Sunday 1 April 2012

Half a ton of Bream but wheres the Tench?

With all the unseasonably warm weather over the last week i was well up for some Tench fishing this weekend so i planned a Saturday morning session to my favourite water with my old mucker Keith. I knew the fish had already begun to show as several had been caught by those lucky enough to be able to get down earlier in the week.
I met Keith on the bank at about 5.30am just before first light and conditions looked pretty good, calm with quite a bit of cloud cover and a mild air temperature. As it got light there was a few fish showing in front of me at around 60-70yards so i cast both method feeders out to them around 20yards apart and clipped up. The waterfowl were in full dawn chorus and after about an hour of listening to their deafening cacophony i suddenly became aware of another sound, my first bite of the day! The bobbin was bouncing in a very Breamlike fashion as i picked up the rod and lifted into the fish. The distinctive nodding on the end of the line confirmed my suspicions and soon enough a Bream of about 5-6lb was lying on the mat.
Within minutes of recasting the same rod was away again with a slightly larger specimen which weighed in at over 7lb. I noticed that the fish were still rolling over my baited area and i had a feeling that i could be on for a good day. Keith chipped in with a Bream of his own next and at 8.6 it was a good fish for the lake and worthy of a pic but it was at this point i realised id left my camera in the bag i took to Hanningfield last week, doh! Any pics now would have to be taken on my phone which is really rubbish as can be seen from the pic below of an 8.10 fish i caught just after Keiths.


By now the Bream had really moved in and both of us were getting lots of liners in between catching them. I missed or bumped at least 5 fish but i ended up landing eight Bream for a total weight of over 60lb, a good mornings sport by any stretch of the imagination. The Tench were conspicuous by their absence and i can only put the fact that we never had any down to the Bream feeding hard and pushing them out of the swim? The Tench are usually more dominant in catches as the weather warms up so theres plenty of time yet.  All but one of todays Bream were upper 7s and 8s so they were a good average size but the lakes Tench are the real draw and it wont be long before im back down to bank a few im sure.

6 comments:

  1. Excellent stuff Leo. Any sign of tubercles at all?

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  2. It was the same every time I used groundbait on there mate, pestered by snotties, get back on the maggot ;)

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  3. did not realise it was you on the bank opposite - nice catch but as you say the tench are the target. lads at the end had two 8's so it's a start.

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  4. Ahh yeah the bream, have been getting alot of them too lately. Still haven't landed my first tench of 2012, on the other hand landed a 26.8 lbs Mirror Carp the 24th march.

    Hope the tench will become more active soon, non the less nice bream you got there with great color.

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  5. Glad your on board Steve! yes most of the Bream had tubercles, one of them was rough as sandpaper!

    Was that you in the trees bang opposite us Phil? thinking about it i remember seeing your van come past but it never registered with me at the time!

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  6. That was me but no fish which seems the story of my life at the moment - plenty of livebait size things that would be a dream if I was after zander or pike but! Did loose what I thought was most likely a very big perch yesterday when it found the snag at my feet - very annoyed.

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