Monster Bream - Steve Swan

This entry was posted on 13th July, 2016

Getting down the lake after work on a Saturday afternoon I could see that the lake was quite busy. I had a walk around to see which swims were left and I was very surprised to see that there was no one in the new swim at the bottom end of the lake. It was the end that the wind was blowing, and it was pretty strong too so, I ran back to car, got all the gear out, and got down there in double quick time so that no one else got in there.

Once I was down there getting all the rods and rest of the gear set up I heard a fish roll, so I stood up to look over the reeds to see where it was. I could see that it had rolled over a 10ft deep silt hole that I had fished last year. So, out went the rods on the usual spots and I put a small scattering of boilies in the general area. Just before dark I received a take on the right hand rod, which was positioned on the far bank along the far reed margin. Shortly after, a lovely common of 18lb was waiting in the net. After getting the rod back I stood next to it; it was just going dark and I could see some fish rolling over the deep hole again. Rubbing my hands together, I thought I would be in for another take later that night. I opened my eyes at 6am on the Sunday morning to see that there had been no action on the rods, but as I sat up on the bed chair to get the kettle on all of a sudden the right hand rod was away again! Unfortunately, this time the fish came off after only a few second of been hooked – I was gutted.  After recasting the rod I again stood looking for any signs of fish. That was when I thought I saw a bream roll over the deeper hole. I knew that there was only a small handful in the lake, so to see one was surprising. I called my brother, who was fishing for the tench on the lake at the time, and told him to save me all his bait so that I could bait up with it and then try fishing over the top of it later that night.

Arriving back at the lake the swim was still free, so I put the rods which were still clipped up and one of my tench rods over the area where I had baited. About two hours after getting the rods out I received a couple of liners on the bream/tench rod and shortly after the alarm let out two quick bleeps and then rattled off. Lifting into the fish I was met with quite a heavy weight on the other end. After a short but heart thumping two or three minutes I had what I can only describe as a monstrous bream in the net. Lifting the net I knew that I had myself a new personal best, but by how much? Getting it on the scales they finished on 16lb 4oz, breaking my PB by over 2lb! I fished the rest of the night with no more action on the rods and waking up the next morning and not seeing any more fish show down that end of the lake I chose to pack up and head to the tackle shop to get a few bits for a future fishing trip to Holme Fen Fishery in August. I went home very happy – what a way to finish off the weekend!