Fishing for White Sea Bream in the swash.
This technique is mainly used in winter times when the seas generate Swash, in which is known as a turbulent layer of water that washes up on the beach after an incoming wave has broken. Swash consists of two phases: uprush (onshore flow) and backwash (offshore flow). I will explain how we can catch other species but with this technique but this article is mainly targeting a decent size white bream. It is recommended to practice this in open water where you have rocks and ledges where the white bream normally likes to swim in the murky waters caused by the swash.
This technique obviously requires you to be alert & do not underestimate the seas , frequently asses the sea state to ensure it is not gradually increasing that can put you in danger. With regards to fishing tackle to use you can ether use hand pole or Bolognese rod & reel set up roughly six meters should suffice most areas. The first thing to do when you arrive at the spot is to prepare the ground bait and start ground baiting for it to start attracting any fish swimming nearby. When fishing this technique I like to use the following ground bait mixture of the best brand of ground baits Ellevi whom have a vast range of different products which we have seen and proved that they are very productive over the years. A few that I have used & proved productive are Sardine Mix, Garlic Mix and Shrimp Mix. We will need the ground bait to be a little bit doughy but this time instead of forming it into small round balls it is recommended to flatten them to land & stay were we throw it rather than the ground bait rolling about on the sea bed.
There is quite a lot of different baits that you can use but the best I have found is the Ellevi Quick Bait, they come in different flavors shrimp, cheese and sardine. It's soft but sticks tenaciously to the fish hook even when casting with heavy sinkers. This is a well-known fact after several trials and research that the company made.
This time I will not be mentioning light rigs like usual due to the harsh conditions, which would easily cut /damage your line on the ledges or rocks. The white bream’s teeth are also quite sharp which can also cause damage to the line. However if you feel like using light tackle you can use .016 but preferably I would use at least .018 to .024 as long as you use a good quality line like the Ellevi Top Knot which is quite strong which will manage the white bream’s bite and quite resistant to damaging on rocks or ledges. With regards to hook size everyone has a different opinion, I would recommend a hook between sizes 5 – 7 is enough, important thing would be that it is made out of good materials as the white bream’s jaw is very strong and could just bend /crush the hook easily. Some like to use just a line without the float which consists of a hook on the end with a lead around a meter higher up from the hook. The other method people prefer is having a float; I would suggest a descent size float between 4 to 6 grams to avoid it from a lot of movement because of the swash.
Obviously it is important to ensure you take a landing net with you as it will help avoiding losing the fish you have been looking for to take home and enjoy eating your own catch. As usual I would like to remind everyone to practice catch and release when we catch smaller sizes to avoid overfishing and preserve our seas for us and generations to come.
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Tight Lines
Peter Paul Azzopardi