Latest session - Bream from Linear

[Anthony78]

I had a red letter day for bream in a gravel pit this weekend but no monsters just good size fish. I used sweetcorn as bait like you 2 real and one false.

 

I put the false one nearest the hook on the hair as it stops the others coming off better, You will the hair works like a cheesewire cutting through the real corn on a big chuck.

 

All the bream I have caught the last 3 weeks have been well tuberculed getting ready for spawning albeit too cold yet. the males, as usual when like this, have fought more like tench.

 

John

 

I've been catching a few bream to 7lb on my local estate lake and these have also been covered in tuberculs. Would this have been because of the warmer weather we had a few weeks ago getting them into spawning mode?

 

Regarding the corn - do you not find that the boilie stop pulls through the real corn on the cast? I've always used the fake piece at the end to act as a cushion although I very rarely fish past 50 - 60 yards and have not had any problems.

[John Weddup]

I've been catching a few bream to 7lb on my local estate lake and these have also been covered in tuberculs. Would this have been because of the warmer weather we had a few weeks ago getting them into spawning mode?

 

Regarding the corn - do you not find that the boilie stop pulls through the real corn on the cast? I've always used the fake piece at the end to act as a cushion although I very rarely fish past 50 - 60 yards and have not had any problems.

 

 

Hi ant

 

I agree the warm weather started them thinking about it and the colder conditions have slowed them.

 

When I started using false corn a couple of years ago I thought like you that it needed to be near the stop. I kept losing corn on the cast and then realised that the hair was pulling through the softer corn on the cast like a cheesewire. The hard fake corn stops this and I have never lost properly hair rigged corn since.

 

As for distance I regularly fish 65/70 yards or more. This is a real distance. What i mean is not guessed. I use 2 bivvy pegs and put one either end of my 12ft rod. I then wind around it too set rods and spod to same length. You can walk it out on the bank if space but my way you know exactly the distance and can remember it in yards.

 

Unless you have measured distances properly you would be surprised at how many think 30 yards is 60.

 

A 65 yard cast with a big method feeder needs a 2.75lb carp rod. thats a 50gram feeder loaded with groundbait. I am thinking about trying 3lb test curve rods soon as in some area's i need more distance.

 

John

[Anthony78]

Anthony

 

the other thing I have done lately is looked closer at carp rigs and bait for the bigger bream. I have sourced materials to allow tying of rigs with smaller hooks.

 

To this end I started to use more boilies but have not had any real good success until this weekend. The difference has been frozen instead of shelf life boilies. Because I was experimenting over the last year it has been very easy to buy various colours sizes flavours etc and keep them with me and try.

 

A carp angler a few weeks ago said he would not use such muck. He would rather use a halibut pellett.

 

This got me thinking but kept forgetting to get myself sorted until saturday afternoon one of the few other anglers present gave me some home made "Cell" boilies to try.

 

I quickly got one of the bigger bream of the session and swapped all 3 rods to cell. I caught well and all bigger fish. I think 2 things have happened one better bait and also now using the most popular carp bait going in.

 

The bream must see loads of free offerings of carp boilies so choosing what the carpers use is a good plan.

 

John

 

As most of the fisheries around me see very little pressure from the carp boys the bream and tench can still be caught on fairly simple tactics and haven't seen enough boilies for me to consider changing over to an all boilie attack. I suppose that I was a little niaive in thinking that this wasn't the case at linear althoug I still think that if the bream were in the area then they would have settled on the groundbait mix. Do you think that the bigger bream are attracted to the easily visible cell baits? It would be imteresting to see if you'd have continued catching those bigger bream using a boilie of similar colour but a cheaper bait?

 

Ant

[Anderoo]

Great report Ant, glad you had some action - that's a really good looking Oxfordshire carp (a bit like the photos we saw at the other pit recently).

[Anthony78]

Hi ant

 

I agree the warm weather started them thinking about it and the colder conditions have slowed them.

 

When I started using false corn a couple of years ago I thought like you that it needed to be near the stop. I kept losing corn on the cast and then realised that the hair was pulling through the softer corn on the cast like a cheesewire. The hard fake corn stops this and I have never lost properly hair rigged corn since.

 

As for distance I regularly fish 65/70 yards or more. This is a real distance. What i mean is not guessed. I use 2 bivvy pegs and put one either end of my 12ft rod. I then wind around it too set rods and spod to same length. You can walk it out on the bank if space but my way you know exactly the distance and can remember it in yards.

 

Unless you have measured distances properly you would be surprised at how many think 30 yards is 60.

