Table Of Content

i Silver Bream This book is dedicated to the silver bream, a fish too long neglected by anglers, wildlife enthusiasts and science. In fact, this is the first book ever devoted to this freshwater fish. Scientist, author and broadcaster Professor Mark Everard introduces the biology of the silver bream, angling for this fish, and its diverse social quirks and values. i i i MARK EVERARD Silver Bream Britain’s Most Neglected Freshwater Fish i v First edition published 2023 by CRC Press 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487–2742 and by CRC Press 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC © 2023 Mark Everard Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. 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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-032-31734-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-31733-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-31104-1 (ebk) DOI: 10.1201/9781003311041 Typeset in Joanna MT by Apex CoVantage, LLC v Contents One Introduction 1 Two What Is a Silver Bream? 3 Features of the Silver Bream 4 Silver Bream Distribution 6 The Spread of Silver Bream 9 Silver Bream Habitats and Habits 10 The Silver Bream Diet 11 The Silver Bream Life Cycle 14 Hybridisation with Related Fish Species 17 Silver Bream Taxonomy 20 Distinguishing Silver and Common Bream 21 Predators of Silver Bream 25 More Information about Silver Bream 26 Three Silver Bream Fishing 27 Silver Bream Location 28 Silver Bream Baits 29 Presentation When Silver Bream Fishing 33 Lure Fishing for Silver Bream 40 The Fighting Silver Bream! 41 Photographing Silver Bream 42 Silver Bream Records in Modern Times 45 What’s So Special about Mill Farm? 47 Silver Bream Records in Former Times 49 Silver Bream Match Catches 51 v i Silver Bream as Bait 51 Silver Bream as Problems 52 Four Silver Bream and People 53 Silver Bream Etymology: Common Names 54 Silver Bream Etymology: Foreign Names 54 Silver Bream Etymology: Latin Names 55 The Pomeranian Bream 58 Silver Bream Cuisine 60 Silver Bream in Aquaculture 62 Silver Bream and the Creative Arts 62 Silver Bream and Nature Conservation 63 Pet Silver Bream 64 The Economics of Silver Bream 65 Silver Bream Societies 66 Silver Bream: Neglected No More? 67 Silver Bream Bibliography 69 s t n e t n o C vi 1 Introduction One Is the silver bream (Blicca bjoerkna) Britain’s most neglected freshwater fish? I am constantly amazed by the number of anglers, including some otherwise experienced ones, who tell me that they have no idea about how to identify a silver bream. A minority even admit that they had not heard of the silver bream. Leafing through my not-insubstantial fishy library, I also see that many angling books fail to give any attention to silver bream. Others give it, at best, a token mention, often as an adjunct when dealing with common bream. The internet also generally addresses this fish in bare minimum terms, many web pages replicating the same rather tired text. Many smaller British freshwater fishes – two species each of loach and stickleback, minnows, bullheads, ruffe, bleak and minnows, and also non-native bitterling, sunbleak and topmouth gudgeon – are patronisingly described as ‘minor n o species’. But even these allegedly lesser species are written ti c u about in terms of their curious characteristics, conservation d o r status or roles in food webs. t n I Not so the silver bream! The silver bream is too big to be 1 classed as a ‘minor species’. It is also not now unduly restricted in distribution. Yet the silver bream seems largely to have swum beneath the radar of much of the angling, nature conservation and scientific communities. This neglect is a shame, as the silver bream is a handsome fish, growing to approxi- mately the same size as more widely appreciated ‘silver’ fishes such as roach and rudd. DOI: 10.1201/9781003311041-1 2 The structure of many of the books I have written on fish follows a pattern of getting to know the fish (their biology), moving on to angling considerations and then addressing their cultural associations and context. The poor old silver bream though almost entirely lacks cultural associations! However, by great good fortune – for the silver bream at least if not me – my affection for this handsome smaller fish far outweighs my meagre grasp of the economics of publishing. I feel that this most neglected of British freshwater fishes must be neglected no more! This book then is dedicated solely to the silver bream. May all who already know this fish, or will come to know it, be glad that its time for immortalisation in print has finally come! n o ti c u d o r t n I 2 3 What Is a Silver Bream? Two The silver bream is known by science today by the Latin name Blicca bjoerkna (Linnaeus 1758). It is also known by sev- eral other common names, including the white bream, the bream flat or breamflat and, formerly, the Pomeranian bream. A wider history of the Latin and common names applied to this fish is covered in Chapter 3 of this book. ? m a e r B r e v Sil a s t I a h W The silver bream is no giant in the world of freshwater fishes. Although individuals have been recorded in excess of 3 4 lb (1.8 kg) across the broad European and northern Asian range of the species, any fish over 1 lb (0.45 kg) is really quite a specimen, especially in the British Isles. The maximum length recorded in scientific literature is 45.5 centimetres (18 inches), though a length of 20 centimetres (8 inches) is more common. DOI: 10.1201/9781003311041-2