Wednesday 27 July 2016

10,12,16,20,23/7/16 Bream, bream and more bream.

A series of trips to the river with bream to over 7lbs, along with pound plus roach. My best solo outing so far has been fourteen bream for a total weight of 68lb 6oz in a session where I didn't start fishing until 4p.m when the tide had turned to ebb. Copious rafts of debris made the flooding tide completely impossible to fish.
Pound plus roach were a very welcome surprise and, on this particular day, Dave and me had three between us with Dave accidentally dropping his best over the side before weighing.  We guessed it was about a pound and twelve ounces- the largest roach either of us have ever seen in the river. It was certainly bigger than the two we weighed that day at 1lb 5oz, and 1lb 7oz.Bait was small boilie or single fake sweet corn but still fished on the method feeder bolt rig.

 Seven pounds plus and in fine condition. Most of the bream we're catching are in pretty good shape but occasionally, a really beaten up specimen appears. We've even had some with  serious wounds . Pike or cormorant attack perhaps, although the 'black death' are a rare sight on the river.

Two at once. As I was unhooking one fish, the other bait runner went 'Garrity' giving me the chance to get this double shot. Both fish were over 5lb.

One day it pelted down filling the boat up very quickly but the bream continued to feed-one just seconds after this picture was taken. I managed to play it in (yes these river bream scrap to a certain degree) whilst still sitting under the cuddy.

A river sunset on a late evening session .

Dave at the helm. Our scruffy old Orkney really is a very attractive little craft.

 An errant pike 
 that took a shine to a retrieved sweet corn hook bait. We'd suspected he/she might be in the swim as there had been some odd fry activity and also, on an earlier trip, when I put down my underwater camera, a pike briefly showed up in the murky water.
Our quest for an elusive carp or barbel from the swim continues although we may change our pre baiting tactics in an attempt to avoid the bream. Somehow, I think that's going to be a big ask and we'll need a stroke of luck, and some serious rod hours to achieve our goal.

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