Species Hunt:Bream Bonanza

Jake Fowles is on familiar territory this month, hunting his favourite species at one of his favourite venues.

Without doubt a favourite among coarse anglers, myself included, bream are etched into my memory as being one of the first ‘big fish’ that I caught as a budding angler, setting my stall out down on the then local Bridgewater Canal.

Likewise, when what started off as a bit of fun became a little more serious and I got into match fishing, this fantastic species continued to do me a few favours. I won’t be alone in declaring that a rogue bream has got me out of jail on more than one occasion, showing up to take me from zero to hero just as all hope was lost, during junior and intermediate events.

Move on a decade and my love for this species hasn’t dwindled one bit; in fact there’s nothing I enjoy more than putting together a nice net of skimmers and bream, albeit more often than not from one of the country’s many commercial fisheries. (That said, I’m currently organising my tackle for a weekend visit to the now local Gloucester Canal, where bream will very much be the target should I stand any chance of winning).

Anyway, I have a challenge to fulfil, so on to crossing skimmers and bream off my list of species…

THE VENUE

When it comes to catching skimmers and bream, Barston Lakes in Solihull has established itself as one of the very best venues in the country for doing exactly that. That is, despite the venue actually being one of the few waters around that is equally (if not more) popular with the carp fishing fraternity than it is with match and coarse anglers.

That’s right, Barston Lakes holds some massive carp in its 25-acre main lake, with fish knocking on the door of 40lb milling around in this stunning venue as well as hundreds of carp in the double-figure bracket and upwards of 20lb.