 

A 65 yard cast with a big method feeder needs a 2.75lb carp rod. thats a 50gram feeder loaded with groundbait. I am thinking about trying 3lb test curve rods soon as in some area's i need more distance.

 

John

 

I've not used the bank stick method as yet as I've been lucky enough to have plenty of space to walk th rig out. While doing this I can pace out the distance and it was an easy 50 yard chuck to where I was fishing. I've been using some new rods from Korum which are designed for punching feeders out at distance as they have a fairly tippy action as apposed to the softer through action of the typical barbel/avon rod.

As I believe that bream are put off by a large method feeder going in over their head (depending on depth obviously) so tend to fish with small method feeders of 35g and then add some lead tape to the underside to improve the bolt rig effect. I would say that the weighs no more that 3 - 4 ounces when fully loaded. Here's a pic of my finished rig:

 

Ant

[Anthony78]

Ant, great report and you have given me abit of an insight to linear which im planning to head over and try in the next couple of weeks. can you use barbed hooks or is it barbless only? I have googled and youtubed linear but they havent helped me find the answer. I hope i manage to do half as well as you did when i go but i will be targeting carp.

 

Hi Tom,

They have very few rules at Linear and the ones they do have are sensible. You can find the full list here.

There were 20+ anglers on the lake and every one of them were using a spod/spomb. Only a few caught and I believe that I was having the most action even though I was fishing for the carp. This tells me that you need to do something a little different to the hundreds of other anglers that visit the fishery every week. If the sun is shining don't ignore the zigs as a couple of fish got caught in the middle of the day when the sun was at full strength.

 

Hope you enjoy your trip and don't forget to show us the pics if you catch.

 

Ant

[Anthony78]

Great report Ant, glad you had some action - that's a really good looking Oxfordshire carp (a bit like the photos we saw at the other pit recently).

 

Cheers Anderoo, It was a cracking fish but I have to be honest and say that I would have happily swapped it for the 9lb tench or 13lb bream that were caught. Going to take the 3lb rods and 18mm boilies next time and I may just get one. Not that I'm bitter at all

 

Ant

[John Weddup]

I've not used the bank stick method as yet as I've been lucky enough to have plenty of space to walk th rig out. While doing this I can pace out the distance and it was an easy 50 yard chuck to where I was fishing. I've been using some new rods from Korum which are designed for punching feeders out at distance as they have a fairly tippy action as apposed to the softer through action of the typical barbel/avon rod.

As I believe that bream are put off by a large method feeder going in over their head (depending on depth obviously) so tend to fish with small method feeders of 35g and then add some lead tape to the underside to improve the bolt rig effect. I would say that the weighs no more that 3 - 4 ounces when fully loaded. Here's a pic of my finished rig:

 

Ant

 

 

Hi Ant

 

In 10ft or less I am using a 35gm at 40 yards with no trouble. At longer chucks and generally 15ft plus the bigger feeders are no problem also.

 

I am of the thinking with catapulting out hard balls as you need to to better more than 50 yards many get too the bottom intact. the bream are used to finding balls of groundbait on the bottom and feed on them.

 

The method replicates this.

 

Its more importantly a tangle free way of fishing at distance with bait around the hook. The pva stocking or bag is the only other way. I have fished both side by side over the last 4 weeks and the method has been far better every time.

 

I am not a scientist, or probably not a top angler but my postings and results are from what happens on the bank and not from theory. I consider this the important factor.

 

I have never used the bolt rig effect preferring to leave them free running. I hear every bleep from my receiver next to my ear and I like the way bream espescially pick up move a little drop back up and down etc rather than a full blown run caused by them hitting a stop or a bolt rig.

 

Remember many on here have said many times fishing and sleeping don't mix. What tiny and blinkered minds they have.

 

John

[Anderoo]

Cheers Anderoo, It was a cracking fish but I have to be honest and say that I would have happily swapped it for the 9lb tench or 13lb bream that were caught. Going to take the 3lb rods and 18mm boilies next time and I may just get one. Not that I'm bitter at all

 

Ant

 

Yeah I know the feeling!

 

Btw you might want to pick up the April copy of Coarse Fishing Today - 3 separate articles on big gravel pit bream and 2 on gravel pit tench.

[Anthony78]

Yeah I know the feeling!

 

Btw you might want to pick up the April copy of Coarse Fishing Today - 3 separate articles on big gravel pit bream and 2 on gravel pit tench.

 

Thanks for the heads up mate. Will grab a copy tomorrow.

 

Have you decided if your going to have a go at that syndicate yet?

 

I also looked into the Linch Hill complex and noticed that they do 24 hour tickets for Stoneacre's @ £24 which is interesting!!

 

Ant