So today, I decided to go out in the back and try to catch a few of the yearling bass to feed the cats. I want them out of there. So I tied on a beetle spin, with a soft ....looks like a minnow.
A few casts and nothing. SO i flipped it out to one of the points, and just let it flutter down and WHAMMMMMMMM. This is the biggest Bream I ever caught. The thing is a monster. It was 11.5 inches long. I have never seen a bream this big, live caught. Almost a foot long bream. Unbelievable. Anyway I had filed my barb off the hook, so I wouldnt hurt any of the bream if I caught any. The hook came right out with no issues.

I very nearly wrapped this fish up in wax paper and threw it in the freezer to have it mounted. Then I decided, it's good breeding stock and a photo is just as good. So I turned him loose and now I regret it. lol. I may never catch another bream this big. The photo does it no justice at all. I should have mounted this fish. Oh well. I didn't have the heart to kill a fish this nice.

There are probably some in there bigger than this. This one fought like a bass. I thought it was a bass at first. What a fight he put up. I was very gentle with him once I landed him.
When I turned him loose, he jetted off like nothing happened.
What a fish. One of these days I'll get my trophy bream.....again. I believe this one was a trophy bream.

So here he is.

Monster! Congrats.

Absolutely awesome Jason! Looks like all that hard work is paying off for you!....You have the pic, you could have a duplicate mount made?

Jason......very nice!!! Definitely a keeper...

Great looking fish. Notice the fins and tail, small for a fish with this body dynamic...usually indicative of fast growth, and hopefully further potential.

Im thinking about doing just that. Have a replica made. Don't know if they would get the colors right though. My Bream are oddly colored. With purples, blues, gold, orange, yellow.
They are gorgeous, but they look different in color from the copper nose I usually see on the internet. None of them are really the same color either. Some of my bream have bright yellow on the bellies, then some are like a lavender or purple.

I don't know what happened in my pond but it seems like there has been some cross breeding, but the results are some darn good looking fish......and they are big. Lots of really big bream in there and my bass have taken off too. I have some really nice bass. There's a substantial number of bass in there that are monsters. I see them when I feed in the afternoons. There are about 10 or so (big bass) that come up and they are huge fish. Well over 4 pounds. Occasionally one will hit a smaller bream and knock him 3 or 4 feet out of the water and it's usually a massive explosion on the water.

It's weird. When this happens all the fish stop feeding for a few seconds and then they go back to boiling the water. I have been feeding these fish 200 pounds of food per month for a long time.

Oh and if you look at the bream pictured above, you can see my reflection in him. lol

Congrats on the monster BG. Hope I can have a few like that some day.

Bream like that are rarer than 10 lb bass. Congratulations!!!

If you don't mind me asking, do you feed 200 lb a month all year? How many acres? What feed? Whatever you are doing, it is really working great...

Do you have a good idea of how old this BG is? It is likely one of your first stocked BG.

Love purple and blue fleck on BG scales

Very Nice!! Congrats!!

I feed them year round. My pond is about 2 acres and deep in some areas, 18 feet or so. It's about 3 years old. The feed is Lone Star catfish fingerling food.

Here's a photo of the pond.


This is shortly after enlarging it.


And here is another fairly nice bream that I caught last year.
This was another monster. But I don't think it was quite as large as the one I caught today. This one that I caught last year is probably bigger Now, than the one I caught today. I released him too.

If there was such a thing as doping fish...I'd accuse you of putting steroids in their feed.

Nicely done!

Very nice.....!!!

Great fish Jason! I caught the biggest BG of my life earlier this year.....an 11 incher....but it was not nearly as filled out and chunky as yours.

Just curious...for a BG replica...would most taxidermists that specialize in or mount a lot of fish be able to do that? I know replica bass are very common but I have not heard of BG replication.

Is there a taxidermist in your area that does big BG? Thanks. BM61.

Those are the nicest looking BG I have ever seen, good for you!

I can't be sure.
The second photo posted of the Bream in the ice chest with blue water, was one that I caught a year ago or more. So there were some really big ones in there last year.

Keep in mind , I break all the rules.
I feed these fish year around. All through the winter, as much as they will eat in a feeding. They will boil the water in as low as 38-45 degrees. I am near certain that these fish go down deep after feeding in cold temps. Where the water is warmer.

The growth rates I have experienced are exceptional.
I just finished feeding, and I am sure that at some point i will catch a bigger one than the one seen a the top of this page. Another thing to keep in mind is that the trophy fish are much harder to catch than the others. These are smart fish. They had to be smart to get this big.

I have problems with a various assortment of birds, everything from King Fishers, to Great blue Herons, to Osprey. Yes Osprey. Believe it or not. And then there is this another bird that kinda looks like an egret, yet he is blue with a fluffy neck and he is pesky. And lets not forget about the Cormorant which is the worst bird of all. Yes I have had to deal with all of these at some point. As well as a 6 foot alligator.
It is an ongoing battle that never ends. As long as there are an abundance of fish, it will attract those less than desirable characters who want to eat them.......

All I can figure is the large trophy fish sense these predators and have learned to evade. In some but not all cases. They get taken too, sometimes. So my theory is to grow the fish as fast as you can, feed them well year around, and what gets taken is replaced in no time. It is a cycle that never ends. As long as you have a healthy pond, you will battle this forever. If you're not feeding your fish at least 200 pounds per month, you should be.

The general rule is " if you have an abundance of large Bream, you will have small run down bass." Conversely, if you have trophy Bass, you will have smallish Bream.
Not the case in my pond at all.
You feed the heck out of the Bream..(the bass feed on this stuff too taking in large gulps when I throw it out in a pile)....the Bream grow large and have lots of fry........the bass have plenty to eat. Result: LARGE Bass and Trophy Bream.

I also throw 200 pounds of small crawfish in there once per year. Though the key to large bass is a lot of bream........I mean a lot of bream. You MUST have a very high Bream to Bass ratio. When I first stocked my pond, I put in 1500-1700 fingerling coppernose. To 50 Largemouth Bass. The Bream to Bass ratio is far far greater than that now. Because it has to be. As the Bass grow, they take in more, they spawn new Bass and if you don't have enough Bream your Bass will look run down, skinny with big heads and no body. It is absolutely imperative that your bream vastly outnumber your Bass.
Which in turn means, a hell of a lot of feeding.

Anyway , these are my findings. This is what has worked for me.