mason bream n Also mason’s bream [Appar from their association with Masonic fish fries; see quot 2008] chiefly LA
= red-eared sunfish n 1 or a similar sunfish n 1a.
1960 Jennings Daily News (LA) 8 Apr 5/4, Two species [of bream] share the bulk of our fishing pressure—the bluegill; and the fish known variously as the chinkapin, Mason Bream, shellcracker, and red-ear. 2007 in 2016 DARE File—Internet nwLA, Went fishing at Grand Bayou Lake just outside Coushatta yesterday. I caught over 20 bass. . . I also caught enough big Mason bream to have a couple of fish frys with. 2008 Ibid swAR, With the mayfly hatch in full swing, many mason bream and redears can be caught under a single cypress or willow tree on ultra light or spin cast tackle. Ibid cw, nwLA, Took my 2 sons bream fishing in Chicot yesterday morning and around noon today. . . We took out 19 blue gill, or as my Dad would have said ‘Mason Bream’. As a kid the Masons in Shreveport would cook tons of bream on a regular basis. . . [Resp:] I used to go to a bunch of those same fish fry events myself. Had a cousin by the name of Lynn Pomeroy, who was a home builder. Dad and I provided a lot of those fish from Bistineau, and would often go with Lynn in return for providing fish. And you weren’t kidding when you said “tons”. 2011 in 2016 DARE File—Internet eTX, Chinquapin, and sac-a-lait are about all I care to catch any more. A big school of Mason Bream wouldn’t hurt my feelings any either! 2014 Ibid nwLA, Its a chinquapin bream. some folks call them a red ear or a mason’s bream. some folks call them a shell cracker. 2015 Ibid LA, As a southerner I grew up calling all the lesser sunfishes “bream.” . . There was not a lot of splitting hairs over whether it was a bluegill, red ear, or maybe one of the many hybrids that occur among the sunfishes. As I think back, I smile at some of the names we called fish. Bass were trout, . . red ears were mason bream.