Photo: Diego Delso, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Black Bream
Spondyliosoma cantharus
Season
calendar_month Best: April - Junewaves Where to find them
Gravel banks, reefs and wrecks along the south coast; nests on gravel in spring.
phishing How to catch them
Light tackle with small hooks - squid strip, ragworm; small jigs and madai-style lures.
Every April, the black bream arrive on the south coast like a rumour - first a few, then suddenly the reefs off Sussex and Dorset are alive with them. Deep-bodied, silver-grey shading to charcoal, with a spiked dorsal and an attitude entirely out of proportion to their size, bream are spring's great small-boat sport.
The famous marks - the Kingmere off Littlehampton above all - see males excavating nest scrapes on the gravel, defending them furiously against anything that intrudes, including baited hooks. A 3 lb bream on light gear fights like a fish twice the size, all jagging runs and flat-sided stubbornness.
Light rods, small hooks and slivers of squid or ragworm are the way. The Kingmere is a Marine Conservation Zone with seasonal rules to protect nesting fish - good skippers fish it responsibly, and the bream keep coming back because of it.
The UK record is around 6 lb 14 oz; anything over 4 lb is a tremendous bream.
Fancy catching one?
Our skippers run trips targeting black bream in season.