Bream.

[soft plastic]

I was about to exclaim that the lower one is a blooming good silver bream but the eye doesn't seem big enough. I used to catch plenty of silver bream from the Ancholne but haven't tried for some time. Nice fish.

The "Ancholme", I take it you meant to say. I live in Brigg, the river flows through the town. Where did you fish? I have fished it it for close on 55 years. A shadow of it's former self, as are most rivers.

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[sam vimes]

I've got no particular issue with bream. I'm not especially keen on skimmers or those from muddy stillwaters, they do tend to live up to the "snotty" name. I've found bigger bream from large, clear, gravel pits, or rivers, to be much cleaner and they can also put up a decent fight. Not exactly my favourite species, but I'll be as happy as a sandboy if I ever catch another double.

 

[flightliner]

I,ve always had a fondness for Bream ever since my father took me on the Witham by train back in the late fifties where I saw an "old" angler take several near the road bridge at Bardney on float tackle with bread paste as bait--- it really fired me up.
From then on I read anything I could about them , I remember Peter Tomblesons book on match fishing with its wonderfully evocative but simple scetches having a big effect as were the thousands of Sheffield anglers who deserted the city every weekend to fish the fenland rivers and drains.
As Pete (Bracket) says they were what most match anglers hoped to find lots of at the bottom of their keepnets at the end of a match and by my mid teens I was no exception .
after all these years my best is one of 14 lbs plus.
I still love that moment when the tip bends round, the float slides away or the bobbin displays that oh so classic slow dropback with the old optoniks giving of their beep, beep, beep.
Love em.

 

[Philip]

Why don't some anglers just don't like Bream?

Probably because they dont pull back too much and being a shoal fish tend to move in large numbers so can take over a swim when your trying to catch something else.

I like them but I think its a case of in the right context. Setting out your stall to catch a big bag of Bream on a feeder or better still a float can be great fun or try and target a big one which wont be easy.

Bream have livened up many a dull day as its still a fish that gives a bite and gets the blood pumping again, if only for a few seconds.

If its slime your worried about then hand lift them out ...slide them to the edge and then there is a spot just next to the root of each pectoral that you can grip with your finger and thumb on and lift them up ...quck twist with the forceps or disgorger and plop it back without getting everything covered in slime.

Taking of slime & river fish being less slimy...I once caught this most amazing Bream from a local river, it was not a monster but I have never seen anythng like it...it was thick set and broad across the shoulders like a Chub and very long rather than deep. Its flanks where really dark almost black & it had literally no slime on it. It put up the most incredible scrap too and if I had lost it I would have been sure it was a Carp. ...amazing fish.

For some reason I still cant fathom (prob because I was stupidly focused on lbs and ozs) I didnt take a snap of it, something I still regret it to this day.

 

[markcw]

like Keith, if I am in a match, I don't mind catching them,they are mainly skimmers in the pools around here, but they
are good weight builders if you get a shoal in your swim, To remove the bit of slime from your line, just slide it down to
the bottom shot and pull it from the line, don't leave it on, it will affect the way the float sits in the water. I have had one or two
that do acrobatics out of the water as you bring them in,

 

[Alan Tyler]

Since the removal of the close season on stillwaters, I thought many anglers had had to re-set their ideas about bream - if you upset them in May/June by hooking them in front of their girls, they leap! It's quite a shock to go from applying side-strain to a fish in eight feet of water to down-strain on one a foot in the air.
Or is this just a local thing?

 

[markcw]

Its all year round here when the leap, some waters don't seem to be "affected" by the acrobatic skimmers, yet others are, and they
are stocked from the same batch. talking of acrobatic fish, I went on an any method trout pool at a fishery in Scotland, I was fishing the pole, I had one or two that launched from the water, but I was using a heavy elastic, it was like bungee jumping in reverse,
I had to release each one at the waters edge,without lifting them out, You had to buy whatever you caught, I "blanked" ,
The bait was sweetcorn which was sold at the fishery, at an extortionate price for a vending machine cup full,I looked for a sign that said "**** Turpin Fishery", at least he wore a mask when he robbed people,
It was only later that I read somewhere that trout have difficulty digesting sweetcorn, yet this place had it for bait.

