Touch ledgering-bream bites help

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Santiago
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Touch ledgering-bream bites help

Post by Santiago »

Last night I triex to catch big Thames bream by touch ledgering with corn and my Junior mkiv Phoenix Avon. Well I managed to catch somw whopping dace and roach and found their bites easy to feel. And I did hook into a big bream and played it for a few seconds before the hook pulled. But I found the bream bites hard to fathom and I think I may well have had only the one strikeable bite. Being my first time touch ledgering for bream I found it an education with me clearly having much to learn! Mostly after dark the pulls were fairly gentle with a few plucks but the one I hit was first ge tle then a constant series of harder pulls. So my questio is do any of you chaps use this method for bream and when do you strike?
"....he felt the gentle touch on the line and he was happy"

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Barbulus
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Re: Touch ledgering-bream bites help

Post by Barbulus »

As soon as there is something definate to strike at.........a gentle pull or a tentative pull.....almost anything.......that is something that my own relatively slow reactions can cope with.....if you wait and wait and wait for that really long long pulling that actually bends the rod then often it seems to me you will be waiting a rather long time....think of it as float fishing....do you always wait for the float to "sail away" confidently or pull under so far that the reel is churning....?

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Santiago
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Re: Touch ledgering-bream bites help

Post by Santiago »

I'll try again tonight. Rain is due and the Thames in summer fishes better in rain. I think the more bites I get it will become easier to judge. Most bites last night were really gentle pulls that were hard to figure. I'm so use to quiver tipping for bream but I think from now on I'll be using touch ledgering. But I know from quiver tipping for bream the bites have to be I terpreted and not to strike at anything! When quiver tipping good bream anglers suggest on sits on ones hands and wait for the bite to develop. But when touch ledgering one cannot sit on ones hands and hence my dilemma. Bream can be most difficult at times!
"....he felt the gentle touch on the line and he was happy"

Hemingway

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Olly
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Re: Touch ledgering-bream bites help

Post by Olly »

I think that is why the swing-tip was invented! "Sit on your hands until it is straight!" was the saying. Frustrating to say the least.

Letting a bit of line out may help the bite increase in strength. I know that works for finicky chub.

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Dave Burr
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Re: Touch ledgering-bream bites help

Post by Dave Burr »

Bream bites can be notoriously difficult to hit. You can go mad trying to time them correctly but, as has been said, waiting until everything has been pulled tight is by far the most effective. Of course, you'll miss the dace and roach but hey, that's fishing :Happy:

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AshbyCut
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Re: Touch ledgering-bream bites help

Post by AshbyCut »

On the float, I know ... but this description of bream bite by Peter Tombleson in "Bream. How to Catch Them" (Herbert Jenkins.1954) may prove of interest, Sir :-

Image
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Santiago
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Re: Touch ledgering-bream bites help

Post by Santiago »

Thanks chaps, well I actually managed to catch one tonight by touch ledgering! The actual bite was just a series of gentle short tugs but on the bank turned out to be a lovely 7lb bronze bream, my first bream on my 'Spin-Test' Hybrid Avon (like a Chapmans 500) matched with an Ambidex. Nice bend in the rod but lots in reserve. This is the rod my son has reserved for his sole use when he visits!
"....he felt the gentle touch on the line and he was happy"

Hemingway

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JimmyR
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Re: Touch ledgering-bream bites help

Post by JimmyR »

I know this is an older post but i have been pretty poorly for quite a while and just started feeling the call again. So i would just like to add to this very interesting post.
I love bream, especially the big ones, anyway when i was fishing for the big Bream at Startops i started with using alarms, and guess what, it seemed that anything over the 10LB mark, right up to over 17LB never ever set off the alarms. All Bites were noticed with just the fish moving the rod tops very very gently, some you could barely notice let alone see straight away, so i think touch ledger would not register very well at all.
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Re: Touch ledgering-bream bites help

Post by Blueavocet »

Watching Bream feed in clear water, that telescope mouth sucking and blowing, sieving food is probably the clue. So when touch ledgering for bream I try to wait for the draw, an inch or two of pull. It's bloody hard work mind you, the itch to strike (you'd need to with a roach or dace) is great. You can't see the fish, so you have to say to yourself, I want a bream, I'm willing to forego the dace and roach. Hope it helps!

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Northern_Nomad
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Re: Touch ledgering-bream bites help

Post by Northern_Nomad »

Way back when I was into match fishing the "secret method " was as soon as any activity was seen or felt to constantly "twitch" the bait to induce a positive bite. It worked! It never seemed to scare them like other fish may, just seemed to make them bolder.

This was in the early seventies when match fishing was at its peak and was with a straight bomb arrangement with a long tail to pick up bream on the drop if possible. With the introduction of swim feeders on still waters it lmade it even more effective
"We knelt side by side looking at it. I knew it was big, and suddenly it dawned on me it was more than that. It was tremendous!" - Richard Walker

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