Latest session - Bream from Linear

[Anthony78]

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

 

Hi John,

One of the reasons for posting the report was to get some views from the more experienecd guy's on here so I appreciate any information you can give me and yes it is always better to go by tried and tested methods/tactics.

 

Can you give more details on how you set up your feeder please? Do you also want your method ball to stay in tact until a fish breaks it down or would it start to break down as soon at it hits bottom?

 

Thanks

 

Ant

[Anderoo]

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

 

I might do, it's an option I'm thinking about - won't be this year though. I will probably get that club book though, but more the perch potential than the tench/bream.

 

It's a good topic this, I hope it keeps going

[Anthony78]

I might do, it's an option I'm thinking about - won't be this year though. I will probably get that club book though, but more the perch potential than the tench/bream.

 

It's a good topic this, I hope it keeps going

 

Secimen bream/tench fishing is very much on the up so If this topic doesn't continue I'm sure there will be many more over the coming weeks.

 

Your more than welcome to join me on the water I had that perch from. I will probably leave them alone now till next winter but the old man had another fish of 3lb 7oz out of there last weekend. Not a bad average when you consider that this is the smallest of the 3 fish we've had from this water.

 

Ant

[John Weddup]

Hi John,

One of the reasons for posting the report was to get some views from the more experienecd guy's on here so I appreciate any information you can give me and yes it is always better to go by tried and tested methods/tactics.

 

Can you give more details on how you set up your feeder please? Do you also want your method ball to stay in tact until a fish breaks it down or would it start to break down as soon at it hits bottom?

 

Thanks

 

Ant

 

 

Hi Ant

 

Not too fussy how long the feeder mix stays on the method feeder as long as it gets too the bottom intact. I guess you err on the stiff side to be sure.

 

As for setup I always use running sytems. I have 10lb mainline straight through inline method feeder. I currently am using the drennan in 35 or 50gram. The 3 pronged ones not the small commercial water ones.

 

I then put a rubber bead and a quick change swivel. Usual short hooklength kept on the quick change swivel with a rig boom rubber.

 

The swivels I use are these

 

Scroll down to quick snap swivel

 

http://www.starbaits.com/en/cat/components.78.1.html

 

And go here for rig sleeves I use

 

http://www.starbaits.com/en/cat/components.78.html

 

This makes for a quick change from different length hair rigs for different size baits or maggot setup etc. You can have them all made up ready for night session and change them quickly. As you know you often get a hair broken off in the net whilst unhooking and its a lot easier to tye rigs daytime.

 

I like a running setup at night as the big bream and tench generally hook themselves anyway so why do you want them feeling the hook going in and running off at 100mph. Almost every one of my bream for the last couple of years fishing like this have lifted and dropped lifted and dropped the bobbin at a leisurely pace.

 

regards

 

John

[Rob Ward]

Hi Ant

 

Not too fussy how long the feeder mix stays on the method feeder as long as it gets too the bottom intact. I guess you err on the stiff side to be sure.

 

As for setup I always use running sytems. I have 10lb mainline straight through inline method feeder. I currently am using the drennan in 35 or 50gram. The 3 pronged ones not the small commercial water ones.

 

I then put a rubber bead and a quick change swivel. Usual short hooklength kept on the quick change swivel with a rig boom rubber.

 

The swivels I use are these

 

Scroll down to quick snap swivel

 

http://www.starbaits.com/en/cat/components.78.1.html

 

And go here for rig sleeves I use

 

http://www.starbaits.com/en/cat/components.78.html

 

This makes for a quick change from different length hair rigs for different size baits or maggot setup etc. You can have them all made up ready for night session and change them quickly. As you know you often get a hair broken off in the net whilst unhooking and its a lot easier to tye rigs daytime.

 

I like a running setup at night as the big bream and tench generally hook themselves anyway so why do you want them feeling the hook going in and running off at 100mph. Almost every one of my bream for the last couple of years fishing like this have lifted and dropped lifted and dropped the bobbin at a leisurely pace.

 

regards

 

John

 

I find screamers a pretty rare occurance now with Bream and Tench, even with bolt rigs.

