Bream and Crackers

[Lone Oak]

What kind of area do you guys target for bream and crackers, and what depths are we talking about. I know folks are catching a few and the big numbers want be long in comeing.

thanks

 

[rsimms]

Look for "corners." When bluegill bed they have to protect their nests/eggs from predators. They don't want to have to watch 360 degrees... hence they typically bed in corners, back ends of sloughs, small cuts, pockets, etc.... places where they are at least partially protected on a couple of sides. The same thing you'd do if you were getting "backed into a corner" by a gang crazed bass fishermen. emoBigsmile I usually find them in 3 to 8 feet of water ... 4-6 optimum (the bluegill beds, not the crazed bass fishermen emoBigsmile emoBigsmile ) Shellcrackers often like to be around wood... stumps, blowdowns, old duck blinds, etc.

 

[DoubleB]

What he said.... Plus I like to find fine gravel/sand bottoms...

 

[polo-dog]

LO, some guys "smell" thier way to the fish. I don't know the right odor but some people really do swear by the aroma of the air and think that they can find the beds that way. I think that the bream and shellcrackers(bluegills and redear sunfish up north) tend to bed in almost the exact same areas from year to year so if you find them one year you can go back every year at about the same time of year and, conditions being similar, find them in the same area again. RS gave some good hints about where to find them too. I have yet to find the really big ones but hopefully this year I will figure that out. One buddy of mine says that he has a spot on Chickamauga where he can catch bream in the spring that average better than a pound. Seeing is believing in my book and I ain't seen it yet. If I see it this year I will take some pics so we all can believe it.

 

[drumking]

polo-dog - 4/3/2007 8:54 AM

LO, some guys "smell" thier way to the fish. I don't know the right odor but some people really do swear by the aroma of the air and think that they can find the beds that way. I think that the bream and shellcrackers(bluegills and redear sunfish up north) tend to bed in almost the exact same areas from year to year so if you find them one year you can go back every year at about the same time of year and, conditions being similar, find them in the same area again. RS gave some good hints about where to find them too. I have yet to find the really big ones but hopefully this year I will figure that out. One buddy of mine says that he has a spot on Chickamauga where he can catch bream in the spring that average better than a pound. Seeing is believing in my book and I ain't seen it yet. If I see it this year I will take some pics so we all can believe it.

I located a bed last year by smell and posted it and you guys thought that I was crazy. I use to do this at Watts Bar every spring. emoGeezer

 

[polo-dog]

DK, that just "stinks".