Bream Fishing

Bream are another species high on my list to pursue in the fishing world so long as I’m stuck as a freshwater fisherman.  I find them to be very tasty and extremely plentiful.  They put up a heck of a fight especially when you hook into a big one.  They have a few more veins in the fillets, but other than that they are fine on the table.  The limits are more liberal than most other fish, if you are in an area that has limits on them.  I sometimes focus my attention solely on them and a few trips per year I try to really fill up the cooler.  I have had good luck fishing them the same ways and with the same baits as I crappie fish with, and often catch them in my attempts to pull crappie from their haunts. 
Perhaps the most effective way I have found to catch bream consistently is with a black paddle tail grub with a chartreuse paddle tail or a shadpole bait with the little ball on the tail underneath a tiny trout magnet float.  I generally use a 1/16 oz jig head and some super glue around the collar to affix the soft plastic because the bream tend to be rough on baits.  I often lose the chartreuse tail as they normally like to strike that first and tear it off.

Strike Zone
Fishing this way keeps the bait in the strike zone throughout the retrieve and if its stopped can remain in the same zone and twitched.  When I first cast I let the bait sink until it nearly pulls the float under.  (The 1/16 oz heads are as much weight as the tiny floats can handle and still remain on top).  I then pop the cork back with as quick a twitch as I can and let it make that snapping sound on top of the water just before I begin reeling.  It sounds almost like a panfish hitting top water and attacking insects on the surface, and more often than not that’s when I will get most of my strikes.









Mixed Bag
Bream, Shellcrackers, Bluegill, all tend to have similar habits and stay in similar places in the water and I do not generally delineate between the species unless the limits on each require me to do so.  I shoot docks for them, I’ll throw into the same brush piles I pull crappie from, and quite often they will be in the shallows near the banks.  If they are on the beds, I like to stay a good ways back in my kayak and throw into the bedding areas with the same rig.  It may take a while to get the depth adjusted to where it works out, but this can be productive once its determined.  I have had more luck for bream in areas where there is overhanging vegetation than most other species, and they tend to like the areas where logs and other wood wash into the bends and the coves. 








Big Fighters
When bream are “on” then the fishing can be non-stop and action packed.  I love catching them and their fight almost never disappoints.  I’ve often heard it say if they weight 10 lbs then nobody could land one.  These have to be the most common fish in my area by far and I feel God put them here for us to enjoy and appreciate.  They fill ponds, lakes and rivers, and can provide some incredible fishing.  Many days fishing I have set out for crappie and with every intention of feeding my kids that evening with fresh fish only to find the crappie very finicky and tough to locate.  At that point God blessed me with a stringer full of bream to supplement my haul and nobody knew the difference at meal time. 
                                                                   

Luke 5:4-6