The best time to catch bream is when they’re biting, but you can narrow down the guesswork with the help of a lunar calendar. On many bream-fishing waters, there’s a saying: the best time to fish for bream such as bluegills and redear sunfish is in spring and early summer, during or near the time when the moon is full.

Crickets

Bream will take most baits presented to them for Dough mix, Pillies, Prawns, Whitebait, Pipis, Worms, Yabbies or my favorite two – Mullet gut with the onion and Mullet Fillet. The bait you use for the estuary areas can differ slightly for the open water areas.

#8

“I go out in the middle of the lake away from the boat traffic and normally catch bigger bluegills.” Before they can catch panfish, though, anglers must first find them. Depending upon the lake, big bream might venture into water as deep as 50 feet, but most prefer water in the 12- to 25-foot range.

Common Bream This world record bream was caught in 2009 in the United Kingdom’s Ferry Lagoon gravel pit by Mark McKenna. It weighed 22 pounds, 9 ounces and measured 34 inches long.

A four year old female produces about 20,000 eggs. How long do they live? Bluegill usually live from 4 to 6 years of age but can reach up to 8 to 11 years of age in captivity.

One of the largest bream ever caught was a 4-pound 12-ounce monster taken almost 70-years ago in 1950 from Ketona Lake near Birmingham, Alabama. In 1947, Coke McKenzie of Birmingham caught a 4-pound 10-ounce bluegill at Ketona Lake that was 15-1/4 inches long and 8-inches wide.

Finfish bag and size limits

Bream Care. The fish themselves are safe to eat. Bluegill ( Bream ) The meat is white and flaky and can be sweet if the fish comes from clean, cool water. It’s filled with good fats and protein, and has been shown to fight heart disease, boost brain health, and more.

Brief Biology Black bream become sexually mature at 3-4 years of age. Available data indicates that it takes approximately 9 years for bream to reach the legal minimum length of 28 cm.

The age of most species of fish, including yellowfin bream, can be estimated by examining otoliths (ear bones). Each year 250–300 yellowfin bream otoliths are aged. For yellowfin bream whole otoliths are examined using a microscope.

They cope well with salinity changes from freshwater to ‘hypersaline’ (highly salty) water. Juvenile bream tend to inhabit shallower waters. Although a hardy species, black bream can be seriously affected by poor water quality.

Re: Bleeding My Fish If you are catching esturay fish like whiting, bream, flathead the best thing is to pop them into a ice slurry (bag of ice and some fresh sea water in an esky or perhaps fish hold on ur yak?) no bleeding needed.