BLACK BREAM DO THE DROPPER
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
IDENTIFICATION
Easily identified by its oval shape, the black sea bream is a silvery, scaly, metallic-looking fish that is often tinged blue with vertical banded lines across the back. From the family of fishes called Perciformes (meaning perch-like) they have a full length dorsal with spines, gill plates with a razor sharp edges, and jaws with 4-6 rows of razor sharp teeth which allow this predatory species, like its freshwater perch relative, to hunt with less chance of being the hunted.
Like all British sea breams they are related to the many bream species that frequent the
Mediterranean, so it is fair to say they are a warm water species. Bream turn up in huge shoals during spring, and the intensity of the fishing increases with the water temperature throughout the summer. As autumn hits 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. While on the subject of spawning and sex, bream are hermaphrodites and have the ability to change from a female to male.
WHERE AND WHEN
During April each year the bream hit our shores after they return from their deep-water nuptials.
ey can be found offshore on deepwater wrecks and reefs, but the best bream fishing occurs in shallow to moderate depths within site of land.
is 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
Ground-baiting 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. e 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.
ese pellets are relatively cheap, and you can buy a kilo bag for less than £4. ey come in 3mm, 4mm, 6mm, 8mm, 10mm and 14mm sizes, and they’re well worth experimenting with.
ere are loads of different styles of bait dropper available, but the largest ones are used by barbel anglers so they can get big beds of pellet and hemp on the riverbed on fastflowing 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 ensures that the bait is delivered hard on the bottom.
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. e bottom of the lever has a lead weight on it, which ensures the whole thing goes down vertically. When the dropper hits 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 gentle 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. Our favourite tactic is to slowly lower the rod tip or push the rod towards the fish as soon as you 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.
These Marine Halibut Pellets are brilliant for bream when used as groundbait
As a rule of thumb, 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. Either way, always choose the lightest setup 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. is, paired with their love for sharp rocky dwellings, means you will not find greater control than when using braided main line. A good 20lb braid will increase bite detection, allow you to feel the seabed better, and as a bonus will help you cut through the tide, meaning less lead 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 keep it 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 30-inches of 12lb fluorocarbon.
is tactic will often find the bigger fish too. Hooks are the most important aspect of any bream rig. ey have small mouths and bite fast, so hook size and 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. ere’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. But 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. Limpet, hermit crab tails, scallop frills, muscles, and fish strip all score well.
A 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. It’s also a good idea 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. ■
EARLY SEASON
Come late March, early April, the South Coast begins to come alive with flatfish. It’s during this period when you can have some real big hits, with numbers of fish in the high teens. Plaice, especially, can put in a mass appearance early in the season, with some days producing more than 50 fish per boat out of ports such as Eastbourne, Brighton, Weymouth and Dartmouth.
If you want to catch big numbers of flatties, have a crack early in the year. However, if it’s big, fat, juicy eating fish that you’re after, then best time to concentrate your efforts is from late August right through October.
is is the time when the flatties are at their best, having gorged themselves throughout the bountiful summer months, fattening themselves up for their annual winter
migrations. It’s not uncommon to hear reports of plaice weighing over 6lb at this time of the year, and if you hit it right, you can have some tremendous sport.
TACTICS
e standard tactics for catching turbot and brill on the drift is to drag your lead over the ripples of sand, with a 3ft-long trace and size 4/0 hook on the end, with either half a fillet of mackerel or a whole fillet, if the water is coloured.
Having said that, a few years ago we learned a little trick for cutting down half a fillet of mackerel so that it looks more like a sandeel in the water. It’s a great tip for when the turbot seem to be a tad finicky, or when there is little tide. What you do is remove the fillet from your mackerel and then fillet the fillet! Remove as much of the meat from the skin as possible, then simply cut the ‘meatless’ fillet in half lengthways and use the shiny silver belly section.
When there’s not much tide we also make another change, and switch down to a really light lead. If we can, we’ll go as light a 2oz. e key to fishing this method is to wait until the drift is well and truly underway, then cast the light lead and thinned-down mackerel strip out across