Black Bream 2014

[charlieannear]

The Sussex, Isle Wight and Hampshire branches of the Angling Trust are working together to raise awareness, concern and get action taken to conserve Black Bream stocks for which they have noted a massive decline in catches.

 

They would welcome your help and assistance in this and therefore they also wish to know if Dorset anglers are experiencing the same problem.

From posts made on this forum, I would say that we are. 

Whilst my own angling history is relatively short, I recall Breaming being more productive even 7 years ago.

 

Please could you leave your experiences of Breaming this year on this thread- with your comparisons/memories of previous years.

Try to avoid leaving those rosy memories which may be less reliable!

 

If you could also leave your theories of why Breaming is worse now in our favourite spots than in previous years, that would be great please. Especially if you witness any unsustainable practices being carried out by '3rd parties' whilst you are out on the water.

Equally if you see any good practice, please share that too!

 

I imagine feedback on this thread would be primarily from anglers in PBSBAC waters but if any of you go further afield, or are based further west into Dorset, please feel free to post here.

 

Many thanks,

Charlie

 

Conservation Officer: PBSBAC - PDSAA - Wessex AT

[Matt]

Huge decline on last year, we had a dozen a day in 2012 barely one or two last year. Inouur autum session in lime bay we dropped from 150 fish over two days to about 8. Strong rumour the commercial bass boats are targeting bream due to a lack of bass

[ChrisE]

Strangely, we had a very good year on bream from The Ledge last year, so much so that we stopped after a couple of trips of 40+ fish.  All returned bar 3.

 

Shame that the bass fisihng was so poor ....

[Paul J]

lets hope we get the weather so we can find out properly, the weather is often very unreliable during the start ( best bit) of the season

 

PJ

[Neal]

Just look at the number of nets that appear as soon as the Bream arrive - mostly for foreign markets.

 

And the Trawling ............and the removal of thousands of breeding fish...........

 

This happened before and they were almost wiped out - 30 years ago? 

 

Took that long to make a comeback - happening again?

 

Probably should be a closed season for breeding fish - won't happen.

 

When they are gone.........too late

 

Neal

[live bait]

Good year for early season Bream last year for me, although we sometimes had to move around to find them. I got the impression we could have carried on catching way past May, but by then Bass were engaging our interest.

[Hooky]

Strangely, we had a very good year on bream from The Ledge last year, so much so that we stopped after a couple of trips of 40+ fish.  All returned bar 3.

 

Shame that the bass fisihng was so poor ....

Would have to agree with this in general, I think that we found more than usual in a few well known hotspots .

[Steve S]

Pretty good year (but by no means the best) on the Ledge last year (2013) for me as well, 2012 and 2011 were much tougher, previous to that were a series of better years.

 

In June/July there seems to be a host of small bream around most places inshore, not just rocky spots but over mud and sand, eg the Solent, east side of Poole bay (not tried the west side much) so for small bream 4oz to 1lb I've not noticed a decline.

 

I keep for the table maybe 6-8 of the bigger males a year.

 

Steve

[great white]

Have to agree with Neal, its down to fishing pressure on what is an easy target for the commercial sector

 

Commercials will fall back on any species that is worth money and easy to get.

 

But in this case it is also down to pressure from RSA sector

 

Lots of boats surround the bream marks in summer not all limit the number of fish taken as our Members do

 

This was where I had hoped the fish would get some protection under the new protection zones, until we all heard how toothless they are.

 

Charlie

Do you think that there is anytthing we can do as individuals or as a Club?

[ChrisE]

As individuals, I think that we can spread the word about returnnig fish whenever we're posting on other web boards or just chewing the fat down the pub.

 

Things can change.  30 years ago, I was argunig with a salmon fishing relative about returning salmon as they were a species in decline.  At the time he's have none of it saying that a caught fish was a dead fish anyway.  Today, he gets very huffy about anybody who doesn't return a salmon.

 

As a club, we could think about voluntary catch limits (yes, I know how to become unpopular!).  Seriously, in the US a lot of saltwater fishing is governed by bag lmits, it is beyond me as to why we don't do the same here [RANT OVER!]

[phonehome]

I've fished for Black Bream since mid 50's in spots such as Bullocks Patch, Bembridge ledge, Littlehampton & Poole area. In those early days I remember hundreds of small fish being taken in competitions, but don't remember too many large (specimen) fish. It maybe because in those days competitions were won by heaviest catch - not fish over a certain size etc.

 

In the last few years I find you can still catch as many small (undersized) fish as you want as long as you use small hooks. I also find that there are more large fish around - over 4lb.

 

So, I don't see much change in the available fish, I think it is more to do with using larger hooks which make it more difficult to catch the hundreds of small fish which are undoubtably still there. (And are now seen as "nuisance fish")

 

Any other sentimental old Fa..ts out there?

[kippercave]

I am sure the commercial fishermen have a lot to do with the problem,up until a few years ago to my knowledge you rarely saw bream on the fishmongers counter and you certainly could not get them in a restaurant unless it was posh and you had a few bob.The fish you see in the supermarkets are on the small size,albeit some are farmed.If the demand is there the commercial boys will naturally fish for them.

It was the same with bass,years ago you never saw them in the fishmongers,not many people had heard of them.Then some bright restaurant chef,good marketing, called them sea bass and everybody wanted them in the restaurants, it was the in thing to ORDER sea bass,not bass.I hate it when people call them sea bass.They used to to bass and that was that.As I have said it was the catering trade that hit the bass.The same is now happening to the poor old bream

Up until a couple of years ago small gilt head bream used to frequent an area in the Wareham channel,however last year and this one I didn't see one/