Content

• Steps
• Method 1 of 3: Finding the bream
• Method 2 of 3: choosing gear
• Method 3 of 3: Identifying bream
• Tips
• Warnings

The word “bream” primarily refers to “common bream,” a member of the carp family, which is a European freshwater fish related to goldfish, minnows and carp. In the United States, bream is also used as an umbrella term for members of the sunfish family, which are not perch or crappie.These small fish are a popular species for teaching kids how to fish, but large bream can put up a lot of resistance to their larger fish in a light tackle. Since both are freshwater species, you can learn about the location, identification and successful catch of both bream species.

Steps

Method 1 of 3: Finding the bream

1. 1 Head inland. In Europe and the United States, where different species can be found, fishing for freshwater bream will be very similar. You need to be far from the sea to find a relatively shallow and stagnant lake, river or pond where common bream live. In the United States, bream species are common from the South to the Midwest, while European bream is most common in England, Wales and Scotland.
   • Look for rivers with lots of backwaters and bays that are suitable for feeding. Lakes and ponds, which are rather littered or overgrown with reeds, are also natural habitats for all bream species. Wherever there is shallow, sun-warmed water and a lot of cover, bream is suitable as a habitat.
2. 2 Try your luck at sunrise or sunset. Breams and most other freshwater fish feed at dusk, which means they become active for several hours during sunrise and sunset. Morning and evening are the best times to fish for bream while they are out of hiding and are hungry. Try to get to the water before the sun starts to rise, you will find yourself in a place where the fish will feed.
3. 3 Look for places where the sun's rays are warm. This fish was nicknamed solar because it tends to those places in lakes, ponds and streams that are warmed by the rays of the sun. Sunny shores with deep water close by are the best places to look for bream.
   • European bream feeds on the bottom, so it is unlikely that they can be found easily above, although they also prefer the same habitats as American bream. Look for calm areas of water with a suitable topcoat.
4. 4 Avoid the current. Despite the fact that it is convenient for bream to receive food with the help of streams of water and wind, all the same, this fish likes to be only outside these currents during feeding and to be protected from wind and waves by shallow bays during the spawning period. Look for quiet spots and small coves where freshwater fish feed.
5. 5 Look for a suitable cover. Like many other species, bream prefers some specific cover nearby in order to hide under it from predators, catch prey or stay in the shade, hiding from sunlight. What kind of cover you need to find depends on the water in which you fish for bream.
   • In lakes and ponds, look for weeds, water lily leaves, twigs, beams, fine gravel (gravel), and rocks. If the lake has a boat dock, look there too.
   • Look for streams similar to those found in lakes and ponds, as well as concave shores, especially those with deep basins outside the current stream.
6. 6 Fish from April to June. Bream spawns in late spring, so April, May and June are ideal months for catching bream. During spawning, bream prefers gravel or sandy bottom, but they also spawn on silty bottom if they cannot find sand or gravel. Sand tends to collect where water flows in or out of a lake, or where the flow slows down.
   • When bream spawns, it can give off a smell, something like a mixture of watermelon (or other fruit) and fresh fish smells. This scent can help you narrow down the geography of your fish hunting once you have identified the desired water warmth, flow, and cover conditions.
7. 7 Find out the features of the species. Some species prefer one type of cover over another. For example, striped sunfish and robins usually prefer to snuggle to the bottom, although sometimes the latter can be caught near the surface or midway to the bottom.

