ULTIMATE DESTINATIONS
Plan a post lockdown trip for bream with our ultimate guide
AS the weather begins to warm and the fish really start to wake up, many of us would normally be getting our tackle ready for a day targeting one of Britain’s favourite fish – the bream.
Affectionately known as ‘skimmers’ in their juvenile years, these slab-sided fish have enjoyed a recent resurgence in popularity, particularly among match anglers.
It seems that a certain group are stepping back from hauling commercial carp and are instead honing their feeder fishing tactics on large, natural waters.
Bream are also a favourite of pleasure anglers, not to mention specimen hunters, who now have fish over a remarkable 20lb to target.
Many of these fish have grown fat on carp anglers’ baits and are there for the taking if you’re prepared to put in the time.
With fisheries closed across the country, we’ve selected the top 15 venues to visit for a day targeting these slimy specimens – once we’re allowed back on the bank, of course.
Vast windswept gravel pits right through to silty pools are all home to bream, so flick through the next few pages and plan a trip to one of these special fisheries.
NORTH NEWBRIDGE LAKES, HULL, EAST YORKSHIRE
If you’re looking for a unique day’s fishing, there are few places we would recommend more than the tranquil Newbridge Lakes in Hull.
There are a few pools on site, but Newbridge Lake itself is the one to try for some fantastic bream sport.
This seven-acre former gravel pit is filled with lush lily beds and overhanging willows, and is surrounded by acres of woodland.
It’s home to a fantastic head of bream to 6lb that can be caught in great numbers – 100lb bags are possible, and you can catch on both the feeder and the pole.
Feed heavily with a sweet fishmeal groundbait to draw fish into the peg. On the hook dead maggots, chopped worm, caster and expander pellets are all worth trying. Contact: 07817 058054
Postcode: HU12 9HS
Website: www.newbridgelake.co.uk
ANGLEZARKE RESERVOIR, CHORLEY, LANCASHIRE
The North is home to some huge, windswept venues such as Lancashire’s Anglezarke Reservoir. Quality bream live in this 190-acre venue. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but get it right and there is some excellent fishing to be had.
There are three dam walls to fish from, and a call to Adlington Angling Centre will help you to find out which one is currently in form.
Owing to its size, feeder tactics dominate and chucking around 60 metres out should find the fish. Redworms are well worth trying on the hook, if you can get your hands on some.
Contact: Adlington Angling Centre, 01257 474823
Prices: £5 day tickets, £2 concessions from Adlington Angling Centre in advance
POOL BRIDGE FARM, YORK, NORTH YORKSHIRE
You don’t have to visit a big, daunting venue for excellent bream fishing, as York’s Pool Bridge Farm shows. This attractive fishery is the perfect place for an easy day’s
fishing. Horseshoe Lake is the pool to try, and this mature water is stuffed with quality bream that you can catch just metres from the bank.
Use either a top kit and one section of pole, or simply fish off the rod end, where you can catch quality fish in large numbers on pellet and paste baits.
You’ll find bream all around this lake, but some of the best pegs are along the right-hand bank where the caravans are, as well as on the end of the spit.
Contact: 07928 359420
Postcode: YO19 4SQ
Website: www.poolbridge.co.uk
PENNINGTON FLASH COUNTRY PARK, LEIGH, GREATER MANCHESTER
For larger bream, Pennington Flash Country Park is well worth a try. Fish to double figures can be landed.
This impressive lake is part of a nature reserve and is home to over 230 different species of bird, making it a great place to spend a day.
Leigh and District Anglers Association controls the water, and for just £20 you can gain access to it, as well as a host of other venues that are home to big bream, such as the Bickershaw Specimen Lake. Contact: Leigh Tackle and Bait, 01942 604125
Postcode: WN7 3PA
Website: www.leighanddistrictaa. co.uk
SOUTHFIELD RESERVOIR, EAST COWICK, EAST YORKSHIRE
No list of bream venues would be complete without including Southfield Reservoir.
It’s played a huge role in boosting the popularity of bream fishing in the North, and this immense water really sorts the men from the boys.
