1999 Drennan Cup winner Dave Harman caught this magnificient 16lb 11oz Bream, winning him a weekly award in this year’s competition in Angling Times recently!

In late Summer Dave put his mind to specimen Bream on a big, difficult Lea Valley Pit – and began pre-baiting a particular swim on a weekly basis with a view to fishing in September. This effort paid off in fine style as Dave subsequently landed 20 Bream, with 17 doubles, up to this beast of 16lb 11oz! A few bonus Carp and Tench also livened things up.

Because of the exceptionally heavy weed growth Dave needed to use very strong tackle – 3lb Carp rods, 15lb ESP Hi Performance Carp Mono, a Leadcore Leader with 4oz Breakaway Lead and a 15lb ESP Stripteaze coated braid hooklength to a size 8 Big T Raptor hook. Successful hook bait was a piece of artificial plastic sweetcorn counterbalanced with 2 real pieces sat up in an attractive stack!

Dave baited the swim with a combination of a spod rod and a Drennan Long Range Groundbait Caty to introduce fishmeal groundbait at dusk and dawn to boost the smell in the swim and compliment the spod mix.

Dave commented that the results were quite superb but it had been an endless battle with the weed – an hour just clearing the margins being the norm, and much of the swim is solid with weed to the surface, so playing fish to the bank necessitates such strong tackle.

“As always the tackle lived up to its reputation and unbelievably, I’ve lost just 1 fish (a carp to a hook-pull) that was buried in the weed” remarked Dave.

For full details on the Long Range Groundbait Catapults as used by Dave, click here.