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. This week’s Brilliant Baits themed issue set out to find out more… to help you.

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, Bury Hill Fisheries installed a well-stocked bait and tackle shop in their lakeside lodge and appointed Russ Evans as manager.

That’s where you’ll find the former tackle shop owner five days a week, and even on his day’s off he can sometimes be found fishing the matches there, or catching his favourite species, crucian carp.

Russ is no stranger to big fish, having made the news pages of Anglers Mail almost thirty years ago at the age of 17 following an epic 50 minute battle with a 42 inch river monster.

His double red maggot bait on a size 18 hook had been grabbed by a 26lb 6oz pike on the River Lea at Waltham Abbey, which he landed and had officially weighed and witnessed.

Since then he’s landed a carp just 1oz under 18lb on pole, but his main interest is in match fishing under the banner of Bait Company UK Team Sport One.

It is BCUK flavours and pellets that he uses for most of his fishing, helping him to frame regularly in the matches on 12.5 acre Old Bury Hill lake and 30 peg Milton Lake alongside.

Angler’s Mail Rating:

A big bag of bream is possible by copying Russ

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.

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 bottle of BCUK B1 Bloodworm Liquid Attractant.

Flying Bream!

11.00 A bizarre characteristic of Old Bury Hill Lake bream is their habit of leaping repeatedly well clear of the water like rainbow trout when hooked. Russ has noticed that it’s usually only fish hooked in the upper lip that do this, propelling themselves over a foot clear of the surface. That’s when a strong elastic like pink number 14 Drennan Bungee is needed.

12.00 Russ favours a size 12 barbless Preston PR 28 hook to 6 in. of 0.13 mm Preston Powerline and 0.15 mm main line and a 4x18 Preston Series C carbon stem and plastic bristle float. If the fish are finicky Russ may go down to a lighter, yellow 10-12 elastic. The pole is a Daiwa Whisker and the landing net is an extra long Drennan Ex-Strong Carp Match three-section take-apart. 

A strange bite when the float slid sideways six inches without going down led to this welcome interloper, a 2lb 9oz Bury Hill crucian carp. They are most often found down towards the jungle area, but this one nosed in between the bream. Even the bream bites are not always positive. A slight tremble followed by a dip of the tip may be all you get.

Top Tips

• An extra-long landing net handle like the 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in.) one used by Russ can earn you extra fish. It is perfect for scooping bream out early, before the hook can ping out from a lightly hooked fish.
• Pick your hook pellets from the bottom of the bait box, where they are softer than those at the top. Bream love a soft bait.
• Include a few grains of corn with your cupped-in feed at the start to act as a visual attractor for bream to home-in on, even if pellet works best on the hook.

The End Result

Russ has landed between 40 and 50 bream for at least 150 lb, catching steadily throughout the day. Who said you need loads of bait for bream?