 

I reckon that may be because I fish with the baitrunner at its tightest. I find they tend to stop without having taken much line.

[Anthony78]

Hi Ant

 

Not too fussy how long the feeder mix stays on the method feeder as long as it gets too the bottom intact. I guess you err on the stiff side to be sure.

 

As for setup I always use running sytems. I have 10lb mainline straight through inline method feeder. I currently am using the drennan in 35 or 50gram. The 3 pronged ones not the small commercial water ones.

 

I then put a rubber bead and a quick change swivel. Usual short hooklength kept on the quick change swivel with a rig boom rubber.

 

The swivels I use are these

 

Scroll down to quick snap swivel

 

http://www.starbaits.com/en/cat/components.78.1.html

 

And go here for rig sleeves I use

 

http://www.starbaits.com/en/cat/components.78.html

 

This makes for a quick change from different length hair rigs for different size baits or maggot setup etc. You can have them all made up ready for night session and change them quickly. As you know you often get a hair broken off in the net whilst unhooking and its a lot easier to tye rigs daytime.

 

I like a running setup at night as the big bream and tench generally hook themselves anyway so why do you want them feeling the hook going in and running off at 100mph. Almost every one of my bream for the last couple of years fishing like this have lifted and dropped lifted and dropped the bobbin at a leisurely pace.

 

regards

 

John

 

Hi John,

Thanks for this. I have a close water where I can catch a number of smaller bream so will give this a try along side my usual setup so I can compare.

 

I can also see the benefit of not having a fish feel the hook and charging through a shoal of feeding fish but on the flip side don't you run the risk of striking at line bites and having the same effect but without a fish on the bank?

 

I do like to have a fairly sticky mix which stays on the feeder for a while as I want to increase the bolt effect using the extra weight to set the hook.

 

Thanks again for the rig details

 

Ant

[lutra]

Hi Guy's,

Thought I'd share my latest session with you and although it wasn't a great success in as far as I didn't catch the intended species, it was a big learning curve for me and it would also be good to hear some views from the more experienced members,and anyone else, on whether you would have approached it differently.

 

The plan:

After the warm spell we experienced a few weeks back I was eager to get out and do some gravel pit tench fishing. Due to a booked holiday in Greece I won't be putting my name down for a place at the Wingham fish-in this year where I would usually get my tench fix so I had to go elsewhere for my tinca high.

 

Typically the British weather, being as it is, had other ideas and the warm spell didn't last. I'd already booked the time off work so I had to make the best of the situation. Thinking that the recent cold snap would put off the tench a change of target species was in order. Usually when I'm fishing at Wingham the bream are an afterthought because they are so difficult to target due to their low numbers and nomadic nature. On this trip they would be the intended species with the tench coming into play if conditions turned favourable. Now I have no experience of fishing for specimen bream so this would be a big learning curve for me.

 

The venue was to be the Linear complex and after doing some homework and a little help from Roy Parsons (head bailiff) it was to be Smiths/Hardwick lake which contains bream to 15lb and tench to double figures. Having never fished this venue before and knowing nothing of the features I could only rely on watercraft and information from the other anglers. I arrived at around 11am on Tuesday morning and after a circuit of the lake and chatting to other anglers I was none the wiser as to where to go, no bream had been caught and I saw no fish activity. There was a north westerly wind blowing into one bank and with no other information to go on this would be my starting area.

 

Bait/Tactics

After searching the area with the marker rod I found that there was already a lot of weed present but there was an area just past a large weed bed which was completely clear. As this was around 50 yards it was probably a comfortable casting distance for the average carper and had probably been kept clear by fish feeding on the regular bait going in on the spot. I wasn't after the carp which would probably keep away from an area so blatant but I was hoping that the bream would see this as an easy meal. 2 rods would be placed over a large spread of bait on this area. The 3rd rod would be placed at the bottom of the marginal shelf in 11 ft of water hoping that a bonus tench would come along.

 

It's difficult to know how much bait to take but the thought of having a red letter session only to run out is a situation I hope to never find myself in. I would be leaving most of it in the car anyway so would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. In total I had around 20 kilo but only planned on using a fraction of this unless it really switched on.

