Reg, my fishing mate visited us for a few days just before Xmas, and we couldn't miss the opportunity to have a fishing session together. I had told him about the bream in the Exe before and asked Simon if we could have a go on his syndicate stretch of the river, and as ever, he gladly gave us the OK.
We managed to get there about 1pm and it was a glorious day. We also couldn't believe it when we were greeted by the sight of a water vole in the river, the first we had seen for years. This little oasis in the middle of Exeter also has kingfishers, sparrowhawks, woodpeckers, wrens as well as the nuisance gulls and cormorants.
We decided to target the deeper areas as it was December feeding the swim and using worms to fish which I have always found to be the best bait for the bream. We had nothing after an hour and a half, but then I tried the shallower areas just upstream and caught a 5lb 14 bream quickly. Reg followed with one about 3lb then it went quiet again. After half an hour or so I kept getting little twitches but nothing developed and as I fish bigger than Reg (3 worms) I asked him to drop in with his smaller terminal tackle and see what it was - he quickly caught another big 5lb bream and then it went dead again.
The weather started to change with ominous black clouds rolling over so we packed up. What a good short session, but it left us with many questions. Why were the bream in the shallows - were they sunning themselves? The feed we put in didn't work and it was only when I dropped a bait in the shallows when we caught fish - why didn't the feed work when bream are reputed to be heavy feeders when they start. All things to think about next time.