin to see the challenge, especially compared to commerial venues. But that's what makes it so interesting!

 

Ratty, there's almost no angling pressure at Wingham. There's just 30 members on 40 acres. If there's another angler on the water it's crowded! However, your idea of the tench being tightly grouped is certainly a possibility.

 

Anthony, hopefully you'll fill your boots at next year's AN Fish-In!

 

Thanks for the ideas lads, keep 'em coming!