DRENNAN CUP Huge bream haul takes award
Four fish for nearly 70lb… topped by a 19lb 3oz giant
NIGHT fishing is back on the cards – and one man who wasted no time in making the most of the new rules is Dorset angler Tim Jackson, who enjoyed the kind of bream session that dreams are made of.
Fishing a southern stillwater, Tim banked four fish weighing 19lb 3oz, 17lb 10oz, 16lb 10oz and 14lb 7oz in one memorable Monday night.
The session coincided with a full moon, and Tim knew conditions were perfect. After finding some firm clay spots 80yds out, he baited an area 30yds wide with 3kg of crushed boilies before spreading his rods across it with the hope of picking off fish as the shoal worked its way along the bait.
As the moon rose high over Tim and his friend Simon that night, the bream well and truly switched on. “At 9pm my first bite came, and I lifted into what I initially guessed would be a big fish by the way it hugged the bottom throughout the fight,” he told us.
“She went 17lb 10oz on the scales, and shortly after recasting at 10.30pm, one of my other rods gave a few bleeps. The bobbin lifted just half-aninch, and I knew it was another bream. Lifting into it, this one didn’t move from the spot. I played it in silence, knowing it was a massive fish, until the biggest bream we’d ever seen emerged from the deeps.”
It weighed in at 19lb 3oz, but the action didn’t stop there, with Tim landing further fish of 16lb 10oz and 14lb 7oz in his session.
“I was stinking of bream and in shock at what had just happened,” he added. “The lake is only 25 acres and has a very small shoal of bream, which is what made this catch so special.”
Tim’s fish fell to hand-rolled 8mm fishmeal boilies, presented on eight-inch supple braided hooklinks.
I’ve spent the last year establishing my homemade bait which has played a big part in my results. I feel very lucky to have landed these fish in a session I won’t forget.”
“I played it in silence, knowing it was a massive fish, until the biggest bream I’d ever seen emerged from the deeps”