Blackwattle Bay Bream

[Niall]

I've recently moved to the Forest Lodge area and am within walking distance on Blackwattle Bay - Been trying to fish the bay for a few trips now without much success.

It seems the bream down there are plentiful but extremely wary and I'm having a fair bit of difficulty cracking the code to getting them on lures.  The past week of very high tides has seen them grouped up in large numbers all along the wall from Bridge Road up to the point where the bay turns toward Rozelle.

I've been mainly fishing with plastics - ultralight leader (6lb max), Zman curlytails, Slimswimz and some unweighted Pro Lure yabbies.

Mostly casting parallel to the wall and just past it where the oyster-covered rocks meet the weed and mud.  I've managed a few little guys but haven't picked up much of a pattern yet.

Anyone got any advice on how to crack this code?  Apart from "get a boat" and "use bait?"

[papafish]

if you can seem them. then they wont bite. they can see you, try fishing unweight, you have alot of success.  i fish around balmain, and recent weeks i been doing alright at odd hours, try fishing early or late arvo for better luck. 

[dirvin21]

you're doing the right cast parallel along the rockwall, try small hardbodies either a shad style like an sx40 or a strikepro pygmy and a twitch-pause retrieve,  or slow roll a shallow crank with a pause and shake the rod tip every few meters especially if they're chasing

also scent can make a difference

[kingie chaser]

Both great responses above, unweighted with cooked peeled prawns work will with lots of free line out & let it run for a while before you strike.

Some small hard bodies like Atomic bream crank or similar worth a shot.

 

[jimbu1]

I'm with the unweighted crew. Unweighted woollies white sandwich bread. Squeeze it firmly around the hook (don't use too much), leaving just the hook point exposed and a reasonable gap between the hook point and shank. Make sure you leave a fluffy bit of bread at the bottom of the hook, which will make waft more naturally down. Go a size 4 hook or smaller. If you can see them, then it's likely you'll also need to fish extremely light flourocarbon.

As kingie chaser mentioned, you need to let free line out. I leave my spool open, and continue hand spooling line off as the bait drifts down. I fish flouro-to-braid, and you want to maintain a big bow of line going straight down from your rod tip, and the line sitting in a fairly straight fashion on-top of the water. This ensures that the bait slowly drifts down with the current, with minimal interference from line drag or your rod tip. It also means that if the fish picks the bait up, it doesn't feel any resistance at all.

A bite can be seen in two ways: 1) the point at which the line sinks below the water will move suddenly, 2) the bow in the line from your rod tip will straighten. If the fish takes the bait in it's mouth (which it will, because it won't feel any resistance at all), the line will begin to straighten rapidly. From here, you want to give the fish enough time to ensure the bait is fully in its mouth, but not enough time for it to notice something amiss and spit the bait out; i.e. you want to strike before the line has fully straightened, at which point it will feel resistance from the connection to your rod. 

In my opinion, this is a consistent way to catch big bream, if they're around and the location/current direction/speed allows for it. Good luck!

Note: I believe that white bread is the most underrated bream bait. Presented well, and with minimal or no weight, it has the advantage of floating more naturally through the water column than other baits. 

[Niall]

Thanks for all the thoughtful responses fellas.  It's definitely a tricky prospect getting these fish to fall for a lure.  I'd imagine they've all seen a fair few Zman grubs in their time.  If I go many more donuts at Blackwattle I may well resort to the bread bait option - not to disparage my bait fishing brethren 😉.  Bait is just generally not my thing. 

I've nicked an idea for a rig off the Windsor Bait and Tackle guy on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgQdYKIDfoBL80jb5-idH_Q)  where I'm running an unweighted yabbie or prawn plastic on a No 1 worm hook.  Casting it parallel to the wall over the rocks.  I've yet to do a proper session with it but if I can be patient enough to let it sink and drift about I reckon it'll be killer - The Pro Lure yabbies look really realistic on the sink.

I had a little sesh at Darling Harbour this morning and managed to pull a couple of decent ones out from under the boardwalk next to the aquarium - so much fun battling them out from all the pylons.  It's a real shame you're not allowed to fish freely in the Darling Harbour (though I can understand why they won't allow it).  There are some truly monstrous bream cruising around all that structure - one of the fish caught this morning had a larger one follow it that would've easily been in the late 40's possibly 50's.  

I understand the waters of Darling Harbour and Cockle Bay are open to fish from a boat.  If anyone on here ever heads in there for a light tackle bream session from their boat, I'll happily pay for lunch and buy all the beers if I can tag along.

 

Thanks again lads,

 

Niall