This feature has been added for reference and was originally created early 2011

@deanmacey

Filming any type of fishing is a great passion of mine but with that come’s quite a lot of pressure. Pressure not just to perform in front of the camera, I can always act like an idiot of the camera, that’s not a problem but to actually catch can be tricky. Now I know that sounds obvious but many people think that we all get swims shut down for weeks on end with loads of bait going in as a helping hand. Well, not on my shift! All the ground work is done by me and if there is a swim needed for the shoot I get down a day or two early to make sure we have it. All in all, it’s a labour of love. Spring is one of my favourite times to be out on the bank and because I tend to spend most of my winter fishing on the rivers, it normally sees me dusting off the shelter and starting to do some overnight session. On this occasion I combined
my first night trip with the Tight Lines cameras with the intensions of catching some bream and carp. The weather looked good with temperatures up into the teens during the day and 7 degrees through the night and so there would definitely be fish feeding, I just had to find them!I opted for two approaches, one open water spot at the back of a bar for the bream and the far margin of the out of bounds zone for the carp. I walked round to the far margin with my polaroid’s on and spotted a few good
signs of feeding fish and scattered some Tuna Spice 16mm boillies in the area. The problem was that a strong cross wind had sprung up and prevented me from casting the 119yds to the spot for the night. So all my effort, for now went on the open water bream spot which was an easy lob of 40yds. I kick started the swim with 3kg of pellet, corn, hemp, crushed Squid and Liver boillie and dead maggots, then cast two small sticks of boillie bust over the top with a single 12mm topped with a grain
on rubber corn, my standard bream hook bait. Within an hour the swim started to come alive, but with small skimmers up to the 4-5lb mark. I knew I was in for a long night. After every fish a top up of 3 spods went out and eventually the fish started getting bigger and bigger. At about 1am I had my first good bream of 8.6lb and continued work the swim with consistent top ups. A few more fish fell and then at 3am another good fish, slightly larger than the 8.6lb slid into the net. Bream feature done, or so I thought! The crew didn’t arrive until after first light so the fish were retained safely and I tried to get my head down but the fish thought differently. Liner after liner kept me up. So, with a mug of hot Vimto in my system I decided to fish right through with some slimmy results. New cloths all round come the morning shoot!At very first light however with the wind gone I decided to try to get a couple of carp rods over to the long range spots. First time cast on both rods hit the marks and after a few minutes of scattering some free offerings with the stick I saw a fish poke its head out. Game on! 06.30 on the button and the left hand bobbin pulled up tight and I was on it in a flash. At first it felt like a really good bream but under the rod tip it woke up and put up a mental battle. After a night of bream fishing, to now be attached to an angry carp was a wakeup call to say the least. Eventually he was wallowing in the bottom of my net and with his winter colours still vivid, looked stunning, and at 20.5lb a great result. Filming commenced just after with the two bream and carp that I had caught before they arrived but we were keen to get some live action. So I kept working the bream area and after a good few hours of just liners and a few rig adjustments, not that I’m convinced they made any difference, I received a violent take which resulted in me landing the biggest bream of the trip at 8.13lb. Not a monster by these days standards but a very clean, well conditioned fish that made the shoot well worth doing.It was a good trip all in all with plenty of fish, and even though I didn’t catch a double, which are in there, it give me good reason to get back at some stage and try again!