Bream 'n carp 'n fings - picking up some stragglers

Vagabond · #1 07-26-2007, 11:52 AM

Species Hunt 2007 No 38 to 42

With the rivers in red flood, this week it had to be still waters or nothing, so had a look at our species hunt list so far, and set a few targets.

A couple of carp (common and mirror are both on the list this year) seemed a good first shot. So out with the trusty split cane stalking rod and Allcock’s Aerial reel, and down to the Old Duck Decoy (a club water) for the afternoon to dip me biscuit.

Freelined mixer was my chosen method – nothing on the line except hook and bait. I haven’t much interest in fishing at long range with controllers – I much prefer to stalk carp in the margins, and hang the bait over a projecting rush or flag stem, as Marshall Hardy and Jim Bazeley taught us to do in the 40’s with bread crust. Yes, margin fishing pre-dates Dick Walker’s writings!

Here is a shot of my first swim.

Got everything ready, and popped in a few freebies – tight under the bank. Sat very quietly for about ten minutes, and YES – ripples under the overhanging vegetation. Kept the hook-bait dry, and fed in some more free biscuits, and soon there were three or four carp jostling for Chum mixers. So keen were they, that I half expected them to wag their tails and bark.

Lowered in the biscuit, and SLURP, down the hatch it went – and had to hold the fish hard, as there were overhanging and partially submerged bushes each side.

Needless to say, that churned up this particular corner rather vigorously, so after this first mirror was landed, it was on to the next likely corner.

A repeat performance brought another mirror to the bank, as did the third, fourth and fifth attempts in three more spots. The water was extremely murky after a lot of rain, and it was difficult to differentiate between common and mirror until they came up for the bait. By now I was snatching the bait off the water if I could see that a mirror was coming for it – but at last, a common rose up and engulfed the mixer (mirrors outnumber commons by about six to one here).

Hooked him fair and square, and off he charged. Played him for several minutes, and was just about to reach for the net when the hook-hold gave. Always a possibility with the small hooks needed for this method (too large and heavy a hook affects the “sit” of the biscuit in the water, and means fewer takes) but WHY did it have to happen with the only common I saw that afternoon?

So finished the afternoon with five mirrors, and just the one set of points.

Next morning (Wednesday) saw an early start to visit Amazon Wood - a commercial fishery near Eastbourne that offers Silver Bream. Left home at 6.15 am to burn down the A22 and was first there just before 7.

I set up some light float gear (no monsters here). Meat is claimed to be the best bait at this venue, although almost any bait will catch.

Chose this corner swim, fishing in the teeth of a stiff breeze which made casting difficult, but I always favour the downwind corner in summer (what summer?)

A carpet of halibut granules and chopped Spam was laid about fifteen feet out, and small cubes of meat fished on the hook.

There are all sorts in here, and which species you catch may depend on size and choice of bait, or sometimes on pure chance. I started off with a long string of “pasty” mirrors, with a decent roach now and then.

Here is a white-eyed roach.

I have noticed this variety in several places (most roach have a red iris to the eye) Also had a few rudd – both the “normal” rudd and the lemon-finned variety are here, and a crucian carp or two.

Ah – crucian is on the species hunt list, so more points!

It was now mid-morning, and I had added tench, gudgeon and perch to the list of species for the day. However, still no silver bream, so I changed to bread paste, then to bread flake (deadly for silvers according to the owner) with no result, and finally tried small sections of lobworm. The lobworm brought a Silver Bream straight away – here he is.

Note the large eye, very long tail, and the silvery colour with a bluish sheen. What the photo doesn’t show is the fact that unlike bronze bream, silvers have virtually no slime – hence silvers are my favourite bream!

With the silver in the camera, I changed to a bigger hook and halibut pellet in an attempt for a better roach. The owner stopped by my swim for a chat, and I took my eye off the float – damn nearly lost the rod as this common carp pulled it off the rests !

Not that big, but never mind, that will do for a point and a half. Home for a rather late lunch.

Had a few worms left, so spent half an hour before breakfast this morning at the pond down the road. Picked up some decent roach, and a “skimmer” that had almost got overlooked – others seem to be counting bronze bream twice, (ie as “bronze” and as “skimmer”) so we will follow suit!

So, out of a mixed bag of ten different species in the last day or so, five are worth a few points. We have a charter trip booked for the weekend, so today will be spent changing gear from freshwater to salt – we just hope the wind will allow us to get out to sea!