A Big Silver Bream.

I went to the Grand Union canal the other evening to try for an eel once the light went.

The towpaths and canal were exceptionally busy with people and boaters enjoying the bank holiday sunshine.

To kill time whilst the sun was high in the sky I set up a light float outfit and fished the near shelf with red maggot as bait. When the locks opened the water would move at a rapid pace from left to right. This happened about every ten minutes so I just trickled maggots over the top of my float whilst the water was still.

I caught hybrids and bronze bream and then had a silver bream of six ounces. A very welcome visitor and a fish which got me off the mark for the species in our blogger's fishing challenge.

6oz Silver Bream.

Next put in I had another silver of thirteen ounces. Bonus!

13oz Silver Bream.

I had to wait about half an hour for my next bite as the watery world and my baited area all went right at about five miles an hour as more boats came through.

The next fish I caught had me trembling with excitement and making numerous texts and phone calls for silver bream identification criteria.

I sent copious photos and close ups to the good Dr Hatt (our very own silver bream aficionado) for an objective decision as soon as I was home that night. We talked on the phone the following morning as he did anal fin to tail root scale counts, lateral line scale counts, eye width to head measurements and dorsal fin to lateral line scale counts.

After these deliberations he concluded it was a silver bream.

So here it is, all two pounds one ounce of it:

 
A great goggle-eyed fish which is worth a whopping seventy percent of the record.

I didn't catch an eel.

Cheers.