How to target big Bream One of my favourite fish is the Bream, not small skimmers but big Bream from 6lb and upwards the key to success is to do your home work, there is no use going to lakes which do not contain big Bream for this article I have visited the lake at lydd in kent run by the lydd angling club, this is a very large lake but only about 2.5meters in depth the bottom being gravel, like so many gravel pits you need patience and a little know how, to optimise your catching potential, the first thing I did was to have a good look around, the things to look out for are swims that look well used, and if there are anglers stop and have a quick chat this is the most reliable way to gather information. On the day I walked around I came across an angler called Andy Lindsey a local lad who has had lots of experience fishing this pit, after a long chat I gleamed enough information to work out that peg numbers 12-14 are always consistant and worth a try, as today was Wednesday I decided to walk back to the van and pick up some groundbait and pre-bait for tomorrow, I used about 4 kilo of groundbait and 3 tins of sweet corn the groundbait was 2 kilos of Van den Eynde Gold Pro Bream 1 kilo of Van den Eynde Carp and 1 kilo of PV1 binder, all the ingredients were dry mixed and then water was added to make the mix fairly stiff as I needed to catapult the ball's out about 50-60 meters which I was informed was the correct distance to fish, I took my feeder rod and a 1 oz bomb and cast into the general area and retrieved my bomb very slowly feeling for features, the bottom was fairly even until I reached about 45meters and there must have been a small ridge or bank rising a few feet, I decided to fish just the other side of this ridge I retrieved clipped on a marker float and after two attempts had a marker in a position I was happy with and catapulted the whole of the grounbait mix to within a yard or so of the marker, I then clipped up using the line clip on my reel, packed up my gear picked up the rubbish some not mine? and went home. The following morning I packed the van with all the gear I needed my seatbox, rod pod, quiver rod, reels, flask, sandwiches, and not forgetting the groundbait, I drove to the lake at lydd got to peg 13 and set up my gear, I use a rod pod with three legs when I am fishing gravel pits as bank sticks tend to fall over and a tripod gives me stability, I only use one rod and placed it on the pod using a sliding quiver rest at the front and a normal u rest at the back I always sit at an angle of about 30 degrees to the bank to aid in seeing bites, the rig I prefer was the loop rig (I think it is explained somewhere in this site) using a main line of 6lb and a 5lb high tec hook length to a size 12 barbless hook, the feeder I use first is quite large, and is filled with groundbait and freebies in the form of sweet corn, I then cast out about a dozen feeder fulls and then changed to a slighty smaller feeder which was cast out with two grains of sweetcorn on the hook, as soon as the feeder hit the water the rod tip was dipped under water to aid the sinking of the main line, when the feeder hit bottom I put the rod on the rest and slowly tightened to the feeder and then pulled the feeder about 8inches or so toward me to straighten the hook length, I repeated this ritual a dozen time leaving the feeder out for about 5 minutes each time, the first bite came on the unlucky 13th cast the tip moved just a twitch and stopped then bent around nearly pulling the rod of the rest this was the first fish a Tench of about 4lb but a good scrap, two casts later and the tip pulled around again this time nice and steady, I lifted the rod and pulled into a Bream of about 5lb not big but a good start, I was getting a little excited but was disapointed as I had to wait for 20 minutes, the 3rd bite was much the same as the 2nd but felt much better into the net came a fish of about 7lb I had 2 more of this size and the bites stopped, 10 minutes later I decided to mix more ground bait and pile a load more into the swim, that done and another wait of about 10 minutes and another bite this time the fish felt much bigger and the fish was using its weight to try and break me it felt like a wet sack and I struggled to get the fish to the top once in the net it weighed about 10lb I then had another the biggest of the day 11lb after the two biggest fish I then started to get smaller Bream 4 more to be exact in the 4-5lb bracket then the bites dried up completely well this was a good days fishing and I was in the local having a pint by lunch time, just goes to show if you use local knowledge and prepare before hand you can catch those elusive big Bream.