WAIT FOR IT, WAIT FOR IT.

What next? Always the first question when we get to the pub. The syndicate lake has been productive in terms of Roach and, to a lesser degree, Tench and Bream on our last two visits. It was time for a change and the club lake was top of the list. It's something of a phenomenon in my eyes. There are loads of Carp in there but but despite that it offers fantastic fishing for Roach, Rudd, Crucians, Tench and Bream. Bizarrely, if you're not fishing for them, the Carp intrude so rarely, as to not be an issue. One can fish sweetcorn on 1lb line and hardly ever hook one whereas on the syndicate lake, it appears to be impossible by anything other than extreme good fortune, to avoid them. I fished a single grain of hemp last week and hooked four. So, what method to use?

 

Well, my stash of worms was on its knees' They wouldn't last much longer and I still had a half pint of casters left from my visit to the Leam. Floatfishing them close in would surely lead to an endless round of mini-Perch bashing so I decided to get the feeder rod out again. It's been a long time since I fished the tip for Bream and what better bait than caster and worm. A 10 gram feeder then on a nice soft rod at 25 yards; a sweet fishmeal groundbait to carry as much chopped, spindly and very tired dendros as it could along with half a pint of casters was the plan. It was not, it has to be said, spectacular for the first half hour but my five minute casts eventually worked their magic. Once they did however I never made another cast that lasted as long. The swim began fizzing and popping in a mass of fine bubbles and the tip was hammering away long before the feeder hit the deck.

Bubbles don't always impress me that much. I've spent too many biteless hours fishing over fizzing Tench swims but these, it turned out, were Bream bubbles and they kept at it furiously from 8 o clock to to 11 when they died away somewhat. Surprisingly given that there were far more casters than worms in the groundbait the former produced nothing. My worms however were chewed and hammered relentlessly. As usual it took me a while to curb my enthusiasm and leave the rod alone until the tip either went round and stayed round or rattled continually and became impossible to ignore. Then and only then did I hook up.

 I find a perverse and guilty pleasure in Bream angling. True, after a succesful morning everything stinks and is covered with slime but they are one of the few larger fish that can be safely tackled with fine lines and small hooks. Bites when you get them are bold and the strike is met with a satisfying solidity even from smaller specimens. I had a couple of dozen of what many anglers, wishing to appear clever, would call skimmers this morning but they ran to over two pounds and gave me a lot of fun on a tiny wand. A couple of hand sized Roach joined in along with a rather nice male Tench of two and three quarters to mix things up. Talking of mixing things up Friday is earmarked for a return to the syndicate lake and I am feeling that shit or bust might be my approach for the Bream there but we shall see.