Big bream

[Anderoo]

Acutally I think they do feed but only half heartedly! Therefore you are quite unlikely to catch one especially if you are using the 'last to be picked up' type of bait. This kinda ties in to what Budgie was saying about curiosity pickups!

 

Rich

 

Oh no, I don't want to use maggots!

 

That is the obvious conclusion though, isn't it?

[Kappa]

Oh no, I don't want to use maggots!

 

That is the obvious conclusion though, isn't it?

 

Thats my theory so I'm using them!

 

Rich

[Will Wilkinson]

This fits with the line bite I had last weekend - I was fishing over a bloodworm bed (the lead was coming back with them on every cast) and just had the single liner and a lot of knocks. I felt certain there were several fish in the swim but couldn't tempt them. I suspected at the time that they were pre-occupied with the bloodworm and this tends to support that. Maybe a bunch of bloodworm on a smaller hook could work? I'd probably want to wait until I was pretty certain there were Bream about and use the lightest lead that would reach the swim to try and avoid spooking them otherwise I think it would just result in more eels.

 

Will

[Steve Walker]

Not sure you could even hair rig bloodworm. Didn't there used to be a fake bloodworm paste? Mystic? Magic? Something like that.

[Dick Dastardly]

Yes Mystic paste Steve.

 

You could hair rig a load of bloodworm but if your intending to fish over a bed of them there wouldnt really be much need for a baited hook really! Same as when fishing over large beds of mass particles such as hemp.A critically balance hook would be just as likely (or just as not likely really!) to be picked up.

 

The big difference though when fishing mass baits and basre hooks though is the fact that your "in control" ie your baiting up a tight area where the fish will hopefully become pre occupied on the small food items.Cant really do this over natural bloodworm beds as there area isnt known.

 

If your interested Steve I will bring my "bare rig" rig along to Wingham.I caught a lot of big carp on this set up long before the days of "fake bait".

[poledark]

Budgies description of the probs on his carp lake, are almost the norm on most lakes these days. Both the carp and tench seem to switch on and off. When they are "on the munch" then they get caught all over the lake/lakes/valley and when they switch off...well you might as well go home........but they may switch on again while you aren't there so you keep going. The mobile phone really is an essential piece of kit for many these days.

 

But, despite this switching on and off, one or two still manage to winkle out a fish or two with a combination of good presentation and even more important, a good bait. Once again, I base this on being on the water a lot (different waters each day sometimes) and seeing the same one or two blokes picking up these fish.

 

Now this begs the question, if the fish switch off due to shortage of food, then surely they would turn to alternative supplies. Most baits provide sustenence to a hungry (?) fish. My belief is that shortage of food have nothing to do with the switching, it is more likely to be caused by an abundance of food, leading to full bellies and a lay up. (Probably acounts for a lot of the gas bubbles )

 

Joking apart, it happens so often these days, maybe caused by the amount and quality of bait that is poured in almost daily. I see the pattern all the time i.e. fish start to come out, anglers pour in from all directions, bait is poured in, fish get caught for a couple of days, and then they switch off.

 

Wingham apparently doesn't suffer from pressure or overbaiting (?) and on the fishins most seem to blank or get 1 or two fish. Tench come out, but there seem to be a lot of them, spread fairly well all over the lake, and we all know now, that April/May are the prime times for them all over the country, so no surprise there. I don't know if they switch on and off there, I have no idea of the number of anglers fishing, what they are fishing for, or their abilities to capitalise on the feeding spells.

 

For what it is worth, depending on the swim I get, I am going prepared to fish at any range up to my maximum casting ability, I shall use the maggot filled method with several maggots straight on the No4 or 6 hook, on two rods, and a boilie and stringer with a bait made for me on the other.

This bait has caught 7 fish all between 24 and 36lbs for "My mate Ted" in the last three weeks, and several 20+ fish for me (5 I think)

Fished on a combi rig popped up 3" with stringer.........................it has also caught a lot of Tench , but we don't count them We have only fished days, Ted usually packs up by 6pm, me an hour or so later. This approach has caught more fish for us, than all the others who are doing the sessions.

 

Will be intersting to see what happens at Wingham :) Maybe a surprise carp? or even a blank weekend? or maybe my first double figure Tench?....or even a boilie eating Bream

 

Den

Edited May 13, 2009 by poledark

[Kappa]

Fished on a combi rig popped up 3" with stringer.........................it has also caught a lot of Tench

 

Interesting Den. Would be able to say whether pop ups are more or less effective than bottom baits for tench and bream?

 

Rich

[poledark]

Yes Rich, could be an interesting weekend Quite a few double figure tench come out of the MKF waters on boilies intended for carp. Many come out on 16/18mm boilies so they are not bothered by size.

 

I am tempted to go all out with the carp tactics and chance a blank, but may lose my bottle if I don't get any result by Sunday evening

 

Den

[Chris 1]

Just a suggestion for disguising the hook.

How about tying, as in fly tying a buzzer onto the shank of the hook? It could be as simple as red thread for the body, with a white tail fillament at each end. I should imagine it would work with maggots and the odd fake grub when fishing over bloodworm?

[Dick Dastardly]

Yes Rich, could be an interesting weekend Quite a few double figure tench come out of the MKF waters on boilies intended for carp. Many come out on 16/18mm boilies so they are not bothered by size.

 

I am tempted to go all out with the carp tactics and chance a blank, but may lose my bottle if I don't get any result by Sunday evening

 

Den

 

 

When I take into account that nearly 75% of my tench over 8lb have been caught by "mistake" whilst carping and this years intentional tench over 8lb have been caught with carp style tactics there can be no doubt that they are effective!

 

Im just not confident after having seen anglers (both targetting carp and targetting bream specificly) on other SB waters that they will work for the bream at Wingham. Yet I know plenty of big bream are caught by carpers on other waters. As Ive said before that mey be down to the big differences in these waters and the bream in thems behaviour.

 

I wish I was confident it would work as its certainly the easy answer.

 

When discussing this with one syndicate member recently he told me that his veiw was to just fish carp style for the tench and hope that a bream would eventually come along.There certainly have been several pointers that sugest that a swim fished and baited for tench over a period of time often goes quiet (tench wise) after a period and sometimes this is when the Bream are caught.

 

Im still not sold that this is the "best" way though.All though I can see that it would stop you going mad!

 

And from a totally silly point of veiw I dont (or suppose I should say prefer not) want to catch big bream by "mistake".I would much rather catch them intentionally.I know it wouldnt matter to most and no one else would know but I would and it does matter to me. A big bream even a record one would just not mean the same to me if I hadnt caught it intentionaly no matter how difficult this may (even if impossible) prove to be.Daft I know and Im certainly not sugesting others should think like this but its just a personal thing.

 

So Im happy tenching carp stylee but still unsure over my bream aproach! The eel problem being the major thing that stops me using my normal tactics.

 

Due to the lure of the possibility of a double figure tench Ive not tried for the bream yet this year.So Ive still not given flake and breadcrumb aproach a go yet.