 

[no-one in particular]

When I was about 14 I went with my dad to the tidal stretch on the Stour at Sandwich, S63 might know it. He had a superstition not to make the landing net up before you hooked a fish, he was very strict on this, the days before rules and you made your own up; daft but there you go.
So we started fishing off this concrete ledge and straight away he hooked this massive bream, the biggest fish I ever saw him catch; it came to the surface and his pipe fell out of his mouth as he shouted get the landing net to which I said not enough time and I would get it out with my hands. He muttered something and I got down and got both hands under it and lifted it out and then dropped it and it broke the line and was gone. he never spoke to me for a week and never forgave me; it became one of the big unmentionables in the house.
I went to see him in hospital the day before he died 5 years later and casually mentioned it in conversation hoping for a bit of forgiveness, I mean 5 years is a long time to hold a grudge and he was dying, I mean come on-we both knew this was last chance saloon; nope- just glowered at me. I didn't blame him, I would be the same; some things are more important than life and death and a big bream is one of them! Quite right too!

 

[flightliner]

I used to fish a lake that was at best only two or three feet in depth.It was stuffed to the gunnels with Bream in the half/one pound weight as well as some of the best Crucians in the region.
Like others have said earlier if the Bream descended on my baited area a large number of them when first hooked would clear the lake surface by a clear foot in height on the strike, dramatic stuff, such a surprising explosion of energy that was so contrary to their normal plodding efforts to shed the hook.:bounce:

 

[peterjg]

Let me just say that I don't like them! They don't fight (usually), are snotty and are a nuisance.

I have caught them to 14lbs on carp tackle and it's like reeling in a plastic carrier bag BUT hook a 6lber on roach tackle in a fast swim on the Kennet and they can make things a bit difficult.

There's bream and there is bream .....

 

[thecrow]

During the time I have been fishing a club water for tench I have had quiet a few Bream and Roach amongst them, some of the Bream in spawning condition have not been slimy at all while some of the Roach have been very slimy, some of the Tench have been more slimy than others and just last week I had one that had slime that was so thick it resembled evo stick, all a bit strange but as most fish have a coating of slime its something that has to be accepted, the most slimy fish I have caught are catfish and it stinks but the fight makes up for that

 

[nottskev]

Slime? Do we mean the protective barrier that keeps some stuff in and other stuff out? Just asking, as "slime" is already a rather pejorative term. I've caught nets of bream in the 2-5lb range and come home clean. Pick them out of the net, unhook them properly, and don't maul them around and there's no need to remove it on your hands and clothes. After a session with roach or tench I have to wash the overtrousers so they don't stink and set like cardboard.

On a favourite deep-ish lake, fishing for bream is a fascinating exercise. If you want a good catch, as opposed to getting a few, you need light pole gear, small hooks and a float dotted in the film. You have to be prepared to to see exactly what, fed when and how, will keep bites coming, and to try different shotting and get your tell-tale shot working. I've been fishing there for three years with the friend who showed me the place, and he often catches more than me, hitting "bites" that I don't pick up on even if I'm watching over his shoulder to see why. Bump them off the hook or feed unwanted bait and they may just disappear. They're moody, fickle and can be very elusive, and a good test of angling skill, in my opinion.
There's more to fishing than the fight.

How they fight is variable from place to place and from time to time, and entirely depends on what gear you're using. Anything other than a carp hooked on gear that will comfortably land one is unlikely to resist much; a decent bream on light line and a tiny hook will make you hold you breath til you pan it.

 

[john step]

The "Ancholme", I take it you meant to say. I live in Brigg, the river flows through the town. Where did you fish? I have fished it it for close on 55 years. A shadow of it's former self, as are most rivers.

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Yes my typo mistake. There used to be a lot of silvers below the Snitterby weir. I used to pike it as well. Last time I looked it was almost impossible to get to the water as the reeds grow out so far below the steep bank. The water in the Rase above the weir is now almost silted up and there are reeds growing in the middle where chub once lived. I stopped going there when piking I found several decent pike ottered on the bank each time I went. I spoke to an old timer in Brigg last winter and he said the otters were there too.

 

[Specihunter]

I don't mind catching bream, but it's true river bream fight better then lake bream.

 

[flightliner]

I don't mind catching bream, but it's true river bream fight better then lake bream.

Small ones around the 6/8 lb mark give a reasonable pull but its the really slow ponderous "have I hooked a sack on a slow moving river" ones that kite left or right that make me hold my breath.

 

[mikench]

Welcome home Kev! I like bream! I caught a couple of really beautiful dark bronze fish today ! Ok little fight and obviously bream, but they count and livened up that particular period of fishing!