For the bream I'd be feeding a groundbait mix of 50/50 fishmeal and black crumb. Into this I added dead maggots/pellets/corn and a few 10mm tutti fruiti boilies as a target bait. I put roughly 2 kilo over a 10ft square area using the spomb (brilliant tool!!) hoping that the wide spread would keep bream in the area but not have them feeding so tightly together that I'd be plagued by line bites or spook the shoal should I hook one.

Over this I would place 2 method feeders ensuring that they landed on the nearside edge of the feed. This would hopefully allow me to pick off the fish on the edge of the shoal without spooking its mate's. One was baited with a tutti fruiti boilie while the second was baited with a stack of corn with a fake piece under the bait stop.

 

For the tench I put all my faith in red maggots and had a gallon of them. Normally I would use the large drennan maggot feeders but as there was quite a bit of weed at the bottom of the near shelf I decided on a bolt rig fished in a PVA bag of grubs. This would hopefully sit on top of the weed until a tench came along.

 

The session:

I had to wait until 9pm before I had a bite which came to the tutti fruiti. unfortunately it was from the wrong species, a carp of 16lb gave a good account of itself on my 1 3/4lb rods but was not what I was after. I quickly slipped it back and got into the sleeping bag for the night. At 2am I was awoken by a couple of bleeps on the same rod which had me perched on the edge of my bedchair. Suddenly the swinger smacked against the rod and I was in again. Once again though it was a carp, this time a very small fish of around 4lb. I recast the rod and settled back into the bag, and remained undisturbed until the following morning. Talking to the other anglers on the lake there were still no bream showing but there was the odd tench coming out.

I was called to witness a 9lb fish which completely blew me away. It was huge! It looked to be empty of spawn and would easily make double figures later in the season.

 

Absolute beauty of a tench which unfortunately wasn't caught by me

 

Wednesday went by quietly apart from yet another carp of just over 13lb which was an absolute cracker. Very close to being a leather but had a single line of scales over it's back. You can't be disappointed catching fish like this but still, I was after bream and these were still alluding me.

 

These linear fish are beauties

 

By this point the inside line had showed no action and not only this but the coot, which was nesting in the tree next to me, had spotted the bait and was constantly picking up the rig which surely would have put off any feeding tench. As the guy next to me had caught his tench out in open water I decided to change to my favoured maggot feeder rig and placed this on to the bream line also.

Having no other information to go on, plus the fact that there weren't a lot of swim choices, I decided to stick with the swim I was in. Linear in a busy place even in the week!

As there had obviously been some activity in the swim I decided to top up with another 2 kilo's of groundbait/particles. I also changed the hookbaits, one onto a 10mm fishmeal boilie and the second onto half a Cell dunbell tipped with a piece of white plastic corn. Putting the kettle on and settling down for some grub of my own I was set for the evening.

 

After feeding myself I decided to get my head down for an early night only to be woken just after midnight to a 6 inch screamer. Getting out of the bag I put my head torch on to see what was happening, when I looked at the rod tip I could see that it was tapping slightly. As the indicator hadn't dropped back again I was certain that it wasn't a liner so decided to hit it. Right away I felt a big head shake and knew it was a decent fish. Unfortunately it had just too much power to be my target species but all the same I took it easy and after a long tussle I had a very nice carp in the net.

 

Looking like it could be over 20lb I got the weighing gear out and got the camera ready. It was another beautiful looking fish and on the scales she took the needle round to 28lb 12oz, a new PB and I was well chuffed!

 

A new PB and although not the target species I was still very happy

 

 

The remainder of the night was uneventful and so too was the following morning until around 11am when I finally got a bite on the maggot feeder. Straight away I knew it was a tench and after a very scrappy fight he was in the net. My first gravel pit tench of 2012. At 5lb 12oz it was not going to break any records but at last something had gone to plan.

 

First gravel pit tench of 2012

 

Apart from another couple of mid double carp to the method feeders the next 24 hours were very quiet and the wind had now swung around to a North Easterly direction and although the sun was shining it suddenly felt very cold.

