The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

The weather was forecast as being very warm and bright for the time of year so my thinking was a trip to Parsonage Farm and the chance of a late season tench. The weather was rubbish despite the forecast. It was warm, ish, but incredibly windy and overcast with a couple of short fine showers, not exactly tench weather The lake was up by 2 feet and the water was cold, not exactly tench conditions. However one did oblige, a delightfully coloured 3 pounder caught on a triple caster in 9 feet of water with a home made stepped waggler using reed that I picked up from a previous visit to this lake. Maggot just produced small perch. Just after the tench I hooked into this very light coloured silvery bream at just over 1lb. The fins do not carry much colour but at this time of the year fish colours tend to be a little muted. Is it a silver bream or just muted version?

Nice tench John made all the more special with a home made float.
Sorry I can’t help with the bream there are so many hybrids and variations I’ve given up trying.

Well done John, a worth while session, nice float, I bet it is hard for you to choose a float from the thousands you have made recently

I think that silver bream have 'goggle' eyes! - ?

Blicca bjoerkna is their name!

I'd say bronze bream. As Olly mentions the eye doesn't look big enough. I'd also say the scales are too small for a Silver, they have bigger scales than the bronze. A lot of the colouration differences come from the water they live in.

That's a small bronze bream.
Here's a silver bream: