John's Journal...

Tips for Catching Bigger Bream This Spring and Summer

Day 2: Sneaking-Up on Big Bream

Editor’s Note: Average fishing tactics take average-sized bream. To get the big “bulls,” you need some special tricks, no matter where you fish. Follow this advice, and your stringer will get stretched like never before.

Click for Larger ViewOne time a friend and I had found a large concentration of bedding bream relatively close to the bank in crystal-clear water. The grass around the bank had been mowed, so there were no trees or bushes to hide behind. To get close enough to the bream to present my bait without spooking them, I had to make a 30-yard belly crawl. Once within casting distance of the bream, I attached a clear plastic cork, 3-feet up my line from the hook. Since I knew that the bottom was at 2-1/2 feet, I wanted enough line below the cork, so that my bait could lie easily on the bottom once it had sunk. Click for Larger ViewI used the smallest bream hook I could find and no lead. I threaded a large red worm onto the hook and had the hook buried deep inside the worm’s body.

When I cast the worm out, the clear plastic cork hit the surface and was almost invisible to a bream looking-up. The worm floated-down freely, because there was no lead to snatch it quickly to the bottom. I was using the cork not to float the bait up off the bottom but rather to indicate a strike. From where I lay on the ground I could watch the float; however, the fish could not see me. As the bobber twitched, I gently set the hook on my 2-pound-test line and slowly and steadily retrieved the fish. Crawling to the edge of the water when the battle was over, Click for Larger ViewI retrieved my bream, placed it on a long stringer and put it back in the water. I rolled-over on my back, put a new worm on the hook, cast out and began to fish again. Using this tactic, I was able to take 20 trophy-sized bream before the evening was over. “That’s a lot of trouble to go through to catch bream,” a friend of mine observed. I agreed, but the size of the bream I was taking and the delicious bream dishes we prepared made the fishing worthwhile.

Tomorrow: Catching Hard-to-Reach Bream


Check back each day this week for more about "Tips for Catching Bigger Bream This Spring and Summer "

Day 1: Camouflage Your Hook to Take More Bream
Day 2: Sneaking-Up on Big Bream
Day 3: Catching Hard-to-Reach Bream
Day 4: Use Tiny Hooks to Lip-Hook and Catch More Bream
Day 5: Baits and Tackle for Big Bream in Brackish Water

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Entry 611, Day 2