Published: June 27, 2008 06:12 pm            

Back to the basics

Bream fishing means loads of excitement, great tablefare for anglers of all ages

A North Carolina teenager grabbed the national spotlight a few weeks ago after he swapped his Sony PlayStation for a fishing pole and headed to his neighbor’s stock pond in Edgecombe County.

Travis Jackson, 13, was fishing from shore with his mother, Arlene, on the afternoon of May 19, when something gobbled up the night crawler he was using for bait and powered away in the opposite direction.

It took some doing, but the young angler eventually tamed the piscatorial titan. Jackson reeled in a whopper of a redear sunfish. The catch established a new state record for the popular panfish species and fell just shy of the all-tackle world record set in 1998.

Jackson’s giant redear weighed a staggering 4 pounds, 15 ounces. It measured slightly more than 15 inches long and 18 1/8 inches around the girth.

By comparison, the world record stands at 5 pounds, 7 ounces. The fish was caught in South Carolina from the Santee Cooper Diversion Canal by an angler named Amos Gray.

I don’t know about you, but stories of sunfish shaped like a dinner plate always get my attention. Ounce for ounce, the bantamweight bruisers better known as bream are the hardest fighters swimming in freshwater, bar none. They also are among the most fun and easiest to catch.

For those reasons, sunfish are a great choice for parents hoping to hook a newcomer on fishing at a young age. Kids like action, and you are just about guaranteed to get plenty of it when you go after sunfish this time of year.

Texas lakes support variety sunfish species. Bluegills, longears, redbreasts and redears the most common.

The redear typically grows larger than its cousins. Even so, fish the caliber of those hauled in by Jackson and Gray are as rare as 20-pound bass and 200 inch whitetails on open range, possibly more so.

The state record redear from public water in Texas stands at 2.99 pounds. The fish was caught from Lady Bird Lake in Austin by John Runnels. It measured 14 inches.

I know of only a couple of other public water bodies in Texas that have produced sunfish weighing upwards of two pounds - a 2.02-pound state record bluegill from the Lampasas River and a 2.31 pound redear from Lake Winnsboro that ranks as a water body record.

Private waters have yielded even larger fish, including state record bluegill and redear weighing 3.25 pounds apiece, and a 2.40-pound green sunfish.

I have never caught an honest one-pound bream, much less a two pounder. But I have caught my share of hand-size keepers, and developed an insatiable appetite for the tasty white meat in the process. Rolled in a spicy batter and fried crisp in hot grease, fresh bream ranks right up there with ribeyes and tacos on preferred dinner menu around our house.

Though they are willing to cooperate just about any time, bream are easiest to catch in numbers during the summer months, while they are spawning.

The panfish are among the last to move shallow to spawn in Texas waters. May and June are sometimes touted as the best months to fish for them, but the truth is bream will spawn off and on all summer long.

Bream spawn in “colonies” that may consist of as few as 15 spawning beds to as many as 100 or more. Spawning beds usually show up on gravel or shell bottoms, often in relation to a point, hump of shelf located in close proximity to deeper water.

Colonies of spawning beds are easy to spot if you know what to look for. Visualize a slice of Swiss cheese. Spawning beds will resemble circular indentions that appear lighter than the surrounding bottom. The nests are usually stacked relatively close to one another.

If the water is clear enough to see the beds, you will be able to tell pretty quick if there is anyone at home or not. Bream swarm around active spawning beds and they are super aggressive towards something perceived as an intruder.

Small jigs cast on ultra-light spinning gear are deadly on spawning bream. My favorite set-up is the same one I use for trout in high country streams.

The 4 1/2 foot spinning rod is matched with an equally small reel that is filled with 4-pound test line. The rig launches a small lure extremely well. Plus, it adds to the challenge when a hand-size bruiser, or something larger, grabs hold of the bait.

I don’t fly fish, but the competitive nature of prolific panfish makes it a heavy favorite among the growing number of flyfishing enthusiasts. Most will agree that some sort of small popping bug of nymph is the most deadly bait, though select sub-surface lures will work as well.

Perhaps the most traditional way to catch bluegills is with a standard hook, bobber and natural bait such as an earthworm, cricket or grasshopper. Many of us got our introduction to fishing that way, and it still ranks as the best training drill for youngsters new to the sport.

The rod is the heart of any bream fishing set-up. I like a 13-14 foot Black Widow. The pole is lightweight, so it is easy to handle. Plus, it telescopes so it can made ready for action or storage in a matter of seconds.

The pole has a single line tie at the tip. Guides and a small reel can be added if you want, but it really isn’t necessary. A strip of 4-pound test mono the length of the pole allows for covering plenty of water sufficiently.

Probably the biggest mistake beginning bream fishermen make is using too large of a hook and bait. Sunfish have small mouths, so you need to use a combination they can inhale easily.

I like a long shank hook with a narrow bite. The long shank allows for easier removal in case the fish gets hooked deep.

A small bait always works best. Rather than globbing an entire earthworm onto the hook, pinch off a small piece and thread in on. One carton of worms should last for multiple fishing trips, provided you keep them refrigerated when not in use.

Another key ingredient of a good long-pole rig is the cork. Use a float the fish can pull under easily.

One of the best around is the Shy Bite by Thill. The float is made from balsa wood and attaches to the line using two rubber grommets.

It is a good idea to affix a small split shot to the line between the hook and the float. This will cause the float stand erect in the water, thus making it much easier to detect those subtle bites that sometimes occur when a bream grabs the bait.

Matt Williams is a free lance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by e-mail, mattwilliams@netdot.com.

        

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