More Tench - and a Bream!

Well the tench fishing has been rather good, with loads of 6lb+ fish but I haven't had anything to beat the nine pounder this season. The tench spawned shortly after catching that one and their weights dropped a fair bit but there are still some nice fish to be had. I've changed my approach somewhat and have been fishing with bream in mind for a couple of sessions now. So it's away with the maggots and blockend feeders and on with the "method" rigs. I've been using the heaviest Fox method feeders and fishing the hooklengths helicopter style on sections of ESP leadcore. Coupled with a heavy rod (2.25lbTC) I'm able to pack a big ball of bait onto the feeder and whack it out a long way where, hopefully, the bream are waiting. I've only managed one bream so far, this 11lb 11oz specimen which picked up the sweetcorn baited hook and ran towards me with the feeder giving an unmissable dropback bite. I hooked another bream but sadly, it came off halfway in.

The rig works well for tench too and with the tench now averaging around 7lb they are well worth catching. I had this one of 8lb 2oz last night a little after 2am. Forgive the manic stare, I was in the land of nod when it took the bait and hadn't fully recovered by the time I took the photograph. I'm really pleased with the way my self-takes are coming out these days. The Jessops adaptor coupled with the swivel screen on the Canon make self takes a doddle even in the dark.

See how different this fish looks compared to the spawny nine pounder below.