Northern beaches lagoon topwater session

[DerekD]

Hi All,

Due to @Niall and his excellent introduction to topwater bream I got into it a few summers back. It turns out that it is very addictive and I look forward to the summer months with much excitement. Due to @Little_Flatty last summer I ended up buying a lovely graphite 4 piece 7 foot 8 inches rod intended purely for sandflats fishing. I matched it with a Shimano Nasci 1000 reel and super thin PE 0.5 braid. I did everything I could think of to get that extra casting distance with light lures.

I live on the lower north shore so some of the lagoons on the northern beaches are an easy drive for me and hold some good fish. Whenever conditions permit I head out for a fish. My go to lures for these top water sessions have all been around the 70mm and included the Daiwa slippery dog, the MMD splash prawm, the Bassday sugapen and the OSP bent minnow.

While I usually get some fish, some days they are really on and other days are really hard work. This is about one of the days that was really on.

I got to the lagoon about 10am and started with a slippery dog. I could see multiple bream following the lure each time I bought it in. They often had multiple hits on it too. Within a few casts I was on and thought I'd grab a photo. I'd asked new Fishraider @Gustadi to join me but he was too busy house hunting so I decided to tease him. Every time I caught a fish I'd send him a photo and started counting up. I managed 14 bream and 1 trevally by the time I broke for lunch. He was rather quiet in responding. You really don't get sessions like this very often. Interesting thing was that the smaller bream had a tendency to hit the assist hooks on the tail and the bigger bream would hit the belly treble hook.

Some of the photos (camera phone was a bit crap but they were only meant to tease Gustad). Biggest bream for the day was in the low thirties.

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by DerekD

[XD351]

Great report and photos Derek! You slayed them !

[big Neil]

That's an exceptional session Derek...some good-sized, healthy fish there. Good to have so many choices of venues to pick from too. Days like this are always available, years later, in the memory bank.

Cheers, bn

[Little_Flatty]

Nice session Derek. I know you like to mentor, but it’s good to get a fish yourself in every now and again.

That Trev, it’s not a silver Trevally is it?

[kantong]

non stop action, great session!

[Gengar]

Looks like you had a great session! That big bream looks would have been fun reeling it in! 

[Isaac Ct]

Great job Derek, love fishing topwater

Well done

[bessell1955]

That is a lot of fish, well done.

[Yowie]

Good work there Derek. Plenty of bream to show for your efforts. 

[wazatherfisherman]

11 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

Nice session Derek. I know you like to mentor, but it’s good to get a fish yourself in every now and again.

That Trev, it’s not a silver Trevally is it?

Not a Silver - looks like a Big Eye

[Subtropic]

Interesting how much topwater action there was that late into the morning 

[jenno64]

Great stuff Derek!

that many top water fish is a fabulous session, no wonder your mate was quiet!

[FishingFables]

What a session Derek - you had every reason to rub it in!

I live on the northern beaches - you've inspired me to head down to my favourite patch of water with my fly rod to try some surface flies for bream over the sandflats.

[nutsaboutfishing]

Wowsers Derek!!

[DerekD]

5 hours ago, FishingFables said:

What a session Derek - you had every reason to rub it in!

I live on the northern beaches - you've inspired me to head down to my favourite patch of water with my fly rod to try some surface flies for bream over the sandflats.

Please do. I want to hear some saltwater fly fishing reports. Also worth doing it now while they are still switched on.

[Pickles]

Cracker session @DerekD, love those sugar pens, they always produce for me, but I’ll have to give the slippery dogs a go. There were some lovely sized fish there (even if they were bream), thanks for sharing - the photos looked pretty good to me Derek, I wouldn’t be disappointed, but maybe not up to your usual high standard.

[DerekD]

2 hours ago, Pickles said:

Cracker session @DerekD, love those sugar pens, they always produce for me, but I’ll have to give the slippery dogs a go. There were some lovely sized fish there (even if they were bream), thanks for sharing - the photos looked pretty good to me Derek, I wouldn’t be disappointed, but maybe not up to your usual high standard.

Hi @Pickles. Hope you are both well.

The Daiwa slippery dogs are really worth trying. One of the recommendations I hear about the sugapens is to swap the tail hook for assist hooks to make them more effective. I disagree with this advice for the smaller sugapens (specifically the 58mm and 70mm ones). The reason being that the standard out of the packet assist hooks (e.g. Atomic Trick Bitz) are a little too long and have a tendency to catch on the belly hooks say one in three casts. Part of your fishing time in spent in disengaging the two sets of hooks. The tendency of the hooks to tangle reduces the exposure of the hooks to the fishes strikes.

The slippery dogs have shorter assist hooks out of the packet and it is extremely rare for them to catch on the belly hook so I can concentrate more on the casting and working the lure. They also look like a prawn with tentacles hanging down when you pause them.

I don't use them when toothy predators (specifically tailor are around) as they have a tendency to bite off one of the assist hooks but in situations such as these the sugapens out of the box are perfect.

I find having both works really well and choose which depending on where I am and target species.

Edited April 14, 2023 by DerekD