More Tarban Topwater Bream

[Little_Flatty]

Low tide this morning and limited time, so headed down to Tarban Ck to have a topwater fish.

Arrived about 5:45am to the sound of jelly prawns or whatever bait there was spraying in the dark. Good sign.

Started out over the shallow flats in what is knee to ankle deep water. I had figured fish might be moving right up over those flats in the pre morning darkness and it turned out I was right, with several missed hits on the slippery dog. A couple of fish hooked and lost, so I kept casting on.

It was a good 20 mins or so before I landed my first fish, a tiddler bream:

Next cast, a big splash at my lure and I'm on straight away to something worth measuring. Up comes a just legal bream:

Happy with that. I really should've stayed in that area, but I wanted to explore the weedbeds/mangrove areas where I got a couple of whiting previously.

That was rewarded with another tiddler.

By any other method, these tiddlers are nothing to write home about, but they are still special to me  

I'm in this transition phase now, where I've moved from being a topwater skeptic to having a reasonable expectation of catching fish every time I tie on a topwater lure. Particularly at Tarban Creek, where it appears that topwater may well be the most effective method of fishing!

Next session, I may well take the fly rod and cast a few disco shrimp around.

[Mike Sydney]

Outstanding! And here was me writing off the creek on such a low tide. Good effort Mike!

[Little_Flatty]

19 minutes ago, Mike Sydney said:

Outstanding! And here was me writing off the creek on such a low tide. Good effort Mike!

I’ve been rethinking low/high tides of late. It’s been a real paradigm shift for me. 

Low tides can present different opportunities, like being able to wade for better back casts with the fly rod or fishing a distant drop off, or having less water for fish to rise through to hit a topwater lure.

For you, you might well find in the twilight/darkness hours you fish, that the topwater bite may well be very good in very shallow water.

[lhan]

Great report Mike! Good to know low tide can produce well too. I always think at certain locations low tide better concentrate the fish (clearly not the case if it's open water) but can't get enough examples to convince myself. And it seems the bite time is within solunar minor activity time so it could be another factor too.

@faker a good example of the fishing factors we talked before^

[Yowie]

Good effort Mike.

Low tide concentrates the fish off the flats, while they are waiting to swim over on the rising tide. Low tide is a good one just on or before first light in the sky, the fish will be cruising about as the light increases and the tide rises.

[bessell1955]

A great result.

[Little_Flatty]

2 hours ago, lhan said:

Great report Mike! Good to know low tide can produce well too. I always think at certain locations low tide better concentrate the fish (clearly not the case if it's open water) but can't get enough examples to convince myself. And it seems the bite time is within solunar minor activity time so it could be another factor too.

@faker a good example of the fishing factors we talked before^

Thanks @lhan. I don't really subscribe to solunar charts etc as I can't really pick when I can go fishing, and if I did could do whatever I wanted, I'd be out there 24/7🤣

Regarding tides, I just say that if you can get out there, just go fishing and you will learn what you need to learn.

2 hours ago, Yowie said:

Good effort Mike.

Low tide concentrates the fish off the flats, while they are waiting to swim over on the rising tide. Low tide is a good one just on or before first light in the sky, the fish will be cruising about as the light increases and the tide rises.

Thanks Dave. My high tide bias is a remnant of my novice days in the 80s and 90s. I'm on the water at first light a lot more than in my novice days, so I can capitalise on the advantages of a low tide more readily.

38 minutes ago, bessell1955 said:

A great result.

Thank Bessell.

[faker]

7 hours ago, lhan said:

Great report Mike! Good to know low tide can produce well too. I always think at certain locations low tide better concentrate the fish (clearly not the case if it's open water) but can't get enough examples to convince myself. And it seems the bite time is within solunar minor activity time so it could be another factor too.

