Bream Mad

Hi Raiders, We hit Bobbin Head early Sat morning for a flats session targeting whiting on pencils, but pristine Cowan creek always has some surprises in store. Started upstream firing long casts with our Sammy’s over the weed beds. Some small boils and missed hookups became frustrating, so a change to 2” Hawg soon brought this nice little EP into the boat. A move downstream onto a large sandflat finally saw our first whiting that went just legal. The way they line up the sammy and launch themselves out of the water is very impressive, and are great fun on light spin gear. No pauses and a fast retrieve turns on these tasty fish. I recon a bevy prop would also be dynamite. Around to the next bay and the water was alive with a very tightly packed baitschool. I fired the Sammy to the deep edge and shortly after touchdown it is smashed by a much larger predator. The Luvias is singing now as the fish heads for deeper water with us in chase. He slugs it out in the deep water and after a serious fight we land a big tailor well over 50cm. As we bleed the first tailor I get off another cast and this time Sammy gets about a meter before it is clobbered again by another good tailor slightly bigger than the first. Well that’s tea sorted and we are back to the ramp by 9am Bring on summer

the stiffy vibs are actually a blade blades are always metal where as vibes are just like a normal HB plastic with rattles ect, minnnus the lip of course the first famous ones were the Jackall

SP are pretty much a confidence thing as to your favs Saying that since I started using them 2 years ago gulps have come along and I must say that fish realy do eat them! But this is not always a good thing is there is rubbish fish around (gets expensive) and personally I would rather get one hit from a solid bream than catch 20 toadies. I tend to choose the plastic for the location but always have on hand 2” powerbait grubs (easier to rig straight than the also effective wrigglers) 2” & 3” powerbait bass minnows (love that wounded fish action) Slick rigs in all sizes just catch everything from bass to barra Squidgy bugs ( a slightly bigger mouthful than the grubs) I also like some creature baits such as 2” Hawg and 06556-0 flatbackworms, these are great for drifting along the bottom As far as Gulps go I have caught plenty of fish on them and do like the larger jerk shads for jewies, but at the end of the day I like normal SP’s a lot better. Powerbait and Squidgies are great products! Probably the best thing about them is their versatility, can be used at any depth both slow and fast. Cheers bm

nice one col whiting on a sammy!! who would of thought when to start using them is very location specific i always give them a bash first up over the shallows and see if there is any action! have not yet had any hits this year but where i fish the water is still 15 deg don't be shy, be confident they realy work my sugestion would be a pencil rather than popper as they cover more ground just remember the pause is when a bream will hit it bm

That is a great brown!! congratulations on your first trout nice luvias combo as well TCD is very hot and cold fishes best early and also when the weather is shite was it cold? bm

Great sea run brown nice to see such a fish here on fishraider come on tassie fishraiders were are those sea run browns bm

stay with aluminium framed models which is the exceller and the saros i have a saros and are very happy with it, the exceller is also very good but IMO is more corrosion prone than the shimanos. if you can squeeze out some more dough for the stradic you won't be disapointed, it is better than the saros and damn near bulletproof bm also the stradic has a faster ratio

as far as i know it comes from the same company, thus 'may' well come from the same factory as fireline please guys if your getting into braid and worrying about windys i would suggest it choosing a large spool size and eliminating loose windings!! this is what causes them, sure fireline gets less windys because it is as stiff as wire, but it is realy coarse stuff. why not try sunline super PE in white or green it is cheap and IMO far better than that cheap fireline/stren stuff bm

great fishing mate I swear those rainbows begin life at 50cm at TCD all the smaller ones get eaten but the mega browns good work again kael

Great Sambo an absolute handful on light tackle!! they go soo hard! great catch bm

Nice Bass there mate! they are great aussie fish bm

I also like the TT's they always catch fish before they are lost to a snag or over cast another one worth trying is the Jazz rock fish, get the salt version and add a rear treble and hang on!! when fishing give them a strong rip between pauses, fish love them bm

interesting on this topic just got a pinch if prismtech which is a additive for auto paints which glows and sparkles. And even better you can charge it up and it will glow in the dark. i will apply this to some of my lures and see how they go! BM

i cant stand gulp any more because you get to many nibblers which are generally fish that won't take a lure any way proper plastics such as squidgys are much better for bream IMO i will generally use either a HB or SP to suit the terrain i am fishing examples, seagrass = floating HB , sandflats= floating or sinking hb or SP, racks= floating hB on top or SP beside the racks blades have impressed me lately and cast far and sink quickly basically use the best lure for the job at hand get the lure close to the structure (without snagging) and try both aggressive and finesse presentations until you work out what the fish want (you may be supprised, and it always changes) cheers kael

Nice specimen Grant well done on a nice fish any bass over 40cm go very hard and on 6lb is a great effort never had any luck on those jig spinners plenty of luck on auspin mini spinbaits though cheers kael

sounds like a great return very nice looking browns there well done love that tableland country, it has been too long since i last tangled with trout well done kael

Hi Raiders, I am getting into rod building and looking to source high quality graphite blanks in the light - medium range. Lengths will generally be between 6'-7' and i like fast -extra fast action (taper) my question to you is who makes the best blanks in the $100-$300 price bracket lightness, sensitivity are more important than durability some blank manufacturers out there are: loomis, samurai, hastings, lamiglas, CTS, Rainshadow am i on the right path? are loomis blanks worth there salt? should i source from overseas or aus? any advice would be apreciated kael

don't worry abouy the blade in the tree, all of us has done that before! why just last sun i threw my only blade across the river into the tree damn things just cast too well most important things to remember when luring for bream is two words SLOW and PAUSE trust me 99% of bream strikes come when the lure is stationary they are just like that kael

Hi Roberta AKA 'De Forster Ambasaduer' sounds like you had a great time i realy want to get into kayak fishing it looks like real fun good luck in the future comps kael

yes i have come across the same problem it is not the owner hooks as i use the same hooks on many other lures with little or no rust it is the incompatibility of the other metals used in the lure (split rings ect.) my suggestion would be replace the split rings with some stainless ones and this slows it down but also don't leave wet salty lures anywhere, even if you don't wash them after use, at least leave the lid off the box for them to dry kael

cool thanks jeff i don't love them as much for that very reason (lack of casting distance) kael

very good fish!! 40+cm from that water is an excellent catch she looks in top nick as well nice work kael

nice work mate nice flies, do you tie your own dalhbergs? i will send you a pic of some flies that have been doing the trip at my local bass kael

Some new products from ecogear are the SX40 (long cast) with weight transfer system for added casting distance and SX43 anybody got them are they as good as the classic SX40F? bm

First of many more i am sure well done bm