“DURING the spring, I targeted the bream stocks in a southern lake but the venue fished hard, with very few fish being caught. I returned for another crack in October, with the hope they’d feed at this end of the year, but they didn’t, and after several tough sessions in excellent conditions – mild winds and low air pressure – I only had one 12lb bream to show for my efforts.
“Unperturbed, I decided to give it one last go recently, despite the bright skies and chilly conditions. I’d heard that a big bream had been caught by a carp angler from a particular area, and so this seemed to be a good spot to start.
“I knew that the carpers used very little loosefeed, so I decided to leave the spod rod in its holdall and rely instead on just solid PVA bags to introduce a small pile of attraction around my baits. I had nothing to lose given my recent poor run of results adopting my usual tactics.
“In each bag I used a mix of Dynamite Swim Stim Yellow and Complex-T pellets, along with a little groundbait, a few maggots and some broken Complex-T boilies.
On the hook I used either fake corn or Complex-T wafters, fished on size 8 Fox hooks with 15lb Camotex hooklinks.
“In such a large water, it was hard to sit on my hands and resist the temptation to spod out a little extra bait, but I’m glad I did, as it turned out to be an incredibly productive session!
“A 12lb 9oz bream kicked things off, and I then had an amazing run of big fish, with bream of 15lb 9oz, 16lb 3oz, 16lb, 16lb 8oz and then 17lb 4oz falling over the next few nights. I rounded it off with another small specimen of around 13lb, before calling it a day and heading for home with a big smile on my face.
“The long run of blanks in spring and summer was certainly soon forgotten, and to catch five bream over 15lb in one sitting was incredible, and probably something I’ll never achieve again.”