It has been a very long time since I felt that I have had my big fish head on but all of a sudden its back. The reason for this is that I wasted £175 on buying a Wasing Estate Ticket permit in the hope of a monster bream, but it seemed everyone else cottoned onto this and did the same. Reports of Crayfish, Tufted Ducks and very few bream, along with one other major contributing factor saw me throwing my ticket in the bin before I’d even visited the venue. Now, this is nothing against the lakes, as I have been well informed that they are well kept and a great and peaceful place to be but knowing that certain anglers, one’s that stitched up Lynch Hill a few years ago were present, painted a very sorry picture in my mind, one once encountered but not one I wanted to repeat.

The only way I was going to give myself some relief was to go elsewhere and hopefully land a big bream, and to my luck a carp syndicate raised its head as having some form for large bream. Ticket organised I found myself the only bream angler around and I was going to indulge in my findings for sure.

I decided to introduced myself to the carpers by sling-shotting one-hundred balls of groundbait around eighty yards to a clear spot, then proceeding to take a mid double mirror of it just an hour later! The groundbait I’ve been using is a soon to be released new one from Sonubaits called Carp Boilie Crush Method Mix, and Ian’s going to be well happy when he reads this report. The new groundbait is perfect for what I want as it binds well; allowing me to add loads of pellets and it already includes lots of fishmeal attractants and crushed boilies. I also add a good helping of sweetcorn, as my bait is critically balanced corn-stacks, along with plenty of Sonubaits F1 and CSL flavouring, plus a mix of Sonubaits hard feed pellets in 4mm, 6mm and 8mm sizes plus a bag of the new Spicy Meaty Method Mix for added colour and flavour

It was pretty much steady sport till midnight when the positive bites faded away to just liners. Up till then I’d managed four bream, including a new personal best of 13lb 3oz. Another twenty balls of groundbait shattered the silence just after midnight before I grabbed four hours of much needed sleep. The rods were back out shortly after four and the bobbins soon began to dance and by 8am I was on my way home after catching another five bream, one going 10lb 15oz plus an 18lb mirror.

Returning the following evening I was amazed at dropping back into the same swim and a similar pattern emerged, however this time from thirteen bream, six were doubles going 10lb 8oz, 11lb 2oz, 11lb 15oz, 12lb 9oz, 13lb 1oz and a massive fish of 15lb 4oz, plus another carp. To say I had found paradise is an understatement!

Thursday I was back but the same swim had been occupied just ten minutes before I arrived and with most other fancied areas stitched up I dropped into a new swim. Bream and carp were showing everywhere due to the hot weather warming the upper layers. It took sometime to find a couple of clear spots and once located I decided to drop forty balls of pellet-laced groundbait onto each. The evening past quietly but around 1am the liners started and the back leads went on. It was after a recast at 4am that saw the first positive bite and by the way line was pouring of my right hand rod it was always going to be a carp, and at 28lb 14oz was certainly welcome. At 7am another one-toner came to the middle rod but amazingly it was from a modest bream of 9lb 4oz.

I’m not sure how long these results will last as the weed in the lake is taking hold and the bream are just about to spawn. Lets hope they don’t do this for a couple of weeks and with the weather turning colder next week I might just be lucky.