Make this change if you’re catching only small bream
When you find a group of bream beds, the fishing can be fast. If you’re catching a mixture of small and big fish, angler Josh Devlin has a tip for targeting bigger ones.
“The big ones and small ones are aggressive this time of year, but the smaller ones are usually quicker to the bait,” he said. “I’ve found that often, the bigger fish will be slightly deeper than the smaller ones.
“So when that happens, I’ll set my cork about another 8 inches deeper, and instead of casting right into the beds, I will cast beyond them, then slowly reel into the beds. This keeps the small ones from grabbing it before it sinks and gives the bigger bream a chance to bite,” he said.
Devlin said that he doesn’t keep all the big ones he catches. But he won’t pass up a chance to catch them for the fight alone, and also to get a look at the quality of bream in the areas he fishes.
“I toss a lot of the bigger ones back. I love to fight them and get a good look at what’s there, but they are there to lay eggs, so I’ll give the big ones a chance to do that. I throw back the biggest and the smallest, and keep the middle-sized ones. They are easier to clean, easier to fry and I think they just taste better than the bigger ones,” he said.
