Thread: lures for bream

I like to use the slider 1.5 inch swim bait with chartreuse body and black tail. I also use bass pro tournament series bumble bee in chartreuse. The creme 1 inch crank works good in blue back. Use betts popper too.

Nothing better than a fly rod IMO. My favorite is a small bead head black woolly bugger in size 10, but they can be caught quite well on a lot of nymphs that would normally be used for trout. Damselfly nymphs work quite well also.

Used to I was a die hard cricket fan. My wife WOULD NOT touch a cricket. She would assume be skinned alive than to touch one. She would literally cry!!
Really.... CRY!

So I bought her some Danamax Jigs.
Our local bait stir sells them. They are little hair jigs.
I bought her these jigs so I wouldn't have to bait her up.

She started out catching me!
When you figure in, re baiting due to missed strikes and caught fish... The jig will catch fish 2 to 1!

Whatsit Jigs and Little Nippers by Lindy are very good for bream and other panfish.

Jigs can work well when the fish are bedding, or anytime they're very active and biting anything. And, when fishing a water body where there are lots of small bluegill, jigs often will do almost as well as live bait. But for that 90% of the time when the fish are not jumping into the boat, nothing comes close to live bait, especially for big bluegill.

I have ponds that I manage that have lots of 8-9" 'gills, and I can wear them out on jigs all day. But when I go to my best ponds, where the bluegill average close to 10" each (over 10" in my best pond), I have to decide whether I want to be casting, or catching, because throwing any sort of lure in those ponds for bluegill you're going to be mainly casting, as in, you won't catch many.

It's also worth noting that a lot of guys who catch nice bluegill on jigs, "tip" them, meaning they're putting some sort of live bait on the jig - so they're using live bait.

FWIW, there was a similar discussion on **************** a month or two ago.

Originally Posted by tnpondmanager

Jigs can work well when the fish are bedding, or anytime they're very active and biting anything. And, when fishing a water body where there are lots of small bluegill, jigs often will do almost as well as live bait. But for that 90% of the time when the fish are not jumping into the boat, nothing comes close to live bait, especially for big bluegill.

Agree completely.

Tnpondmanager, what's your bait for "big panfish"? Thanks in advance

I've often wondered why guys use an artificial bait, then slap a live bait item right on top of it.....I mean, if you're going to go to all the trouble to catch, buy, and keep alive the live bait, why not just strap it on alone? I'm sure there are personal preference reasons, I'm curious.....