Before catching bream, any angler should know what kind of fish it is, how it behaves. Based on this, determine the best methods of fishing, time and place. The main thing you need to know is that this is a schooling fish, a typical benthophage, that is, it almost always eats food only from the bottom of the reservoir.
The size of an ordinary bream that fishermen come across in central Russia is from 300 grams to three to four kilograms. Individuals up to a kilogram are usually referred to as scavengers. There are restrictions on the minimum size of fish caught and on the timing of its fishing during the spawning ban. It can usually be put in a cage longer than 25 cm, and it can be caught from the beginning or middle of June.
The bream has very good growth rates and is quite voracious. Thanks to this feature, its flocks quickly enough eat all the food in a small area and are constantly forced to move around the reservoir, looking for new areas for feeding. That is why bait is crucial for catching, since he almost never stays in one place for a long time, and it will help to detain him.
Due to the wide shape of the body and the large amount of mucus, it is not so easy for predators to catch it. Therefore, kilogram individuals and more in the natural environment have almost no enemies. This explains why it forms the basis of the fauna in many reservoirs. The main scourge of bream flocks is aquatic parasites. They usually settle in the gills, they can also be found in the peritoneum. That is why it is necessary to carefully gut the caught fish, remove the gills from it, and only after that cook it, frying it well or boiling it.
The bream navigates in the bottom layer of water with the help of vision, smell, touch, hearing, taste and a special organ – the lateral line. His sense of smell is especially well developed, so it is easier to catch a bream using all kinds of flavors. But this should not be overdone, because many smells are perceived by him as hostile. The food of the bream in its natural environment is made up of benthic insects, however, it eats high-calorie plant foods with pleasure. You can catch it on both plant and animal baits.
The bream is a rather shy fish. A flock usually consists of several individuals, and if one of them gives a signal of danger, everyone will run away from this place. That is why silence and caution are of particular importance when fishing, especially when fishing close to the shore. At great depths, the bream behaves much more boldly, and here even the capture of one of the flock will not entail its departure.
In summer, the bream actively travels through the waters of lakes and rivers, looking for food and gaining mass for wintering. Its biting is most active in June and very gradually decreases by mid-September. In October and November, it bites much less frequently, and in winter, large bream often stops feeding altogether, becoming at the bottom of deep wintering pits.
Very important for fishing is such a phenomenon as a thermocline, that is, thermal stratification of water in the summer. In this case, two layers of water can be distinguished in the water column – warm and cold, and between them there is a zone of a sharp temperature difference. Fish prefer to stay in a warm layer of water. The bream, like a bottom fish, in this case tries to stay on the shallows, where the water is well warmed up to the very bottom. Catching it at great depths in summer is not as effective as in areas with a depth of up to one and a half to two meters. Given the shy nature of the bream, it is worth paying attention to those areas where the shallows are at a great distance from the coast, and the bream will feel safe there.
bottom fishing rod
Tackle for catching bream in the summer is varied. But when fishing from the shore, priority should be given to the bottom rod. It allows you to throw the nozzle at a sufficient distance, allows the use of feeders, several fishing rods. The most modern and sporty type of bottom rod, the feeder, is most suitable for bream fishing.
The key to success when fishing on a donk is the right choice of a place for fishing and the use of bait. Also, the number of rods installed and the number of hooks can affect the success. In second place is the correct choice of nozzle. As a rule, if there is a bream in the place of fishing, it does not show great pickiness, and can bite both on a worm and on bread or dough. But it makes sense to use such nozzles that will attract bream. So, the dung worm quite often goes to ruffs, which come to the nozzle before the bream. And roach loves to pick bread and semolina porridge from the hook, which is generally quite difficult to hook on an ordinary donkey in time.
The usual bait for donkeys is all kinds of cereals. You can also use ready-made baits, but they are more often intended for feeder fishing. For donka, it is desirable to re-moisten them, since usually a bottom rod uses a large volume of feeders and is rarely recast, thereby the bait will stay in the water longer and not be washed out.
