Bluegillin'
Bantamweight panfish mean loads of fun, fine table fare for anglers of all ages
By MATT WILLIAMS
The Daily Sentinel
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Walker McGuire is just a kid, but he has developed a man-size appetite for bream fishing. I could see it his eyes and hear it in his voice last Thursday morning as he snatched dozens of the bantamweight bruisers from a tiny honey hole I discovered years ago at one of my favorite fishing lakes in East Texas.
I'm not sure what makes the spot so attractive to the brawny panfish. And truthfully, I don't really care.
 Matt Williams/The Daily Sentinel Bream will eat any number of baits. Live earthworms (diced into tiny pieces) or crickets are considered the blue plate specials.  Matt Williams/The Daily Sentinel An ultra-light rig matched with small jig is a good tool when the bream want something moving.  Matt Williams/The Daily Sentinel Kids like action, and bream deliver the goods. Seven-year-old Walker McGuire had a blast hauling in dozens of hand-size 'gills on a recent trip with the author. |
What matters is that every year - usually sometime during the first three of weeks of June - the shallow stretch of shoreline comes alive with spawning bream that are almost always willing to cooperate.
Catching fish there is rarely an issue when the timing is right. In fact, the main concern I've always had is deciding how many I want to clean for the skillet or stash in the freezer.
When it comes to tablefare, I rank fried 'gills right up there with grilled ribeyes, fried back strap and ground beef tacos. Granted, there is not much meat on those boney little frames. But the goods are undeniably tasty.
It takes at least a half dozen to make a man-size meal. Complimented by fried potatoes, fresh garden onions and sliced tomatoes, fried bream make an entree befitting of any king.
Family Ties
"Bream" is the generic term sometimes used in reference to a wide variety pint size sunfish species often found in great numbers in lakes, rivers streams and stock ponds across Texas. Among them are the redear, redbreast, longear, bluegill and green sunfish.
A bream wide and long enough to completely cover a grown man's palm is considered the benchmark for a big one, but they have been known to grow larger, especially on private waters where easy meals are always available.
The redear is genetically programmed to grow larger than its cousins. The Texas state record redear from public waters was caught from Lady Bird Lake. It measured 14 inches long, but was not as heavy as you might think. The fish weighed 2.99 pounds.
In contrast, the state record redear from private waters weighed 3.25 pounds. That fish was 14.25 inches long.
Bluegills, longear and redbreast sunfish are equally common in Texas waters, but fish weighing upwards of one-pound are pretty rare. A two-pounder would rank as a giant.
Small as they are, panfish fans have learned not to be fooled by the bream's meager dimensions. What they lack in size they make up for in grit. In fact, ounce for ounce, the colorful sunfish rank among the hardest fighters swimming in freshwater.
Bedding Bream: Big numbers with an attitude
Bream have a tendency to run in loose groups throughout most of the year. The exception to the rule occurs when the fish move shallow to spawn. Most spawning occurs from late spring throughout summer.
Bream like company when making babies. Lots of it.
The fish spawn in "colonies" comprised of dinner plate-size spawning beds that are stacked tight together, usually on points, humps, or main lake ridges that offer a hard bottom with gravel or shell. Beds are easy to identify in clear water, because they appear lighter than the surrounding bottom.
A colony of bream beds might number as few as 20 or as many as 200 or more, according to Charlie Shively, owner of Bill's Landing on Toledo Bend Reservoir.
"I've seen colonies of beds as large as five-feet wide and over 200 yards long," Shively said. "One summer when the lake got real low, I found an area up in Tucker's Lake that was probably a solid acre of old bream beds."
It would be worth it to someone to sweet talk Shively into spilling the location of those hotspots. Bream tend to utilize the same spawning colonies from one year to the next, provided water levels are sufficient. If those areas are not already loaded with fish, chances are it won't be long until they are.
Plentiful as they are, the bream's aggressive attitude is what gets it into serious trouble this time of year. They will attack just about anything you dangle in front of their noses.
The techniques used for catching bedding bream can be as simple or complicated as the angler cares to make them. They will hit live and artificial lures alike. You can catch them dabbling live crickets, earthworms or larvae beneath a cork, or by fan casting casting a small bucktail jig or spinner. The energetic sunfish also pose a fun challenge on flyfishing tackle.
One of my favorite ways to target bream is with a telescopic panfish pole at least 12-16 feet in length. B'n'M makes a BreamBuster pole available in varied lengths for around $20. The poles are lightweight, easy to handle and have plenty of flex, which makes them a pleasure to fish with.
Rig the rod with a strip of 4-pound monofilament of the same length. This allows you to fish close to the boat or check the perimeter with relative ease.
Other important ingredients are the hook and cork. Remember, you're not going after Moby Dick. It is best to think small on both counts.
I like a No. 12 or 14 long shank hook matched with a Shy Bite balsa wood float by Thill. It is a good idea to add a couple of small split shot a few inches above the hook to make the float stand erect.
Another good way to locate spawning beds is with an ultra-light rig that's tipped with a small jig or Roadrunner. Shivley says he'll sometimes fancast an area with a jig until he pinpoints a concentration of fish, then move in close and have some some fun with a long pole.
"It's important that people not overfish the beds, though," says Shivley. "If you catch a bunch of fish and they start slacking off, don't just keep hammering them until you catch every fish out of there. You can kill a spot that way. As long as you leave some, others will normally move back in there."
