May 14th on the bream

[Andy135]

An early start this morning saw me up with larks at 5am. Let the dog out for a wee and and took a quick pic of the sunrise before hitting the road.

After a smooth run south I arrived at the marina where I bumped into @Scotch_Egg2012 who was off to the French Bank after bass on lures. I boarded Jersey Girl and headed out of the harbour in beautiful weather.

The last time I'd taken her out was January, so it felt great to be back on board and blowing the cobwebs away. A swift blast round to the Isle of Wight saw me arriving in Sandown Bay in a mere 20 minutes. I headed over to a mark that had produced good bream last season... but would it still perform?

Upon arrival I was greeted with a beautiful flat calm bay...

... and the sight of at least 10 small boats all at anchor already fishing - today might be a tough one if they've nabbed all the best spots. Faced with a crowd, I turned on my side-scan and prospected for some likely looking ground.

When targeting bream it's often possible to pick up their nesting sites on side-scan sonar... they look like a patch of circular, honeycomb-esque craters on the sea floor, as can be seen on the right hand side of this sonar pass.

As soon as I spotted the nests I circled back around and sent a line down. I was using a two hook flapper with pennelled snoods and a single floating bead above the first hook, baited with squid strip.

First drop and what a result!  This fine specimen graced the net.

A lovely male, not quite worthy of the pan, so back he went. He was swiftly followed by a few more.

Including a couple of keepers that I meant to take pics of after getting them home but forgot to before they found their way to the freezer.

Before long it was time to head for home - this was just a morning session and I had to be back to help out with family commitments.

I turned on the GoPro on the way back - here's a quick snippet of the return journey.

Back at home and with the bream safely ensconced in the freezer, kids suitably tired out after an afternoon in the park, it was time to fire up the pizza oven and pour a beer. Happy days!

 

[Saintly Fish]

Nice morning out mate. Bet it felt good to be back on JG!! 
A couple of bream to boot. No plaice or dogs today then?? 
what did you have on your pizza?

[Andy135]

44 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

Nice morning out mate. Bet it felt good to be back on JG!! 
A couple of bream to boot. No plaice or dogs today then?? 
what did you have on your pizza?

Pepperoni and chilli. The only combination 👍

[daio web]

nice report mate and even nicer boat you got to be in it to win it 

[suzook12]

I love the panoramic views, you can almost see the boundaries of your estate.

Are you still planning to expand your estate to include the IOW??

 

[Andy135]

2 hours ago, JonC said:

The servants quarter weather boarding looks a bit past it, why haven’t you fixed that rather than spending all your free time fishing? 

That's an outbuilding currently being used to store garden stuff. I have a vaguely formed idea to turn it into an outdoor kitchen or perhaps a detached guest bedroom. Either way it's a long-term project.

[Andy135]

2 hours ago, daio web said:

nice report mate and even nicer boat you got to be in it to win it 

Thanks Daio, it was a cracking day to be out. Was great to get back on the boat and give her a blast.

[daio web]

47 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

Thanks Daio, it was a cracking day to be out. Was great to get back on the boat and give her a blast.

a blast be buggered my old boat was fast but not as fast as that haha what does she do 40 knots 

[daio web]

53 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

That's an outbuilding currently being used to store garden stuff. I have a vaguely formed idea to turn it into an outdoor kitchen or perhaps a detached guest bedroom. Either way it's a long-term project.

sounds like a plan 

[Andy135]

1 minute ago, daio web said:

a blast be buggered my old boat was fast but not as fast as that haha what does she do 40 knots 

That clip was taken at 21-22kts. I've had her up to 38kts previously. The manufacturer says she'll do 40 but I reckon that must be with a following wind & tide and with nearly empty tanks.

[GPSguru]

Well done Andy on getting out, and an excellent result with the Bream. 

Bream are something we don't do here as there are only a couple of marks that are likely to produce, and both of those are by the skerries, so generally the plaice take preference !

[daio web]

16 minutes ago, Andy135 said:

That clip was taken at 21-22kts. I've had her up to 38kts previously. The manufacturer says she'll do 40 but I reckon that must be with a following wind & tide and with nearly empty tanks.

22 knots is just fine an comfortable   and better on the engine 

[Andy135]

17 minutes ago, GPSguru said:

Well done Andy on getting out, and an excellent result with the Bream. 

Bream are something we don't do here as there are only a couple of marks that are likely to produce, and both of those are by the skerries, so generally the plaice take preference !

Yes, I think I'd take plaice over bream too - better eating in my opinion. The bream is still nice though, and puts up a really good fight for their size. Proper scrappers on appropriately sized gear. I was using a 9ft Rovex Plugger spinning rod and a small f/s reel. Lovely to feel a genuine bend in the rod.

[Saintly Fish]

1 hour ago, GPSguru said:

Bream are something we don't do here as there are only a couple of marks that are likely to produce, and both of those are by the skerries

Wrecking is something I don't do here as it's such an F'ing long way to get to them. Maybe there is a trip swap here somewhere. 
Bream for wrecking. 

[Andy135]

8 hours ago, Saintly Fish said:

Wrecking is something I don't do here as it's such an F'ing long way to get to them. Maybe there is a trip swap here somewhere. 
Bream for wrecking. 

