Bream Record (What is the difference)

[Stealph Viper]

Other than the obvious, one is silver and one is bronze, what is the difference in the species?
I would have thought that a silver Bream was just a Skimmer?

Bream (common or bronze) — 19lb 10oz (8.9018 kilo’s)
2005 J. Rust, Cambridge lake

Bream (silver) — 2lb 2oz (0.9639 kilo’s)
2005 Christine Smith, Mill Farm, Sussex

These were taking from the go-fish.co.uk fish records page

Tight Lines

 

[the pelly]

Good question, I have often wondered about this too.

This is from Go Fishing.co.uk

SILVER BREAM


Blicca bjoerkna

This tiny little bream is a species in its own right and is often confused with baby bream. They have the same body shape, but their eyes are larger and the body is almost slimeless.

Two other differences are that the mouth doesn't protrude as far as the more prolific common bream, and the fins are a shade of pink.

Breeding of the silver bream is exactly the same as that of the common bream.

In Europe the silver bream thrives in lowland rivers and lakes, but unfortunately the silver bream is almost an endangered species in the British Isles - only a few shoals exist in East Anglia.



It would be interesting to see a picture of a silver bream and a skimmer side by side.

 

[Stealph Viper]

Thanks there,

I must say, i wouldn't know the difference if they were labelled up lying side by side with neon lights above them.

 

[captainbarnacles]

Mark wintle once gave a good description of the difference between the two , i must say i find it hard to tell sometimes in smaller ones . I think this is where you get roach/bream hibrids from prob x between silver bream and roach opposed to bronze bream prob wrong but size wize it makes sense.

 

[alan whittington]

There used to be lot on the Trent many years ago(before they invented inland cormorant squadrons),dont know if they are still there now,i used to catch lots of them above Sawley,their large eyes are nearer to the mouth and definitely had that pink tinge on the fins,they seemed to fight like hybrids(more than c.bream)even though most were between 6ozs and just under a pound,nice clean fish though.:w

JMA it would be nice if only to see if they are still out there eh?

 

[Alan Tyler]

There's never any pink/red/orange in any fin of a true bronze bream.
The real problem comes unscrambling silver bream from hybrids, the big giveaway being that in silver bream the snout (i.e. forward of the eye) is shorter than the diameter of the eye itself.
If you google the record silver, held, iirc, by one Philip Morton, there's a cracking pic of a true silver; it really is silver!

---------- Post added at 04:30 ---------- Previous post was at 04:26 ----------

http://www.fisheries.co.uk/news/news/2009silverbream.htm
here's the url; I don't understand why I can't paste into the "insert link" gizmo.
Looks a very dodgy way to hold a fish, though.

---------- Post added at 04:33 ---------- Previous post was at 04:30 ----------

Good grief, the link worked without the intercession of the magic (failed) box!
The change to the new site is indeed like moving house, only the new one is a bit of a haunted castle.

 

[Stealph Viper]

I must say that the fish looks very much like a Bream / Roach Hybrid to me, i am not disputing the fact that this is a genuine Silver Bream, i am just saying what the Picture looks like.

 

[Fred Bonney]

According to my book,

"The Silver bream can be distinguished from the young common bream by the larger eye set close to the snout tip,and the shorter anal fin, the start of which is behind the last ray of the dorsal fin, also the reddish colouration of the pectoral and pelvic fins."

 

[alan whittington]

The ones i used to catch on the Trent all those years ago were easier than the fish in the link to distinguish from c.bream,but i can still see the difference from it.