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Today I accompanied James to the local canal in search of bream - trying to find my five pounder. And after stalking big bream in the clear water, where they cold see us coming a mile away we made our way down to some murky water for a bait and wait approach.
And we didn't have to wait long before James landed a bream about 5½ pound, which went back unweighed and un-photographed - I wanted one! Next up I had a 4lb 9oz bream, a new PB and I'm getting closer to my target. Then the swim went dead.
I thought I knew why and a shad was cast out to find the suspect, first cast a nice double nailed it, shook it's head in anger, spat the lure and sank back into the murky depths. After taking a moment to curse my luck I cast back out and she hit it again - cue the most spectacular arial fight!
A tail walking 15lb 0oz pike was mine. And every self respecting bream for miles had gone into hiding - no more bream today, but did I really care?
I continued chucking the shad about and was equally fascinated and frustrated by the number of follows by zander - they followed, nipped the tail but I didn't hit a single one - I will be back with some fresh bait...
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