Bream are Battlers on Light Tackle

Bream comprised of a large number of freshwater and saltwater species. Freshwater species are widely distributed; ponds, lakes reservoirs, streams and rivers are the places you can find them.They're close relatives to carp, tench and barbel. In saltwater, they belong to the Sparidae family, and their close relatives are the porgies or grunts.

Among the many saltwater species, the black and the red species are those of most interest to anglers. They can be found in most tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans.

Bronze Bream (Abramis brama)

The freshwater bronze species is distributed throughout most of Europe, central Asia and Great Britain.

They have a deep and compressed body with a small head. The high dorsal fin is placed just behind the hump-like back. The anal fin is long and the tail is deeply forked. Small scales covered the whole body.

The color of the young are paler than the adults, being silvery with a pinkish hue. The fins are black with a lateral line running just behind the head and end before the tail.

They travel in school, often of the same size. Reservoirs, canals, lakes and deep slow-flowing rivers are their usual habitat. Often they’re found over muddy bottoms.

They feed on worms, crustaceans, larvae, algae and small fish.

Bronze can grow to a good size, reaching over 18 lbs. The average is 4-7 lbs.

The main technique for bronze fishing is bottom-fishing. Anglers use all sort of baits like maggots, bread, animals feed mixed into paste, corn, worms and many other items to catch them. Pre-ground baiting with prepared, processed and natural baits is important for a successful catch.

.

Rods are a matter of personal choice but most anglers use rods from 10-14 ft. in length, line from 4-8 lbs strength. Hooks are suited to the bait and on most occasions, sizes between 4-14 bait-hooks are used.

Most bream fishing is done on the bank or shore. A bite-indicator of some sort is used and experienced anglers of this species found it best to sit some distance away from the rods so as not to spook the fish.

Black Bream (Spondyliosoma cantharus)

The black sea bream has a compressed body with long dorsal and anal fins. The eyes are large, strong jaws with rows of very sharp teeth. The back is dark and the sides are silvery-grey with 6-7 dark vertical bars.

They’re a common species in north European waters, the west coast of Africa and the Mediterranean Sea.

They prefer rocky bottoms and wrecks, feeding on small fishes, crabs, prawns and worms. Black are usually small in size but they can grow to more than 7 lbs.

Red Bream (Pagellus bogaraveo)

The fish is pinkish-red in color with silvery on the sides. It has a distinguish black spot just above the gill cover. This fish is a common species and a very good food and recreational fish.

It prefers very deep water and can be found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and around the west coast of Africa, as is the black species.

It feed on crabs, squid, fish and worms. This fish can grow to over 10 lbs.

Most of these sea species are medium-size to small. They travel in school. Some can be found over rocky bottoms, but some can be found only over sandy or muddy bottoms.

Most of them are good table fare and they’re easy to catch. And for their small size, I like battling them with light tackle. They readily take natural baits. But sometimes I prefer to catch them with small artificial lures like spoons, soft plastics, spinners or even with my fly outfit with flies in prawn and shrimp patterns.

Depending on species, some are found close to shore, estuaries, reefs, bays and inlets; making them a good target for surf and beach anglers.

Tackle can be a simple spinning outfit, loaded with 8-10 lbs line when fishing from the shore.In deeper water fishing from a boat a heavier outfit, with 15-20 lbs. is sufficient.

The best fishing times for bream is early in the morning and late evening and so do in the night.

back to top: Bream

Saltwater Fishing

Home

Custom Search