@faker a good example of the fishing factors we talked before^

I gave up looking at sol lunar. I just fish when I can now days

[XD351]

I wonder how many people look at a solunar chart and see the time that they are able to fish is the low period and don’t bother going ? I don’t need a book to tell me when to fish - if my eyes are open and my heart still beating I’m going fishing 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Just got to somehow find a way of getting the BOM to get the weather prediction right - at least maybe 10%of the time and I will be digging it !

Great report Mike ! Keep chipping away at it- each trip is another part of the puzzle solved !

[Pickles]

Great report (Mike. A Bassday sugarpen?). I could be wrong but middle pic looks like a Tarwhine not a bream, not that it matters, they both fight hard.

[Little_Flatty]

4 hours ago, XD351 said:

I wonder how many people look at a solunar chart and see the time that they are able to fish is the low period and don’t bother going ? I don’t need a book to tell me when to fish - if my eyes are open and my heart still beating I’m going fishing 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Just got to somehow find a way of getting the BOM to get the weather prediction right - at least maybe 10%of the time and I will be digging it !

Great report Mike ! Keep chipping away at it- each trip is another part of the puzzle solved !

Yeah I'm the same as you @XD351. Every waking hour where I can go fishing, you can guarantee I'm on the water, charts be darned!

I actually have a lot of respect for the boffins at the BOM and think their job would be very interesting. It's very hard to predict the weather (and anything in the future for that matter). I'm not surprised their predictions are sometimes incorrect and if they could predict it 100% accurately I'd find it more scary than beneficial 😱🤣

2 hours ago, Pickles said:

Great report (Mike. A Bassday sugarpen?). I could be wrong but middle pic looks like a Tarwhine not a bream, not that it matters, they both fight hard.

Thanks Bob, It was a Daiwa Infeet Slippery Dog. Good little lure that. Not sure re the fish ID, but I get what you're saying with the highly defined lines on its side.

[kantong]

great session @Little_Flatty, getting better results everytime!

[DerekD]

Hi @Little_Flatty

After your initial reluctance to give topwater a serious run to becoming almost a topwater addict like several others on this site this report is a big turnaround. I'm really glad to hear about the results you are getting. Personally I love the heart stopping moment when a fish takes a shot at the lure. It is far more visual than fishing soft plastics and usually a little more exciting. I've also had some rather nice fish this way.

Looking forward to seeing more of these reports. Got at least another 2 months of topwater fishing ahead of us.

Regards,

Derek

[Little_Flatty]

4 hours ago, kantong said:

great session @Little_Flatty, getting better results everytime!

Cheers @kantong, nothing to write home about, but it’s been fun!

1 hour ago, DerekD said:

Hi @Little_Flatty

After your initial reluctance to give topwater a serious run to becoming almost a topwater addict like several others on this site this report is a big turnaround. I'm really glad to hear about the results you are getting. Personally I love the heart stopping moment when a fish takes a shot at the lure. It is far more visual than fishing soft plastics and usually a little more exciting. I've also had some rather nice fish this way.

Looking forward to seeing more of these reports. Got at least another 2 months of topwater fishing ahead of us.

Regards,

Derek

Thanks Derek, I think that the relatively poor fishing this season that I’m experiencing in the upper Parra has caused me to venture further and try new things. Subconsciously, I still don’t really believe topwater luring works, I just somehow need to keep using them to confirm that it isn’t a fluke🤔🤣.

Hardbodies are also on my list…I’ve just ordered a couple of jackall chubbies!

Come to think of it, I cannot remember ever catching a flathead on a diver. Such a glaring omission for someone who has been fishing as long as I have! Now THAT has to be fixed!

Apart from that, got one good hit on the disco shrimp this morning, but didn’t connect. Working topwater on fly is quite tricky, and casting the damn things really requires you to be on your game. Watch this space…

 

[linewetter]

That’s a very respectable size bream! Great job and interesting to see the lure color. I always had some doubts about the more clear lures because I’m thinking…surely the fish can’t really see it because it’s clear right? It’ll just look like water! But clearly not seeing your results 🙂