I've been fishing C-bay pretty heavily for the last couple of months as my GF lives nearby and I'm just getting into plastics/HBs.
High tide peaking early morning or late afternoon is best. If I go for a long sesh I get there around 2 hours before the high and fish all the way through to the low. I've had a few good sessions on the run out especially under the lights on the Bayview ferry wharf in the evenings.
Bream have been taken from the shore many times, my best of 34cm came maybe 3-4 hours after the peak of the high on mudflats and the second best of 30cm came in the same stage of the tide, so I would give pretty much anything a go. These were taken around the mangroves on the south side of Exile Bay, BTW.
If you want a more reliable bream spot for fun or practice I'd suggest going all the way down the canal along the sports fields, past the golf course and past Lyons Rd. towards Burwood (look at the satellite on google maps). The drain holds a lot of bait fish and bream. Just yesterday I pulled a 24cm specimen up on my first cast with a $7 superbass lure from ***** and a 20cm specimen a few minutes later. Biggest issue with the canal for me is that I walk past on the way to the bay and never get to my original destination til after the turn of the tide
Anyway, I find you're almost guaranteed at least a few hits in the canal. The other week I had a tangle with the resident stingray which scoffed a 65mm squidgy. I didn't have nearly enough line left on the reel to deal with it and was too exhausted from my 10-hour flickfest to be disappointed when I got busted off. Besides, between the trees and Lyons Rd bridge, I didn't have the option of following it to somewhere to land it.
Besides that you'll get small tailor hitting anything at any time and if you walk around enough you'll bump into a flatty eventually (PB from there, or anywhere is 46cm).
Ain't seen too many posts about C-Bay or Hen and Chicken recently so thought I'd update.
Also, no pics since I'm at a work computer.
TL;DR: High tide is best but don't let that turn you off a mid-tide session.
