How to catch bass off bream beds

[Maggiesmaster]

With the full moon, bream are on their spawning beds and bass are close by.  However, I have a hard time catching them. What are the best lures/methods for fishing around bream beds?

[galyonj]

The same you'd use catching them when you wanna emulate a bluegill-like forage species at any other time of year.

 

Lure:

• Worms
• Jigs (especially swim jigs and chatterbaits)
• Swimbaits
• Spinnerbaits

Colors:

• Green pumpkin, but don't be afraid to experiment

[WRB]

#301 5” unweighted wacky rigged Senko.

Tom

[WRB]

Why are Bluegill, Pumpkin Seeds, Red ears, Green Sunfish called bream, brim? 

Tom

[roadwarrior]

I think it's just a "Southern thing". When I was growing up in the Midwest,

the same fish were all called perch. In California do you guys own a divan,

sofa or couch?

[Tennessee Boy]

I don't really know why they are called bream but I will make up a good answer.

 

Bream is the common name for the genus Lepomis.  

 

What anglers in this country call bream includes all the species in the Lepomis genus.  Many call them sunfishes which is true but the sunfish family includes other species like the largemouth bass.

 

So if you can't speak latin lets just say that bream is the english word for Lepomis.

[J Francho]

You can call them bream up here, but you have rhyme with team or you get kicked out. 

[MIbassyaker]

47 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

I don't really know why they are called Bream but I will make up a good answer.

 

Bream is the common name for the genus Lepomis.  

 

What anglers in the country call bream includes all the species in the Lepomis genus.  Many call them sunfishes which is true but the sunfish family includes other species like the largemouth bass.

 

So if you can't speak latin lets just say that bream is the english word for Lepomis.

 

Seems about right, now that you mention it - not being from the south, I could tell what was meant generally by "bream", but always wondered what the "boundaries" around the term were.  Seemingly, a bluegill, green sunfish or redear could all be "bream", but not rock bass or crappie.

 

"sunfish" up here is used approximately the same way, except for bluegill which are typically identified as bluegill specifically.

[MGF]

My wife and I used to make some special dive trips in late spring to watch the circus going on around the bluegill spawn. Our typical description of it was that the catfish were trying to sneak up on the bluegill beds while the bluegills went after the bass fry. 

 

The bluegills were pretty good size and looking for a fight. I don't remember the bass chasing them much. I'm not saying they don't...just that I didn't see it.

 

 

[jimmyjoe]

6 hours ago, BaitFinesse said:

Answer me this.  Why is bream pronounced brim? 

 

It's called a "vowel shift". It's been happening in English for several hundred years. Specifically, the "ea">short "i" shift is due to lowering of the tongue height. Feel your tongue placement while you say "eeeeeeeee", and then feel your tongue placement while you say "i" (as in "hit" or "brim".)

 

Vowel shift also includes glideless long vowels, and the "brim" pronunciation is one of these. The "glide" portion is when you sustain the "eeeeee" sound. That sustain is the "glide". But when the vowel becomes glideless, the sustain is lost, and the pronunciation is more abrupt, like a short "i".

[PhishLI]

10 hours ago, Maggiesmaster said:

With the full moon, bream are on their spawning beds and bass are close by.  However, I have a hard time catching them. What are the best lures/methods for fishing around bream beds?

Drag a Beast Coast Miyagi Swimmer in Dope Gill through the zone, then hold on tight.

[TriStateBassin106]

I'm from the north and I called them bream for the longest time, after watching a bunch of fishing shows from guys down south as a kid it kinda caught onto me. Now I just call them sunnies or sunfish.

[HaydenS]

Bluegill/gills for me.

Frogs, swim jigs, jigs, chatterbaits, swimbaits, jerkbaits, kinda the same stuff you throw all the time, just in gill colors. 

[the reel ess]

It's in the Webster's dictionary. 2b. So it's not improper. But I can tell you from living in the south all my life, it probably came about because people didn't know every species of small sunfish so they needed a catch-all name. I mean, I'm from the south and I call them what they are. But most people aren't as fanatical as most on this board.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bream

[papajoe222]

8 hours ago, BaitFinesse said:

Answer me this.  Why is bream pronounced brim? 

Not up here, we call them bream, or sunnies.

If I can get close to them, I like throwing a tube. If they spook easily, I opt for a shallow running crank in a gill pattern. 

[CrankFate]

Bream is so much more elegant than bluegill or sunny. I’d rather eat bream than sunnies and bluegills. 

[PotatoLake]

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Strike_King_Rage_Cut_R_Worm_7pk/descpage-SKRCW.html

This in Blue Craw...

[Bankbeater]

Growing up every sunfish was a bluegill. 
I cast a finesse worm out past the beds and the bass. This works best if you can see the bass. Then I bring it past the bass, dragging on the bottom. Most of the time the bass will strike at the worm as soon as they see it. 

[BrianMDTX]

On 5/26/2021 at 1:28 PM, roadwarrior said:

I think it's just a "Southern thing". When I was growing up in the Midwest,

the same fish were all called perch. In California do you guys own a divan,

sofa or couch?

I prefer Chesterfield! 

[HaydenS]

Well would ya look at that...  Published today

https://www.bassmaster.com/tips/mark-menendez-fishing-bluegill-spawn

[Fred Allen]

I used a method today that worked good. I tossed a rapala floating minnow by shore and when the gills started going after it I would twitch it more and a few inches then start slow reel in and BOOM a bass would take it. I think the bass just wanted to steal what the blue gill was after.  It worked good until I lost one when I HUGE bass took it and dove under the kayak and bent my rod so much its a miracle it did not break but my line broke first and lost lure and fish. Would have been my biggest bass ever. Then I lost my other floating rapala when a huge pike did the same thing except he just bit it off. No more rapala floating minnows now so I need more.

[Mobasser]

On the lakes I fish, bream spawn pretty shallow. Usually in 2ft of water. In the clear shallows the bass are spooky. I've caught a few by fishing several feet away from the bream beds, but never right on them. Clear shallow water especially on sunny days, hasnt been good. 

[J Francho]

9 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

On the lakes I fish, bream spawn pretty shallow. Usually in 2ft of water. In the clear shallows the bass are spooky. I've caught a few by fishing several feet away from the bream beds, but never right on them. Clear shallow water especially on sunny days, hasnt been good. 

I've seen the same.  The sunnies set up beds so close to each other that the shallows become a honeycomb of impenetrable spawning males.  I've seen them chase much larger bass off.  For me, those sunny beds means the bass spawn is over, and to concentrate on quieter waters for fish emerging from post spawn to feed.

[PhishLI]

20 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

Clear shallow water especially on sunny days, hasnt been good. 

True, but it's a completely different story at night. Nearly every night during the gill spawn the the bass will come in for a short window and smash them right up against the bank. Wherever I hear the tail slaps as they grab them is where I'll get to fast. The commotion is usually a trigger for a wave of fish to come in, and this is my best opportunity to catch 6-8 solid fish very quickly. The trick is being there for this cluster of activity. The window is rarely at the same time night to night.

[txchaser]

13 hours ago, PhishLI said:

True, but it's a completely different story at night. Nearly every night during the gill spawn the the bass will come in for a short window and smash them right up against the bank. Wherever I hear the tail slaps as they grab them is where I'll get to fast. The commotion is usually a trigger for a wave of fish to come in, and this is my best opportunity to catch 6-8 solid fish very quickly. The trick is being there for this cluster of activity. The window is rarely at the same time night to night.

Reminds me of one evening a few summers ago where the bass were crashing the gills so hard one of the gills jumped in the boat.