Top fishing tips for Atchafalaya Basin bream

1. Be there when water temperatures are right for the spawn — 68 to 75 degrees.

2. Clear to lightly stained (think very weak coffee) water is best for bream.

3. Start fishing shallow (approximately 1 to 1½ feet deep) and work your way deeper unless you have a depth finder and can start just above the halfway depth.

4. The best and preferred live bait is red-worms.

5. Number 6 Aberdeen hooks are great live-bait hooks for bream. If you find the fish are swallowing your worm and hook, go slightly larger.

6. Numerous corks work for bream. Just ensure sure you match bobber sizes to the hooks and split shot weights so they sit on the water correctly.

7. Never pass up deadfalls, stumps, brush piles and sloughs, especially on the backside of structure when the water is moving.

8. When using plastics artificial baits, bream seem to prefer red, orange and yellow colors.

9. Fish the bottom for chinquapins.

10. Using a jig and plastic lure that’s tipped with a piece of worm, river shrimp or Berkley Nibbles can be a deadly combination.

About John Flores 154 Articles
John Flores was enticed in 1984 to leave his western digs in New Mexico for the Sportsman’s Paradise by his wife Christine. Never looking back, the author spends much of his free time writing about and photographing the state’s natural resources.