The capture of a 3lb 11oz roach and 500lb of breamThe weather was wet and windy to say the least when I arrived at my syndicate water in Cambridgeshire on Friday, 23rd May 2008. It was about 3pm when I set up my two carp rods with single pineapple boilies on method feeders, fishing on the bottom of the marginal shelf just off the island in front of me and by 9.30pm I had caught 17 bream between 4lb and 9lb 3oz for 89lb 14oz. I decided to call it a day and get up at 5pm and have a go at the bream on a feeder rod. After all if the carp are not in front of me I might as well try to catch what is! Saturday, 24th May – Bait, tackle and bream to double-figuresMy alarm woke me at 5am. After a cup of coffee and a bacon sarnie I got to work on a bucket of groundbait. This consisted of 3kg of pre-soaked Vitalin, two tins of liquidised sweetcorn and two tins of sweetcorn straight from the tin. I added one bottle of Dynamite Baits Liquid Brazem and two tins of Frenzied Hemp to this, then in went 1kg of fishmeal and 2kg of 3mm halibut pellets. Then I added 2kg of brown crumb and 1kg of white crumb. After adding water a bit at a time to get a usable consistency I made up 30 orange sized balls and put them at the bottom of the island shelf where I had fished the day before. The rod I used was a 12ft Medium/Heavy Shimano feeder rod, to which I attached a Shimano 5000 RE Baitrunner reel filled with 6lb Diawa Sensor clear mono. A cage feeder was then attached direct to the mainline ‘straight through running style’. I then added a buffer bead and then a swivel. A 3ft length of 6lb mono was attached to the swivel and then a size 10 barbless Drennan hook to 5lb nylon attached, bait was two pieces of corn with the hook point showing. I was soon to realise after my first ‘put in’ that there were a lot of fish in front of me due to the nonstop knocks and twitches. A few minutes later the tip and the rod bent round into a healthy curve and I was into my first fish! After which I then caught consistently all day, only stopping to fetch more keepnets! Due to the wind and wanting to sort out some tucker, I stopped fishing at 5pm and started to get the fish weighed, the result was 229lb 10oz, the biggest bream being 10lb 4oz; a fantastic day’s sport. I decided to spend the rest of the day watching TV and chilling out! Sunday, 24th May – More bream and a massive roachI was up at 5am, got breakfast out of the way and put 10 balls of groundbait on the bottom of the shelf again. The response was immediate! The bream were ready for their breakfast too! I caught nonstop all day, at then, at around 2pm I hooked into a fish which did a lot more nodding than a bream should! As it came to the surface in front of me, ready to be netted, I felt that shaky feeling that only comes with the realisation of an extra special fish! “Oh my, it’s a roach!” I muttered. “Please don’t come off.” I netted it; this was one big roach and obviously a personal best. Up the bank I went to the unhooking mat and gently laid the fish on it and unhooked it. I zeroed the scales with the weigh sling on and slipped the roach in. After taking a deep shaky breath I lifted and watched the scales go round to 3lb 11oz . I slipped her in a spare keepnet and went and got one of the other members who was fishing further along the lake to come and help with some pictures.
I carried on fishing for the bream but could not get the roach out of my mind! Around 5pm I weighed the day’s bream catch. The result was 178lb 14oz. Add to that the 3lb 11oz roach. All in all a cracking good day! Monday, 25th May and an anticlimaxIt was blowing a gale and raining! Breakfast out of the way again and in goes 10 balls of groundbait. After two hours of not even a knock on the tip I guess the bream have moved off. A few casts around the area confirmed this, so time to pack up and go home. Over 400lb of bream in 24 hours (nearly 500lb over 36 hours) and a PB roach of 3lb 11oz That weekend will stay with me for the rest of my days. Carl Street
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