Iron Cove Bream

[Mike Sydney]

Good evening all,

Back on my feet again after a few weeks hobbling around in a moon boot after slicing up my foot on oysters. Healing is going great with stitches all closed over and I was able to get out fishing again.

With the four kids asleep earlier than usual I had a rare opportunity for some sunset fishing instead of after dark, and headed to Iron Cove in search of some bream. It was looking gorgeous as I arrived about 40 minutes ahead of sundown.

I hadn’t tied on a crankbait since last summer, but with an hour left on the run in I decided to tie on a crank , with the Hurricane Fatty getting the nod tonight in a deep diver, enough to be just bouncing on the bottom in this depth.  
 
This area had always gone great for me with crankbaits, and it wasn’t long before a big girl bream was on the end of the line. She put up a great fight for her size, coming in at 36cm, and deciding to keep one of the three hooks on the rear treble which snapped when unhooking.

When using crankbaits around here I find a more erratic retrieve works better than a slow and steady pace. Changes of speed seem to be enough to entice a bite rather than needing to pause, and that was the case here - the fish chasing a fast retrieve and striking on a slow-down rather than an outright pause. 

The sun was setting nicely and on the path ahead a couple of crabs scuttled into cracks in the footpath. This of course triggered me, and I had to tie a crab lure on.

Sticking with Hurricane brand on went their spider crab, pictured here. This is frankly, a terrific bream catcher. You can see the claws here have the hooks in them like a Cranka Crab. 

These perform very well - while the claws don’t float up as well as the Cranka, the assist hooks in place of trebles are sent from heaven - much less snag-prone and a million times easier to unhook a catch (and a quarter the price…). 

Anywho, first cast on the crab and a very slow retrieve dragging along the bottom. I can’t recall where I read it but ‘baby-crawling’ speed was recommended and works great. Bream will hit a slow moving crab no worries, again they don’t need it to be paused or still - just slow. 

After a couple of meters the Spidercrab gets hammered and out comes another nice bream.

Pride comes before a fall they say, so while I congratulated myself on such a savvy lure change, a stroke of genius, what an Elite Fisherman etc etc the next cast goes straight into a tree and the lure is gone. 
 

Great to be back on the water and on the bream, which seem to be a little later into the estuaries this year.

Cheers, Mike

[Little_Flatty]

Good to see you back in action Mike. I see that your crab obsession hasn't yet abated 🤣 Some stonker bream there!

I have some crab flies to inflict on the bream population, once I learn how to cast the things!

5 minutes ago, Mike Sydney said:

With the four kids asleep earlier than usual

I still ask, how the heck do you do this? The sun wasn't even down yet! If you can share the secret sauce, I might well join you on a night session...if I don't fall asleep myself 🤣

[Mike Sydney]

Haha @Little_Flatty , the secret is to loosen the definition of “asleep” on a sliding scale, as required to be allowed out by the wife. “They’re asleep babe, I’m going fishing”….

”Michael they’re clearly singing…”

”that’s just lullabies love they’ll be out to it by the time I get into the car, trust me”

I tend to consider them “more” asleep the higher the tide….🤫

[Green Hornet]

Great to see you back on your feet and nailing a few bream.

Also nice to see someone fishing Hurricane lures. I rate them highly and though I haven’t tried the Spider Crab as yet, the Fatty is one of my favorites.

[Mike Sydney]

Just now, Green Hornet said:

Great to see you back on your feet and nailing a few bream.

Also nice to see someone fishing Hurricane lures. I rate them highly and though I haven’t tried the Spider Crab as yet, the Fatty is one of my favorites.

Thanks Hornet. Yes Hurricane have been a bit of a revelation for me. This was the first time using the Fatty, a Snr 38 in flash smig colour and it was a great result. I’ve been using the crabs for a year and they’ve been terrific.
The fatties are on sale at the moment - $6-$10 depending on where you find them, which is a criminally low price for the quality.

 

[Yowie]

Couple of nice bream. It is a good feeling to get back to fishing after having a forced break.

[Rebel]

Top report.

Super photos.

Nice bream.

[Bluebenbomb]

Well done @Mike Sydney, great to see you have recovered significantly and can go out fishing again! Looking forward to more reports. 

[Larkin]

Top report with some great tips in there for the land based fisho 👍

love the photos!