Bream secret thoughts.

[Pickles]

I read with interest @maccapaccareport on bream from recent land based trip and thought I’d share a few thoughts. Before starting let it be known that I am no expert, especially on bream (rats of the water), they are great to catch on light gear, but (in my opinion), greatly over rated as a table fish. However,  I have had some really memorable catches when they have been going nuts and landed over 30 keepers (released of course) or more in a session.

* a storm / low pressure / cold front, after a fine sunny period (high pressure) really turns them on, so if time allows, getting out before a predicted storm increases chances - Remember that graphite is a great conductor of electricity, so if lightening, stay at home.

* live bait is always a preference (appropriate to the season e.g. prawns in summer, but nippers any time are no 1 bait choice (for me). Small baits will catch big fish, but they are voracious predatory feeds at times, so even small fish will swallow a big bait. As @motiondavementioned live garden worms (although they go white pretty quickly are great also) 

* my best session ever was fishing the storm water drains around Sydney harbour during and after a storm - the fish were schooled up waiting for anything edible to be washed down to them - I floated some small yakka pieces unweighted and they fought each other to hit them first- if I’d had some poppers I would have thrown them in and sure they would have been monstered. 

* fish light (4-8lb) and be prepared to lose some fish to structures, but if your “tangled on structure” open the nail arm and they’ll often swim themselves free.

* target their spawning period which is winter (May is a great month when they start schooling up and feeding up - but rug up).

These are just a few thoughts 

[noelm]

Catching Bream from a boat, close in to the rocks during winter is great fun I reckon, I usually fish for them during the winter westerlies, anchor close in, use Royal Red Prawns for bait, and the shells for burley. I use 6LB line and about a number 1 to 1/0 hook, no sinker at all, probably one of my favourite forms of fishing, I do like eating the ones from the ocean.....

[Pickles]

38 minutes ago, noelm said:

Catching Bream from a boat, close in to the rocks during winter is great fun I reckon, I usually fish for them during the winter westerlies, anchor close in, use Royal Red Prawns for bait, and the shells for burley. I use 6LB line and about a number 1 to 1/0 hook, no sinker at all, probably one of my favourite forms of fishing, I do like eating the ones from the ocean.....

Gotta agree Noel - light gear they pull hard (I’ll keep mine in the freezer for you to eat)

[Pickles]

13 minutes ago, maccapacca said:

Does the sinker matter much? I know with plastics the way you rig stuff is a bit tedious for them but using bait would a running sinker ‘scare them off’ or make it harder for a bite.Just thinking about how all these people make sure to rig ultralight so they can’t see the line and stuff and I guess having a 14 gram lead sinker next to the hook isn’t appealing

A really small (smallest you can get away with) sinker is the way to go. I like a ball sinker straight to the hook 

[Little_Flatty]

Nice tips @Pickles.

I think also you need to publicly declare on the internet that you don't like eating Bream and they will feel safer taking your bait! As you do! These wily bream, they read our forum posts you know 🤣

Kings on the other hand are illiterate, that's why they end up on the end of your line so often 🤣

@maccapacca great tips here. Using the lightest weight possible is one of the biggest tips anyone can give you, regardless of where, when and how you are fishing. If you even can get away with no sinker, then do it. Only after your bait isn't reaching where you want it (distance or depth wise) do you start increasing the weight.

[noelm]

49 minutes ago, maccapacca said:

Does the sinker matter much? I know with plastics the way you rig stuff is a bit tedious for them but using bait would a running sinker ‘scare them off’ or make it harder for a bite.Just thinking about how all these people make sure to rig ultralight so they can’t see the line and stuff and I guess having a 14 gram lead sinker next to the hook isn’t appealing

When fishing in close from the boat, the water is often only a couple of metres deep, so a few Prawn shells tossed in just "floats" down, to be successful, your bait should do the same, no sinker, cast out a bit away from the bait, flip off a couple metres of line and wait for one to get on. Every now and then a King or Snapper or something will get hooked and give you some excitement, last winter I got a 6KG Snapper in 2m of water, about 10-15m off the rocks on my Bream gear, everything went my way and I landed it, pretty good catch really.