I'd done 72 hours in one spot and although I'd had some great sport I'd not caught, or seen, a single bream. During the very long process of packing up I had a couple of bleeps on the maggot feeder and as I approached the rod to investigate the alarm suddenly sprang into life and I was into another tench. This one was a female and on the scales she went exactly the same as the male at 5lb 12oz.

 

Same size but this time the female of the species

 

Because I was packing up I didn't bother to put this rod back out and continued the laborious task of packing up the rest of my gear. As I was loading the rest of my kit on the barrow a couple of guy's, who had been fishing the point swim, were heading back to the car. On this occasion I really wish I hadn't gone with the 'any good?' comment because I got the reply “nah just an 8lb snottie!”. Now ordinarily I wouldn't be interested in such a capture but as there are only a handful of bream in the lake with a shoal containing a variety of sized fish I was now faced with a decision. Do I call it quits and head home happy that I have caught some nice fish or do I go for another 24 hours in an area where I know the bream have been caught.

 

As I had nothing to get back home for (one of the advantages of being single) I decided to go for it.

To cut a long story short (well this bit anyway!) I baited in a similar way to how I'd attacked the first swim and once again put 2 method feeders over the top. Unfortunately I didn't have a single bleep and had to pack up for a second time in 24 hours. Walking back to the car I was told that one of the carpers fishing 'Summers bay' had caught 3 slabs in the night. He had 2 fish of around 8lb but did not weigh them. He did weigh the 3rd though and at 13 1/2lb, to say I was gutted was an understatement but hey this is fishing and each time we go we learn something new so I added the information of this capture to the memory bank and headed home for some very welcome creature comforts.

 

If you've made it this far then thank you for reading as I know it was a very long report. I would certainly like to hear from you guy's. Especially if you think I should have approached the session differently as, like I mentioned earlier, I am by no means an expert when it comes to bream and am happy to listen to any comments/ideas you may have.

 

Regards

 

Ant

Nice report Anthony, but sorry to hear you didn't get a bin lid or two.

 

I know a friend of a friend that had a long campaign ( a couple of seasons) for the carp on Linear and had a good few bream up to 13lb. I'm not sure if he will known of any real secrets on catching them, but if i see him i will let you know what he says.

 

I think if you asked 100 bream anglers how to catch bream you would like any kind of fishing get 100 different answers, but I'm happy to give you a few pointers based on my years of bream fishing and having read your report.

 

Although Ive fished with many times and even caught bream with sweet flavoured ( tutti fruiti, strawberry, esterberry,......) boilies, I don't rate them very highly and with experience would opt for savory/fishy. Sadly no longer available but soft frozen meaty marine was one of my all time favorites. I'm not even sure after years of using sweet additives for bream like molasses, brasem and others that bream really have a very sweet tooth.

 

Spodding ground bait seems to be a popular thing to do these days, but on a lake with any movement in the water knowing just where it is settling on the bottom is almost impossible to tell. 10, 20, 30+ yards away may even be more on a big windy water. How would you know and how can you fish tight to the front edge of your bait if you don't know where that edge is? The same go's for taking over other anglers pegs on busy waters, you need to know just where their bait is/was or you can end up with lots of line bites. If your ever lucky enough to get that red letter day with bream how you feed will play one of the biggest parts in the size of that catch IMO.

 

Better luck next time Anthony and i don't think by the sound of it you did much wrong as there can be a good bit of luck involved in finding bream on busy waters like Linear with lots of other anglers and other species of fish to avoid. It may just be a case of putting up with catch carp till you fall lucky with a bream or two.

Edited April 21, 2012 by lutra

[Anthony78]

Nice report Anthony, but sorry to hear you didn't get a bin lid or two.

 

I know a friend of a friend that had a long campaign ( a couple of seasons) for the carp on Linear and had a good few bream up to 13lb. I'm not sure if he will known of any real secrets on catching them, but if i see him i will let you know what he says.