Places for fishing are chosen where there is a lot of food for bream. It is also worth paying attention to hard areas of the bottom, where the bream can stop and rub its stomach against stones, shells and other objects, freeing the intestines. On dumps and in ditches, bream rarely feeds, as a predator is often found there, which can scare away the bream. It is worth catching edges with a flat bottom and areas near the riverbed. Attention should be paid to the edges at a shallow depth, where the bream will be in the warm zone of the thermocline. In rivers, the influence of the thermocline is not so noticeable, because the layers of water are mixed due to the current, and its effect on the behavior of the bream is insignificant, but in ponds and lakes the bream will try to stay in warm areas, but safe from its point of view.
Fishing should start before dawn. It is at this time that the bream begins to feed actively and shows less caution. At the place of fishing, it is worth preparing everything at dusk so as not to create unnecessary noise on the shore. Arrange fishing rods, prepare a garden. Putting it in the water before you start fishing is bad luck, but the noise from the net can scare away the bream, so it’s best not to be superstitious and put it in the water before you start fishing and feeding.
Floating rod
The traditional way of catching bream, which requires special skill, accuracy and the ability to choose a place for fishing. It is more difficult to catch bream on a float than on a donk, but at the same time, such fishing brings more pleasure. In rivers for float fishing, you should choose areas with an eroded shore, as well as a little downstream. In such places, the bream comes under the shore to pick up worms and insects washed out of the ground. In lakes, the property of the thermocline is used – the bream tries to feed on heated shallows, often in the coastal strip. The boat greatly increases the chance of a bite, as it allows you to reach places where the bream feels safe.
As well as on the bottom fishing rod, it is best to catch the float on the morning dawn. Feeding is carried out with the help of balls that are thrown into the water at the place of fishing. Balls are molded from bait with soil. At the same time, it is necessary to make different balls so that some fall apart almost immediately, others break up for a long time, even up to an hour, so that the bait is at the bottom all the time, and the bream would always find something to profit from.
The bite of a bream on a float is very characteristic. He does not drown, but lifts it, tearing off the bottom of the shed. Then the bream usually leads the float to the side, at this moment the hook should be performed. In order for the bream to bite and not feel anything unusual, the shepherd should be located no less than 50-60 cm from the main load, and sufficiently long leashes should be used. The shed should be of such weight that the bite on the rise is clearly visible.
In the current, the float should be adjusted so that it is calm down, and the nozzle goes ahead of it. If the float stays still at all, that will be the best. It makes sense to catch the wiring only with a very strong hold. The fact is that near-bottom objects in the current do not rush at the same speed as the current on the surface, but either simply lie on the bottom or move in small jumps. The fish is suspicious of worms flying near the bottom and pieces of bread on the hook, and will take motionless or slightly moving ones.
It makes sense to catch the line with the release of the nozzle, because the bream is a shy fish, and may not come to the place where the angler sits. In this case, it is worth using flat floats of the Cralusso type, which multiply the area available for fishing with a fishing rod in the course, and therefore the chances of a bite.
Boat fishing
As a rule, fishing from a boat is much more effective than fishing from the shore. The angler is more free to choose a place, many areas become available to him, which were impossible to reach from the shore. This is especially important when fishing for bream with a float, since this fish does not often come close to the shore, where it can be caught in this way. And instead of it, you have to catch only a trifle. And only after driving a little, there is already a good chance to catch a bream.
You can also fish on bottom fishing rods, even on a feeder. At the same time, the boat gives more freedom in baiting – you can feed from the boat at the fishing point, then drive it away so as not to frighten the bream, and then throw the bottom into the baited area. In the case of using a boat, it is possible to fish with the trotting or Nottingham wiring by releasing the float downstream with the line along the rod when the line is unwound from the reel under the pull of the float. So they caught in England more than a hundred years ago from mill dams.
Of particular note is the traditional method used for catching bream in Rus’ – fishing with a ring. This method allows you to catch only bream, and in large enough quantities. They only fish in the current. From the boat, a feeder is lowered into the water on a string, which is threaded through the ring. A fishing line is attached to the ring, which the angler holds in his hands, and a bet with leashes and hooks – usually there are no more than three of them. It is best to put the boat above the edge, where the depth is from two to three meters. Usually bream was caught this way when it went to spawn along the river, but now spawning fishing is prohibited, especially from a boat.