Warwickshire Avon - Snotties and Snub Devils

There are quite a few places where I know Bream reside, but 2 years ago I fished this one particular area where bites were plentiful so I was back for a second bite of the cherry. I need to register some bream points for the bloggers challenge and this seemed like a no brainer. So an early start and simple tactics. 2 rods, method feeders, short hook-links and a variety of pellets for hookbait, soft and hard.

Bream seems to get a bit of a bad press, but for me when I target them from time to time, I quite like catching them. It's a different kind of fight and are they really that slimy ? When they average 3lb plus like they do down here, they are quite impressive looking creatures as well.

A lovely morning indeed but I knew I had to act fast. The sun was rising and with a relatively clear body of water this can sometimes stop the fish from feeding. The trip here last time the float was more or less redundant and the sleeper rod was getting the most attention. The feeder acting like a dinner bell ? who knows but certainly it was the method that was working on the day.

The rig is more or less self-hooking but you would think you could sit behind the rods and relax but it never really feels like that as when the fish are feeding, the rod tips are banging away all the time from the small fish and eventually those knocks and taps turn in to a proper clanger.

It didn't take long for the first bream to come along either, half an hour in to the session a proper screamer of a run and the fish slab was on. They are a good average size here as well, that was the first fish of 5 or so and I also lost one that wriggled in slow motion, caught its tail on the line and pinged out the barbless hook and swam back from where it came to join the shoal.

Double 5mm soft krill pellets seems to work the best, they do properly stink though but you can go through them quite quickly because once out the water there are too soft to recast as you wouldn't know that the bait was on.

As suspected the bites dried up when the sun was strong but I preserved with the casting and baiting and eventually a different kind of bite developed and initially I thought it was a small chublet but it turned out to be a welcome roach of 12 oz's. Now this took a rather large robin red hard pellet with a corn hair stop. Maybe I'll come back in the winter and give them a proper go.

Cracking condition as well, a dark back and a bulging belly. I end up moving swims as I baited one of the margins when on-route to the first swim but after a failed attempt for a carp after being biteless for a good while, it was time to head off, pop to the tackle shop and also to test drive a potential new car. A car more suitable to my needs.