Tommy Pickering

Bream feeder tips

IWAS brought up fishing for bream at Worsbrough Reservoir in Yorkshire, and this species will always have a special place in my heart.

It is one of my favourite fish species and bream have been kind to me, especially in other countries. In 1995 I set a new world match record with 323lb 11oz of slabs from Denmark and last year I broke the River Erne match record in Northern Ireland with 241lb of them on the feeder.

They played a big part in my early fishing career, and if I’m honest, I think a lot of anglers of a certain age would rather have 100lb of bream than 100lb of carp – the popularity of, and interest in, the World Feeder Championships certainly suggests that.

One thing I really love about bream fishing is the venues that contain them – big lakes, reservoirs and loughs. It’s proper wild fishing with wind, waves and good scenery. Give me a venue like this over a narrow commercial snake lake any day!

And the best news of all? You can catch bream from springtime onwards and sport just gets better and better as the year goes on.

So here are my tips to help you take a catch of bream you’d previously only dreamed about.

Try them at a lake near you and watch that tip go round!

GROUNDBAIT

There are two types of groundbait that I use for bream fishing, either a fishmeal or a cereal version.

When deciding which to use I have one simple rule – If the venue sees anglers feeding pellets I always go for fishmeal, a mix of Sonu F1 Natural and Dark.

However, if it’s a more natural venue which doesn’t see carp anglers, such as one in Ireland, I’ll go for a cereal groundbait in Super Crumb Bream. Some anglers like very dry mixes but I mix my groundbait slightly on the damp side, just enough so that it holds together, in fact.

RODS

The rods I use for breaming are the Preston 11ft 8ins and 12ft 8ins Dutch Master Method feeder rods.

I use the 11ft 8ins rod for casting up to 50m, then the 12ft 8ins model for going further than this. If you don’t use a long or powerful enough rod you simply won’t be able to cast as far as you need to to catch bream – this is no place for 10ft bomb rods.

Likewise there is a danger of being over-gunned and using rods which are too beefy, which will see hook pulls on small hooks.

I find the Dutch Masters have a great through action for silver fish and bream, but are still very good for long casting.

HOOKS

I use the Preston PR333 for small skimmers, the PR344 for normal skimmers and bream and the PR3555 for bigger bream and aggressive fishing.

It’s important to match the hook size to the size of the bait, for example, maggots go on size 18 and 20 hooks and worms on size 16 and 14. I fish what I can get away with, what the fish will accept on the day.

In an ideal world I’d like to fish a size 14 every time, but it doesn’t work like that!

FEEDERS

For bream fishing I prefer plastic open-end feeders to wire ones. My theory is that the smaller holes mean most of my bait gets to the bottom accurately to where I’m fishing. Plastic feeders also rise off the bottom quicker and don’t vibrate as much in the water as wire when retrieving.

I use plastic feeders up to ranges of about 50m. When I want to go further I’ll go for a wire ‘bullet’ type feeder with all the weight at the bottom. This kind of feeder is very aerodynamic and casts long distances with ease.

I very, very rarely use less than a 30g feeder and on big chucks I might step up to 45g.

LINE CLIP

I’ve not always been the biggest fan of line clips on reels for bream fishing, as I’m confident I can cast in the same area and sometimes I like to spread the bait around a bit for bigger slabs. However, there are times when I need to use them and I’d say they are

LINE

You don’t need braid to spot a bream bite, and for most bream work I’ll use 6lb Power Max – more versatile than braid, soft and stretchy. Braid is aggressive, and is better suited to bigger hooks or shy-biting fish. definitely beneficial. They make it easy to cast in the same spot every time, especially if you have a longer and a shorter line, so make full use of them.

WORMS

Bream are usually absolute suckers for chopped dendrobaena worms so I always take plenty with me to put through the feeder. Very rarely do I start off feeding them, however, because if bream don’t want them they can kill the peg.

It’s better to start more cautiously, putting maggots and casters through the feeder rather than worms. Then you can start introducing them and gauge the response. You tend to get bigger weights feeding worms and with worms on the hook, bites are more aggressive. I’d chop worms into big pieces for bream and ‘mince’ them up for skimmers.