Order:	Cypriniformes
Family:	Cyprinidae
Genus and species:	Abramis brama

William Yarrell (1836) in "A History of British Fishes":

THE BREAM. THE CARP-BREAM.

Abramis	brama,	Cuvier, Règne An. t. ii. p. 274.
"	"	Flem. Brit. An. p. 187, sp. 62.
"	"	Jenyns, Syst. Cat. p. 26, sp. 85.
Cyprinus	"	Bloch, pt. i. pl. 13.
"	"	Bream	Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 478, pl. 81.
"	"	"	Don. Brit. Fish. pl. 93.

Generic Characters. - Have not like the Carp or Barbel either strong bony rays or barbules ; body deep, compressed ; dorsal and abdominal line very convex ; the base of the dorsal fin short, placed behind the line of the ventrals; base of the anal fin very long.

THE BREAM is an inhabitant of many of the lakes and rivers of the continent of Europe generally, even as far north as Norway and Sweden. In this country it appears also to thrive best in large pieces of water, or in the deep and most quiet parts of rivers that run slowly, being found in many counties, and particularly in some of those that contain lakes and canals of considerable extent. The lakes of Cumberland, and some of the most extensive lakes in Ireland, produce large quantities of Bream of great size. Of the rivers near London producing Bream, the Mole and the Medway are the most noted; it also occurs in the Regent's Canal. Bream swim in shoals, feeding on worms, and other soft-bodied animals, with some vegetable substances ; and if the water they inhabit suits them, which is generally the case, as they are hardy in their nature, they grow rapidly, and spawn in May. At this season one female is frequently followed by three or four males, and they bear at this time a whitish tubercle on their scales, which causes them to feel rough to the hand : this has been considered by some as a disease, but is in fact only a periodical assumption, which, as in others of the Cyprinidæ, disappears when the season of reproduction is past. Bloch states the number of ova in the female roe at one hundred and thirty thousand.
The flesh of the Bream being generally considered insipid and bony, they are not in great estimation for table, though the breeding of them is cultivated, or rather permitted, as useful to feed Pike, and other voracious fishes. They afford great amusement to the angler ; and the more the ground is baited to collect them at a particular spot, the greater the sport. The flesh is in more request on the Continent than in this country, if we may credit the French proverb quoted by Isaac Walton, which says, "he that hath Bream in his pond is able to bid his friend welcome."
It may also be inferred, from a couplet in Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, that the feeding and eating of Bream was more in fashion in the days of Edward the Third than at the present time.

"Full many a fair partrich hadde he in mewe,
And many a Breme and many a Luce* in stewe."

Daniel, in his Rural Sports, refers to a pleasant day of Bream-fishing at New Hall Pond in Essex. "The weather was cloudy, and the wind brisk : there were seven rods used by the party, and very frequently there were bites at them all at the same time. When a fish was hooked, and played on the top or near the surface of the water, numbers were seen to follow him, and so soon as the hooks were fresh baited, were alike greedily taken. Some few Perch and Tench were caught, but principally Bream, which averaged at least two pounds a fish ; and of these, from six in the morning till dark in the evening, some hundred weight were taken. The bait used was the large red worm, and the spot had been baited on the morning and evening previous to the day of fishing : the ground-bait used was boiled wheat and tallow-melters' greaves mixed together."
In some of the lakes of Ireland great quantities of Bream are taken, many of them of very large size, sometimes weighing as much as twelve or even fourteen pounds each. A place conveniently situated for the fishing is baited with grains or other coarse food for ten days or a fortnight regularly, after which great sport is usually obtained. The party frequently catch several hundred weight, which are distributed among the poor of the vicinity, who split and dry them with great care to eat with their potatoes. The Bream, as food, is best in season in spring and autumn.
As the fish next to be described after the present Bream is a species of Bream new to the British catalogue, I shall follow the example of Cuvier, in describing the first closely, and when describing the second, to point out more particularly the differential characters.
The whole length of the fish was five inches; a small one was chosen in order to contrast it the better with the specimen of the White Bream which follows : the length of the head compared with the length of the body was as one to three ; the head small, the nape depressed ; the diameter of the eye, compared to the length of the head as two to seven, or considerably less than one-third, leaving the space between the eye and the edge of the preoperculum. broad ; the irides yellow ; the body deep and flat, the dorsal and abdominal lines very convex ; the head and the fleshy portion of the tail being small and acuminated, produce an appearance of neatness in shape : the scales of the body small ; of the two representations of scales forming the vignette, that on the right hand belongs to this species ; the number of scales forming in succession the lateral line, about fifty-six ; the lateral line itself low down on the side, two-thirds of the space below the dorsal line ; the number of scales in an upright direction nineteen, of which one punctured scale is on the line itself, with twelve above it, an six below it ; the first ray of the dorsal fin arises at half the distance between the point of the nose and the end of the short central rays of the tail ; the first ray shorter than the second, the second frequently the longest in the fin, both simple, that is, not divided or branched, - the third ray nearly or quite as long as the second, and about twice as long as the whole base of the fin ; this and all the eight other rays of this fin branched. The fin-rays in number are -

