Bream are by the far the most plentiful fish and easiest to catch. You don’t even need a boat in many lakes and ponds. Almost every area body of water has bream in it and we have all kinds — bluegills. chinquapins, sunfish, goggle-eyes and all kinds of hybirds.
Here are 10 tips for finding and catching more bream.
1. Fish somewhere shallow. Fishing in four feet of water or less helps your chances of locating fish. Starting out around a bank is a good bet. Look for stained water — not too clear or not muddy.
2. If you are taking kids fishing, this is by far the best way to fish. Use small spincast rigs or short cane poles for the kids to handle easily.
3. Use small hooks, small weights and small corks. A bream has a small mouth. Small corks also offer less resistance when you get a bite so the fish are less likely to know you are on the other end of that line. A small hook is more likely to get in the fish’s mouth.
4. Look for trees, brushtops or grass beds to find bream. Fish around the open edges of the structure then just keep working areas until you get a few bites. Look for sandy or gravel beds along the banks.
5. The easiest baits to use are crickets. Start the hook in the tail and work the point up to the back of the head. Worms come in second and actually produce more bites, but they are messy. Canadian cold worms, catalpa worms, meal worms, small spinners, even artificial fish bites, kernel corn or small bits of a hot dog will catch feeding bream.
6. Spit on your bait. No kidding. Hey, it works. I don’t know why.
7. Always make sure the point of your hook is covered up by the bait. That seems to make a difference with the fish, especially bigger ones. When your cork moves, don’t set the hook too soon. Give them a second to “take it.”
8. The one exception to that may be fishing with a red wiggler. You can hook it in the middle of the worm and that will let both ends of the worm…well, wiggle.
9. Bream bed up several times a year. When you catch one good one, stay there in the exact same place and keep trying to make sure you don’t leave a bed behind. Sometimes a bedding area no larger than the size of a washtub can hold dozens of bream. If you aren’t getting a bite, don’t stay long. Move to a new spot.
10. Go fishing. I’ve never seen a bream caught yet that just swam up and jumped in the cooler.
