He told us “After having some work cancelled and with conditions looking superb, I set off on my first night of bream fishing this year. The venue was a low-stock pit that I’ve been targeting for the last 3 seasons, but with a warm and wet weather front rolling in that evening on a gentle southerly breeze, I was hopeful of a result. On arrival, I found a normally popular swim free, which gave me access to an area that I’d learned the bream liked to frequent in the spring and summer.

With just a few hours until darkness, I probed for an area to fish and found a shallow, gravel plateau and fished two of my rods on that. The third was cast to a slightly deeper gravel area. Artificial corn hookbaits were cast out on heli setup, and just before the light faded entirely, I managed to introduce a few spods of feed over the 2 spots. This consisted of a mixture of pellets, particles and corn, all laced with CLS and Swet Tiger Liquid.

At around 1am, the right-hand rod was away, and I found myself playing my first bream of the season. Any bream is a result from this venue, so I was pleased when a fish of 12lb 3oz went into the landing net.

Just a few minutes before I’d be winding in to leave, the bobbin of the middle rod pulled up tight. Hovering over the rod, I thought it may have been a liner, so I pulled off a few inches of slack to let the bobbin settle. It sat motionless for another 20 seconds before pulling up tight again. At this point, I picked up the rod and immediately connected with what felt like a plodding breezeblock. Eventually, an enormous bream rose from the depths, and I slipped the net under it.

With a belly four inches across, I had no idea what it might weigh, and I was stunned to see the scales settle on 18lb exactly. It’s a new PB and an incredible reward for lots of effort and many blanks here over the last few years.”

Well done James!