 

I think if you asked 100 bream anglers how to catch bream you would like any kind of fishing get 100 different answers, but I'm happy to give you a few pointers based on my years of bream fishing and having read your report.

 

Although Ive fished with many times and even caught bream with sweet flavoured ( tutti fruiti, strawberry, esterberry,......) boilies, I don't rate them very highly and with experience would opt for savory/fishy. Sadly no longer available but soft frozen meaty marine was one of my all time favorites. I'm not even sure after years of using sweet additives for bream like molasses, brasem and others that bream really have a very sweet tooth.

 

Spodding ground bait seems to be a popular thing to do these days, but on a lake with any movement in the water knowing just where it is settling on the bottom is almost impossible to tell. 10, 20, 30+ yards away may even be more on a big windy water. How would you know and how can you fish tight to the front edge of your bait if you don't know where that edge is? The same go's for taking over other anglers pegs on busy waters, you need to know just where their bait is/was or you can end up with lots of line bites. If your ever lucky enough to get that red letter day with bream how you feed will play one of the biggest parts in the size of that catch IMO.

 

Better luck next time Anthony and i don't think by the sound of it you did much wrong as there can be a good bit of luck involved in finding bream on busy waters like Linear with lots of other anglers and other species of fish to avoid. It may just be a case of putting up with catch carp till you fall lucky with a bream or two.

 

Hi Lutra,

Thanks for this. I did take a kilo of Cell boilies in 10mm but only fed a few of these along with all the other freebies incase I wanted to try one on the hair. I think that when I go again I'll take alot more boilies and these will form the bulk of my feed along with pellets and fishmeal groundbait.

I'll also feed the groundbait in balls mainly for the reason you mention as I fed mine loose thinking that it would create a larger feeding area but as you rightfully mentioned this groundbait could have been landing yards away from the freebies I'd put in it. Secondly this should replicate my favoured method 'The Method' as the bream will hopefully get used to finding small patches of bait.

 

Regarding the boilies you used did you always go for fresh 'quality' bait or would you have been happy using larger quantities of cheaper ready made baits in a fishmeal flavour?

 

Ant

[lutra]

Hi Lutra,

Thanks for this. I did take a kilo of Cell boilies in 10mm but only fed a few of these along with all the other freebies incase I wanted to try one on the hair. I think that when I go again I'll take alot more boilies and these will form the bulk of my feed along with pellets and fishmeal groundbait.

I'll also feed the groundbait in balls mainly for the reason you mention as I fed mine loose thinking that it would create a larger feeding area but as you rightfully mentioned this groundbait could have been landing yards away from the freebies I'd put in it. Secondly this should replicate my favoured method 'The Method' as the bream will hopefully get used to finding small patches of bait.

 

Regarding the boilies you used did you always go for fresh 'quality' bait or would you have been happy using larger quantities of cheaper ready made baits in a fishmeal flavour?

 

Ant

Its true that i prefer fresh or frozen boilies over shelf life and pellets. I also lean towards bream being of that opinion to, but maybe if i ever win the lotto i try feeding fresh caviar and if i catch i will be convinced that's the bait to be on.

[lutra]

Hi Lutra,

Thanks for this. I did take a kilo of Cell boilies in 10mm but only fed a few of these along with all the other freebies incase I wanted to try one on the hair. I think that when I go again I'll take alot more boilies and these will form the bulk of my feed along with pellets and fishmeal groundbait.

I'll also feed the groundbait in balls mainly for the reason you mention as I fed mine loose thinking that it would create a larger feeding area but as you rightfully mentioned this groundbait could have been landing yards away from the freebies I'd put in it. Secondly this should replicate my favoured method 'The Method' as the bream will hopefully get used to finding small patches of bait.

 

Regarding the boilies you used did you always go for fresh 'quality' bait or would you have been happy using larger quantities of cheaper ready made baits in a fishmeal flavour?

 

Ant

One thing i would say about feeding and fishing boilies for bream is in my experience is its not compulsory or that effective to feed lots of whole boilies like many do when carp fishing. Ive done pretty good in the past smashing/chopping all my boilies up into small pieces, feeding that and the only whole one that goes in being the one on my hair.