Bream - Abramis brama

The Common or Bronze Bream is a very deep bodied fish, bream are much narrower in profile than other species, such as carp. Small bream may be confused with roach, which they share a similar silver colour. The bream lacks the red eye and fins of the roach and the anal fin is much longer in the bream extending almost to the tail.

In larger bream a dark bronze back blends into an almost black stomach on large specimens that sets them apart from other coarse fish species. In the very largest fish the shoulders become very thick-set giving the bream a bullish appearance.

Small bream may be mistaken for the closely related silver bream (Blicca bjoerkna) and hybrids between bream and roach and rudd. The silver bream is a very delicate fish with a silver colour, light coloured fins, large eye and shorter anal fin than the common bream. Hybrids can be more difficult to determine, but look for a narrower shape, red eye and fins and short anal fin.

Bream are almost unique amongst coarse fish in taking very similar prey throughout the bulk of their lives. From a length of approximately 25mm to the largest bream of nearly 19 pounds, bream feed almost exclusively on tiny chironomid larvae, commonly known as bloodworm. Bream require huge numbers of chironomids each day to survive. A five pound bream may consume a hundred thousand animals each day. A shoal of bream will follow a patrol route around a lake or along a river stopping to feed on the beds of chironomids as they go.

Bream begin to mass for spawning at the beginning of May. Spawning occurs when the water temperature reaches 14 centigrade, which generally occurs in late May or early June. The male bream reach the shallow weedy spawning bays first and establish small territories from which they try to exclude other males. The biggest and strongest males get the best areas, normally those with the thickest stands of plants on which the eggs will be laid. The females enter the spawning bays a few days later and spawning normally occurs around dawn and dusk. Each female will be attended by several males, each vying for the chance to spawn with her. The larger females can produce several hundred thousand eggs which are liberally dispersed over the submerged plants.

Broken several times in 2001, currently the largest specimen is a fish of 19lb 10oz.