Method 2 of 3: choosing gear

1. 1 Use a lightweight spinning rod or backed rod and suitable reels. Although bream can reach 2.72 kilograms, most bream weigh less than a pound, which means you can get away with relatively easy prey. You can most enjoy fishing for bream with light or ultra-light nets, with a spinning rod or backcast rod from 1.5 to 1.8 meters in length and a reel designed to support 1 to 4 kilograms of weight.
   • You can achieve good results with a reed stick 1.2 to 1.8 meters long with 2.4 meters or longer attached to the end of the line. Fly fishermen can also fish for bream using a rod with 3-4 weights and a suitable line.
2. 2 Use a small bait. While large baits and spoons are suitable for large fish such as perch, zander, pike, small baits and spoons are suitable for small fish such as bream, bluegill, robin and striped sunfish. You can also fish for bream with corn or maggots.
   • If you prefer live bait, crickets and grasshoppers are best, but where they are inaccessible, try using red worms or bits of earthworms in warm weather and larvae in cold weather. Use size 8 or 10 long hooks and attach the bait with a light weight. Attach a small slide float to the line.
   • If you prefer artificial bait and fishing with a spinning rod or a backed rod, try tiny attachments such as the Lindy Little Nipper or Bass Buster Beetle in weights ranging from 0.89 to 1.78 grams. If you're fly fishing, try small poppers, rubber footed butterflies, or foam spiders.
3. 3 Use a float or spoon. Fishing for bream with bait is usually done using floats as well. You can fish at a leisurely and slow pace with a small sliding float, or faster with an attached lure safety, such as the Bass Buster Beetle. Experiment with a few colors to find which color is right for you that day, in the area where you fish.

Method 3 of 3: Identifying bream

1. 1 Learn the basics. Common bream is a high-bodied, medium-sized, bronze-colored fish. The ribs of the bream are dark brown, with a deeply forked tail. Young fish have a silvery color, which thickens with age.
   • Common bream is a member of the same family as carp, so if you know how to identify carp, it will be easy for you to find a similar fish. This bottom-feeding fish primarily consumes worms, snails and small mussels throughout the pond, lake and slow-moving rivers.
2. 2 Look for fish that are 30-60 centimeters long. Between spawning and maturity, bream grows to a size of 30 to 60 centimeters, although fish can be larger if possible. Breams are widespread and are therefore in the lowest priority group for conservation risk, although bream must grow to be legal to catch.
   • European and American standards differ dramatically by region and season, so it is very important that you check local regulations to determine the minimum sizes for the fish you catch. To summarize, if the fish is 30 centimeters long, then everything is in order.
3. 3 Learn the difference between silver bream, striped carp and common bream. Bream often breed with other fish species, often making it difficult to identify the species. If you are looking for a specific species of fish, for some reason, you can quickly identify common bream or American bream and distinguish them from all other species.
   • Silver bream and striped carp are slightly smaller than bream, they have a rainbow effect to a degree that common bream does not. If the fish shines below the water level, then most likely you have caught a silver bream or striped crucian carp.
   • It is not so important to tell the difference between all subspecies and between species of bream in order to catch good small fish while you are in your familiar area. Count the scales from the back to the sideline to make a quick check on the bream. There should be 11 or more scales on one line. If less, then this means that this is a different type of bream.
4. 4 Check out the American bream species. Again, just to be clear, American bream is not actually bream, but some sunfish species are referred to as “bream” because of their locality or language. The word defines several different types of fish. Most commonly referred to as bream, members of the sunfish family include:
   • Bluegill, so named for its gill coloration, can be found in most parts of the United States, with the exception of Alaska. The bluegill world record in 1950 yielded a weight of 2.15 kilograms.
   • The striped sunfish is similar in appearance to the bluegill, except for the gills - they are red rather than blue. Most often they can be found in the southeast, but they have been bred in other parts of the country, but still not as common as bluegill. The world record for the striped sunfish is 2.48 kilograms.
   • Zaryanka. This fish is red on the fins and belly, but not on the gills, although some members of this species are rusty or yellow instead of bright red. Other names for this species are “pink sunflower”, “red perch”, “brown flycatcher”, “stingray”, “graceful eteostoma” and “yellowish”. They can be found in brackish swamps, warm ponds and cold streams, but they are not as widespread as bluegill or striped sunfish.
5. 5 Learn local bream species. Other types of bream include diamond bream, green dory, red spotted bass, Ozark snapper, rock snapper, and black dory. Check with your local natural resources office or the Hunting and Fisheries Commission to find out which bream species are found in your area.

Tips

• If they want to take the bait, the bream will most often swallow it within the minute you drop it. Therefore, if you do not get a catch at this moment, you can get your bait back and throw it in a different direction.

Warnings

• The spawning time is the best for catching bream, but some anglers prefer not to catch fish during this period, so as not to upset the ecological balance. In addition, there are several legal restrictions on fishing during spawning. As a rule, this applies to wild species such as perch and pike perch rather than small fish, but it is best to check in advance all the conditions and rules of your region.