Chasing Popper Bream

[soft-on]

Hi Raiders,

After Reading all the write-ups on Chasing Bream on Poppers i decided to give it a whack this morning down Lake Illawarra before work . Beaut morning no breeze & plenty of bait fish in the shallows.

First cast about 30m out let it sit and boom! My popper got smashed i struck to early (forgetting hodgeys advice to let fish turn first)

and im pretty sure i dropped a decent Bream. I followed the same technique and i was getting strikes but no hookups (even waiting for the fish to turn...).

After a while the Taylor moved in for a feed and i ended up having a ball catching small choppers on poppers.

My confidence isn't burnt yet i will keep trying!

Cheers Cam

Edited March 25, 2008 by soft-on

[Jigholio]

Tailor are awesome fun on poppers yeah yeah. Tailor got me hooked on poppering many years ago, very obliging. Sometimes they smash em so hard the trebles come back looking like pretzels. For a better hookup rate you could try another split ring on the rear treble so it hangs deeper and swings freely. If you can find those wicked VMC sureset trebles with the one longer arm they'll improve you hookup rate too.

Jig

[soft-on]

Tailor are awesome fun on poppers yeah yeah. Tailor got me hooked on poppering many years ago, very obliging. Sometimes they smash em so hard the trebles come back looking like pretzels. For a better hookup rate you could try another split ring on the rear treble so it hangs deeper and swings freely. If you can find those wicked VMC sureset trebles with the one longer arm they'll improve you hookup rate too.

Jig

Thanks for that Jigholio, i must try those trebles. Yeah well i never really paid much attention to Bream on poppers (i have caught them on surface crawlers etc..) but never poppers.

I will get there in the next few days and post the photos.

cam

[arpie]

Watch out Cam, popping for anything becomes very addictive - after a while you don't even mind not catching anything - it is just so much fun trying to tempt them into striking!!!

That 'do nothing' retrieve is deadly!! Leave it for a long while, then leave it a bit longer & they will usually hit it .... especially the bream .... the more shallow the water, the better, specially if over weed beds etc

Have fun!

Roberta

[Bream Mad]

Well done mate

choppers are always happy to have a go at anything moving!

definitely mix up your retreives sometimes bream will hit it when moving other times when stationary

IMO more hits are converted into hookups when the lure is moving.

try pencils and well such as tiemco trick trout and the lucky craft NW pencil as these will sometimes turn the bream on when poppers won't

have fun, i used to think the bream were not as 'surface friendly' as Bass, but that theory has been hit for six of late

cheers

Kael

[soft-on]

ALL THIS POPPERING MAKES ME POP AND I WANT TO LEAVE WORK TO GO AND POP.....

[Hodgey]

Hang in there Cam! Sometimes they will nail the worst cast you send out, and other times they will be extremely fickle. I am finding (as the water temp cools), that they are more likely to take a resting popper than a moving one.

It's all about perseverance. (see Roberta's thread titled Perseverence and Patience). Once you start nailing them consistently on popper, your 'addiction' will worsen!!!! Coincidently, I dropped a breambo well over 1.5kg last weekend. I watched him stalk the popper sitting motionless on the water, and when he finally struck at it ... so did I! Letting them turn is good advice!

Keep at it mate. You are putting in the time, so the rewards should be just around the corner!

Hodgey

[soft-on]

Hang in there Cam! Sometimes they will nail the worst cast you send out, and other times they will be extremely fickle. I am finding (as the water temp cools), that they are more likely to take a resting popper than a moving one.

It's all about perseverance. (see Roberta's thread titled Perseverence and Patience). Once you start nailing them consistently on popper, your 'addiction' will worsen!!!! Coincidently, I dropped a breambo well over 1.5kg last weekend. I watched him stalk the popper sitting motionless on the water, and when he finally struck at it ... so did I! Letting them turn is good advice!

Keep at it mate. You are putting in the time, so the rewards should be just around the corner!

Hodgey

Thanks for the inspiration Hodge,

Last Night (dusk) i went down minnamurra on run in tide and walked the flats casting over the weed beds.

I saw a small unbroken wave heading for my lure so i let it sit. Then gloop zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

i know it was was a bream but i lost it mid fight. Hodgey there are houses (richies) all along minnamura and one guy came out and shouted in the dark "you ok" thats because i swore that loud everyone got off their couches and stared out of their big glass houses trying to see what the stuff was going on.

I will keep the temper down and keep trying. I am the type of bloke that has 200% patience for anything but this pop poppering poppers thing is a real challenge.

Cam

[dipship]

Thanks for the inspiration Hodge,

Last Night (dusk) i went down minnamurra on run in tide and walked the flats casting over the weed beds.

I saw a small unbroken wave heading for my lure so i let it sit. Then gloop zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

i know it was was a bream but i lost it mid fight. Hodgey there are houses (richies) all along minnamura and one guy came out and shouted in the dark "you ok" thats because i swore that loud everyone got off their couches and stared out of their big glass houses trying to see what the stuff was going on.

I will keep the temper down and keep trying. I am the type of bloke that has 200% patience for anything but this pop poppering poppers thing is a real challenge.

Cam

I dont know about you fishos but i catch more breambos on poppers than i do on softies. Maybe i havent developed the knack with sp's but i just feel confident with poppers.

Its a bad day out if we havent got double figure catches???

Is this the same for anyone else??

[brendong]

It's amazing how your acuracy with casts improves quite quickly....I probably only started serioursly popping and SP'ing in Sept 07. But like Hodgey says its all about time on the water!!!! Not having to go into the bank and retrieve your trebbles lodged in a log every second cast certaily produces much better results given your not spooking the bank.

Still it amazes me how you can flick at structure (logs, trees, rock bars etc) and land right on where you want to be expecting to get smashed and get nothing, then follow that up with a dog ugly cast 4 foot from the structure and getting caned when you least expect it.....

It's the anticipation that keeps you coming back every time.