Last Sunday 4th August saw the bream in the Old Lake go on a feeding frenzy with Debden AS and The Medway Trotters both reporting winning match weights around the ton whilst day ticket anglers reported double ton bags!

Pegged along the front bank, Debden AS had almost perfect conditions with a warm southerly wind blowing across the lake into their faces at the start of the match. With fish topping all along the bank, pretty well any peg could have won the day but Terry Churchill beat off fierce competition in the end by a comfortable margin with 116lb 10oz of well deserved bream and skimmers which he caught alternating pole and float tactics on maggot and caster from peg 1. Keith Wicker fishing peg 10 was second with 63lb 11oz of bream to 4lb, which he caught on the pole with worm on the hook feeding pellet pushing John Speller into third place who had 57lb 12oz of bream, which he also caught on pole and pellet tactics from peg 14. Match organizer Frank Haskett commented after the match “this was one of our best ever silver match results with the lowest weight being 28lb 2oz, we will certainly be back next year”.

Also fishing Sunday were regulars to Bury Hill, The Medway Trotters who fished the long bank section pegging 29 to 48. Making the most of the ideal conditions, Bury Hill’s tackle shop manager Russ Evans (Cotswold Baits) who took part in the Medway Trotters match drew un-fancied peg 31 where he chose to fish a long pole at 14 metres in open water along the drop off. Feeding 3mm micro pellet throughout the match, Russ used Ringers 6mm bag up expander pellets on the hook to land numerous bream to 4lbs along with plenty of skimmers in the pound to two pound mark which gave him a winning weight of 95lbs 6oz. At the other end of the bank, NDP 10 angler Jim McDowell notched up 51lbs 10oz for second place catching a steady flow of bream on a 16 metre pole from peg 43. Jim caught his fish, the biggest bream going 7lbs by alternating between soft pellet and small pieces of corn. Match organiser Steve Peters scaled a level 50lbs of feeder caught bream and skimmers from peg 35 casting two thirds of the way over to the island to secure a nice bag of well deserved fish. Bringing up the rear was Nick Lover who was drawn next to the winner on peg 32 and by switching from long pole and small ground bait feeder managed to land a few good bream for fourth place with a weight of 47lbs 11oz.

Match organizer Steve Peters commented, “all in all it was a good match for most of the competing anglers with 20lb and 30lb bags being common along the whole match length which is excellent silver fish fishing by anyone’s standards”.
Waving the flag for the day ticket angler on Sunday was Andy Turner (Trabucco South East) who fished peg 51 at the top of the long bank. Fishing a 13 metre pole with 6mm pellet on the hook and feeding micro pellet, Andy caught 43 bream between 3lb and 5lb and 26 skimmers between 1lb and 2lb for well over 200lb.
Probably the best bream fishing in the South!
For anyone wanting to sample Bury Hill’s superb bream fishing, the Old Lake regularly produces ton up hauls to day ticket anglers and the odd bag topping the double ton. Match weights this summer have also been excellent with a number of visiting clubs reporting 100lb winning bags with plenty of weights in the 30lb to 50lb range.
The winter bream fishing on the Old Lake can also be very good with weights between 50lb and 60lb regularly reported whilst Milton Lake also produces excellent winter mixed bags to 60lb consisting of roach and rudd to over 2lb 8oz and perch close to 4lb.