More Screams in the Night

I think I'm starting to remember why I stopped fishing for bream all those years ago. I don't really like night fishing, I'd rather be at home sipping Rioja and annoying people on the internet. Setting a trap and lying in a bivvy in the cold and the dark isn't really my cup of tea - I prefer to be active in my fishing. Still, while I've got some big bream to go at I may as well make hay.

I managed just two of them this week, a 12lb 3oz beastie which took popped up corn and a dumpy little fish of 10lb 5oz which took mini boilies.

The bites on the rig I'm using are so easy to hit it's untrue. The bream hook themselves and drag the heavy (60g) feeder around sending the bobbin bouncing up and down and the alarms screaming in protest until I lift the rod and reel 'em in. Damn bream! They won't even flick a fin as they are hooked and dragged towards the bank, but as soon as they get there they just won't sit still. Trying to hold them for a photograph is near impossible as they flip-flop all over the place on the bank.

The wildlife at this lake is just fabulous. I've spent two days serenaded by bullfinches and yellowhammers - two of Britain's most exquisite birds and there are green woodpeckers, reed buntings, jays and cuckoos flying about all around. Damn difficult things to photograph though, birds. I got a few shots of a dunnock that came pecking at insects in the mud close to where I was sat and that was it. I'll have to lie in wait for those bullfinches I think.