Bream

[moonlight angler]

I fish a big lake called Shearwater (30-odd acres) and there is a massive head of bream in the lake in big shoals.

 

The problem i find is i can catch 3 or 4 then it all goes quite as if the shoal have moved on.

 

Just was wondering how much feed i would need to keep a shoal in my swim for a good number of hours.... and also what would be the best groudbait/loosefeed to ball in and also use in the feeder.... also what hookbait would you all reccomend..

 

is there also anyway to catch the odd carp whilst catching bream???

 

your advice and guidance would be much appreciaed because i love bream fishing with the feeder and quivertip!!!!!!!!!

[Dick Dastardly]

I fish a big lake called Shearwater (30-odd acres) and there is a massive head of bream in the lake in big shoals.

 

The problem i find is i can catch 3 or 4 then it all goes quite as if the shoal have moved on.

 

Just was wondering how much feed i would need to keep a shoal in my swim for a good number of hours.... and also what would be the best groudbait/loosefeed to ball in and also use in the feeder.... also what hookbait would you all reccomend..

 

is there also anyway to catch the odd carp whilst catching bream???

 

your advice and guidance would be much appreciaed because i love bream fishing with the feeder and quivertip!!!!!!!!!

 

The secret to being sucsessfull at any type of bream fishing is getting the groundbaiting right. Its over simplicating it but you need to basicly work out how many feeding fish you will have in front of you.This will dictate the amount of bait required. In many cases (shearwater being one) there will probably be to many fish for you to over feed and you will only realisticly be able to hold them in front of you for a short time.During this time you want to be able to catch as many as possible...

 

Now comes another major part of bream fishing you need to try and hold them and keep them feeding (well looking for food) but not actually "feed" them! This is why bream anglers use bread crumb and try and avoid it containing a lot of lumps/large food items just finely spread crumb with the occaisional sample of hook bait or small items.

 

In most fishing it pays to keep the area you bait extremely small so that you keep the feeding fish in a tight area.Once again with bream it pays to know/try and work out the size of the shoal and increase the baited area accordingly.Also its better to have a fine,evenly spread "dusting" of crumb over an area than compact "piles" of bait.

 

My standard bream mix is brown bread crumb,white bread crumb,layers mash.micro pellets,sweet corn and a few dead maggots/caster,chopped worm depending on hook bait. The proportions of brown,white and mash depend on how Im going to introduce it (changing the ratios affects how it will bind/break up). The crumb does this really and the mash is just to bulk it up. I dont use hemp for bream.

 

If your only holding them long enough to catch a few then you need to increase the amount you are initially balling in but only introduce more after this with your feeder.Ive put loose feed out over feeding bream with no adverse affect but never tried balling more groundbait in on top of them.

 

When the bream are realy feeding I dont think the carp really want to compete (its a numbers thing rather than size) but you obviously need to have a good size shoal.

 

In the feeder I would use the same groundbait as I balled in unless bites were coming really quick.You dont want to be playing a fish that is dragging around a still full feeder as this is counterproductive. A lighter more "active" mix will leave the feeder quicker but still top up the bait.

 

All of this has been said assuming you are catching your 3 or 4 bream in quick sucsession then it dies as opposed to catching just 3 or 4 over an extended period of time?

[lutra]

I'm not trying to be smart Budgie, but i thought i would point out a few of my findings in resent years.

 

The secret to being sucsessfull at any type of bream fishing is getting the groundbaiting right.

 

Ive completely given up on ground bait, as Ive found bream settle down and feed more confidently over loose feed, particles.

 

 

In most fishing it pays to keep the area you bait extremely small so that you keep the feeding fish in a tight area.

 

This is one of them golden rules that i think it pays to break a bit if you want to hold a good sized shoal of bream. I find if you keep a good sized lightly feed swim with a main well feed spot on the front edge to fish to its better.

[Dick Dastardly]

I'm not trying to be smart Budgie, but i thought i would point out a few of my findings in resent years.

 

Ive completely given up on ground bait, as Ive found bream settle down and feed more confidently over loose feed, particles.

 

This is one of them golden rules that i think it pays to break a bit if you want to hold a good sized shoal of bream. I find if you keep a good sized lightly feed swim with a main well feed spot on the front edge to fish to its better.

