Black Bream Fishing
The Black Bream is a common fish on the south coast throughout the late spring and summer but the best time is late April to July when the bigger fish are more abundant. Bream inhabit chalky outcrops and ledges but smaller fish will turn up almost anywhere.
Bream are a tasty table fish with firm white flesh quite similar to Bass and again, like the Bass, the Bream has big scales and dorsal spines that are very sharp! The scales need to be removed before cooking or you can fillet the fish and remove the skin and scales with it. Fish to 2lb are plentiful and 3lb+ fish are not uncommon.
When the fish are biting it can be easy to catch them in large numbers so we ask anglers to show restraint and not to keep everything that they catch.
The methods are simple and a very light boat rod or spinning rod with small leads are the norm. Rigs are a personal choice and a running lead and a 12-15lb hook length with size 6 - 2 hooks, circle hooks are a popular choice as this ensures the fish are lip hooked, making hook removal easy, but also ensuring fish that are to be returned are undamaged. anglers will often use two hooks below the lead by tying a blood loop 12-18” long.
Another successful method is to use small baited feathers cut down to a string of 3 hooks. And a third popular method is the paternoster style rig, with many anglers using a couple of stand-off booms, with short 6" snoods.
The most popular bait is a thin squid strip. Presentation of the bait is an angler’s preference with many choosing to hook it through once, whilst others will thread it up the hook shank and then whip it to the hook with elastic to stop the aggressive bites resulting in stolen bait with no hook up. Experiment, try different techniques and baiting tactics and maybe develop your own successful style.
Ground baiting for Bream definitely works, and this can be done by bringing premade ground bait of your own special making, or as many do, using blocks of frozen leftover bait from previous trips which are cut and mulched down. Specialist ground baiting accessories range from homemade cages weighted with a couple of lb of lead to onion sacks loaded with fish scraps tied to a rope and weighted and hung over the side of the boat and bounced on the sea bed every now and then.
If you wish to target the Bream specifically then let us know and we will organise ground bait for you.
Rod and reel choice is again personal preference.
If you have a light 7– 9 ft rod and a small / medium sized fixed spool set up you will not be far off of the mark.
Although Bream can be caught on literally any tackle, the fun provided by these sporting hard biting fish is to match your gear to the species. There is no doubt the best sport is extracted by fishing with light gear.
