Good way to hook bream

Some people are blessed with a special flair or inborn ability to locate bream no matter the time of year, weather or water conditions. But for most anglers, consistently pinpointing concentrations of bream is a difficult, hit or miss proposition. And you can't catch bream unless you know where to find them.

This is precisely the reason some people have learned that the best way to locate bream is to help bream find the fishermen. And the easiest way to have bream seek you is to place bait or "chum" in the water to attract feeding fish.

"Chumming" for bream is an old country method of fishing that's been around about as long as Floridians have used cane poles and earth worms. The idea is to put some type of fish food or attractant in the water at a pre-determined spot for a few days. Then, after the fish are drawn or attracted into that area, anglers work the place over with lures and baits and catch fish "trained" to feed in a given place.

It's a simple and remarkably effective system of fishing that's particularly effective for bream. It works for bluegills, shellcrackers, in fact, all of the sunfishes. It's death on bream in shallow water, deep water, clear water, murky water, weedy water and rocky water. It works in summer and winter. Moreover, other fish can be "chummed" and caught right along with bream, including bass, crappie, catfish and a multitude of inshore marine species in brackish water.

One of the original methods of "chumming" - and a technique that still works well today - is to simply stuff a burlap gunny or "croaker" sack (large mesh chum or laundry bag, too) with stale bread, rice, dry dog food or corn meal. Next, toss in the sack a brick or rocks for weight, tie it closed, and pitch it into a likely bream fishing spot. Naturally, a rope should be secured to the sack so it can be retrieved.

The essence or "scent" of bread, rice, etc. seeps through the burlap sack and draws feeding minnows, bream, catfish, and other sportfish from long distances. Fish feed on tiny particles of meal that leech through the burlap. But they can't get at huge amounts of food, nor pull the sack away from the precise, designated chumming spot. So they hold in an area feeding for long duration.

A can of cat food also can be used, and works well from inside a mesh chum bag commonly used in saltwater. The cat food should be only slightly opened, and the weight of the can holds down the bag.

Before actually fishing it's normally best to "feed" or "chum" a place for several days to draw lots of fish to an area and also "train" them to feed. Fish quickly become accustomed to chumming, and once a few fish start flocking to the chummed spot, more and more are drawn to it.

By keeping a good supply of chum in a likely bream location for a day or so, it's a sure bet a good catch of panfish can be made quickly at the place. Almost any proven bream bait or lure can work in filling a limit of frenzied bream following chumming.

Chumming also can be refined to be even more effective than using a croaker sack, brick and bag of rice.

One improvement is simply a convenience in the type bait used as chum. Commercial sinking "fish food pellets" can be employed, and "sow or hog pellets" also work. Soybean or cottonseed can be purchased from hardware and feed stores in large 25-pound "cakes." Such cakes are about two inches thick, two-feet wide and four-feet long; thus they are very convenient to use.

Large blocks of "cake" can be broken into easy-to-handle chunks, and the grain is so tightly compacted and dense that it sinks like a brick.

It's important that chum be heavy, because meal that floats or suspends, drifts away from a specific location. This is a key to the success of chumming for bream.

The food must be placed in a small, precise spot, which draws and concentrates fish in a well-defined area - a place where baited hooks or lures can be cast repeatedly to hungry, aggressive bream that have been "programmed" to feed without predator fear.

Commercial fish feeders also work well for chumming bream. Some are special water-resistant models that are excellent for this purpose. The important benefit of such feeders is they have a self-timer. Such a feeder need not be maintained consistently by an angler because it holds 50 pounds or more of feed or chum. The feeder can be programmed to spread special sinking fish food pellets at specified times. Fish soon become accustomed to the feeding schedule, and when you fish near the feeder you simply adjust it so it doesn't broadcast feed at a "set" time. Instead, just toss in a small handful of fish food pellets, and begin catching frenzied, hungry bream drawn to the feeder location.

Economy-minded anglers can use a minnow bucket as a very effective holder of chum for bream fishing. Merely place commercial fish food or hog pellets inside the bucket, weight it with a brick, and sink it in a chosen bream fishing spot with a line attached.

A five-gallon plastic bucket with a tight-fitting lid also can be made into a very effective chum bucket. Simply drill small 1/32- to 1/16-inch diameter holes in the bucket, put weight inside, and fill with commercial fish food or hog pellets. Several such chum buckets sunk on a few choice bream fishing locations can almost guarantee a fish-filled day on the water.

Don't think that chumming for bream only works in small creeks, farm ponds and little lakes. Chumming is fruitful virtually everywhere it's used, including large open water systems like the St. Johns River.

In fact, on big lakes and rivers, the fish populations are large and highly mobile, and that makes for an almost limitless supply of bream that can be readily attracted to anglers who spend the time and a little effort to chum.