Bream on the bend

John had invited me to join him for an evening, he is moving about a lot at present, also trying to latch on to where in the river the carp are hiding out. We both got to the stretch at about 13:30, fishing from a large cowdrink in the middle of a big sweeping bend in the river. It was clear that deciding not to bring the cut down waders was a bad decision, the shallow slope of the beach would mean a bit of wading to land any decent fish. I noted that if the carp turned up I would henceforth be known as the barefoot carp paddler.

There were clearly some fish around, as well as one or two rolls, a large fish, clearly a carp, got its head and shoulders well clear of the water near the pads below a willow on the opposite bank.

  My first fish, a bream of about 5lb, took a 14mm halibut pellet at around 4pm.  A log, rock, and flotsam crate provided a makeshift landing jetty, and the shallow silty bay provided a great surface to do the unhooking without taking it out of the water.

 Another bream maybe 1/2 pound smaller followed at about 8pm this time taking a source popup. At about 11pm , just as I was finishing up for the night with a hot chocolate, another 5lb bream took a spicy prawn boilie.
  The night passed without a single blip from the alarms. The overcast evening had given way to a clear night and the temperature plummeted, by 3am I was pacing the bank, trying to use a bit of movement to drive out the penetrating cold. I got some sleep between 4 and 6:30. At this point a splashing to my right brought me out of the bivvy, the blinding sun silhouetting a dozy cow, taking its morning drink beside my rods.

 The reason for the lack of action overnight was revealed when I wound in to rebait - the lefthand bait was hopelessly tangled around the lead and on the right rod, the shot had come free from the hooklength, meaning the popup had fished the night about 16 inches off bottom. I picked up another pair of bream during the course of the morning, one on source popup, the other on spicy prawn taking my tally for the session to 5. John, who had fed more heavily than me ended the session with 15, all were about the same size , a few oz above and below the 5lb mark.
So 100lb of bream between us & a nice night with some good banter. I don't mind getting a few slabs to pass the time... John was less impressed - he was already swearing at the jiggly bites as he passed the ten mark.Never mind taking bream on the bend, The bream on the bend drove John round the bend.