Like Buses

The weekend couldn't come fast enough as I was eager to get back out on the bank and fish again.

This time I was more prepared and got down to the waters edge for dawn and spombed the usual sweet mix into my familiar swim.
I did contemplate a different swim on arrival, but having seen more tench in this area then anywhere else on the lake, why go else where.

The morning was warm, but overcast and no one else was about. Perfect. The spombing was efficiently done after abit of raking was undertaken, the swim was rested until everything else was setup and ready.

The rigs were to be the same on the rods, but the bait on the boilie rod was to be the new handmade bait given to me by the bailiff to try whilst fishing fake maggots on the inline feeder rig.

With both rod now baited and cast out, it was time to boil the kettle, prepare bankside breakfast and enjoy the first cuppa of the session.
With the kettle bubbling aware the inevitable happened. The bobbin on the boilie rod was jangling , then swiftly lifted to the rod. Stumbling down the bank, I grabbed the rod as the reel started to spool. Lifting into a moving fish I was confident that this was a tench and that it was making off at pace across the lake. The fish fought well and gave a good account of itself before appearing in the upper layers. It was no tench, but one of the bream the resident bream.
After netting, unhooking and muttering about the slim it was slipped back to continue to pester the tench.


The bait was still intact and it was cast back out and I went back to enjoying the breakfast that was slowly getting cold. Alas it was to go cold, because no sooner had the next spoonful been put in my mouth and the Delkim was bleeping, bobbin was rising and the reel churned. This was certainly no bream. The line sung in the breeze and a paddle tail slapped the surface as it boiled and turned over before taking line. Weed floated to the surface as the tench made a bid for freedom down the margins. The tench turned for open water and was doing its best to shake the hook, but it was within the range of the net and soon in its folds.
Not a monster, but a good size for the water and another over the 5lb mark for the season.
It was soon unhooked and returned with a slap of the might paddle, but yet again it had mouth damage.

The early morning drifted along and the day was turning pleasantly warm. The float rod was un packed and soon I was watching the tip for shy biting roach or hopefully tench.

The float was soon dipping and I connected with a number of hungry rudd, roach and hybrids, nothing to write home about in relation to size but good fun.

Whilst enjoying the float fishing it was evident that there was alot of bream in the area, the bobbins lift and the alarms bleeped, only for the same to happen in reverse on repeated occasions. In between this there would be proper bites and a number of bream graced the net.

Mid morning came and I had a decent run again on the boilie rod, from the head shaking it wasn't another bream and a second tench was hooked. This one played out like the first heading along the margins disturbing the weed beds and then making for open water. Being slightly smaller it was soon in the net.

The pattern of bream to tench is on this water very high, a ratio of 1:10 won't surprise me and they home in on the bait very quickly. On a dawn you can see them rolling out in the middle of the lake, feeding or ascending insects, only for them to move quickly over the baited area with 15 to 20mins once baiting up has finished. These bream do seem to feed first and once they have had their fill, move on which allows the tench and occasion carp to pick up the scraps.
If I could isolate a single component of the mix that was particularly favourable to bream, I'd remove it, but its a simple particle mix with a additional 1/2 pints of dead reds, corn and pellet.

But its not just the fish that like the mix, the resident water fowl likes it too and they too home in on the sound of the spomb hitting the water and it become a game of cat and mouse with them.
I can usually get away with the initial eight spombs, but that next five area the ones where the duck get there fill. There is also the inevitable mix that get dropped or spilt in the margins and this is soon snaffled by the old bill.

The day was becoming hotter and I could feel the burn on the neck through the collar. With the rising temperature the bites steadily dropped off and by early afternoon even the float had stopped dipping so I packed and headed for home.