[slothparade]

great article thanks. 

with regards to sinkers, for me it depends on my bait and current and water depth.

if the water is relatively shallow with minimal cuttent and im using  adead bait i dont use a swinker at all, just let the bait float down. 

if the water is a few meters deep ill use a split shot sinker with both dead and live bait. 

nippers work great, I usually use a float with about 1m of leader, adust to dethph and some burely to bring them up. Ive been having great success with chunks of tuna as well. 

i agree with pickles about them being over-rated table fish. I just find them average, theyre not trash but they need a bit of work to be great. 

burely is very helpful to. just some mashed up break and prawn shells works for me, cat food is great to 

[masterfisho7]

One interesting post those bream in the photos are some fine fish

[Isaac Ct]

In St Georges Basin I have seen some monsters caught on small live poddies. Like 2-3cm 

[seasponge]

How are you rigging nippers?

Fed through the underside along the whole hook shank

 or just passing the hook through he tail and leaving them dangling from the hook?

 

I like using nippers but find it incredibly frustrating. They get smashed the second they hit the water, and my hookup rate would be less than 10%.

 

50 minutes ago, slothparade said:

i agree with pickles about them being over-rated table fish. I just find them average, theyre not trash but they need a bit of work to be great. 

 I'll go on record to disagree. Whole fish, rubbed down with olive oil, generous salt, then cooked whole over hot charcoals. Eaten off the bone. Love em!!

 

[noelm]

It's always possible to snag a Bream anywhere, anytime on any gear, but....to be consistently successful, it pays to fish with the right gear, in the right places, a chunk of Squid on heavy gear might catch one now and then. I feel pretty confident that when I go Bream fishing, I am going to catch them, just as someone with me fishing with a big sinker and heavy line is going to keep the Rock Cod and Wirrahs entertained!

[slothparade]

19 minutes ago, seasponge said:

How are you rigging nippers?

Fed through the underside along the whole hook shank

 or just passing the hook through he tail and leaving them dangling from the hook?

 

I like using nippers but find it incredibly frustrating. They get smashed the second they hit the water, and my hookup rate would be less than 10%.

 

 I'll go on record to disagree. Whole fish, rubbed down with olive oil, generous salt, then cooked whole over hot charcoals. Eaten off the bone. Love em!!

 

next time I get ill try that. thanks

I pin the live nippers in the tail like the second pic and for dead nippers like the first pic. 

If thw fish keep plucking them off ill pin thwm like the first pic always 

[slothparade]

55 minutes ago, noelm said:

It's always possible to snag a Bream anywhere, anytime on any gear, but....to be consistently successful, it pays to fish with the right gear, in the right places, a chunk of Squid on heavy gear might catch one now and then. I feel pretty confident that when I go Bream fishing, I am going to catch them, just as someone with me fishing with a big sinker and heavy line is going to keep the Rock Cod and Wirrahs entertained!

we all have that one mate that loves to feed/ entertain the cod and wirrahs.  🤣

[slothparade]

2 minutes ago, motiondave said:

Put a long shank hook on the put the hook right through the nipper. Putting it on the tail just gets it ripped off. 

probably i had very greedy bream lol, they usually just scoff the whole nipper and i just strike and the hook goes straight into the corner of the mouth. might the size of the nipper be a factor as well? like the ones I was using were quite small so that might be why the fish were scoffing them whole 

i pin them a very particular way, so that might be another facor but I can definately see where your coming from. theyre quite soft. 

 

 

[Rebel]

Great Info.

Thanks everybody.

[Green Hornet]

2 baits that haven't been mentioned to date are actually my favourites.

In the estuary, especially around structure, I reckon its hard to beat pieces of crab. Take the legs off, then the top and bottom shells, break what's left in half and feed your hook through a hole where you took the legs off and pull that section off the crab body. Repeat the process 3 or 4 times and you have a nice slender bait running up the hook. The glory of this bait is the pickers can't totally remove it and there's always something left when a good bream comes along. Plus its an oily, smelly bait that will attract good fish from a distance and the discarded legs make good burley.

In the washes off the rocks, crabs go well too and the wipeouts from groper can be quite spectacular, but in winter, my go to bait here is bread. Fished through a bread burley trail bream love the stuff, whether squeezed onto a hook and allowed to sink or cubes of crust threaded on and floated out. Expect a good bycatch of luderick, drummer and trevally as well.

