Couldn't tempt the salmon but the bream are starting to feed up top again...

[Niall]

I managed to drag myself out of bed early for a few mornings this past week to fish the bays around Pyrmont - this is within 10km of my house.

Every morning I'd park up and find stacks of bait flashing silver at the water's edge - always a nice encounter at the beginning of a session.  Gives you an idea of what lures to tie on.

It wasn't long before I found some surface feeding fish.  Conditions have been pretty calm wind-wise all week so spotting bust ups on glassy water is pretty easy.  Seagulls were scouting around everywhere as well.  This was gonna be easy.

However for the rest of the week I proceeded to do the same thing.

FInd Bait.  Find Fish.  Cast at fish.  Get ignored by fish.  Go home frustrated after throwing everything in the bag at them.

Metals, plastics, hard bodies, poppers, walk the dogs?  They wouldn't have a bar for the most part.

One day I finally hooked up on a popper and fought a decent kingie to my feet.  This was the only bite I'd had in days. 

Somehow at the last second he managed to shake the hook.  There are no adequate swear words.  Trust me I tried them all.

Another day I finally managed to hook a salmon on a grub tail plastic.  He jumped once and shook the hook like a Barra.  Gone.

 

So finally this morning I decided it was enough.  I'd been chasing bloody salmon or whatever they were for days.  Walking miles around the harbour foreshore following birds and bustups.  I was over it.

So I took a walk around and did a bit of half hearted casting for bream around the structure.  I'd seen a few mooching about chewing around the pylons and pontoons.

Weirdly a few casts in with a little Jackall Chubby popper I got a follow.  

A few casts later and I actually got a hit.  It was so unexpected that it actually startled me and I pulled the lure away.

A few casts later I got another follow.  This bream must have stared at my lure for 30 seconds while I twitched it.  He must have spotted me looming overhead just as his mouth opened.  Gone.

Finally I came to a spot that I knew would hold a few.  As expected I cast in and 3 came out to investigate.  I twitched a few times and spooked the two smallest while the biggest steamed in and choked it down without a second thought.  Straight away he ran and wrapped me around a pylon.  I was only on 5lb leader but I'd made sure to tie a decent length - luckily the pole wasn't covered in oysters like most of them.  I ran over and repositioned myself to be able to pull him out from a better angle.  Thankfully instead of digging in he moved out into open water and made a dash under the pontoon I was standing on.  After a few heart-in-mouth moments of scrambling for my net and gently dragging him out from under my feet I had him netted and on the deck.  He was a tank.

43cm to the tip.  Not quite a PB but a solid one nonetheless.  He sure bent the hell outta those trebles.

I'd take that over any salmon.  Maybe not a King though 🤣

Cheers and stay safe everyone!

 

 

[Rebel]

Just hanging in there pays off. Well done. Great report.

Cheers

[Isaac Ct]

Haha, that's always how fishing works. You get no fish for hours then bang! Right when you don't expect anything. Good job!

[Little_Flatty]

Can't complain about a stonker bream like that!

Thanks for the report.

[Yowie]

Nice fish to pull out from pylon territory. Any bream over 40cm is a good fish.

[Blackfish]

Excellent Bream and a excellent story to go to catching him. Good looking fish as well.

[Jiggy]

I suspect that the salmon are feeding on eyes or something similar. Very tiny fish that are almost transparent. Once they start feeding on them they won't take anything unless it's tiny and white or clear. I've given up trying to catch them when they are on those.

[LuckyFil]

Great story well told and 43cm is a cracker bream on any tackle but especially a surface popper.

I agree with Jiggy, I reckon the salmon were zeroed in on 'eyes' and when that happens they are very frustrating. Sometimes the fly guys will have success but not much else works, although small (4-5 cm) white or clear SPs may tempt them.

[Niall]

4 hours ago, Jiggy said:

I suspect that the salmon are feeding on eyes or something similar. Very tiny fish that are almost transparent. Once they start feeding on them they won't take anything unless it's tiny and white or clear. I've given up trying to catch them when they are on those.

Yep I reckon the same.  Only hookup I got was on a bloodworm grub.

Need to find some clear plastics.

Someone else told me to tie a fly onto a metal 🤔

[masterfisho7]

Bream over salmon any day 

[LuckyFil]

This is the sort of plastic I was talking about. I use a 1/8th or 1/6th jig head. You can't cast them very far unless you've got the wind behind you but they may work on the sambos. I use them in FNQ and the queenies luv 'em.

[bessell1955]

Persistence pays.

[DaveBM]

How annoying are those salmon?

I got a few in May/June - got a bit cocky and started taking orders from family members! So they immediately stopped taking anything. This is after got a nice one on a McGuyvered-up spinner, made of a cute Japanese anime kitten keychain ornament, with a couple of trailing assist hooks.

Now nothing is good enough (have tried clear paddle grubs - no dice).

Nice bream but!

[Niall]

11 hours ago, DaveBM said:

How annoying are those salmon?

I got a few in May/June - got a bit cocky and started taking orders from family members! So they immediately stopped taking anything. This is after got a nice one on a McGuyvered-up spinner, made of a cute Japanese anime kitten keychain ornament, with a couple of trailing assist hooks.

Now nothing is good enough (have tried clear paddle grubs - no dice).

Nice bream but!

Absolutely painful mate.  They always wanna hang just outside casting distance as well.

A couple of months back I was searching through my tackle for something wouldn't take!