Whiting on poppers by Kevin Gleed

Many things learnt from fishing and time spent on the water are often come upon by accident; it is just a matter of putting together pieces of the puzzle.

An example would be surface fishing for bream; there is nothing new there. Many moons ago an angler's hard-bodied lure went over a branch while casting to bankside cover and the offering dangled on the surface and was eaten by a bream - and a piece of a puzzle fell into place. This is now a technique known as tea-bagging.

Armed with this knowledge, anglers would cast close to structure and leave the lure jiggling on the surface and, sure enough, the bream loved it. That resulted in the use of a now deleted classic lure, the Bomber Smilin' Minnow surface fizzer. With one propeller at the front, this lure was an excellent bream catcher. It sat low in the water and the bream ate it instead of pushing it away, which is what happens with many of the more buoyant lures.