BREAM BEHAVIOUR

[Wayne T]

I am fishing the Thames this Saturday on the hunt for a few big Bream. A couple of weekends ago while fishing a particular stretch in the area, I hit into 5 or 6 skimmers in the space of about an hour. Can I take the presence of skimmers as indication that there are fully grown Bream in the area? Do they shoal together?
Thanks.W.

 

[Baz]

Wayne.
They are noted for being a shoal fish, so if you are catching a few skimmers, or even before you start catching skimmers, bait up as usual, then try a smaller bed of bait a few yds away from your main baiting area, a sthe bigger ones tend to hold back. Also try a pice of French maize on the hook, as I found only the bigger bream took this bait, over a small bed of micro pellet.

 

[Wayne T]

Cheers Baz,
I wasn't sure whether the bigger fish would be shoaling together elsewhere. I'll give the second bed of bait a try and keep you posted should I get a result!

 

[Matt Brown]

In my experience Skimmers can often be caught closer in while mature Bream are often further out.

Therefore that's strength to the case that they are often found in separate shoals.

 

[jason fisher]

i had 1 skimmer in a particular swim on the thames once and went back the next week to fish seriously for em, i caught 70lb of the buggers first try.

 

[Wayne T]

Well it sounds like I could be kept busy whether there are any mature bream about or not! I didn't really examine the fish properly when I was into them a few weeks ago and I keep thinking/hoping that maybe these are silver bream as opposed to skimmers, which would be nice. Can anybody tell me a definitive way to tell the difference ?