In the spring and summer months, one fish that I love to target is Gilthead Bream. To me, they are a great fighting, great looking, and great eating fish. Although I really enjoy catching and eating Sea Bass, Gilthead Bream have the edge in both fighting and eating qualities.
The Cornish Gilthead Bream season usually runs from April through to early October and in the UK, they are most abundant in the South and South West.
I am fortunate to live close to one of the areas they like to feed which are the creeks of the Fal Estuary.
The Cornish Gilthead Bream season usually runs from April through to early October and in the UK, they are most abundant in the South and South West.
I am fortunate to live close to one of the areas they like to feed which are the creeks of the Fal Estuary.
Selecting locations similar to the locations for Flounder fishing are good locations to try for Gilthead Bream. In addition, like Bass, they will swim right into the shallows hunting for food therefore; the tactics for catching them are very similar to Flounder fishing or scaled down Bass fishing.
From the kayak, I like to use a light 7' 10g to 35g spinning rod and a 4000 size fixed spool reel loaded with 15lb braid and a 15lb nylon leader. At the business end, a running ledger with a 2ft to 3ft 15lb fluorocarbon trace and hook sizes 1 to 4. Weights range from 1oz to 2oz and baits can be lugworm, ragworm, peeler crab, mussel, or razorfish.
The size and the sharpness of the hook are very important. Gilthead Bream have a small mouth with the first inch lined with rock hard teeth. This area of the mouth is extremely difficult to penetrate with a hook. Unless the hook gets beyond those teeth into softer parts of the mouth, there is every chance of losing a fish during the fight simply because the hook has not been able to secure a firm hold.
Two ways I have found that increase the chance of a secure hook on the fish are to allow the fish to take line after the initial bite giving it more time to get the bait well into the mouth. To achieve this either use a bait runner reel or set the clutch of the reel very light to enable to fish to move away with the bait before the strike. The other is to use strong carp hooks between sizes 1 to 4 depending on what bait is used. For shellfish, I use size 1 and for worm bait size 2 or 4. That said due to the structure of the fishes mouth, a percentage of fish would still be lost during the fight.
Today it was low water at 11:20 and it was important that I was ready to start fishing two hours before low water. Similar to Bass, I have found the most productive time is a few hours either side of low water. The best time of day is dawn however, it is not always possible to match low water with dawn and fish can still be caught at any time of the day.
My choice of bait today was razorfish otherwise known as razor clam. Compared to lugworm or peeler crab, razorfish is an underrated bait yet it has a fantastic scent so much so, that it is difficult to get rid of the scent on your fingers long after using it! It has caught me a great number of Sea Bass in the past and is a very good bait to use for Gilthead Bream.
Razorfish is soft bait therefore; it can be difficult to keep on the hook. One way to make this easier is first bind the bait with bait elastic making a sausage. Once done, it is very easy to thread onto the hook in exactly the same way as you would thread on a lugworm or ragworm.
The first bite came well before low water but unfortunately, the fish was lost close to the kayak. Gilthead Bream are very strong and fight very hard with repeated runs. As mentioned above, fish can easily be lost in the fight.
Fortunately, I had another bite around low water and I gave the fish plenty of slack line before the strike and managed to land the fish. The initial pull and the fight of a Gilthead Bream is something to experience!
I fished on but that was the only Bream of the day however, when Bream fishing you often catch small Bass.
Apart from the fact that this Bass was under the legal size limit, I was fishing in a Bass Nursery Area, which means from April 30th to January 1st, all Bass are protected. It was good to see this Bass returned safely for future stocks.
It is always pleasing to catch a Gilthead Bream, They are a challenge to catch, the fight is tremendous, they are great looking and even better tasting so it was off home to prepare the catch for the barbeque.
Update June 2014:
Although you can fish for Gilthead Bream from April to mid October in Cornwall, I like to target them in June, July, and August. With a warm settled forecast, I decided to head out for my first Bream trip of 2014. The trip contributed to the making of the video below.