I'd swap bream for the Skerries. A legendary mark that I've still yet to fish. 👍

[thejollysinker]

Nice trip out there Andy, I'd love to be able to catch Bream but no marks where I am. I liked your video of your boat steaming along there, looked very fast and smooth 👌🙂

 

[Andy135]

2 hours ago, thejollysinker said:

Nice trip out there Andy, I'd love to be able to catch Bream but no marks where I am. I liked your video of your boat steaming along there, looked very fast and smooth 👌🙂

 

Thanks Gary. Do you have side-scan sonar on your boat? If so you could try searching for new marks by looking for nesting sites. They're easy to spot if they're there. Bream like a rocky bottom with a thin covering of shingle or gravel. Start your search by checking the charts in your area for locations showing a rock and/or gravelly bottom composition - on Navionics this is indicated by a capital R for Rock, and G for Gravel.

Here's an example in your neck of the woods where I'd start looking.

[mike farrants]

looked like a cracking day out...... i love the bream!

 

heres a video of me steaming along by comparison......... 🤣

[Saintly Fish]

2 minutes ago, mike farrants said:

looked like a cracking day out...... i love the bream!

 

heres a video of me steaming along by comparison......... 🤣

It plays a bit slow Mike!! 🤣

[mike farrants]

no that video is full speed 🤣

[GPSguru]

5 hours ago, Andy135 said:

Thanks Gary. Do you have side-scan sonar on your boat? If so you could try searching for new marks by looking for nesting sites. They're easy to spot if they're there. Bream like a rocky bottom with a thin covering of shingle or gravel. Start your search by checking the charts in your area for locations showing a rock and/or gravelly bottom composition - on Navionics this is indicated by a capital R for Rock, and G for Gravel.

Here's an example in your neck of the woods where I'd start looking.

I am impressed Andy, as you are bang on for a Bream mark, and it is the only Bream mark around here for miles !

If you zoomed in a little more, in the SW corner of the above there is an underwater rock called Bream Rock.

We do catch Bream out there, but it is not very consistent, and the tide can really rip through there at times. More consistent marks are the East Blackstone Reef and the Mew Stone at Dartmouth.

We have had Bream when drifting the wreck of the Emsstrom, which is very, very close to there.

[thejollysinker]

On 5/16/2022 at 7:50 AM, Andy135 said:

Thanks Gary. Do you have side-scan sonar on your boat? If so you could try searching for new marks by looking for nesting sites. They're easy to spot if they're there. Bream like a rocky bottom with a thin covering of shingle or gravel. Start your search by checking the charts in your area for locations showing a rock and/or gravelly bottom composition - on Navionics this is indicated by a capital R for Rock, and G for Gravel.

Here's an example in your neck of the woods where I'd start looking.

I’ve only got an old garmin 551? Gpsmap unit which doesn’t show images like the ones you put up. The navionics on my tablet has become my new best friend helping to pinpoint likely looking spots and funnily enough, my last trip saw us anchored very close to where you have marked those spots. Thanks for the tip though, I usually get fixated with the relief shading looking for banks, depressions etc…I should probably start with the more simple views to get a better idea of what the ground is made up of 😊 
 

[Saintly Fish]

Maybe @Andy135 could put up a post with screen shots of different sea beds, showing what colour means what ? 

[Andy135]

46 minutes ago, Saintly Fish said:

Maybe @Andy135 could put up a post with screen shots of different sea beds, showing what colour means what ? 

Sea floor composition is indicated by letters on charts, like the ones I circled above.

Are you referrring to bottom hardness colours on sonar images? If so, then the colours will be different between makes of sounder and also dependent upon whatever colour palette the user has chosen. Generally the brighter/closer to white a bottom return is, the harder it is e.g. rock, boulders, and the darker the colour the softer it will be (mud, fine sand etc). Bottom hardness won't tell you specifically what the bottom composition is but you can use it to make an educated guess when combined with a little local knowledge.

Here's an example from Doctor Sonar. Yellow = harder bottom, dark orange/magenta = softer.

[GPSguru]

1 hour ago, Andy135 said:

Sea floor composition is indicated by letters on charts, like the ones I circled above.

Are you referrring to bottom hardness colours on sonar images? If so, then the colours will be different between makes of sounder and also dependent upon whatever colour palette the user has chosen. Generally the brighter/closer to white a bottom return is, the harder it is e.g. rock, boulders, and the darker the colour the softer it will be (mud, fine sand etc). Bottom hardness won't tell you specifically what the bottom composition is but you can use it to make an educated guess when combined with a little local knowledge.

Here's an example from Doctor Sonar. Yellow = harder bottom, dark orange/magenta = softer.

The sounder tells you quite a lot about the sea bed, but using a rod with just a lead tells you a whole lot more.

I tend to use a cannonball lead, but it really should be something like an Aquapedo to get the full effect, however to do this, you must use BRAID as the mainline.

Just drop the lead down, drift, and let the rod do the talking, if it is hard rock you feel the grating and sometimes snagging as the lead drags across the rocks, if it is gravel you just feel a steady vibration, if it is sand you feel very little and this is the time to wind up 20 turns and let the lead drop, if when it hits the bottom it sticks, then it is mud, if it doesn't stick, then it is sand.