It’s hosted several big-money finals in feeder events that have helped to put its name on the map, including the NuFish Feeder King, where Lee Kerry picked up the £10,000 top prize.
Fishing two lines, one at 50m and the other at 30m, should find the fish, but the key to success here is getting the timing of your casts right, and figuring out what feed the fish want on the day.
Southfield is a Doncaster and District AA water, and on its book you can also target the Aire & Calder and New Junction Canals – both of which offer excellent bream fishing. Contact: Wickersley Angling Centre, 01709 540998
Postcode: DN14 9AB
Website: www.ddaa.co.uk
MIDLANDS FERRY MEADOWS, PETERBOROUGH, CAMBS
The two breathtaking waters at Peterborough’s Ferry Meadows have been providing exceptional bream
sport for decades and continues to do so to this day. In the summer you can expect to catch 30lb of 3lb-8lb slabs easily but if you can keep the shoal in your peg, 50lb-100lb-plus can be achieved.
To a newcomer swim choice can be daunting, with around 120 pegs available, but we recommend 1-20 on the Roman Bank, 60-80 on the Monument Bank or 106-116 on Overton as a good starting point.
Typically, casting between 50 and 70 yards with groundbait feeder gear puts you among the bream, although constant baiting closer to the bank will draw them in. Most of the anglers who fish for the bream here opt for an all-out groundbait attack, although some massive weights have been accumulated in the past by feeding lots of pellet and hempseed.
As for hookbaits, the more you take the better. Maggots, dead maggots, corn and chopped worm are firm favourites here, although pellets, wafters and mini boilies score well too.
Contact: 07702 440892 Postcode: PE2 5UU
Website: Visit P&DAA on Facebook
BROOME PITS, BUNGAY, SUFFOLK
For us Broome is one the best bream fisheries in the Norfolk/ Suffolk area and each of the four natural pits offers the chance of catching a new PB, with fish to well over 12lb present.
For consistent bites head to
Pit C and make sure you pack a marker rod with you. There are plenty of gravel bars, plateaux and depressions to target and the bream tend to hold around these areas.
Once you’ve found a suitable spot, clip up and put a generous amount of bait into your swim to draw them in. Regular casting of your feeders will keep bites coming from bream in the 3lb-8lb bracket. The real specimens usually come after dark. Contact: 07976 165325
Postcode: NR35 2PE
CLUMBER PARK, WORKSOP, NOTTS
Known for its bags of bream averaging 8lb but going up to 15lb, Clumber is certainly the venue to visit if you want to catch a new personal best in just one bite!
Fish the pole here and you’ll catch skimmers and the odd bream all day long, but the proper slabs live a little further out at a distance of around 50 yards. The lake is notoriously weedy so spend some time casting around with a lead to find a clear patch. Once you have, bait it with a fishmeal-based groundbait and chuck a Method over the top with a banded pellet or wafter. Bream to 12lb are often caught this way.
Contact: 01909 476592 or email chris.ingham@nationaltrust.org.uk Postcode: S80 3BD
Website: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ clumber-park
KINGSBURY WATER PARK, SUTTON COLDFIELD, W MIDS
There are at least half-a-dozen natural lakes to target at this idyllic water park but the best for bream has to be the 47-acre Bodymoor Heath. Unlike most gravel pits, Bodymoor has a uniform depth of around 6ft which means the water doesn’t take long to warm up and inspire the bream to feed.
It’s absolutely stuffed with bream between 3lb-4lb, but don’t be surprised if the odd low doublefigure fish takes your bait.
Groundbait feeder tactics are all you need here with casters, maggots, corn and worm hookbaits favoured over pellets and boilies – 80lb-100lb bags are easily achievable in the summer, especially from swims near the Causeway Pool. Contact: 01827 872660
Postcode: B76 0DY
Website: www.warwickshire.gov. uk/parks
WOODLAND WATERS, ANCASTER, LINCOLNSHIRE
A year ago we would have been telling you to pay Woodland’s Specimen Lake a visit for bream, but fishery management have since removed several hundred slabs and stocked them into the Match Lake.
