What Am I Doing Wrong?

[ktan3235]

Hi Raiders,

Im looking for some advice. So a few months ago ive started to get into the artificial section of fishing, so SP's and HB's, and my main reason is for it is so i can pick up my rod and go whenever i had free time (i do love using bait, but the bait shot is annoying out of the way trip). I usually hit somewhere alot botany from endeavour bridge all the way down towards captain cooks ( i never go beyond that), with my main spots being captain cooks, endeavour bridge and dolls point. When i first started with SP's i went for flathead alot, and more or less most of the time i would come home with 2 or 3 decent sized one. Great fun to catch and when i still get them now, it excites me! However I'm now looking at trying to get some bream, and I invested in some HB's and some creature SP's however for about 2 months now, to no avail, I have pretty much gotten ZILCH! I do aim for structure like your rockwalls, pontoons and channel markers, and mostly i use a 8ft diving HB minnow (different colors) to try and hit this elusive bream. Ive tried different jigging techniques with SP's from slow retrieve, fast retrieve, the combination, hop-hops etc and nothing. I do know what the pull and feeling of a bream is like and its great fun (usually if I go up to Narrabeen, with pretty much prawns or yabbies, you would be pulling them back in, usually avg. 20cm, undersized but good pulls and very fun).

My question really is, WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? Ive watched enough youtube videos and read enough reports, and im still not getting it. Could any raiders please give me tips, especially if you live in the area! Just note, i dont have a boat or a yak, it would make fishing structures easier but im limited to landbased approaches. Gotta walk before you run right!

Happy Fishing Raiders,

KTAN3235

[Beau88]

Hey Ktan,

I'm pretty new to fishing and haven't caught bream on lures before but have gotten lucky with some others including flathead, barra, tarpon and a redfin. Each time I had cast a thousand times beforehand and had zoned out so can't remember what action I was using at the time which always frustrates me.

I just did a quick search for best bream lures and most of them seem to work between 0 and 2m deep so maybe try lifting your lure up a bit? My most recent hook up was a tarpon on pulse soft vibe and loved how the lure worked and they're pretty easy to use with a lift, wind up the slack, repeat action. Apparently, metal vibes work well on bream all year round. Whereas other lures like poppers work better seasonally. Keep trying and hopefully someone with more experience can chip in and help us out.

I dislike having to pick up bait too. I'm thinking about trying to make a poddy mullet trap as an alternative as well. Good luck, hope you start getting some on lures soon.

Beau

[Adsy91]

G'day guys,

Well the good news is you're probably not doing anything majorly wrong although how big is that deep diving minnow you're using?

Guys there is a reason bream are a good tournament fish and there are blokes who solely chase them. My advice is to go as small and light as possible when targetting them. You didn't mention how heavy your leader is or anything but if it's clear water you are going to need to drop down to about 4lb, you might get away with 6 or 8 in dirty water though. Yes blades do catch bream but these lures are for deeper waters guy's and generally using them around structure is going to end in tears.

If i had to recommend a basic set up that I used to slowly get the feel of how they feed it would be as follows. During summer in low light periods around shallow banks and rock walls use your small poppas and surface walkers (probably the easiest way to target bream and very fun!) When the sun comes up throw on a small crank style lure or good quality minnow (something like the ecogear zx35's) for the shallows and rocky areas. If fishing around structure like bridge pylons (my favourite bream spots) get yourself some grubz or something with a curl tail that is relatively small (up to 3") and use as light a j.h weight as possible, lets say a 1/24th for the small grubz 1/20th for the 2.5" ones. If the current is too strong increase and so on. These curl tail lures have a great action on the drop and an irratic hop style action will also land you a few but my experience is they usually take it on the drop.

I would recommend finding somewhere you can fish multiple boats at the jetty/wharf to learn what the action feels like. Once you get a few consistantly you will be getting them all the time. Just be careful where you do this as a lot of boat marinas etc are no fishing zones/fish sanctuaries. But remember too if you cant fish the actual marina maybe try just off to the side with some surface lures just before/after dark. Bream are a great fish to learn to target but don't be fooled they are a worthy adversary when you are trying to be consistant so don't give up. Remember some of these fish are older than we are (I'm 25) and have seen a million lures before.

