Bream hauls
It’s the species that’s keeping stillwater rods and poles bending
Big fish in huge catches – discover how they were taken in our report
DESPITE the heat, anglers out targeting stillwater bream have been sacking up – with bumper nets and specimen fish reported right across the country.
Lake John Fishery in Essex has a reputation for producing big weights of bream, and if recent match results are anything to go by, the weather has clearly had little effect on sport at the two-lake complex.
Angling Times spoke to owner Colin Bartlett to find out just how well the Main Lake has been fishing.
He said: “The bream fishing has been simply phenomenal – anglers have needed 150lb just to frame.
“In a recent Wednesday open here the top five anglers each caught over 100lb of bream, and George Manoli headed the weights with 162lb.
“The top tactic has been to fish short at 6m with corn over micros or worm over groundbait.
“They’ve been catching bream averaging 3lb, but you need to feed a lot to keep them there. Some anglers are feeding up 10 tins of corn a session.
“We all know how hot the weather has been recently so I’ve made sure the water is kept oxygenated every night through the use of pumps.
“On top of this I provide all the nets at Lake John so there’s no risk of disease, and there’s no fishing allowed on Mondays, so the fish get a proper rest.
“I think all these factors combine to account for excellent match weights, which really do speak for themselves.”
A North West reservoir played host to another bumper bream report which saw local angler Matt Ruddy enjoy a catch of well over 100lb of these fish – of which five were into double figures.
By fishing at 45m with a cage feeder filled with groundbait and bunches of dead red maggots on the hook, it didn’t take long for Matt to start hitting into some fish.
He said: “I managed to catch a dozen bream, with the biggest coming in at 13lb.
“It really is amazing when they turn up here because this is a massive 170-acre water with not many fish in it.”
Ashley Newsome, too, enjoyed bream success with a hefty catch of 150lb-plus from an East Midlands park lake.
To get the fish feeding the angler, from Breedon on the Hill, baited a clear gravel area at 100 yards range with three buckets of corn, hemp and dead red maggots.
Fishing a flatbed Method over the top with a Smokey Peach pop-up hook bait brought the takes, and the pick of the bunch was a bream of 7lb 2oz.
Topping off the list of specimen bream catches was youngster Lucas Bailey, with a stunning fish nudging the 12lb mark.
The eight-year-old hooked into the double-figure slab during a session with his dad on a Cheshire Mere.
It fell to a Supreme Marine pop-up over 18mm bottom baits at 50 yards, and smashed his old personal best of 2lb out of sight.