The big fish column: Bream are more than a nuisance

With river anglers finally enjoying more consistent sport the pace has also picked up on the stillwaters with most species starting to feed well; the only exception being tench, which can be poor late summer and early autumn feeders.

Bream, on the other hand, get something of a second wind during the autumn.

The Thames is as good a venue as any and with reports of the occasional double-figure bream filtering through it is clear the flowing waters offer some great sport. The numbers of fish has never been in question but now the big fish are beginning to come through too and, although they are still rare, the average size of Thames fish continues to rise with 7/8lb not uncommon captures.

For the biggest bream, stillwaters will always be the ultimate challenge and although locally we do not have many waters with massive potential some of the Kennet Valley pits offer exceptional fish if you are prepared to set your stall out and wait.

It does remain a fact, and a frustrating one for bream anglers, that most big bream are caught by accident by carp anglers and more often than not go unrecorded.

Sometimes the carp angler realises he or she has something a bit special and does bother to land and weigh the fish accurately and such was the case with Twyford angler Jason Cook, fishing for carp on one of the Reading and District waters.

Jason was on a water which has a track record for big bream but when his Mainline Cell boilie was picked up by a fish - which he described as bigger than a bin lid - he just had to find out how large it really was.

When the scales registered 14lb 12oz he realised he had probably been underestimating the weight of many of the bream he had caught from the venue in the past.

Jason caught his fish on gear intended for carp and as far as bream are concerned it was none too subtle with a 3lb test rod and 15lb main line with a running 3oz lead and size 8 longshank hook to 25lb coated braid at the business end. Jason presented the rig over a bed of hemp and broken boilies on a patch of clean gravel at a range of around 100m.

With the spring weight of bream likely to be a pound or more heavier than they currently are I imagine Jason will be taking a little more interest in some of the ‘nuisance’ fish he catches next year.

To report catches call 07780 755138 or email ian@bigfishtrail.com