Good luck guys hit me up if you want more specifics. What is your rod and reel set up btw? It's a very technique sensitive way to fish (unlike flathead!)

[ktan3235]

Hey Ktan,

I'm pretty new to fishing and haven't caught bream on lures before but have gotten lucky with some others including flathead, barra, tarpon and a redfin. Each time I had cast a thousand times beforehand and had zoned out so can't remember what action I was using at the time which always frustrates me.

I just did a quick search for best bream lures and most of them seem to work between 0 and 2m deep so maybe try lifting your lure up a bit? My most recent hook up was a tarpon on pulse soft vibe and loved how the lure worked and they're pretty easy to use with a lift, wind up the slack, repeat action. Apparently, metal vibes work well on bream all year round. Whereas other lures like poppers work better seasonally. Keep trying and hopefully someone with more experience can chip in and help us out.

I dislike having to pick up bait too. I'm thinking about trying to make a poddy mullet trap as an alternative as well. Good luck, hope you start getting some on lures soon.

Beau

I should invest in some blades, however my mate who has them, although he doesnt regularly use them, has never bought anything, so i pretty much didnt think they were effective.

If you plan on making a poddy mullet trap, go to a baitstore and try and get one for like $15 bucks, they work better than say a juice bottle, probably gets bait about 5x than what you would with the bottle. However, although good option, catchning own bait and all, not the most efficient because you need to let it sit for about 2 hours. But definitely a good investment. You should consider buying or building a nipper pump. They're really easy to catch live bait, easy to hook up and all.

G'day guys,

Well the good news is you're probably not doing anything majorly wrong although how big is that deep diving minnow you're using?

Guys there is a reason bream are a good tournament fish and there are blokes who solely chase them. My advice is to go as small and light as possible when targetting them. You didn't mention how heavy your leader is or anything but if it's clear water you are going to need to drop down to about 4lb, you might get away with 6 or 8 in dirty water though. Yes blades do catch bream but these lures are for deeper waters guy's and generally using them around structure is going to end in tears.

If i had to recommend a basic set up that I used to slowly get the feel of how they feed it would be as follows. During summer in low light periods around shallow banks and rock walls use your small poppas and surface walkers (probably the easiest way to target bream and very fun!) When the sun comes up throw on a small crank style lure or good quality minnow (something like the ecogear zx35's) for the shallows and rocky areas. If fishing around structure like bridge pylons (my favourite bream spots) get yourself some grubz or something with a curl tail that is relatively small (up to 3") and use as light a j.h weight as possible, lets say a 1/24th for the small grubz 1/20th for the 2.5" ones. If the current is too strong increase and so on. These curl tail lures have a great action on the drop and an irratic hop style action will also land you a few but my experience is they usually take it on the drop.

I would recommend finding somewhere you can fish multiple boats at the jetty/wharf to learn what the action feels like. Once you get a few consistantly you will be getting them all the time. Just be careful where you do this as a lot of boat marinas etc are no fishing zones/fish sanctuaries. But remember too if you cant fish the actual marina maybe try just off to the side with some surface lures just before/after dark. Bream are a great fish to learn to target but don't be fooled they are a worthy adversary when you are trying to be consistant so don't give up. Remember some of these fish are older than we are (I'm 25) and have seen a million lures before.

Good luck guys hit me up if you want more specifics. What is your rod and reel set up btw? It's a very technique sensitive way to fish (unlike flathead!)

I dont have a popper, maybe ill invest in one, but i do have some surface lures, although im still mastering the walking-dog jigging technique. With the SP's, does color matter for your curly tail stuff, i have some nuclear chicken ones (work well on flatty) but not sure about bream if they're fussy with color.

