Fruitful Iron Cove Session - 37cm Ripping PB Bream

[Robinsoi]

How are things Raiders!

Had a day off on Tuesday so decided to have a soft plastic session down in my local water way in Iron Cove in front of Le Montage.

I started the session at the top of the tide (1.6m high tide) and was planning to fish the first 2 hours of the run out tide. Firstly I started with Plan A, throwing around a 3 inch bass minnow in pearl watermelon on a 1/28 (1 gram) hidden weight jig head, 4lb braid, 6lb leader 2-4kg rod and landed and released these:

This one went 41cm

This one went 43cm and engulfed the soft plastic

I got a few other hits but no hook ups then things went quiet so I proceeded to Plan B and put on 80mm and 100mm squidgy wrigglers in bloodworm colour but the chopper tailor were feasting on the wriggler tails, and cast after cast I was retrieving my jig head with only half a wriggler on it

Not to be outdone by the choppers I moved onto Plan C and put on a hard body Berkley Fat Dog Deep in Snoop colour (courtesy Pure Fishing) and persevered for a little while but didn't get any hits at all

By this time the best part of the tide had subsided so I then proceeded onto Plan D and took out the slice of bread I had snuck into my fishing bag I realise it's best to leave the bait at home when practicing lure fishing but I was desperate to catch something else after all it was my day off !!

After quickly making up some dough with the bread, I employed the first part of the food chain effect tip Brickman (Gary) gave me and started a small but steady berley trail made up of small pieces of dough then rigged up with no weight and a No 2 size hook baited with a generous amount of dough and free spooled this into the berley trail. Not long after I landed and released a nice solid 30cm bream that put on some spirited runs:

Baited up again and free spooled another offering in the berley trail and got a solid take and then some sizzling runs as I followed the fish up and down the rock wall trying to steer him around the oyster encrusted rocks and it was a thrill to hear my reel sing a few times. After a few nervous moments I had him in the net a ripping, solid and fat 37cm blue nose bream and a PB and I was pumped

A guy walking past stopped to watch me play and land the fish and he said 'great fish mate', I asked him to take a photo of me with the fish but for some reason it didn't come out on my phone

I then took one last picture of myself and my new friend before quickly getting him back into the water:

Thanks so much Brickman, I remember when I first joined Fishraider last year you were very helpful and patient with me and I used your tip and it produced a PB I will definitely be adding a live bait into the equation very soon!

All fish were released to fight another day.

I then called it a day and went home a very happy guy to help my kids with their homework.

Thanks in advance for reading and for any comments posted and thanks also Raiders for all the helpful tips and advice shared on this top Fishraider site

All the best and may you catch some big ones.

Ian

[jkm1667]

good sesh ian

well done

[rjc123]

Great work Ian!

Lovely Blue Nose!

Well done on the flatties too!

I love my plastics fishing but i also can't resist having a few bait sessions.

Fishing unweighted baits like prawns have proved extremely productive for me this year. Caught more bream than ever, the majority falling to this. You get the odd thumper like yours on bread as well.

Keep it up Ian!

Cheers, Tom

[joseph2593]

Awesome report mate.

You seem to know the area pretty well. Keep it up!

[Jewhunter]

Nice fish & a great report mate.

Well done.

Great choice in the bass minnows in pearl-w/melon.

Next time fish them about 3 x slower than you are at the moment,

coat them in s-factor, & you'll nail those big bream on plastics.

Congrats on the p.b. Nice looking fish in top condition.

Cheers,

Grant.

[brickman]

great read ian and a pb well done mate those blue nose bream give a good account for them self good efort on 4 lb

keep the reports coming mate i'll be lucky if i wet a line before xmas with work flat out at present cheers gary

[Basil D]

Great report, catch and great photos but I just couldnt help but notice the resemblance in the last photo

[rasskl]

Great report Ian.

I fish those areas quite frequently and am yet to get a decent Bream

Maybe I'll see you out there some time.

Dom

[PRED-ATOR]

Hi Ian,

Great report! and well done on your new PB that is an awesome looking bream and very healthy too.

Bad luck on the squidgies, i went through 3 of them in a matter of minutes the other day on the taylor, i think i might chuck the left over squidgies in the microwave and make my own design LOL.

The fatdog in the snoop is probably my favourite bream lure, the eels seem to like it to hahaha.

What type of retrieve were you using?

The next time the taylor are on, put on a GULP jerk shad, they're more robust an you dont feel as bad if you lose one as they dont break the bank.

Keep the reports coming mate,

Cheers, Stan

[bassboy888]

Well done on the PB! If there are too many tailor around flick baits and gulp shrimp are good to drop under them and fished slow with short sharp flicks.

[Robinsoi]

Thanks heaps for all your nice encouraging comments and tips guys much appreciated

Grant: Thanks for those additional tips! I got myself a few packets of these Berkley bass minnows because you mentioned in one of my other reports that this is your favourite SP for the bays Any particular reason why you coat them with S-Factor when they have their own Berkley scent and fish them very slow, are the big bream lazy and don't like chasing the SP? I lift the rod every 5 seconds or so in my retrieve, by going 3 x slower I will be lifting the rod every 15 seconds or so..... will this be too slow?

Stan: For the Berkley Fat Dog Deep in Snoop I used a slow retrieve to get it down then continued with a few stops and starts although the best part of the tide had gone when I pulled this out of the tackle box. I saw that beast of an eel in your report the other day

Many thanks and have a great weekend guys!

Ian

[Jewhunter]

Thanks heaps for all your nice encouraging comments and tips guys much appreciated

Grant: Thanks for those additional tips! I got myself a few packets of these Berkley bass minnows because you mentioned in one of my other reports that this is your favourite SP for the bays Any particular reason why you coat them with S-Factor when they have their own Berkley scent and fish them very slow, are the big bream lazy and don't like chasing the SP? I lift the rod every 5 seconds or so in my retrieve, by going 3 x slower I will be lifting the rod every 15 seconds or so..... will this be too slow?

Stan: For the Berkley Fat Dog Deep in Snoop I used a slow retrieve to get it down then continued with a few stops and starts although the best part of the tide had gone when I pulled this out of the tackle box. I saw that beast of an eel in your report the other day

Many thanks and have a great weekend guys!

Ian

When the fish are really fired up then what you are doing is great.

Mostly they are there & you need to make them bite.

Bream like an easy feed most of the time.

10-15 seconds is about right 70% of the time. Quite often you will go to twitch & be on.

If that doesn't work then slow it down some more.

Not sure if the s-factor makes a huge difference but a tail dipped in

garlic or aniseed sent definitely does.

You are very close to cracking the code at your local spot mate so keep at it!

Cheers,

Grant.

[Robinsoi]

Thanks so much Grant for your help, I'll try those additional tips next time and put up a report. It would be great nailing one of those big bream on a lure so I'll keep at it. Not sure about almost cracking the code but I am trying to put the pieces together and you have been extremely helpul in doing this.

Thanks again and have a good one.

Ian

[Pongrass18ft]

Great looking fish and well done on your pb mate

Chris.