At seven acres, Match is now what you’d call a bream super-water with fish to 8lb. You can find a depth of around 12ft fairly close in which means you can enjoy superb sport on the pole, with dead maggot over groundbait favoured. Traditional feeder tactics also work well but the most fun can be had in the summer by catching them shallow on wag and mag tackle.
Contact: 01400 230888 Postcode: NG32 3RT
Website: www.woodlandaters.co.uk
SOUTH SHEARWATER LAKE, WARMINSTER, WILTSHIRE
This 36-acre lake is set amid stunning woodland scenery on the Longleat Estate in the heart of Wiltshire. For that reason, it is as popular with dog walkers and hikers as it is with fishermen.
The fishing is fantastic, with both bream and carp in abundance, leading to bumper weights for pleasure anglers.
Feeder fishing is by far the most effective target on here, with the best catches of bream taken down the deeper dam end of the lake.
Be sure to feed a lot of bait too – these vast shoals of fish averaging 3lb-5lb will get through buckets of groundbait and particles in no time.
They have even been known to be so ravenous that they have taken carp anglers’ dog biscuits off the surface - very un-bream-like behaviour!
Contact: 01985 844496 or 07593 834596
Postcode: BA12 8AE
Website: www.longleat.co.uk/fishing
CHARD RESERVOIR, CHARD, SOMERSET
Popular with both match and carp anglers, this impressive 48-acre reservoir is a gorgeous spot to fish. It has a nature reserve down the far end, which lends to some stunning and unique wildlife visiting the water, making fishing here that bit more magical.
The bream fishing is prolific, with 100lb bags of slabs ranging from small hand-sized skimmers to double-figure specimens.
A traditional cage feeder or flatbed Method feeder are the best ways to approach the bream fishing here. Bait-wise they aren’t that fussy, often falling to carp anglers’ boilies. Contact: Please use contact form on club website.
Postcode: TA20 1RR
Website: www.chardanglingclub. co.uk
BURY HILL FISHERIES, DORKING, SURREY
The famous Bury Hill Complex actually made our list last week of Dream Tench Venues with its Milton Lake. It would be impossible to cover a list of bream venues, however, without including the historic Old Bury Hill Lake itself.
The 200-year-old Victorian estate lake is renowned for its beauty and one-of-a-kind fishing, with anglers being able to venture out
on a punt to fish. As for bream, it holds a remarkable stock of slabs to over 10lb, with hauls of over 100lb commonplace. Feeder fishing with chopped worm and casters dominates here.
Contact: 01306 883621
Postcode: RH4 3JU
Website: www.buryhillfisheries.co.uk
LAKE JOHN, WALTHAM ABBEY, ESSEX
Not one for the specimen hunters but if you are looking to have a day of endless bream action, you will struggle to find anywhere better. There are lots of bream in the Top Lake, with nets over 100lb possible. There are plenty of smaller skimmers and a good head of larger bronze bream in the 2.5-acre lake as well as a host of other species.
Unlike some of the venues we have mentioned, you can catch as many fish on the pole or float as you can on the feeder. They love pellets at this venue but so do the carp, so remember to tackle up strong! Contact: 07958 938153
Postcode: EN9 2BJ
Website: www.lakejohnfishery.co.uk
TODBER MANOR, STURMINSTER NEWTON, DORSET
From someone wanting to catch their very first bream, right up to those looking for a mid-doublefigure specimen, this Dorset complex has the lot. To bag up, head to the match-style waters Ash and Homeground.
On these lakes, fishing the pole or feeder with pellets will fool skimmers and larger bream to 6lb.
The runs water, Wadmill, can also provide superb bream sport on light feeder tactics, if you can find a way to avoid the vast numbers of carp.
The biggest specimens on site are to be found in Little Hayes Lake. Rarely targeted, these bream have grown to over 14lb on carp anglers’ pellets and boilies. A scaled-down carp approach is the best way to tackle the fishing here.
Contact: 01258 820384
Postcode: DT10 1JB
Website: www.todbermanor.co.uk