Im rigged up with a 7ft Shimano Raider 2 (2-4kg) with a 2500 Sienna reel spooled with 12lb line braid and 10lb fluorocarbon leader. Ive had no problem catching with this rig using nippers/prawns, so i concluded that my leader isnt too heavy. I might try lighter in the near future, maybe 8lb if i invest in some. I find my rod makes it a bit difficult to do the walk-the-dog technique however, it could just be my technique.

Hopefully ill catch this elusive bream on SP's/HB's soon!

Thanks

[Razzell]

Hi mate,

Bream on lures are a favourite of mine so I'll chuck my two cents in, even if it's not very valuable!

As Adsy91 said, some of these fish have seen a million lures before. Bream are slow growing, so the bigger ones have run the gauntlet many times.

Firstly, I'd go with lighter gear. My bream outfit is a 1-3 kg rod, 6 pound braid and at most 6 pound leader. I will drop that down if it's particularly clear (water and weather). They can be very finicky. With bait, you can get away with fishing a bit heavier. With lures, not so much...

I mostly fish SPs. My go to for bream is the crusteaz with as light a jig head as I can get away with. On structure and boat hulls, I twitch. On flats and edges, I do a very slow role, with 1 - 2 cranks of the handle.

They love structure. On high tide I will fish bank structure, on low I will move to boat hulls etc.

They can be a difficult fish to read and they do move about.

So: fish light, fish early (they love first light), and try to figure out what you'd be doing if you were a bream! Keep at it - you're not doing anything massively wrong from the sounds of it. Just probably needs a bit of refinement

[Adsy91]

I should invest in some blades, however my mate who has them, although he doesnt regularly use them, has never bought anything, so i pretty much didnt think they were effective.

If you plan on making a poddy mullet trap, go to a baitstore and try and get one for like $15 bucks, they work better than say a juice bottle, probably gets bait about 5x than what you would with the bottle. However, although good option, catchning own bait and all, not the most efficient because you need to let it sit for about 2 hours. But definitely a good investment. You should consider buying or building a nipper pump. They're really easy to catch live bait, easy to hook up and all.

I dont have a popper, maybe ill invest in one, but i do have some surface lures, although im still mastering the walking-dog jigging technique. With the SP's, does color matter for your curly tail stuff, i have some nuclear chicken ones (work well on flatty) but not sure about bream if they're fussy with color.

Im rigged up with a 7ft Shimano Raider 2 (2-4kg) with a 2500 Sienna reel spooled with 12lb line braid and 10lb fluorocarbon leader. Ive had no problem catching with this rig using nippers/prawns, so i concluded that my leader isnt too heavy. I might try lighter in the near future, maybe 8lb if i invest in some. I find my rod makes it a bit difficult to do the walk-the-dog technique however, it could just be my technique.

Hopefully ill catch this elusive bream on SP's/HB's soon!

Thanks

Even 8lb is too heavy mate and that rod is too. 1-3kg is what you need, they are incredibly finicky at times and you need the more sensitive tips to get the action right. As for colours go with natural colours (for all species, theres a few jokes about lure colours catching people not fish and its very true).

The braid your using is also too heavy you will really struggle to cast a small unqeighted plastic with that gear. I would recommend looking at getting a rod specifically for bream and smaller species like whiting and bass will be fine to use this gear on (i still catch up to metre long flathead and jewies on my bream stick if you play them right). Like i said though most people don't go above 6lb mainline and definitely no more than 6-8lb leader.

Bait fishing is very different to fishing lures. If the action is off or they spot the line its not happening.

I would be very surprised if you lighten up your setul and dont experience inmediate benefits

[iamthecowgodmoo]

I use the Berkely Pop-Dog (in clear/yellow) with great success in Narrabeen. Nothing beats a surface strike! I work it over the sand flats - anything under a metre of water, just use the technique of a brisk drag (not a hard flick) for 30-50cm, then pause for 2-5sec, repeat. They will hit it on the pause. It's very common to have half-a-dozen bream climbing over each other getting to the lure. Ofcourse, using a maximum 6lb leader.