Easy does it for dream bream

Gravel pit bream are relatively straightforward to catch and could easily deliver a new personal best, according to top specimen hunter Mike Lyddon

IF YOU are looking to beat a personal best this year, target gravel pit bream. Not only are they magnificent-looking, but specimen pit bream are almost idiot-proof to catch, so legendary is their greed and appetite! The great thing about these slab-sided fish is they are very much creatures of habit. They tend to sit as far away from the banks as they can, in open water. So, as long as you give them plenty to eat, it won’t be long before they turn up. One angler who loves specimen fishing is Gardner Tackle and Sticky’s Mike Lyddon. And with a personal best bream of 17lb 10oz, he knows a thing or two about the species. “When it comes to targeting big fish, bream are such an easy target, that it can almost become boring catching them,” joked Mike, as a slightly wry grin crossed his face. “Being a greedy shoal fish, they will be instantly attracted to any large beds of bait. All you have to do is wind them in.” Although we weren’t expecting any 17-pounders on the day, we joined Mike at the famous Bluebell Lakes complex, near Peterborough. Setting up on Bluebell Lake itself we expected plenty of action, and that is exactly what Mike and his tactics gave us.

Locating your quarry

The great thing about these slab-sided fish is they are very much creatures of habit, regardless of where they are found. But the first rule of gravel pit bream fishing is locating the fish. With Bluebell Lake having very few underwater features – such as bars or plateaus – location is relatively straightforward. “As you can fish from both banks, it’s a nobrainer to start the session casting halfway across the lake,” said Mike. “There is also a decent depth in the middle too – around 15 feet. “Bream are a lazy species, so tend to spend most of their time away from bankside disturbance, in the deeper water where the light levels are much lower.” The one angler-friendly aspect of bream you can actively pursue is that they roll. At dawn or dusk, they often give themselves away by topping, making shoal location very simple. Of course, the fish might not be here every single time, but it is often a great starting point. “Bream shoals have regular patrol routes as well as regular haunts, which may typically hold a lot of natural food, for example. “If you can locate one of these zones, you’re halfway there to filling your boots every time,” added Mike. However, if you are looking to regularly fish pits for bream, Mike recommends using a marker float set-up that will make your session so much more productive because you will quickly be able to pinpoint underwater features. “Bream despise weed, and always feed over a clean bottom. If I can find a large gravel patch, then that’s all the better,” he added.

Priming the spot

Bream love their food, so it is paramount you give them plenty to eat. When he gets to his swim, the first item out of Mike’s car is his groundbait mixture. “I like to give it at least 20 to 30 minutes to fully soak,” he explained. “For today’s session, I’m looking to exploit the bream’s love of sweet fishmeal mixes.”

Mike used a three part mix of Sonubaits Bream Feeder, Hemp and Hali Crush and Super Crush Green. To mix it though, he first adds the juice from a tin of Tutti Frutti sweetcorn and a good splash of Sticky Krill liquid to a quantity of lake water. He mixes the crumb first and riddles out any lumps prior to adding the corn particles because dry crumb can dry out sweetcorn kernels that will then will float. With Bluebell being quite deep, he also mixes the groundbait slightly stodgy so it falls to the bottom quickly without producing too much of a cloud on its decent. Regarding hookbaits, bream have very catholic tastes, so he is fishing with three rods with different baits on each of his hooks – an F1 S Pellet, a piece of fake corn soaked in Betalin and an 8mm pineapple pop-up boilie. “Even though the majority of the loosefeed is fishmeal-based, I much prefer to use sweet hookbaits because I think the bream home in on them quicker,” he continued. “Then, as the session progresses, if one bait outfishes the others, I will swap the rods over to that particular hookbait.”

Tackling up for slabs

Although you are looking to target specimens, there is no need to spend hundreds of pounds on specialist kit. As gravel pits tend to be quite large, a heavier rod than you might use on a commercial will be needed, something with a test curve between 1.5lb and 2.25lb. This will enable you to make longer casts as well as leaving a little power in reserve if you hook into a large carp, which abound in these types of water. The rest of Mike’s set-up is really rather straightforward. The mainline is 10lb Gardner Pro to a 3ft lead-free leader with a flying back lead threaded on above the leader. This helps the terminal end lie flat on the deck, preventing line bites that could possibly spook the shoal. For his feeder, Mike takes a cue from match anglers, turning to flatbed Method feeders, which he loads with his groundbait mixture. The hooklink is 4in of Speci Skin with the coating removed leading to a size 10 barbless target hook.

Theory into practice

Setting up in the centre of the lake, Mike kicked things off with 4kg of his groundbait and corn mixture, spread over a circular area of around 15 feet in diameter. Over this he planned to place his three rods. As the water was still very cold, rather than casting every 30 minutes as he would in summer, Mike looked to recast around every 90 minutes to two hours. “In summer, when the small fish are more active, it pays to recast more regularly, but now I can leave them in a little longer to allow the fifish to settle,” explained Mike. “After I have had a fish or two, I then like to rebait the area with four to six Spombs.” The reason for this is that bream are shoal fish so if he has had a couple of bites, there is a fair chance that much of the loosefeed he has already put in will have been eaten. With bream having massive appetites, it pays to top up so you can hold the shoal over your baited area. In typical bream fashion, the day started bright and sunny and bites were therefore hard to come by. By lunchtime the clouds had moved in and this is when Mike received his fifirst bite, a lovely drop back followed by a positive run. Weighing around 6lb it was a pleasing start and a typical stamp for Bluebell Lake. After this first fish, the flood gates opened and more and more slabs steadily fell to the 47-yearold’s Method feeder tactics. By teatime, Mike had landed no less than six slab-sided, deep bronze bream – the smallest being 6lb, the largest pushing 8lb. Not a bad result, particularly as at least five of them would qualify you for a Mission Specimen Bream Badge. Mike’s approach really is specimen hunting made easy…

Generously Spomb a widish area with loosefeed to prime the swim with groundbait

Mike uses a measuring stick to accurately mark his casting position