 

 

[noelm]

I just fished with bread yesterday, straight across the road from my house, got 2 Bream, a good Blackfish and a big Bully Mullet, I would use bread before Squid any day of the week.

edit.....I use the "squeeze" the bread around the hook technique, works a treat, no sinker, just cast out about 10-20 feet from the shore.

Edited February 22, 2022 by noelm

[Green Hornet]

1 hour ago, noelm said:

I just fished with bread yesterday, straight across the road from my house, got 2 Bream, a good Blackfish and a big Bully Mullet, I would use bread before Squid any day of the week.

edit.....I use the "squeeze" the bread around the hook technique, works a treat, no sinker, just cast out about 10-20 feet from the shore.

Same here, don't use a sinker and half a slice with the crust removed, squashed onto a hook casts like a bullet.

Out off the rocks around Currarong, I've caught quite a few reds on bread as well.

[noelm]

The best thing about using fresh bread for bait is, you have a "snack" waiting anytime you feel hungry....but, you're right, some fresh bread (no crust) will squash down so tight it's almost like a sinker to cast, and can be retrieved and cast again a few times. My "secret spot" across the road is just a kind of bay, with rocks and sand patches, dry at low tide, but a couple of feet deep at high tide (when I fish there) all sorts of fish come in to feed there, during a big sea, it's a very popular spot.

[Fab1]

I take a sling shot with me and when I see them around the boat.I load a frozen pilly cube into the slingshot and brain them.I then casually sweep them out with my net and tell them that's what happens when you don't take my bait.

  In all seriousness enjoying the replies.

  That same slingshot is going to be used with buckshot to sink bloody Yowie when I see him out there taking my fish.

Edited February 22, 2022 by Fab1

[Pickles]

6 hours ago, seasponge said:

How are you rigging nippers?

Fed through the underside along the whole hook shank

 or just passing the hook through he tail and leaving them dangling from the hook?

 

I like using nippers but find it incredibly frustrating. They get smashed the second they hit the water, and my hookup rate would be less than 10%.

 

 I'll go on record to disagree. Whole fish, rubbed down with olive oil, generous salt, then cooked whole over hot charcoals. Eaten off the bone. Love em!!

 

I hook the nippers across and through the head (sideways) from one eye to the other - it’s amazing they stay alive, but they do and nearly 100% hook up.

[Little_Flatty]

1 hour ago, Pickles said:

I hook the nippers across and through the head (sideways) from one eye to the other - it’s amazing they stay alive, but they do and nearly 100% hook up.

Interesting @Pickles. Any reason why? Do you have a theory that fish eat them head first?

Edited February 22, 2022 by Little_Flatty

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, Little_Flatty said:

Interesting @Pickles. Any reason why? Do you have a theory that fish eat them head first?

99% of the fish I catch swallow nippers head first. If I am fishing with nippers in still water with slack line, the head is the part right down the throat. While drifting, the head is the part grabbed first.

I thread nippers along the hook from the rear end and hook out through the head, then a half hitch of line around the tail to hold them straight along the hook.

[Pickles]

11 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

Interesting @Pickles. Any reason why? Do you have a theory that fish eat them head first?

When I’m fishing, I’m alway trying different ways to increase my catch. Last year when fishing for whitting , Flatties, (& bream), I was missing the hookup on a lot of fish until I started playing with hook placement and changing from my “tried and tested” through the tail placement to the “through the head” and my hookup rate increased dramatically, for the same technique. This was fishing in the Hawkesbury (up the river and in the mouth at Broken Bay).

[Little_Flatty]

3 hours ago, Pickles said:

When I’m fishing, I’m alway trying different ways to increase my catch. Last year when fishing for whitting , Flatties, (& bream), I was missing the hookup on a lot of fish until I started playing with hook placement and changing from my “tried and tested” through the tail placement to the “through the head” and my hookup rate increased dramatically, for the same technique. This was fishing in the Hawkesbury (up the river and in the mouth at Broken Bay).

Thanks @Pickles I'm going to give this a try next time I pump some yabbies.