Common Bream Abramis brama
Family Cyprinidae

Common Bream are found in great numbers at Lower Lakes

Identification.
Common Bream are deep bodied with flat sides and high back, young specimens are more slender. The head is scaleless, relatively small, the eyes small and the mouth can extend ventrally to form a tube.
Body scales are small, 51-60 in the lateral line. The anal fin is concave with 24-30 branched rays. Bream are coloured dark brown or greyish on the back, with golden brown sides; young fish are silvery sided. Fins are greyish brown, ventrally tinted with red.
Juvenile Common Bream can be mistaken for adult Silver Bream, Blicca bjoerkna, but the Silver bream has a slimmer body, the eye is considerably larger in proportion to the size of the body, and there is a pronounced snub nose.

Habitat.
Bream inhabit deep slow moving rivers, backwaters and in flood plain lakes, reservoirs and flooded gravel pits, living close to the bottom in schools. Bream keep to deeper open water, swimming to the bank at night or early in the evening in search of food, or in April to June for spawning.

Food.
Bream are strongly dependant on bottom living insect larvae, worms, molluscs and crustaceans. With their down-turned tubular mouth, shoals of Bream move head down, grazing over the lake bed, eating whatever comes into their path.

Breeding.
Bream spawn in late spring and early summer amongst dense plant growth, mostly at night, and in shallow water. Yellowish eggs stick to the weeds. Female Bream lay up to 587,000 eggs in 1-3 batches on aquatic plants, roots, or on a substitute substrate, for example gravel on the bottom of newly-built dams, or even on banks made of dumped quarried sharp-edged gravel. As spawning is collective and vigorous, injuries and the consequent death of large numbers of Bream can occur when spawning on an unsuitable substrate. In order to protect the Common Bream, fishermen place artificial nests made of bound twigs, most frequently spruce, into waters without plant growth. At a temperature of 12 -16 C, the eggs develop and hatch in 3-4 days.

Statistics.
Maximum Weight: 18lb 9oz
Maximum Length: 14-16in (35-40cm)
Average Size Caught: 3-4lb (1.4-1.8kg)
Life Span: 15-20 Years

Habits and fishing tips
As the shoals of Bream feed they create a disturbance among the bottom-growing weeds and mud, releasing clouds of minute bubbles rising to the surface. The art is to identify the shoal, put in groundbait in an effective fishing area, and keep the Bream there by feeding them continuously. Shoals of Bream can be easily scared, and therefore any hooked fish has to be struck and quickly guided away from the rest of the shoal.