May Time = Bream Time!
by Wayne Wooten

I always look forward to May; the water temps are 70 + and the bream will begin to spawn. I love catching these scrappy fish and eating them. Here are some of the things I do to find them and what I use to catch them.

After the water warms up, the bream will start to move out of the depths to shallow water and begin to eat vigorously building up strength for spawning, building and defending the beds. When the water temps stabilize in the 70s they start to spawn, and the males become very aggressive while guarding the nest. 

I usually take a slow ride or walk around the outer edge of the lake searching for what looks like “elephant foot prints." These small craters with dark centers are bream beds. After locating the beds, before you start fishing them, it’s important to approach them quietly so you don’t spook the fish.  Staying away from the beds, I will anchor the boat and begin to cast into them.

I use several methods and lures to fish with during this period, beginning with a 6 to 7-foot light spinning rods, ultra-light reels and 4 to 6 pound-test monofilament line. If you are bank fishing, a 5-1/2 rod can come in handy to cast in tight areas.

When casting live bait in 2-3 feet of water I use a #6 Aberdeen hook, a BB split shot, and a small float to decrease the disturbance to the water. In deeper water, I increase the size of the split shot to get the bait down quicker and a larger float to support the increased weight of the sinker.

I have found that the drop shot method is very good, especially in 3 feet and deeper water. Using a #6 Aberdeen hook, and 1/8 or 3/16 oz. finesse sinker with a red wiggler rigged whacky-style is deadly.
There are several choices for live bait; red wigglers, crickets, meal worms, and I have found Shell Crackers / Red Ears like pink worms! There are also pre-made baits such as flavored nuggets and bait imitations that work well.

Some other very effective lures I use are little tubes or grubs on jig heads, small spinner baits, creature baits and 1-1/2" – 2" long crank baits that run 2 – 4 feet deep. Casting these along weed lines, structure or over beds can produce some big bream; smaller fish are less likely to attack the larger lure.

Finding bream beds and fishing them is a lot of fun! You can catch a lot of them, and they are delicious to eat. Please remember to fish responsibly as they are very vulnerable and can be decimated at this time. Removing too many sizeable males can affect the entire population. If you remove all the large males, the DNA that produced the big ones to start with can get lost.

About the author: Wayne Wooten is a freelance writer, lure and lure kit designer at Wayne's Baits, LLC. He has over 35 years sales experience and was Vice President at Custom Services Inc. Now retired he devotes his time to creating and promoting products for the outdoor industry. He has been fishing since 1959 and enjoys taking people fishing on his home lake, Lake Deerfield, and writing stories and sometimes filming these trips. He has also worked in television doing commercials on outdoor shows. He lives in Ila, GA with his wife, you can contact him at wayne@waynesbaits.com or (706) 255-8504