How to fish coloured rivers for bream | Darren Cox

A chocolate brown river is brilliant news, especially if bream are your quarry, as Darren Cox explains…


by Richard Grange |
Updated on

A series of downpours can wreck a well-honed plan overnight, ruining what was a perfect-looking river and leading to a likely blank!

However, provided the rain isn’t freezing cold, it can also present a great opportunity...if there are bream about!

Here's what you need to do to catch bream on a high and coloured river...

FIND THE BEST FLOODWATER FISHING VENUES NEAR YOU IN THIS WHERE TO FISH GUIDE.

Bream will feed hard in coloured water if it is not too cold.

Add some fishmeal

I’ll mix up a ‘normal’ bream blend of sweet groundbaits, adding a good helping of Mainline Match Sweet Marine. This is fed via a cage feeder at regular intervals.

Add some fishmeal to your groundbait for river bream.

Pile the particles in

I cram in casters, chopped worm and dead maggots with the groundbait. Big bream have big appetites and I want to keep them grubbing around in the swim for a long time - increasing my chances of a bite!

GET THE BEST ROD FOR THE JOB WITH OUR BUYER'S GUIDES TO FEEDER RODS.

Put particles in with your groundbait.

Take some redworms

For a hookbait, I swear by two large redworms tipped with a dead red maggot. A bream can pick these out very quickly even amongst all the free offerings in the groundbait.

Two redworms are the best hookbait.

Go for a cage feeder

Cage feeders don’t flex in running water and give false indications on the tip. A wire cage of around 30g is ample.

MAKE SURE YOU'RE SAT COMFORTABLY FOR FEEDER FISHING WITH OUR GUIDE TO FEEDER CHAIRS AND SEATBOXES.

A cage feeder is the best rig choice.

Use a long hooklength

A hooklength 2ft 6ins-3ft will help to put the bait closer to the bigger bream holding up at the back in the swim. Don't go too light with the breaking strains for these river fish as you risk getting broke.

FIND THE BEST LINES FOR YOUR FEEDER FISHING IN THIS BUYER'S GUIDE.

Use a long hooklink for river bream.

Hit every bite

The key is to make sure that the fish is on, and that means not striking too early. Always let the bite develop fully, you will likely get plenty of liners or knocks before the tip goes around properly. Get your feeding right and they won't be too shy about it.

FIND THE BEST VENUE NEAR YOU FOR RIVER BREAM FISHING AND TRY THESE TIPS NOW.

Be patient and strike at bites at the right time.

So there we go, six tips for river bream fishing. Don't worry next time you find your river with a bit of colour in it, find the slacks, feed them up and get breaming!

Get river breaming!

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