Following on from our big bream fishing podcast on the banks of a notoriously difficult Berkshire pit it seemed only reasonable to ask Adrian to open his tackle bag and tackle box and to reveal those essential bits and pieces he just wouldn’t be without when he is chasing giant slabs.
Adrian duly obliged and over mugs of tea we talked top tackle and bait for, arguably, the trickiest of all big fish to catch.
Kwik Change Swivels
First up for Adrian were items most specialist anglers carry in one guise or another, Kwik Change swivels and Kwik Change ring swivels.
“I’d be lost without these pretty much whatever I fish for, not just bream” said Adrian, “I could fish without them but they make my fishing so much easier and they take all of the hassle out of changing hooklengths.”
S3 Kuro Hooks
Adrian’s choice is the Fox S3 Kuro pattern which is a curved, short shank hook with a straight point and a black, non-reflective finish. Size 10 suits most of his rig and bait requirements for the species. Adrian commented:
“In the podcast you pointed out quite rightly that bream don’t fight so there is no need for a really heavy gauge hook pattern but most of the bream waters I fish do have a good head of carp – many of them running to well over 30lb – so I do like to make sure if I connect with one of those my hook won’t let me down and these are spot on; I’ve landed some excellent carp on them as well as all of my recent big bream.”
15lb Coretex
Adrian is a fan of coated braids for hooklengths with 15lb Coretex his usual first choice for bream fishing, but I had to ask why black? Surely green or brown were usually the first choices of most carp and specialist anglers unless they were fishing over dark silt?
“I love the black!” he said, “It’s probably the colour which looks most natural underwater over most substrates, even gravel. Look underwater and you will see so many threads of black roots, bits of black decaying plant matter, general black detritus, silt pockets etc. it is the natural first choice for underwater camouflage as far as I’m concerned.”
Corn
Next Adrian delves into the back of his bivvy and pulls out a selection of baits; when I point out they are not exactly tackle items he makes the point that they are essential bream kit and I have to agree! First up is his (and my) favourite bream hookbait – corn.
Adrian carries cans containing grains in a variety of colours and flavours from the plain bog standard yellow to strawberry and scopex variants and he rates corn as his number one choice of bream hookbait on the majority of venues he fishes, usually presented as a small stack.
“There is one other hookbait I would be showing you that was every bit the equal of corn.” he said, “but sadly Dynamite Baits have discontinued it – you know the one Ian, you rate it highly too – hookable halibut pellets!”
I did indeed know the one and had to agree with Ade if I had to catch a bream to save my life I’d have a corn stack on one rod with a hookable Hali on the other…mind you, unlike Adrian, I’ve still got a couple of tubs in my bait shed for special occasions!
Betaine Pellets
Adrian’s next choice came as a bit of a surprise; I was expecting pellets for sure but for me bream mean fishmeal pellets, high oil halibut pellets in particular but the bag Adrian held up was a carp style Betaine Green Swim Stim carp pellet – low in oil. He explained:
“I do use halibuts but I really love these and find bream are really attracted to betaine. The Spirulina which gives the green colour to the pellets is a brilliant bream attractor too. I tend to use a mix of different types and sizes of pellets but I wouldn’t fish for bream without these.”
Silver X Feeder Groundbait
“I use the Silver X Feeder Groundbait for most of my bream fishing,” said Adrian, he continued:
“There are a couple of different types: the Explosive version I’ve got here is packed with crushed and grilled hemp which makes it highly active and it explodes out of the feeder to release the feed quickly. The Specimen version contains plenty of crushed pellet as well as some other large particles and that’s the one I use if I have to ball out and hold large quantities of loosefeed firmly in place. Both have their place and both are essential bream feed for me.”
Leadcore
Getting back to the tackle and Adrian’s next pick was a spool of Fox Adaptive Camo Leadcore and a leadcore leader.
“Keeping everything in the vicinity of your baited patch and rig pinned down is fundamental to most big fish angling and with bream notorious for giving line bites as they browse and pick over a swim the last thing I want to do is spook them.
This leadcore is easy to splice and comes in both green and brown variants so I can tailor it to the situation I’m fishing but I do use the readymade leadcore leaders too. From a camo point of view the disruptive pattern is pretty effective and of course it sinks like a brick!”
Marker Float
Adrian’s final pick was again one which most big fish anglers wouldn’t dream of fishing without – a marker float and feature finding lead.
“Knowing exactly what you are fishing over is so fundamentally critical to all fishing I just couldn’t contemplate a session without a marker set up.” he said. “Bream have particular requirements as to what they will and won’t feed over and although this particular pit can be a bit left field it is still critical – weed for example is usually a massive turn off for bream.”
Having been through his bream kit I thanked Adrian and said my goodbyes as he started to pack up – after another blank couple of nights. Fishing for big bream, and we are talking here of fish in excess of 14lb, usually means the blanks outweigh the captures by a massive margin and this session was another in a long list.
With Adrian a highly accomplished all round angler I have no doubt I shall be delving through his kit for other species in the near future – watch this space…
