BREAM BONANZA!
The dogged fight from a black bream hooked on a light tackle is hard to beat. Here’s how to target one of the UK’s most spirited fighters...
During April each year the black bream hit our inshore waters, as well as being found offshore on deepwater wrecks and reefs, but superb fishing seems to occur in shallow to moderate depths within sight of land. This makes them not only accessible to the charter angler but, indeed, anybody who owns a small boat.
Black bream favour mixed ground, but rarely are they found far from an underwater feature. Some wrecks produce bream, but wreck fishing is not as consistent as fishing reef marks and the hard ground around them - a hard seabed is what the bream seems to like.
Bream turn up in huge shoals during spring, and the intensity of the fishing increases as the water temperature rises throughout the summer. As autumn arrives and temperatures plummet, they seem to suddenly disappear from shallow-water marks, making a journey from their summer haunts to nearby deeper water in which they spawn.
Early in the spring, shoals will frequent marks with a moderate depth, but as the core water temperature increases towards mid-summer, thousands of bream move inshore into beach, estuary, pier and harbour areas.
With a small mouth armed with rows of razor-sharp teeth, and a jaw action similar to a piranha, black bream are built perfectly to feed on seaweed and small crabs or prawns.
When the tide is slack, or has little run, black bream come up in the water column, but as the tide starts to run, they move and remain hard to the bottom.
They can often be found in huge shoals, where fishing can often be a fish per drop for the duration of a tide.
It may seem like black bream fishing is a bottomless pit of fish, but we must always be aware of the knock-on effect throughout the whole ecosystem. Only keep what you need and put the rest back. It’s also worth checking your local bylaws, because in certain areas of the country there is now a bag limit per angler in force (see page 106).
BALANCED TACKLE
On correctly balanced light tackle, black bream will offer a fight unmatchable by most other species. On heavy tackle, not only will the fight be reduced, but also bite detection can become harder. As with all fishing, the amount of lead weight required will determine what rod you use, and the depth and run of tide will affect your choice.
Always use the lightest outfit you can. In shallow water, with little run of tide, this may be a great excuse to fish with a spinning rod, whereas in deeper water, this may have to be stepped up to a 10lb or 12lb-class outfit, but always choose the lightest, and this will increase the fight and aid more sensitive bite detection. Fast bite detection is needed for a quick reaction to set the hook, or you will have been bait-robbed.
When using light tackle, it is important to balance the rod with a correctly weighted reel. A 5000-6500 sized multiplier will pair nicely with any light tackle outfit, and use fixed-spool reels for spinning rods.
Bream are a species that bite fast and will often need a quick strike to set the hook. This, paired with their love for sharp, rocky dwellings, means you will not find greater control than when using braided mainline.
A good 20lb braid increases bite detection, allows you to feel the seabed better and, as a bonus, helps you cut tide, meaning less lead weight and more sport.
SIMPLE RIGS
Although bream will come right up in the water column and can be caught using float tactics when there is little tide, bottom fishing is by far the most effective method to target them.
When fishing over rough ground, keep it simple and, therefore, cheap. Bait is far more important. A two or three-hook paternoster made with dropper loop knots or two-way beads can be very effective if you want to catch numbers of fish, but I prefer the more sporting approach of a single hook running leger rig, tied with 30in of 12lb fluorocarbon. This tactic often finds bigger fish too.
Hooks are the most important aspect of any bream rig. These fish have small mouths and bite fast, so hook size and a quick set are paramount if you want to land fish. Size 4 carp hooks, Chinus and ‘J’ hooks in size 1/0 and under will guarantee fewer missed bites.
A popular trick is to add a single or double 3mm or 5mm yellow bead directly above the hook so it butts up to the eye. There’s something about using this yellow bead that definitely increases bites.
SECRET BAITS
Squid strip and ragworm baits, often in combination, are the most widely used for bream fishing - not because of success, but more down to the convenience they can be purchased. A bream’s natural diet consists of very little squid and worm cocktail, and edging baits towards their more natural food sources can often prove very rewarding. Limpets, hermit crab tails, scallop frills, mussels, and fish strip all score well.
My favourite bait for big bream is a squid head, either whole if it’s a small calamari, or cut in half lengthways for larger heads. I also like to pierce the eyes of the squid with the point of the hook before sending it down to release even more scent into the water.
DO THE DROPPER
Groundbaiting can be highly effective for all bream species, and on the South Coast it is common practice to use a bait dropper device to deposit groundbait around the area that you’re fishing to help draw the shoal in tight.
Finely-chopped squid and a couple of bags of Dynamite Baits’ Marine Halibut Pellets make the perfect groundbait. The pellets are made from fishmeal and fish oils derived from the sea, so it stands to reason that they should be an amazing fish attractor when used back in the sea too. These pellets are relatively cheap, and you can buy a kilo bag for less than £4. They come in 3mm, 4mm, 6mm, 8mm, 10mm and 14mm sizes.
There are loads of different styles of bait dropper available, but the largest ones are utilised by barbel anglers so they can get big beds of pellet and hemp on the riverbed on fast-flowing rivers.
If you use a catapult, rather like throwing groundbait over the side of a boat, the flow of the river or tide will simply wash it away.
Using a bait dropper (below) ensures that the bait is delivered hard on the seabed. It works by a simple lever system; you open the dropper, fill it up and then push the lever down to lock it all in place. The bottom of the lever has a lead weight on it, which ensures the whole thing goes down vertically. When the dropper hit the bottom, the lever is pushed up to release the groundbait right where you want it.
BOW DOWN
Bream bites can be anything from a gently pluck to a savage rattle and rod-wrenching pull. Most of the time you’ll find that bream will hit your bait and try to tear it off the hook, resulting in the familiar violent rattle felt through your rod.
My favourite tactic is to lower my rod tip slowly or push the rod towards the fish as soon as I feel that first rattle, then quickly lift into it, effectively striking and setting the hook. It works a treat, and by ‘bowing down’ you will hook a lot more fish.