Silver Bream

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J.T
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Re: Silver Bream

Post by J.T »

Yes he was Mark, one of (or rather three of) those bonus fish we are lucky enough to sometimes get. :)

Of course he went on to out fish me the whole day not only catching three Bream but also four carp to my lowly 2 carp! :hairout:
:chuckle:
"piscator non solum piscatur"
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Mark
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Re: Silver Bream

Post by Mark »

J.T wrote:Yes he was Mark, one of (or rather three of) those bonus fish we are lucky enough to sometimes get. :)

Of course he went on to out fish me the whole day not only catching three Bream but also four carp to my lowly 2 carp! :hairout:
:chuckle:
He obviously had a good teacher JT, :thumb: but they forget that when they give you a good stuffing. :hahaha:
Mark (Administrator)

The most precious places in the English landscape are those secretive corners,
where you find only elder trees, nettles and dreams. (BB - Denys Watkins-Pitchford).

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J.T
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Re: Silver Bream

Post by J.T »

So true Mark! :(

:chuckle:
"piscator non solum piscatur"
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Moving Shadow

Re: Silver Bream

Post by Moving Shadow »

I've put in a lot of time chasing silvers on the local stretch of the Coventry Canal after finding a shoal a few years ago. It's a real and absorbing fishing project for me as I believe the canals capable of setting a new record for the species if only people knew what they were. They are uncommon even where they are found and seem to appear only around April time and vanish completely after May is out, at least they do unless confined in a short pound. I have caught them from the Warwickshire Avon, the Severn, and a local pond too, but they have always been small fish. The canals are where the big fish are to be found.

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Skimmer bream and silver bream compared

They are fascinating fish and very beautiful too, far more so than skimmer bream, who are the ugly sister by comparison, and dare I say it, they are even prettier than roach. It's easy to tell them from other fish once you have your eye in as they are as I say, just plain good looking! If it looks beautiful, bright silver (and the scales really are bright scintillating things) has a big cute eye in a small head, nice pinkish red fins, a reddish belly tinge around spawning time (but never the red flecking on the scales of the flank of a small common bream) and the scales are large compared to those of bream, then like as not, it's a silver. You are far more likely to confound roach hybrids with them than bream, unless you catch either or all in the dark and look at them by headlamp when confusion reigns because of the reflections. Roach x silver bream hybrids would be a nightmare to sort out though in any light...

The reason I say the record might one day come from a canal is this. The fish I know of are growing very fast indeed, up an average, say, three to four ounces in one year with last year's average fish coming in at just under 14 ounces up from 10 ounces or so in 2010. They are healthy and growing big and they are wild fish too, not pets confined in a pond, which is what commercial fishery specimens are, to be fair. My best fish from that shoal, or shoals, is now one-pound five-ounces, which would have been a British record itself just a few years back. Last year my friend, Keith Jobling, sent a bundle of pictures over for me to identify firmly, and sure enough what he had stumbled upon was another cache of silvers on another canal, and the best of them was 2lbs 1oz, which is a very big fish indeed caught anywhere outside of that one commercial fishery down south, Mill Farm, where they grow large on a diet of anglers bait, not natural foodstuffs.

When I tell you that right now, one the countries most successful and respected specimen anglers is fishing that same stretch of canal that Keith found and after silver bream only, you'll know that he is putting time in for a record, not just a big fish on his personal scoreboard. Believe me, I know him well, he doesn't often fish for less.

I won't be going after Keith's big fish though. I'm not an ambulance chaser. I want to encourage others to have a crack at them, because they are worth it, and because they probably are the most overlooked and underrated decent sized fish in our waters, and besides, I have work to do elsewhere with them and think I have the recipe for finding them out in miles of canal (I fish all over the canal and have only ever caught them from one tiny stretch of just three pegs length, so it's a needle in a haystack kind of job) and will be putting in the legwork, pedalling up and down on my bike, looking for the signs. I love the chase, it's a real challenge.

I would love to break the record myself, of course I would, but I'd love anyone to break the record, if I can't, but from a canal. I'd just like to see a true wild fish back on top of the pile instead of yet another from MIll Farm.

I'll ID any fish that you think might be a silver, just send me a clear shot of the fish laid in the landing net for a clear scale count and eye measurement.

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PDuffield
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Re: Silver Bream

Post by PDuffield »

I caught some fish that I assumed were roach/bream hybrids from the river severn about 20 odd years ago when I lived in the midlands, but they didn't look like the hybrids I'd caught before or since. Now I'm wondering if they were silver bream. They weren't big, no more than 6 ounces I think, but its stuck with me because they didn't seem like hybrids, but they weren't bream either.

Moving Shadow

Re: Silver Bream

Post by Moving Shadow »

They may well have been, Paul. The one I had from the Severn was about the size you mention. They really don't 'feel' like hybrids, none of that 'what the hell is this' inbetweeny business, they feel like a pure species, which is what they are. Strikingly different fish when they get large, though more easily confused when small as other species also do have rather large eyes compared to their heads when tiny.

John Davis

Re: Silver Bream

Post by John Davis »

I also believe that the canal is a good bet for a big Silver Bream. About three years ago while out fishing for eels on the Trent and Mersey canal, we picked up some large Silvers (and ended up targetting them with light quivertipped sections of worm) and caught them to 1lb 11oz. Again it was only from a localized section of the canal, but they seemed to be there all year round. In over 37 years of fishing on the cut it's still the only area I've ever caught them from.

Moving Shadow

Re: Silver Bream

Post by Moving Shadow »

Were they from a short pound, John, less than say, a mile?

The pound I fish is enormous, all the way from City of Coventry to Atherstone, including the entire Ashby canal, without locks, as a side arm of it. They vanish never to be seen again till the next spring hereabouts.

John Davis

Re: Silver Bream

Post by John Davis »

Yes, they were from a short pound, and funnily enough usually always from the same area. I have fished the Coventry canal the last couple of years, for eels mainly and I've fished the Ashby canal for Zander in the past. I will be trying for those Silvers again around the end of April which was when we first started to find them, but August and early September was better.

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Mark
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Re: Silver Bream

Post by Mark »

I use to fish the Ashby Canal for years and have caught some nice zander and roach, my best roach being 1lb 12oz. This time of the year it’s not too bad but in the summer its a boaters paradise, you have 22 miles of canal without a lock so as we use to say it’s a boat a chuck. I must give it a try again, before the summer.
Mark (Administrator)

The most precious places in the English landscape are those secretive corners,
where you find only elder trees, nettles and dreams. (BB - Denys Watkins-Pitchford).

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