[Ben Field]

For those that have previously caught bream on baits or lures..... My experience with bream is zero. The main problem I'd have at the moment is knowing where to look for them. What sort of ground do black bream in particular prefer, and where are they generally found? I know where to find the odd Gilthead, but have no idea with anything else. If I plan on trying to catch one this year, where should I be looking?

 

[Keith White]

Really close to structure in mixed ground or heavier ground.
I'm told that at night, Bream lift higher in the water. This would hold true to me getting a plug caught one mid water in pitch darkness.

We've seen shoals of white bream in very shallow water but Black Bream, I'm yet to see diving and, considering the amount caught around here, the spearo's rarely, if ever see them yet alone shoot them.

Bream are one of my main targets in 2010. Too early to make any hard and fast rules and the book is therefore open as to what I can expect.

Most of our better Bream shore marks are exposed to current at some point and at high, have maybe 40- 50ft water.

 

[Tim Griffin]

Ben, my experience with Black Bream has been from a boat - fishing the Kingmere Rocks off Littlehampton. The ground there is chalk reef - broken boulders of up to 2-3 metres height in around 15-20 metres depth. The bream spawn on this reef every spring, arriving by mid April and then later in the year the breeding fish move to deeper water. The smaller fish (sub 3lb) remain on the reef , but after mid summer, the bigger fish are often caught off the back of the wrecks in up to 60 metres all along the Sussex coast. The same ground holds good numbers of big bass and wrasse and a change in bait or lure can make fishing very species selective indeed (a ragworm bait almost guarantees a wrasse). Not sure how this helps for lure fishing from the shore though!
One thing of note, the bream have really small mouths and we had most success fishing with very small circle hooks. Most takes were induced by just lifting the squid strip baits off the bottom and most bites were self-hooking as a result. Great scrappers and a 2lb fish on light gear (which we always used) is a hoot!

 

[Ben Field]

Thanks guys. Looks like I should be heading for a headland and some deeper water then?! Do they feel all through the day (light and dark) or are they better night feeders? Or do they feed all during the day/night, only changing their depth but not their eating habits?

 

[Mike Kennard]

I don't have a great deal of experience in catching bream here as they seem few and far between from the shore around these parts. The ones I know of locally have been caught on the harbour wall, maybe twenty five feet deep at most on to clean sand/mud mix. The other place locally that I will be targetting this year is Brighton Marina. A fair few small ones come up from there each Summer. Mainly on small squid strips in settled weather. That is over a mixture of sand and chalky rock.
I think a large part of their diet is shellfish and crustaceans. A lot of the inshore rough ground here contains a lot of slipper limpet and there will likely be plenty of shrimp and crab there too. If you think laterally about what they eat,then try and identify marks based on that perhaps?

 

[Ben Field]

Thanks Mike. Makes sense. I have one spot that I reckon might just do it. I don't actually remember hearing about any being caught around here, but that's not to say they're not there. I'll still try. Think I'll be trying one of my old mackerel catching spots. The coast around here is very rugged but I do know a couple of slightly more broken areas where they might be easier to target.

 

[Tim Griffin]

Ben, might be worth reading catch reports from some other forums to see when and where they appear? Should make the likelihood of finding them much better - and you should get some clues as to the terrain they can be caught over. I've only had tiddlers from the shore before (on bait).

 

[Ben Field]

I've been keeping an eye out for mentions of them for quite a while to be honesy Timmy, but nobody ever seems to mention them. Ever! Maybe I'm a bit hopeful in trying to catch one of what might be very few (or none!) on a lure! lol

 

[Ben Field]

They could be one of the most perfect fish to target, given that they appear (from what I've read) to prefer calm seas and little wind - times when bass become harder to catch!

 

[Tim Griffin]

Are they targetted much from the shore (bait or lures)? I think of them more as a boat species for some reason. If you could suss it, they would be great fun (and better eating than bass IMO!)

 

[Ben Field]

Not that I know of around here. At all! Gilthead are, but not black.

Agreed on the eating. Had it a fair few times in restaurants and even had it from Rick Steins fish and chip shop last week. Yummy!

 

[Mike Kennard]

Something I have mentioned before in other threads but may be useful here. When targetting a new species on lures if you are not certain as to whether they are present in the location you are fishing, try and catch them on bait, even while you are lure fishing. When I was targetting bream in Australia, to start with I didn't know if my lack of success was down to technique or location. So I fished for them with bait, some places I caught some I didn't. Then I concentrated on the places I had caught and eventually after a bit of fine tuning caught on lures. If I had just persisted I would have watsed loads of time fishing in places where they weren't present.

 

[Alex Jordan]

I know we get gilt heads in Chi harbour - hopefully one will fall for a plastic ... roll on the summer days!

I have seen giltheads been taken in the camel estuary off the rocks @ Polzeath - bit closer to you guys (also where my bass PB came from too!)

Just out of interest - any bream marks off Littlehampton that are kayakable or are they all miles offshore?

 

[Ben Field]

Thats probably the area where I'd go looking for the Gilts Alex. Up to my waist in the water around the edges of Daymer! I live on the other side of the estuary but only about 2 or 3 miles away as the crow flies.

 

[Dave Irving]

Ben,
I have seen Giltheads taken down at Salcombe, and to reasonable size. Given that you already know where to find them, and the Spainish bass pluggers take them on lures. I would hit the Giltheads first. I would go for small (medium noisey) lures and try the japanese bream rigs as well. Great fighting fish if you can get them. Plus it would add more knowledge to use if you then move on to trying for Black bream.

 

[Ben Field]

I think that'll be the plan to start with Dave. I'll try areas where I'd hope there might be a black one but I'll also do it in such a way with small lures that I might catch anything else that's there too.

The gilts should be fun. Already got a few special lures lined up for them.

 

[Keith White]

Whatever you do, go small.

I'd suggest that just like Aussie Bream, we need 20-45 mm lures for best results.

 

[Ben Field]

Thats the plan mate. Light and small. If I'm fishing for bream during nice weather conditions, I'll not have my bass head on so will be fishing light light light and small.

 

[Dave Irving]

Ben, well worth checking out the rig the japanese used for bream, basically a Rebel Crawfish plug on about 4" leader to a weight. Almost like a booby rig used for flyfishing. It should work a treat.

 

[Nigel A]

My friends and I have caught bream to over 4lb on float fished bread around the commercial quay and breakwateron Alderney usually November time and during the day. We have caught them at other parts of the island were there are structures. They will come into the groundbait trail churvy or mashed bread that you would lay feed to catch mullet