Martin Bowler’s Adventures

Our carp magnet goes in search of specimens

STRONG ELASTICS

Bream may not fight strongly, but in running water they can be dogged and hard to get off the bottom. Having the right elastic will help no end in this situation – a solid No6 or No8 is heavy enough or, if you prefer, a hollow version similar to blue or white Hydrolastic.

POSITIVE SHOTTING

There’s little chance of a bream taking the bait as it settles so you don’t need a shotting pattern to try and achieve this. Instead, concentrate all your weight in the bottom third of the rig, typically made up of an olivette with just two or three dropper shot around a No9 in size. Space these evenly between olivette and hooklink.

POT IN THE FEED

Throwing groundbait in by hand may work for roach when you are running the rig through the swim, but it’s never quite as good where bream are concerned. Instead, introduce several balls of groundbait via a pole cup on to the same spot so that you are fishing right over your feed at all times.

BIG FLOATS

A still bait is a must in running water, and the only way to achieve this presentation on the pole is to use a large float. Round-bodied or shoulder up patterns will ride the current well, and you could even try a flat float for the ultimate in presentation. It all boils down to the shotting capacity of the float, and anywhere between 1.5g and 3g will be enough, relative to the pace of the river.

GO OVERDEPTH

To keep the hookbait still, you’ll need to lay some line on the riverbed. How much line is the question, and most anglers will use roughly the length of the float that they are using – in other words, no more than three or four inches.