Fishing For Black Bream
TACKLE
You need a light rod with a medium to fast taper or a spinning rod with a maximum of 2ozs in most areas. Some stiffness in the tip is preferable to allow bites to be struck at speed. Add a small multiplier or fixed spool reel loaded with 8lb line and you've the perfect set up.
In deep water and fast tides you may need a rod taking upto 3ozs, but more than this and you won't give the hard fighting black bream a chance.
RIGS
Bream, rise in the water as the tide slackens off, but are close to the seabed when the tide is running. The rigs need to be instantly adjustable to allow you to constantly alter the depths at which the bait sits.
Use a small plastic boom like the using lengths of supple telephone wire to lock the boom into position. The wire is twisted round the mono and is easily slid up and down to adjust the height that the boom fishes.
The rigs body needs to be from 25lb line and 8' long with a size 10 rolling swivel as the main line connector. Slide on a small bead, then the boom and another bead trapping them with the telephone wire. At the base of the rig tie in a small loop using two overhand granny knots. Tie a weak link of line, say 5lbs to the loop and add the lead to this. A snagged lead is then lost without sacrificing the whole rig.
The hook length needs to be upto 18" in a running tide, but cut it down to 12" towards slack water. This should be from 10-12lb line ending in a sharp Mustad Aberdeen size 4, or better still the excellent 34021 carp pattern from the same company in the same size.
This design allows the boom to be positioned from seabed level to 8' which is the usual band the fish are feeding in.
BAITS Cut fish strips or squid strips about 1" long and .5" wide, longer strips of the same width may pick out the odd bigger fish working amongst smaller ones. Other good baits are cockles, lugworm and ragworm, strips of sandeel, and small chunks of peeler crab. Mussels can also pick up though the bream find it easy to rip these off without getting hooked.
TACTICS
Experiment with the size of weight finding one that will just bounce off downtide slowly without fully loosing contact with the seabed. This keeps you a tight line which is essential for hitting fast, now you see it, now you don't, bream bites.
Bream rattle the rod tip three or four times and you need to lift into the fish fast, or they'll be gone. As a rule, bream do not hook themselves. This is not lazy fishing, you'll need to work hard and concentrate to hit just 60% of the bites.
If the lead rests on the seabed and no bites comes, lift the rod tip to get it moving again. Bream hit a moving bait better much than a static one.
Make absolutely sure that your reel has the clutch set to give line will below the breaking strain of the line. Bream want to run and crash dive repeatedly. If you try and hold them you will snap more off than you land.