Bream on the pole feature
The traditional approach for big bags of bream has always been balls of groundbait, but there's something they like even more than brown crumb and that's pellets.
Unlike groundbait a little goes a long way with pellets, so you can catch all day with just a small amount of feed, which doesn't disturb the swim and doesn't bring tackle busting species like carp around for a look in.
Back in the spring, Russ Evans showed us how to catch a big haul of bream and skimmers on the long pole at Bury Hill Fishery using less than a pint of feed pellets and demonstrated how he wins and frames regularly in matches at this famous Surrey venue in Southern England.
Let's follow Russ at key times during his bream bursting session on the pole and learn what tackle and baits are best for a great day’s action.
07.30: An early start isn't essential, but to have a choice of swims and to draw bream to your peg while they are searching around in the cool of the morning, it pays to arrive early. After baiting up it usually takes half an hour for the fish to arrive. Russ chose peg 13 on the short bank because it is in the middle of a row of consistent pegs.
A small gulley runs the length of this bank at about 12 metres out, and the bream patrol this, looking for food, so it is essential to plumb up to find this feature and have an accurate measure of the depth. To anchor his bait to the bottom Russ fishes four inches over depth in 4ft of water, with nine No.8 shot bulked together eight inches from the hook. This guarantees that the soft pellet hook bait is pinned to the lake bed just how the bream like it.
10.00: Initial feed was four 100 ml Drennan Polemaster cups of BCUK Active B1 micro hard feed pellets, Active Hemp and a few grains of corn and hook bait samples, topped up when sport slows with a couple more catty pouches of feed pellets. Hook bait is single 6 mm Ringer Bag Up Pellets left to soak overnight in water with a quarter of a b...
