Startops Reservoir, part of the Tring complex, has always been associated with big bream and once held the bream record with a fish of 12 lb 15 oz caught by a Mr Bench. The water has few features and throughout the summer it tends to be very weedy. This, in combination with the massive amount of natural food available to the fish, makes it a very difficult water.
My first task was to set about finding where the weed was in relation to the only real feature of the reservoir, this being the raised chalk/flint bottom around the water inlet for the reservoir which is found some 90-100 yards from the Marsworth and Canal banks. I planned to fish at various depths on top and down the sides of the offside edge of the gulley that leads to the inlet. After an initial pass of the area with my echo sounder it decided to pack up and I was unable to fix it. The next day I returned with my prodding stick, a 12′ long carbon landing net pole, so that I could do the job manually, but the weather was very windy and I was unable to get onto the water until the evening.
Rods were custom-built 12′ Harrison 1lb 12 oz Interceptors coupled with Shimano 10000XTE’s loaded with 15lb Fox Submerge. Simple paternoster rigs with size 6 Drennan Carbon Specimen hooks to 9″ of 12 lb Suffix Silky Soft or 10lb Silkworm and 2 1/2 oz leads fished on weak links completed the setup.
That night I baited with 100 chopped lobs, 2lbs of sweetcorn and a gallon of casters which I had managed to get hold of cheaply. Hookbaits were lobworms, which have proven to be by far the best bait for bream on Startops over the last few years. As it got dark I wondered whether the bream would feed over the raked area, as in the past I had done far better fishing over naturally clear areas as opposed to those that had been cleared by us.
My fears proved unfounded as within the first thirty minutes of darkness I started to get liners and just after 11pm I got my first bite which, from the outset, was clearly a big bream, gliding until it hit the marginal shelf and then thumping about up and down the shelf before rolling repeatedly as I drew her to the net. As I lifted the net I knew she was a good fish and the scales confirmed her at 13 lb 2oz, which was a great way to start since I had only been fishing for a little over two hours. I photographed her and put her back and as I walked back up the reservoir steps I was away on one of my other rods. After a similar fight I landed another fish which appeared to be about the same size and the scales confirmed her to be the same weight as my first fish at 13 lb 2 oz. Within half an hour I had another fish of 8 lb 9 oz and then things went quiet until dawn when I had a fish of 8 lb 14 oz.
Tench join the fun The third evening saw me land a 10 lb 13 oz bream early on and then things again went quiet before I managed another fish of 11 lb 2 oz at dawn. As I was putting the fish back I noticed a large tench roll and with a bit of searching found a couple of clear spots and placed a couple of lobs in the area. Within an hour I had a bite on the right hand rod and after a very good scrap I landed a large tench which at 24″ and completely spawned out went 9 lb 6 oz.
With the school holidays starting my youngest son Matt (13) joined me. Matt was going to fish the area where the tench had been showing at the bottom of the marginal shelf at about twenty five yards whilst I concentrated on the distance swim. That night the fishing slowed and I had only a tench of 5lb 12oz and a roach/bream hybrid at 2 lb 15 oz. Matt had a perch of 2 lb 6 oz quite early on and followed it up with a PB perch of 3 lb 4 oz a few hours later. Early in the afternoon, whilst chatting with the famous Tring bailiff, Bernard Double, Matt had a bite and hooked into a good fish. We assumed he had hooked another perch but suddenly he called out that it was a big bream. I grabbed a net and jumped down the bank shouting at Matt to play it gently and within in a minute she was in the net. At 10 lb 5 oz she was Matt’s first double and his second PB of the day. What a way to celebrate the first day of the school holidays.
The biggest hits the bank and weighs well over 14lb That night I had only one bite, the fish spooking the rest of the bream as it stubbornly refused to budge from the mark for 30 seconds. After a dogged fight she came into view as I drew her to the net and I realised immediately that she was a bigger fish. On lifting the net I knew she would be 14 lb+. Older looking than the other fish I had been catching she measured 26 inches long and although not very fat she had a very deep back and chest and weighed 14 lb 13 oz. Unfortunately I chose to try out the night option, which uses multiple flashes, on my camera for the first time and the resulting photos turned out to be very poor with the background appearing through me and the fish. A harsh lesson learnt – I won’t be using that program on my camera again.
The next night I had to go out in the evening and because of restrictions on the times at which boats can be used I was unable to bait up. This inevitably meant that I blanked but the following evening saw me once again on the bank. I again baited up with caster and sat back with confidence, waiting for my first bite, which I then promptly missed! I was more careful with the second and third and they turned out to be my second brace of ‘thirteens’ with the first going 13 lb 3 oz and the second 13 lb 3 oz 8 dr. This season just keeps on getting better. Andy Nellist, ‘The Dog’ |
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