D. 11 : P. 17 : V. 9 : A. 29 : C. 19.

The first ray of the pectoral fin the longest and simple, all the others branched ; the ventral fins placed in a vertical line in advance of the dorsal fin, the first ray simple, the others branched ; the anal fin begins on the line of the origin of the last ray of the dorsal fin, the first ray short, the second longer, half as long as the third, which is the longest ; these three rays simple, all the other rays branched, diminishing in length ; the form of the fin falcate ; the tail long and deeply forked.
The general colour yellowish white, becoming yellowish brown by age, and called Carp-Bream from its colour resembling that of the Carp ; the irides golden yellow ; cheeks and gill-covers silvery white ; the fins light-coloured, the pectoral and ventral fins tinged with red ; the dorsal, anal, and caudal fins tinged with brown.

* Luce, a Pike.

Frank Buckland (1880) in "Natural History of British Fishes":

BREAM.

(Cyprinidæ cyprinus, or Abramis brama.)

Local names: Carp-Bream, Yellow Bream, Lake Bream. French: La Brème. German: Brachsen or Blei. Polish: Krainisch. Dutch: Blei.

MY friend Dr. Norman, of Yarmouth, has written the following capital account of an angler of the village adjoin-ing the Norfolk Broads (where these fish abound) fish-ing for Bream: "The first thing the fisherman looks for is the worms. They must be worms of the largest size, not those dug out of the ground. They must be picked up off the grass at night. The hole he fishes in is as deep, to use his own words, as two pair of reins and a plough-line. His ground-bait is made thus: he gets half a pailful of bullock's blood, a pailful of fresh grains, half a pailful of very clean clay, a handful of dog's graves well broken up, three handfuls of meal, and a little oil-cake. This is all well worked up into a pudding, and worked into balls not quite so large as a child's head, and partially baked in the sun. He proceeds to his hole at daybreak, say three o'clock in the morning, and fishes with the roughest possible tackle. Sometimes these louts will catch nearly a hundred-weight of bream in one morning before breakfast. This then is a good hint for any of our friends who propose to try bream-fishing in Norfolk."
Dr. Norman also informs me that great quantities of bream are taken in the spring months, especially about April, and sent away for crab and lobster bait. The fishermen use nets with a very large mesh, allowing all but good-sized fish to pass through. Bream in Norfolk were formerly of no value, now they fetch half a crown a bushel; large roach and rudd fetch the same price, and even more during Lent and the Hebrew Passover, when there is a great demand for these fish at Birmingham, Manchester, and other large inland towns.
When at Norwich in August, 1869, my friend Dr. Norman took me to the shop of Mr. T. E. Gunn, taxidermist, Upper St. Giles Street, to see a bream which weighed 11 ¾ lbs. and measured 2ft. 2in. in length from the nose to the fork of the tail. It was over 10in. in depth. This fish was caught in a pond about half an acre in extent at Beeston Regis, near King's Lynn.
It is most interesting that the age of this fish is known. A gentleman who called upon Mr. Gunn stated that he put it into this pond when very small about fifty years before. This is, I believe, the largest bream on record. Besides the Common Bream there are two other species, viz., the White Bream or Bream Flat (Cyprinus blicca), and the Pomeranian Bream.

