Having recently posted about different ways to fish with bread I thought it would be fun to show what kind of results you can expect if you decide to give it a go.

So with 3 hours spare this morning, no wind to speak of, bright sun but a little cloud cover I decided to give West Somerton Staithe a shot (at the head of the river Thurne) with a bread flake and mashed bread approach. Arriving at 09:00 and finding a swim with a gravel patch amongst the weed (made easy by the fact that the water was gin clear) I assembled a 13ft match rod a shakespere mach 2 front drag reel loaded with 4lb line, a crystal insert waggler locked in place by 4 BB shot with a size 10 barbless hook tied direct. I had no shot further down the line as I wanted the bread flake to fall at a natural pace.

I then collected a little river water in the bucket and placed half a fresh loaf of sliced bread in with the water. I usually remove the crusts when making mashed bread but I was happy to leave it in this time as I had seen a number of rudd taking flies from the surface, leaving the crusts in meant that some were likely to rise to the surface and I could keep an eye out for fish taking them.

I then took a good handful of mashed bread, squeezed out the excess water and deposited the lot about a rod length out over the gravel patch. The bread erupted in to a big cloud and I could see fish had been drawn in to the area almost immediately. Eager to get fishing I pinched a big piece of flake on to the size 10 hook and with an under arm swing, sent out the bait directly over the mashed bread feed.

It wasn’t long before not only could I see the float bobbing about indicating interest but also, due to the clarity of the water, I could see numorous fish taking it in turns to attack the hook bait. Now these fish wern’t massive but it was good to see there was some activity in the swim. After a further couple of minutes and following a positive bite, a lovely conditioned roach was swung in to hand.

Following the roach I sent another handful of mashed bread in to the swim as I could see that a large shoal of roach and rudd had almost cleared up the first lot already. This had the immediate effect of drawing in some much larger fish, nothing over the 1lb mark but nice fish all the same. I had great fun over the next hour taking roach and rudd all between 6oz and 1lb.

As expected some of the pieces of crust in the mashed bread had risen to the surface and I could see and hear fish rising to attack them so I decide to shallow up a little and hook on a small piece of crust. I was able to take 2 rudd around the 8oz mark before a light wind picked up and the fish dissapered off the surface.

I decided to top up the swim with two more handfuls of mashed bread which scattered the fish off in all directions but it wasn’t long before they returned, I could see some much larger roach were now part of the shoal, I estimated them to be around the 2lb mark but these fish were much more weary and spent most of the time amongst the weed on the edge of the gravel, picking of lose pieces of bread that drifted their way, no matter what I tried I was unable to tempt one, this time round anyway, now I know that they are there, I’m sure to make a return trip. It was then that I noticed a huge shadow kicking up the mashed bread in the swim, I wasn’t sure what it was at first but it then upended with its mouth to the bottom revealing itself to be a large tench.

Now I had heard there was tench in these parts of the Norfolk Broads river system but I hadn’t witnessed one myself and to say the prospect of catching a large tench from the river was an exciting prospect is very much an understatement. Alas, no matter how I presented the bread flake to the fish it ignored it and carried on hoovering up the free bread sat there on the bottom. That was when I remembered that I had also brought along some large lobworms (read my guide on how to collect lobworms).

I immediately put one on the hook and lowered the night crawler in over the mashed bread feed. By now the light wind had picked the surface up in to a little chop and I was unable to even see if the fish was still there, 10 seconds later and the float lifted slightly and then shot right under, immediately on striking I knew I had hook the tench as a healthy bend developed in the rod and the fish shot out in to the middle, heading for the weed beds for sanctuary. A healthy dose of side strain, luck and finger crossing later I slid the landing net under the beautful green flanks of easily the largest tench I have ever caught.

After quickly unhooking the fish I put her in the sling and watched as the scales settled down to show 6lb 5 oz, beating my previous personal best tench by 1lb 4oz, what a result. After calling out to the resident boat that was moored just upstream of me the owner was more than happy to take a couple of pictures for me, remarking that he had never in the space of many years being based at the staithe seen a tench that big taken from there before.

Now that to me just proves how deadily a bread based approach can work, with the mashed bread working extremely well as an attractent, with many roach and rudd confidently taking the bread flake hook bait. The tench might not have been fooled by the bread on the hook and needed a change of hook bait to tempt it but it goes to show how even large fish find mashed bread irresistible. Get out there and give it a try it now, especially as we have now said goodbye to summer with the autumn and winter months being traditional times of year for bread fishing.