“There’s no bream left in Ireland”
An interview with tackle shop owner Florian Peter about the state of Irish bream stocks
Issue 12 (Sep-Oct 2016) Florian Peter & Off the Scale magazine
Florian Peter is the well-known owner of Fishing Tackle Ireland , one of Ireland’s premier online and walk-in tackle shops. He is also a very capable angler and has been having some quite incredible success with bream on his local East Clare lakes so we caught up with him to try and get a bit more of an insight into the hows and the whys of his big slab bags, and to try and get to the bottom of the common perception that Irish bream stocks have collapsed in recent times…
Florian, we will jump straight in here. For those that don’t know, you have had some incredible bream catches this summer, and last year as well. How many lakes have you had big bags (100lb+) from in recent years and what was the most memorable of these and why?
Yes I have been very lucky, this year especially, to catch some nice bags of bream. This year in particular I decided to disprove the theory that there are no bream left in this country. So far this year (end of August as I write) I have had 100lb plus bags of bream from four different lakes. My aim by the end of next year is to have had 100lb bags of bream from 10 different lakes in East Clare, which I feel is a real possibility. So far in 2016 I have had a dozen 100lb plus bags of bream. In truth I could have had more but my time is limited with family and work commitments and I have also been fishing around between different lakes.
I have had two sessions that really stand out for me. The first one was an early morning session before work. In just over 2 hours fishing I had 17 bream averaging 6.5lb each. The biggest one was 7lb 9oz. In addition to this I had 8 hybrids all over 2.5lb each, which gave me about 130lb in total. The worst thing about it was that I had to pack up for work and the fish were still feeding well.
The second one was when myself and a friend of mine Chris Simpson had 400lb of bream between us in a five hour session. We had 60 bream between us averaging 6.5lb, with the biggest at 7lb 4oz. In addition to this we also had some fantastic hybrids (rudd x bream and roach x bream) up to 4lb, plus a few roach. It was an incredible day’s sport.
As a well-known tackle shop owner,many might assume that you are “in the know” with regard the best bream spots, as well as where, when and how to fish them. Is this true or did you put in the groundwork yourself to track down these lakes full of fish?
No, for all these captures I had to put in the groundwork myself. I like to fish off the beaten track and don’t like to fish off the back of other people’s efforts. I have spent a lot of time this year figuring out venues to see if they hold the fish I am after. Not all do, of course but there are many, many more out there than people realise. Can I just point out that it’s not all 100lb bags – I have had some epic failures, too. Three days prebaiting a lake to blank spectacularly springs to mind but it makes it all the more worthwhile when you do catch.
“I have spent a lot of time this year figuring out venues to see if they hold the fish I am after. Not all do, of course but there are many, many more out there than people realise”
Can you give us an insight into what specific features/areas you are looking for when targeting big shoals of slabs? A boat is obviously a large part of your approach?
The first thing that I do when I start on a new lake is to put a boat on it for a day to suss out the depths and features. I usually start on the north east corner of the lake (where a nice south-westerly will blow into). On clear lakes I like to fish 16-24 feet deep. I don’t find fishing very deep (say 30ft) as good and I don’t like fishing any shallower on clear water. If the water is murky I will happily fish in 12-20ft. I like a nice clean bottom to fish on. If there is a nice drop off into that depth of water then that is just about perfect in my mind.
The boat plays a huge part of my approach for many reasons.
- It’s the easiest and quickest way to figure out depths and features. You can use a marker float or castable fish finder from the bank but that takes much longer.
- It’s also the easiest way to prebait. I put in a lot of bait and catapulting it out or spodding is not really an option as I am limited for time.
- Fishing from a boat prevents other anglers from stumbling (accidentally or deliberately) on your pre-baited swim. It has happened to me in the past that after several days of prebaiting I arrive at my swim to find someone sitting there bagging up.
- Perhaps the most important; there are many lakes in Clare (like most Irish counties) with very limited shore access. A boat is the only way to realistically fish these lakes effectively. If you look at Lough Derg, where I do a lot of fishing, from Killaloe to Portumna is approx. 27km and there are only about a dozen stands from which to fish. A boat is really essential for the likes of here.
We know you consider prebait to be absolutely essential to any good bream fishing. How much prebait do you think is required for good results and what would the make-up of this be and why?