Alwyne Wheeler (1969) in "The Fishes of the British Isles and North West Europe":

Bream [Bronze Bream]

Abramis brama (Linnaeus, 1758)

NAMES Fr. Brème; Du. Brasem. Ge. Blei, Brachsen; Da. Brasen; Sw. Braxen.

IDENTIFICATION Deep-bodied, flattened fishes with a small head, and a long anal fin. No barbels at the mouth. The body is very hump-backed. The mouth is inferior, with thick lips. The anal origin is beneath the last third of the dorsal fin, and the margin of the anal is deeply concave. The eye is small, about one and a half times in the snout length in large fish, about one and a quarter times in young. Bream are very slimy to handle. They grow to an average length of 12-20 in 30-51 cm) and a weight of 8 lb (3.6 kg), but many attain a length of 24 in (61 cm). The British record fish weighed 13½ lb (6.1 kg).
Colour: the body and head are dark brown or greyish on the back; the sides are silvery in young, with a bronze metallic tint in adults. Ventrally it is silvery. The dorsal, tail and anal fins and the tips and leading edges of the pectoral and pelvic fins are dark grey.
D. III/9; A. III/24-30 (usually 26-9); lateral line 51-60; pharyngeal teeth in a single series, five each side (Fig. 69).

BIOLOGY The bream prefers warm, slow-flowing or stagnant waters and its typical habitat is the lowland reaches of large rivers; it is also found in brackish water in Holland, Germany and in the Baltic. In summer it is often to be found in shallow water close inshore, in winter it is usually deeper; it is always gregarious. It spawns from the end of April to June, when the water temperature reaches about 15°C (59°F); in northern parts of its range spawning may not begin until late May and at a temperature of 12-13°C (54-6°F). Spawning occurs in large shoals in water of 2-12 ft (0.6-3.6 m), often several yards offshore, in places where there is abundant weed growth. It spawns at night, with much splashing; the eggs measure 1.6-1.8 mm, are yellowish and stick to the vegetation. In some large continental rivers there is an extensive migration to the spawning sites. In smaller rivers and still waters the bream assemble at the site a day or two before spawning takes place, and the larger males have been observed to adopt a territory from which other bream are chased.
The alevins hatch in nine to ten days at temperatures of 18-20°C (64-8°F) and measure 4.8 mm; at first they are immobile and attach themselves to the plants. Growth varies from place to place, but in general is appreciably faster in southern waters than in the north. In British waters (Norfolk) growth has been estimated as follows: at one year old, 4 in (10 cm); at two years, 5½ in (13.8 cm); at three years, 6½ in (16.3 cm); at four years, 7¼ in (18.5 cm); at eight years 11½ in (29.3 cm). In warmer climates a length of 12 in (30 cm) can be achieved at four years, and eight-year fish may measure 17½ in (45 cm). Bream attain an age of twelve or thirteen years in colder waters. The largest specimens are usually females. Maturity occurs at a length of 10-13½ in (26-34 cm), and usually at five years of age; in faster-growing populations, however, mature fish of three or four years are common.
Young bream feed extensively on planktonic animals and plants; the crustaceans Cyclops, Chydorus and copepods in general are the most important food, and diatoms are eaten in quantity. Larger fish, from about 8 in (20 cm), eat primarily bottom-living animals, chiefly the mud-dwelling chironomid larvae, worms and molluscs (Sphaerium and Pisidium). Bottom-living insect larvae, pupae and adults are eaten, and a small amount of green weed and algae. At low temperatures feeding ceases, and during a cold winter bream may fast completely.
In eastern Europe the bream is a valued food fish and extensive fisheries exist to exploit it. Its preference for warm waters makes it an ideal inhabitant for those lakes which are too warm to contain the equally valuable whitefishes. The large fish are said to be as good eating as carp, but the small ones are bony. Elsewhere the bream has a considerable value as a sporting fish, its large size alone making it highly thought of. Its typical habitat in the lowland reaches of rivers places it conveniently near the largest centres of population.

DISTRIBUTION

Eastwards to U.S.S.R., subspecies in the Danube basin (A. brama danubii Pavlov, 1956), and in the Caspian Sea basin (A. brama orientalis Berg, 1949).