Big bream

[Dick Dastardly]

Hopefully (dependant on dog sitter!) Me and bruv are going to do our first session next Wed,Thurs,Fri. Looking forward to this year.

[Anderoo]

Hopefully (dependant on dog sitter!) Me and bruv are going to do our first session next Wed,Thurs,Fri. Looking forward to this year.

 

Good luck! Me and Rich have just got back from our first session - no bream but we did chat to some members we hadn't met before (including one who has been a member from the very beginning) and got a few extra things to consider. I'll put it down as a list so I don't miss anything.

 

1. The bream originally wouldn't take anything like boilies or pellets, but they do now.

2. Two members independantly suggested that individual small groups of fish may live mainly in very different areas of the lake.

3. On more than one occasion, shoals of bream have been spotted up in the water on warm days. There is a 'big shoal' (15ish fish) and several smaller groups (5ish fish each).

4. On warm days they like to sunbathe and they come right up to the surface and wander about in a certain area of the lake (they don't go all over the lake) - when doing this, gravel bars are irrelevant, they go over the top of them and do not use them as 'roads'.

5. Because certains swims have a reputation for producing bream, it could be that only certain groups of fish are fished for, if they do mainly stay in their own areas of the lake. Unfavoured swims/areas could be where an undisturbed group of extra big ones can be found. Recaptures in the 'hot' swims backs this up.

 

Oh, by the way, the eels are still there I tried maggot as an experiment and got one hour into dark on the first night before I gave up on that!

 

The main 'problem' (if you can call it that) was the tench. They'd just all woken up with the hot weather, and were ravenous. They fed all day and night, and with the recasting at night definitely didn't help the chances of a bream. The tench should settle down soon and start feeding mainly in the day again, which will be good. Having said that, it was nice to catch a few fish!

 

I've drawn a few conclusions from all that lot but will wait to see what others think.

 

What I would say, though, is that if the tench are active, go all out for them in the daytime and catch as many as you can, because if you don't get them in the day you will get them at night, and they cause quite a disturbance (lots of males which just don't give up!). My last night was fairly quiet and I caught nothing at all on my last day, so I'm pretty sure I'd caught them all by then. In the day, Rich found that maggots (or anything else bright and obvious) was best for the tench.

Edited April 27, 2009 by Anderoo

[Guest tigger]

Anderoo, what king of size where the Tench you where catching? I'm curious as Steves already said there's been some big ones coming out.

[Anderoo]

Anderoo, what king of size where the Tench you where catching? I'm curious as Steves already said there's been some big ones coming out.

 

Mainly 5 & 6lbers, a couple smaller and then four 7s and one 8. The females were very slim fish and will bulk out significantly in the next few weeks. Quite a lot of them were males though, including two of the 7s! They were very active at night, especially the males, which made the bream fishing difficult.

 

I wasn't lucky enough to nab one of the giants...

[Dick Dastardly]

I had a kind of sneak preview as I spoke to Glynn last night on the phone.Hopefully he's joining us this week as well.

[Guest tigger]

I wasn't lucky enough to nab one of the giants...

 

 

Maybe not giants but corkin fish all the same.

[lutra]

5. Because certains swims have a reputation for producing bream, it could be that only certain groups of fish are fished for, if they do mainly stay in their own areas of the lake. Unfavoured swims/areas could be where an undisturbed group of extra big ones can be found. Recaptures in the 'hot' swims backs this up.

That fits with my findings on other waters in the warmer months, but if they do behave similarly you may find they regroup in autumn for winter in the deeper water. Another thing that can be noticed in autumn on some waters is they can be happy to feed around the clock, but water depth and quality, wind and how bright the day is may have a bearing on this.

[Kappa]

The females were very slim fish and will bulk out significantly in the next few weeks.

 

This was a very very slim fish...

 

h

 

Rich

[Anderoo]

This was a very very slim fish...

 

h

 

Rich

 

 

[Dick Dastardly]

Rich you really need to hold those eels tighter for a photo!