 

 

For bigger bream Ive had quite a bit of sucsess with particles (mainly corn) fed on their own without crumb so would agree.Ive not tried this kind of aproach for "normal" breaming so cant really comment. Then again Ive always used maggots or casters for my "match" style breaming so its been logical to use crumb.Cant see any reason at all why it wouldnt work just as well though.Certainly a lot easier than all the hard work crumb entails!

 

I must have misslead you mate but your second comment is exactly what I was trying to get over.

[Benselley]

hey budgie its ben

would you advise me to float fish for them or leger?

[Dick Dastardly]

I prefer to ledger for bream.There was one lake in Germany that I had some good catchs on float fishing and it is fun watching the float lift so dramaticly but in general Ive found ledgering better.

 

For stillwaters Im still very much in favour of the now old fashioned swing tip as a bite indicater.All though I still prefer the quiver tip in running water I think in still the swing tip gives you much better bites.Fished several matchs where most others were quiver tipping only to here them talking of small hard to hit bites when the ones Ive had have been really confident and easy to hit.

[gozzer]

Well just to be akward I'm going to agree and disagree with you both!

 

I don't like to keep the baited area too tight. I prefer the old Ivan Marks way of a main area, and 'arms' of groundbait coming off it. Then I try to fish at the edge of the main baited area. This avoids bringing hooked fish through the main feeding part of the shoal.

I don't like to ball groundbait on top of a feeding shoal either. Preferring to either loose feed or introduce it with a feeder.

 

I prefer to float fish where ever possible, (mainly because I like to float fish ), but agree that the swingtip outscores the quiver on stillwater.

 

It just goes to show that nothing in angling is 'set in concrete', and we each have our own preferred way of doing things.

 

John.

[stuchef]

youve probably allready had to much information and maybe feeling a bit over loaded however i wanted to put my 2 pence worth in.

you say you cant get the bream feeding for long lengths i fish for bream with a medium swim feeder i use brown crumb and mixed half and half with a strawberry groundbait i mix hemp and half tin of corn in the mix i then make a sandwich of groundbait chopped worm and castor then groundbait again start your day by casting and line clipping your line then cast bout 7-10 times to get a good bed of bait down you want to be casting in an area the size of a dustbin lid bream then get confident and stick there heads down and your feeder goin in will not spook them youve got to think there will be more then 1 shoal so when 1 shoal move of another will come so if you start getting alot of line bites just ease off the chopped wrm and castor i use triple maggot on the hook in the morning then move on to worm or a cocktail of worm and maggot another couple of tricks that work with bream is they have a sweet tooth so adding vanilla essence to your groundbait works well as a attractent also if you sprinkle your maggots with tumeric which works like brassem and it sinks your maggots quicker.

[wellyphant]

I fish a big lake called Shearwater (30-odd acres) and there is a massive head of bream in the lake in big shoals.

 

The problem i find is i can catch 3 or 4 then it all goes quite as if the shoal have moved on.

 

Just was wondering how much feed i would need to keep a shoal in my swim for a good number of hours.... and also what would be the best groudbait/loosefeed to ball in and also use in the feeder.... also what hookbait would you all reccomend..

 

is there also anyway to catch the odd carp whilst catching bream???

 

your advice and guidance would be much appreciaed because i love bream fishing with the feeder and quivertip!!!!!!!!!

I've caught loads of bream by spodding out loads(about 3kg dry) of oat groats,sweetcorn and mixed halibut and trout pellets soaked in water for a couple of days.This has sometimes resulting in action day and night.Unfortunately this has happened whilst fishing for carp .

[Dick Dastardly]

I've caught loads of bream by spodding out loads(about 3kg dry) of oat groats,sweetcorn and mixed halibut and trout pellets soaked in water for a couple of days.This has sometimes resulting in action day and night.Unfortunately this has happened whilst fishing for carp .

 

The most common mistake I see with anglers fishing for shoal bream (especially specialist anglers) is that they simply dont use enough groundbait/loose feed.

 

I cant comment on Wellyphants situation but on most of the match venues Ive fished for bream you would be using at least 5kg dry of crumb let alone the bits youve added to it.

 

Obviously got to try and work out how many fish will be in front of you and bait accordingly as Ive said earlier