Dream bream
A story of adventure, exploration, preparation, determination and reward – all in the hunt for the mythical, monster bream of a forgotten and unforgiving Irish lough…
Issue 13 (Nov-Dec 2016) Marcin Kantor
Dusk had caused shadows to darken the forest and was steadily creeping upon the lake. The rods were cast, alarms turned on, bobbins hung motionlessly, reels’ clutches double-checked, triple checked and checked again. My mat, landing net and unhooking tools ready at hand. The kettle had just boiled a few moments before and the aroma of freshly brewed tea was filling up the air inside the brolly – air that was already thick with all the hope and excitement of a new session. By the way, tea never tastes as good at home as it does while sitting by the lake edge, lost somewhere in the darkness of beautiful Roscommon, with no one with a couple of mile’s radius…
The camp was set and I was ready; as ready as you can be after nearly 20 months of planning and preparation. Anticipation was high. But the bobbins were still calm and quiet a few hours into my most awaited session of the year. It was the best looking swim on the entire lake but was it really the place to be? Was the baiting spot-on and will they happen to swim by my trap? They should; I set it so I should cross their patrol route and a warm wind is pushing the water towards me… but are they there in the first place? The air pressure is really high, way too high for them to feed confidently but, then again, the wind is perfect. I wonder how many nights it will take to unravel some of the lake’s secrets.
As hundreds of thoughts were racing through my mind, the left hand alarm gave two bleeps and before I started to wonder if that meant they had arrived or not, it turned into a one-toner. A firm rod lift confirmed a decent fish was on. A few moments later I knew it wasn’t a tench either; it could have been only one species. My target species. As it got closer to the net I started to regret not clearing that bed of lily pads when I arrived earlier that day. They looked so beautiful and harmonious alongside the reeds and the bank side trees at the edge of the water that I felt I would have disturbed the perfect balance Mother Nature achieved while creating this place. I just wanted it exactly as I found it. Of course, the fish didn’t think twice and went straight under the lilies. Right then the thought crossed my mind that it was a really had been a good idea to go for a heavier-than-normal set up at this occasion, but neither the 2lb rod, 15lbs line, big baitrunner reel or me standing in my jocks, thighs deep in the lake during darkness, helped me to free the fish up. I had only one chance – jump into my boat which I used to reach this secluded bay, grab the rod, landing net and row out to approach the fish from the opposite angle.
Quite a few hairy moments later and I was back on the bank, catching my breath. The fish was resting in the net. A weigh-in confirmed that a bream of 7lbs 4oz has just tipped my previous PB for the species. A first fish from a new lake is always a special capture and what a great first fish this one was. All the time spent on the place, all the planning, thinking and preparation were suddenly so worth it at that moment.
“All the time spent on the place, all the planning, thinking and preparation were suddenly so worth it at that moment”
Rewind some 18 months… After spending hours of looking at the lake via online maps and researching all the information I could have possibly found, I knew little more about the lake than when I started out but I knew one thing and that was that I had to give it a proper go. With the huge body of water I was to face and with basically no information available I was set for a few tedious recon trips. The place turned out to be too “tenchy”, too clear and defnitely way too weedy for my liking. In fact, it was so weedy that after hours and hours of pioneering through reeds way taller than me and Amazon-like bankside vegetation (to cast a marker float around as much water as possible) all that I confirmed was that there was no clear patches to be found anywhere! What’s worse was the fact that the underwater vegetation was doing so well that it could be seen reaching the surface in some places, even out past the wide beds of lily pads around the lake’s edge. This is not what anyone would have expected (or hoped) from a good bream venue.
There was one very strong positive however, which I couldn’t have neglected, that kept my thoughts and myself coming back to the lake. It was extremely rich with natural food; I have never seen the number of little crawlers & snails in each bunch of weed I pulled out of the lake bed. This, and the fact the lake was obviously logistically very difficult, meant I remained positive about the place. The “only” problem was to figure out how to present my bait and how to get a fish through all the weed should I be lucky enough to sort out the first problem. A plan was needed. I had purchased a few small castable weed rakes, thinking of clearing a small patch in the weed, baiting it up heavily and letting (the hopefully) resident bream to do rest of the job and clear for me a wide enough area to be able to fish it more effectively. Following some never-ending weed pulling, aching-arms, broken reels, hundreds of prebait balls catapulted out, and a great but undisturbed night’s sleep I was still completely biteless. I felt broken but not defeated. By then the season was over but I needed a new plan for 2016. Back to the drawing board.
When the spring finally came around I was obsessed with getting my first specimen tench, starting as early as March (pretty early indeed) and travelling far and wide, fishing a number of new waters. Despite plenty of enthusiasm and work put in, the early part of the season wasn’t very fruitful with me blanking more often than not. However, a session later in the year on one of the new waters resulted in three fish just shy of the specimen barrier of 6lb and one fish just over it. I was absolutely delighted with my modest achievement, not least because it meant I could have turned my mind again towards that (hoped to be) bream lake.
