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Sea Bream Hunting : advice (uk)

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

portinfer

Aquatic shopper...
Jul 3, 2003
1,327
408
173
Hey - some of you may have read the bass question I posted - hoping to glean similar info about bream.

So - what tides are you seeing bream on ?

What is your setup for catching them ?

Any special tips ?

(I hear grunting helps !)

Cheers
Ed
 
for sargo the best method is making aspetto or shooting them in the vace by using of torch. 18mm bands and 6.5mm shaft works fine but after some point it become hard to load. So its better to use 6mm shaft with 16mm bands for that kind of hunting, this setup also more accurate and faster for smaller fast moving fishes like little breams and spinefoots.

Good hunting...
 
I don't go after the bream much but Royal Sea bream is my favourite fish after bass. They tend to be the wariest of fish when encountered under the water and they love to stay just out of range unless you can coax them in a little bit. They will be gone in a flash should you make the slightest movement -- especially with your eyes.

I hunt these fella's purely on aspetto between 3-7M of rocky or sandy sea-bottom with August generally being the best month for them from what I've seen. I lie completely motionless including my eyes which I half close once I see them in the distance and remain focused on the end of my spear. When all goes well this fish will put itself on the tip of it! otherwise they'll be gone before they even get within shooting range -- swallowing your saliva with your mouth closed will be enough noise to scare them away.

The best way to attract them is to land in a bed of seaweed looking out onto the rocks or sand so that when you drop into the seaweed it makes a little cloud of particles/sand. This mimmicks another royal sea bream eating and attracts them towards you while doing your aspetto.

Another trick is to grind the sand a little bit between your fingers with your free hand, then gently lift up a little cloud of sand in front of the tip of your spear. Should you have done that correctly you will find something just waiting to be shot. Should you have not done it correctly -- you will not be able to see a thing and the royal sea bream will be 3ft in front of you and you won't be able to do a thing!

They tend to like hiding in the sand banks and between the angel hair types of seaweed but they also like the warmer water by the rocks at the end of a sunny day just like the bass.

My first encounter with this fish was when I decided to hide motionless in the middle of a forest of seaweed with a sandbank but 1M in front of me with 3M depth below. I did a one legged aspetto and gently parted the seaweed in front of me only to reveal 3 small bass, 2 mullet and lo and behold in the middle of it all there was a lovely 1.9K Royal Sea Bream that I took home with me -- I suspect the parting of the seaweed re-created that particle cloud I mentioned above and made him a little too curious for his own good :p
 
I have seen these fish while hunting for Bass, but left them alone as they tend to be so small.. how big do they grow? I dont think the ones I have seen make much of a meal..

Pekka
 
Paddythefrog, I can't give you any more karma :). Your description of fish habbits and preferences is amazing... sounds like you know them as someone would know a pet.
I really like reading your posts.
 
Thanks Deepthought -- they're all my pets, especially the bass, I watch them grow in size from one year to the next :D

Pekka, these beauts can get up to 6K+ in size -- funny story time!
Myself and another buddy I spear with regularly during the Summer months in France decided to show a young 16yr old the ropes by taking him out with us to see if he might spot his first bass. He'd only seen mullet and confused them for bass at this stage. We left from the rocks and swam out to bass territory I know v.well to see if he might make his first encounter and if we can't spear anything ourselves! 2hrs and nothing, not a bass in sight.

I then observed the young fella a little bit and lo and behold he's kick-splashing the water with his fins! I swim over to him and try and let him gently know that he's making a little bit too much noise -- he tells me he's getting tired anyway and wants to head back to shore so I see him on his way and left him but 15M from the rocks we left from so I could head back out for some hunting.

We came back with nothing and when we arrived onto the rocks this 16yr old kid was standing there with a grin going from one ear to the other -- we enquired what was so funny? He walks us over to the top of his wetsuit lying on the rocks with the rest of his kit, he lifts it up and reveals a 4K Royal Sea Bream with a spear hole in the gills/lateral line that killed the fish stone-dead.

We asked him about his encounter and he tells us that he was about 5M from the shore when he stumbled across this beautiful fish "resting" in 2M of water and that it was trapped with rocks on either side -- it just froze, looked at him and "POUM" -- he took his shot and jumped to shore with his prize in hand.

Beginners luck can be such a killer at times! He has not yet encountered a bass! Good job this lad was with us to bring some dinner home :p
 
Got my first black bream today - three pounder - should taste good - any one got any recipes ?

cheers
Ed
 
Hi everyone
Here is my small input to the royal sea bream history.
From what I know, they are quite difficult to catch during an aspetto.
They just seem to be less curious than the other ones (sea bass, and even dentex)
So most of the time, I can see them far away, but they continue there road as if I was not here.
But sometimes, they seem to come right to me, without looking even a bit nervous. Maybe it is when I am on there road, and they still don't mind about me.
You can found them at any depths but most of the time quite shallow.
I have heard that they are the easiest ones to catch if you can found one under a rock, but I never had that chance.

The last one I got was during my holidays last year. I was back to Nice in France (from the UK) for a week and was going to spearfish just once. I had no expectation as I knew I was not trained. After spearing a few mullets, I was going deeper, looking for my friend the dentex. I was hiding behind a stone at 20-25m and sow a big dentex coming, but he left. I was a bit disappointed to have missed this opportunity when a royal sea bream went strait to me :)
Here is a picture. I was quite happy for the only spear of the summer
 

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Any bream sighted yet this year ?

I only shot one last year but that was in early September.

From memory I was seeing them from mid August, but to be honest I wasn't really looking before that.

From what I remember you see a shape that looks and moves a bit like a wrasse and then when you have worked out that it is a bream it has gone !

Found some nice places where I think there will be bream so trying to find out more about them for this year.

Do you catch them on the low rising ?

Are they deep or shallow ?

Start of the day ? End of the day ?

Cheers
Ed

(I know Duncan wrote some good stuff above but hoping to find out more...)
 
Portinfer, Old Dave posted a reply on the UK.season is on...or is it? thread about three weeks ago with an impressive looking bag of bass and black bream.I've only ever seen small bream when in the water but i hope to catch both black bream and trigger fish this year.
 
portinfer said:
Any bream sighted yet this year ?

A Portland fisherman caught twenty last week in about 2 metres of water near Portland Castle. I haven't heard of any being speared yet.
 
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