I’ll admit it – I am a bream freak.
Whether it’s bluegills, redbreasts or shellcrackers – I’m obsessed with bream. It’s the bass forage that intrigues me the most. It’s also the forage I try to emulate the most when I’m bass fishing.
I’m pretty sure my obsession with bream comes from growing up in Florida. Florida lakes are not really shad-based lakes – it’s more about bream and shiners. As a result, I’m way more of a bream guy than a shad guy. If you look at all my tackle, you’ll find very few shad imitators in terms of shapes and color. Most of my lure colors are some kind of mottled mix of orange, purple, blue and olive green.
It seems like guys who are from the TVA region of the country are more about shad. Guys from the Midwest like to talk about crawfish. The guys in the Carolinas are blueback herring experts. So being from Florida, I’m all about that bream.
A bream is from the same sunfish family as bass. Genetically speaking, bass and bream are not that far apart when compared to bass and shad, crawfish or blueback herring. Bream and bass both make beds, lay eggs and defend their eggs and fry in the same manner. They are both aggressive and territorial. I don’t really think of shad, crawfish or herring as being aggressive. But bream definitely have a mean streak.
Shellcrackers have been known to team up and literally push bass out of their beds, taking over their territory. Also, bream will relate to cover and set still like a bass. Shad and herring seem to always be on the run out in the middle of nowhere – it’s exhausting just to think about how much they travel.
Bream and bass seem to coexist fairly well. When neither one is active, they’ll sort of hang out together, staring at each other. But it’s like they don’t really trust each other.
A bass is always casually watching bream, thinking, “I better keep an eye on those bream, a couple of them are eventually going to be my dinner.” And the bream is like, “I’d better keep an eye on that bass and make sure it doesn’t get any closer.” It’s amazing how the bream instinctively knows exactly how far to stay away from bass.
It reminds me of those cool nature shows where the lions and the wildebeests are out on the prairie, just lying around watching each other. You know at some point the lions are going to inch up just close enough, and the old carnivorous habit will kick in, resulting in something getting chased down and devoured.
The same thing happens under the water. Bass and bream hang out together, but ultimately the two are waiting each other out. Either the bass moseys on about its way, and the bream lives another day. Or something momentarily distracts the bream just long enough for the bass to get a jump on the bream’s carefully kept distance, and slurp, the bass wins.
If you wonder how I became so intrigued by bream, it’s because I used to have a pond in Florida where I would catch bream and then feed them to the bass. I did this most evenings I was home for several years. So, I have spent way too many hours watching bass and bream together.
I’ve studied the way bream swim, the way they sort of amble along. I find them to be somewhat clumsy, and I’m okay with that. Their tail wag for sudden propulsion is wider and more inconsistent than the tight, slimline streak of a shad.
I’ve studied how bream sit still in the water, with their pectoral fins giving away how nervous they are. I can tell the second they sense danger or become competitive. I know how they guard their fry. I know far too much about bream. Is that weird? Don’t answer that.
The point is, my primary approaches to bass fishing involve some phase of the bass spawn, or some kind of bream pattern. I’ve made seven Bassmaster Classics and eight Pro Circuit Title events fishing that way. I’ve won national tournaments on Chickamauga, Smith Lake, Red River, Rayburn, Hartwell and even a Forrest Wood Cup on Wheeler with bream-oriented patterns.
I can fish other ways, but if a lake has a population of bream, chances are I’m going all-in on them. By really pushing that pattern all across major lakes in the warmer months, I’ve been surprised by how long the bream spawn goes on, especially in the South. I used to think bedding bream only happened in April and May, but I’ve found them as late as August and even September. It’s an approach that has served me well, until it turns bitterly cold and the bass or bream are not up at all, then I might be in trouble. That’s a story for another time.
The great thing about my bream problem is it keeps my tackle pretty simple in a time when some guys have 25 rods on the deck. If bream are in, here are the most likely lures you will find on my deck: a 5-inch Berkley MaxScent General; a couple of swim jigs; a Cane Walker; a Choppo; and a couple of Swamp Lord frogs in the popping and walking models.
When it comes to bream imitations, I am a huge fan of Berkley MaxScent products, especially as swim jig trailers. The scent is a trigger point for bream eaters.
The Meaty Chunk has long been a swim jig trailer favorite for me. When I’m swim jigging for bigger bass, the 1/2-ounce F-19 Swim Jig teamed with a full-size Meaty Chunk is hard to beat as a bream lure. I can cast it, pitch it, pause it in holes in the grass and let it glide.
Over the past year, Berkley has come out with two new MaxScent craw style baits: the Stank Bug and the Crud Craw. These are more flapping-style trailers, adding that clumsy, terrified action to a swim jig. Both baits can be used just as a Texas-rig, but I like the smaller Stank Bug on a 3/8-ounce swim jig and the bigger Crud Craw on a 1/2-ounce swim jig.
I usually throw my swim jigs on a Fenwick Elite 7-foot, 5-inch medium-heavy, extra-fast with an Abu Garcia Zenon 8.3:1 spooled with Berkley’s X5 40-pound test braid. I like the length of the 7-foot, 5-inch rod to keep the jig up on extra-long casts. Also, it takes up more line on the hook set when the fish eats coming right at you.
Topwater frogs are another fantastic bream imitator. The Berkley Swamp Lord has been my go-to frog since it came out. I keep both versions, the popping and the standard walking version, on the deck for different types of matted grass, scattered bank cover or overhanging limbs.
For the walking Swamp Lord, I go big with a Fenwick Elite 7-foot, 8-inch in a heavy action and fast tip teamed with an Abu Garcia Beast in a 7.3:1 ratio for more leverage, spooled with 50-pound X5 braid. For the popping version, I drop down to the Elite 7-foot, 5-inch in a heavy action with a fast tip to pop the frog more.
Since I love bream imitators so much, people ask me about using prop baits. I like double-prop baits, but they tend to be a little too slow for me. I like to cover water fast with topwaters, so I usually go with a Cane Walker 110 or Choppo 90. They both throw far, and I can work them fast with a Zenon 8.3:1 ratio and 30-pound test X9 braid. The Fenwick HMG 7-foot, 2-inch medium-heavy in a moderate action is great for these topwaters, allowing for plenty of bend for the treble hooks when a big fish takes a hard dig under the boat.
Finally, if I could only use one bream imitator, it would be a wacky-rigged 5-inch MaxScent General on 8-pound Fireline. If the water is super clear, I’ll tie in a 10-pound test 100% fluorocarbon leader.
To me, the General is not so much a bream imitator as it is a bream attractor. Bream love that MaxScent, and they will come out and start pecking at the General like they are trying to eat it. Pretty soon, all that commotion gets bass attention. It’s so cool to watch a bunch of bream fighting over a General, and then a big dark shadow flares up from underneath and inhales everything in one slurp, including the General.
And now you know why I’m all about that bream!