Still equipped with bags of enthusiasm, this time I also had with me a boat, fish finder and a big, heavy homemade rake. When I mean a ‘big’ rake, I’m talking something over 1m wide that could have been easily mistaken for a torture tool from the medieval ages. I also had as much prebait as I could have carried with me. A few hours later and I was reminded of what I already knew – practically all accessible (by foot) banks of the lake were completely unfishable due to the heavy weed present, not to mention the thick bankside vegetation. While I was considering which of the weedy areas to start clearing the fish finder showed what looked like a fairly clear spot in a bay that wasn’t visible from where I left the car in the morning. I marked it and dropped the weed rake down, paying attention not to get pulled in by the thing! I think that was the moment when my big plan all started to come together; the moment the rake came back clear. What followed next was plenty of prebait going down onto the clear spot and planning a fishing trip the following weekend.
So, back to the session… Years ago I didn’t fully understand what a good swim means to a dedicated angler chasing his own dreams. In my opinion it’s not fair to ask those successful ones out there where they are fishing and then just turn up and fish the waters they have put lots of work in. That fish meant a lot to me; yes, it was ‘only’ a 7-4 (which in many eyes is hardly a fish worth taking a picture of) but it was my goal, achieved through my own hard work and dedication. It was my swim and I felt very privileged to be there that night. I wasn’t, however, allowed to celebrate this moment for a long as I’d have liked as another take came soon after on the right hand rod. A few minutes later I was admiring the look of 9lb 4oz fish lying on my unhooking mat. At that size they are in a different league altogether, and with it’s deep, bronze body, large shoulders and perfect fins I was looking at a magnificent creature. She was in a great condition and surprisingly strong. My head was buzzing. That’s what the fishing is really all about – the challenge, the hard work, initial struggles, more hard work… That night, with a warm southern westerly wind and Irish wildlife all around me, a fish far exceeding any of my expectations was soon swimming back to where she belongs.
I checked my worm rig was in order. I had originally seen it being used by a great UK angler, Dai Gribble. It has caught him a number of double figure tench including the biggest UK tench caught by design, a tank of a fish at 14lbs 12oz. I really liked the look of the rig and thought since the tench like it, bream shouldn’t be too fussy about it either. The rig consists of a hair rigged worm, with a closed-end feeder on a helicopter set up that Dai fills with chopped worms & casters as well as natural worm extract. I have, however, introduced some of my own tweaks, including a lead-free leader to combat the bank side vegetation and pin everything down to the bottom, a longer hooklink of about 16 inches and popping up the worms by adding artificial corn in order to make it stand out more with all the prebait that went in. Also this would hopefully help to avoid any worm-loving eels. I also decided to use an open-ended feeder so the bait would release quicker and by choosing an extra large version I was able to introduce more of it. This is something that I learned from my match fishing years, where I would recast often to ensure a steady amount of groundbait and particles was delivered to the hungry bream. The rod was recast and soon after it was away again!
- Helicopter rig on a lead-free leader to combat weed & reeds
- Open-ended groundbait feeder to allow for fast bait release
- Long 16″ Sufix Duraflex mono hooklink (very strong for its 0.25mm diameter)
- Hair rigged worms on a size 10-12 Korum Xpert Specimen hook
- Single grain of artificial corn to pop-up the hookbait. This also adds visual attraction and helps to avoid eels
Not much sleep was to be had that night but I had more than enough action. I have read many times about those red letter days and always doubtfully wondered if I’d ever be privileged enough to experience one personally. I didn’t realise it at the time but I was right in the middle of one of those magical days. The next morning brought a perfect dawn, one of those moments in life that only anglers get to experience. It all was just perfect…
In summary, by the end of the session I had managed 25 bream with a combined weight of over 210lbs. I landed over 20 specimens(!), with five fish going above 9lbs, highlighted by fish of 9-6 and 9-7 which both set new personal bests. On several occasions both my rods received bites at the same time, with two “braces” sharing the landing net at the same time. To make the session even more memorable, I caught a beautiful two-tone bream which I have always admired while looking at their pictures in the angling press.
“I have read many times about those red letter days … I didn’t realise it at the time but I was right in the middle of one of those magical days”
Exhausted after my catches, I still struggled to sleep for days after and my head is still buzzing all these weeks later, at the time of writing this article. I was absolutely shocked after this session and so grateful that I was given the opportunity by the lake to experience it. Having been a match angler for 15 years and only starting my specimen angling adventure two years back I know it can be a daunting task to go out and find “big fish waters” with the abundance of countless venues spread across the picturesque Irish countryside. For sure, it does take lots and lots of time, and dedication. But, like everything in life, you get out of it what you put in and believe me, there are plenty of undiscovered watery jewels out there, home to uncaught specimens, some bigger than your wildest dreams. Appreciate them and make them your waters.
Tight lines and thanks for reading,
Marcin Kantor