I like to prebait a couple of times before I fish. If I am fishing on a Sunday I will prebait on Thursday and again on Saturday. Generally speaking when I first target a new lake I start with a smaller amount. Starting off I will put in say 10-15kg each time I prebait. Once I fish it and have a rough idea of the head of fish I will up the amount of bait accordingly. If I believe that there is a big head of big fish I will put in up to 30kg each time I bait up. Also If I am fishing on a Sunday and intend to return the following week I will bait up before I leave. A big shoal of bream in the 5-7lb range can hover up a huge amount of bait. There can be hundreds of fish in each shoal. To this end, I typically bait up an area the size of a tennis court – it gives the fish room to move and feed, reduces the risk of spooking the whole shoal and also the risk of foul-hooking fish.
My prebait is made up of black crumb and maize meal, mixed roughly 50/50. The maize meal just bulks out the crumb. To this I add a couple of kilos of pellets, plenty of pigeon conditioner (mixed seeds, soaked and cooked properly, of course), a couple of kilos of hemp, a couple of tins of corn, maggots and casters. This gives a nice mix with loads of particles to hold the fish in the swim. It really does keep them rooting around for ages.
Why the black crumb instead of more traditional brown?
I like to darken off the groundbait with black crumb as I have found that the bream can shy away from brighter beds of bait.
And what hook bait(s) do you choose to fish with?
On the hook I use maggots, corn, caster, worm or cocktails of the four.
“A big shoal of bream in the 5-7lb range can hover up a huge amount of bait. There can be hundreds of fish in each shoal. To this end, I typically bait up an area the size of a tennis court”
What tackle/rigs do you use for general fishing? Is it float or feeder, or bolt rigs on alarms and what do you think are the benefits of your favoured method?
I usually feeder fish on the quiver tip although there a couple of swims that I fish on the pole. The reason that I feeder fish is it’s easier and quicker to set up. It is often still dark when I start fishing and I can cast out the feeder and feel the line for bites so I can already have a few fish in the net before its light enough to see a float. I don’t tend to use bite alarms as I am usually fishing from a boat.
Rig-wise I use a simple fixed paternoster with strong gear. Usually a size 8 hook, 5lb hooklink and 13lb braided mainline straight through. These wild bream fight hard.
The general perception across Ireland and indeed further afield is that Ireland no longer holds the bream it did historically. Your results across a range of lakes near your Clare home seem to rubbish these notions so what are your thoughts on the country’s current bream stocks? Have they really declined, have they simply changed their feeding patterns/habits or are people simply not fishing for them properly?
This notion that there are no bream left in Ireland is a load of rubbish. There are plenty of quality bream still in this country. What has changed, however, is their environments and feeding patterns. With the introduction of zebra mussels in the late 90s/early 00s the water in a lot of lakes is now quite clear. This has led to a change in the behaviour of the bream and other fish. They no longer feed throughout the day but are now more nocturnal feeders. I generally only fish for them very early morning and late evening, sometimes throughout the night. Turning up at 10 o’clock in the morning and packing up at six in the evening is simply not going to bring success!
Another reason for anglers not catching lots of bream anymore is bait, or to put it more accurately not using enough bait. In the past when Ireland had many more visiting anglers fishing, a lot more bait was going in to the same swims day after day. Think of places like Athlone and Portumna on the Shannon, for example. This kept the shoals of bream visiting the swims all the time. This isn’t happening anymore to anywhere near the same extent and the shoals have become more dispersed. This means that you need even more bait now than ever to draw them in and to keep them there.
I frequently encounter anglers who are bream fishing for a week with very little bait. These same anglers are fishing sociable hours during the day, avoiding the best times for a bite and then all you hear is complaints about “there’s no fish left in this country” A lot of anglers these days don’t seem to realise that to get consistent results you have to put in a lot of hard graft, be it finding venues, pre-baiting and putting in the hours
Florian, that’s a very interesting look into your fishing, thank you very much. We completely agree with your sentiments about many big historical catches of Irish bream being as a direct result of lots of anglers bait going into the same areas, day after day, week after week, year after year. It’s just not like that nowadays, not for the most part anyway. Whilst some fish stocks have certainly changed through invasive species, poaching, natural factors etc. there are still an abundance of fish out there in Irish lakes and rivers if you know how to fish for them and what it requires.