The Burning Beds

article by Dan Chason

If you live anywhere in the south, there is no other time that will get more boats cleaned up, tackle gathered and kids loaded for the one thing we all love to hear:  They are on the beds. Panfish of every make will start in early April with the ritual of spawning or “bedding” on shallow banks all across the south.  In Louisiana there are two primary types of “bream” or pan fish. These include the bull bream or male bream and of course the hearty chinquapin or red ears.  The chinquapin normally start a little later and can be caught bedding around mid-April with the beds loaded fully when you near Mother’s Day in May.  Although these two table fare favorites will hit just about any offering of bait or lure, let me help you lean the curve in your favor when chasing these feisty fighters.

Bream fishing is how most young anglers start fishing. The set up is very simple with a cork/float/bobber, a light hook and a cane pole, ultralight or jig pole being the most common manner to fish.  I started with a Zebco 33 long before ultralights were invented but the choice of tool mainly depends on whether you are bank fishing or boat fishing.  Every lake in our area is loaded with bream. Some are better than others but the guaranteed places of my choosing are first Black Bayou in Monroe, Cheniere Lake in West Monroe and Poverty Point Reservoir in Delhi.  These lakes seem to trend more to large “knee” bream.  We call them knee bream because they are too large to grab with your hand and you have to put them between your knees to take them off of the hook.

For chinquapin I’d choose Black Bayou Lake in Monroe hands down, for the big bedded chinquapin. In fact there is a point in Black Bayou named Chinquapin Point due to their love of this area to bed.  Chinquapin differ from bream in their choice of bait. Worms, baby crawfish and beetle spins are the go to presentation. In lakes such as Caney (another favorite) the favorite technique is to tight line worms on the bottom of the shorelines. The trick is to located sandy bottoms which they dearly love.

For bream, crickets cannot be beat.  Bream will hit worms or grass shrimp as well but its hard to beat a good old home raised Armstrong Cricket when they are hungry.  The largest difference in presentation is that chinquapin like a bait moved.  Throw into the bed or near it and slightly move it and it turns them on.  These fish are feisty and large and will certainly give a kid a thrill as they fight like a bass.  Big bull bream are the same as they are protecting the bed and are tenacious fighters.  There are some other tips I will share but remember in choosing a hook, buy long shank hooks which rarely break but will bend free when hung and are easier to retrieve from the fish’s mouth.  Another trick is to use a weighted float.  A weighted float comes in handy on windy days and the ability to cast accurately greatly increases when the float is weighted.

In Florida, chinquapin are called “shell crackers.” They gained this name due to their love of fresh water mussels. One way to locate them in bunches is a guide trick from our Southern neighbor. Grab a 6 foot piece of PVC pipe.  Ease into areas where you think the chinquapin may be and stick the pipe into the water and the end on the bottom.  Put your ear to the pipe.  You can actually hear the chinquapin crunching and popping on the mussels.  It works like a charm.  An old timer I know swears that when he pulls up to a bedding area for bream, he will beat the side of his boat with a paddle.  He claims it runs off all the little bream and nothing stays but the big ones.  I’m not a proponent of it as it just goes against my raising.  If I did that my Pop would roll over in his grave and want to  hit me with the paddle.

Bream and chinquapin can be caught year round. They move much like crappie and will go from the shallow beds to the first cover near deep water.  Their second favorite place to go is in the grass.  And I mean IN the grass beds.  My brother used to take a rake and ease it into the grass and make a hole.  He would kill the big ones with this method as the grass holds every creature these pan fish desire from grass shrimp, crawfish and small minnows that they devour.

The best days to pan fish are after a full moon when they are bedding.  The full moon kicks off the spawning time and with the crawfish hatch, they will be hungry.  Alternatively, a falling barometer always makes them aggressive.  The number one killer on catching a bunch is high water.  High water scatters pan fish and they will leave their beds.  The second worst event is a cold front.  Being shallow, they are susceptible to cooler temperatures.  

Nothing is more fun than landing on a huge bed of bream or chinquapin.  There is not a better time to take a kid as the action is fast and furious.  A few years ago, my son Andy and his son Cooper came to try them.  Cooper was the kind that would fish for hours without a bite in a mud hole.  We fished 64 minutes and had 59 big bream.  We only stopped because Cooper said his arms were too tired.  What a great memory and a great family time that you will never forget.  So grab a pole and a bucket of crickets and come see what all the fuss is about.  It is the easiest way to catch fish and these fish in a batter and grease cannot be beat.