Catching my PB Bream on cheap bread and a small hook

[linewetter]

I've been taking a big interest in fishing with bread lately ever since I watched a video on it on Youtube.  After giving it a go myself and catching a variety of fish with it on my first outing with bread, I was hooked!  It's cheap, doesn't make my hands smell, and fun to me.  Perfect for when I want to decompress after work, wet my line, and just catch some tiny tiddlers and watch the sunset.  Times like that, it's all about quantity over quality for me.  

Tonight was like any other.  I grabbed a few slices of white sandwich bread and headed to my local wharf.  I've been recording these mundane outings just because I enjoy rewatching them when I can't go out fishing....like on my lunch break or something 😁.  This time around, I decided not to record though because I only had a short 30 mins to fish and didn't want to waste time setting up my recording harness.

Just to paint a picture of where I'm fishing, I like to fish this pedestrian bridge area between the wharf and land.  This picture below isn't exactly where I'm at, more so the only similar thing I can find that looks similar.  The platform is big and wide enough for me to stay well out of people's way.

 

I ripped a couple of bread crusts and threw them into the water for burley.  I smooshed some bread on my tiny size 6 hook and cast out.  I didn't have any luck last night, and tonight seemed like it was going to be the same.  After a few recasts/rebaiting, I caught my first tiny fish.

 

I let him back in the water gently and went back to burleying and casting.  I started to smoosh the bread even smaller now - the fish didn't seem interested so surely...an even tinier snack sized bait would be more enticing I figured.  It wasn't.  I continued to get no interest.  It was a good thing I didn't waste time setting up my recording harness cause it would have been filming a whole lot of nothing I thought to myself. 
 

After fanning my casts out and letting it sit, I had my second star of the night.  Size doesn't matter to me when it comes to catching fish, I'm just happy to feel something on the other end of my rod.  

This might be the smallest fish I've ever caught so far as well..

 

One of the benefits of fishing near a wharf is people watching too if you're into that.  The ferry soon came in after I released my tiny tiddler.  I always heard that the best place to fish is behind the ferry when it comes in.  Something about the water disturbance from the propellers creating food for the fish.  I don't know where I heard that from or if it's true but when it came to dock, I had a cast out toward the ferry.  I didn't cast near the ferry at all, more just in the general direction because I didn't want my line to get caught on any moving parts.

Not even two seconds since my tiny ball of bread hit the water, my reel started screaming and my rod bending the most it ever had.  I was taken aback because fish didn't usually hit this quickly for me.  I started to pull the rod back and the reel continued screaming.  I tightened the drag more than a few clicks and the screaming continued.  Oh #%@$ I thought to myself.  I must have somehow got caught on the ferry propellers.  I started to panic thinking I was about to get spooled and have my rod fly into the water.  For whatever reason I decided to tighten the drag even more as if I was going to be stronger than the ferry.  IT KEPT GOING.  I was really panicking now realizing if this was the ferry propeller, I needed to move fast and cut the line.  It was here I noticed though that my rod wasn't bending towards the ferry actually....it was bending closer to 180 degrees than anything!  I looked at the end of my rod to see what direction the line was headed toward and realize it wasn't in the direction of the ferry at all - it was actually under my feet at this point and swimming behind me!  I realized this was something swimming.  

I tightened the drag a bit more now just to try and slow this fish down.  I was on 6lb fluoro leader and 6lb braid and it was a balancing act to make sure the line didn't snap.  The drag was just tight enough now that I could pull my rod back to coax to fish back.   Being on this pedestrian bridge thing, the fish behind basically behind me meant I had to point my rod straight down to keep it from doing a 180 and snapping.  I kept pulling and reeling, pulling and reeling.  Whatever it was kept making runs and I'd lose some progress.  I had never felt a fish this heavy before and I was really hoping it wasn't something like a shark because I wasn't prepared to deal with that on light gear.  After some back and forth, I finally got whatever it was to the surface of the water and I leaned over to take a look.  It was a good bream!  I was ecstatic that it was something I could actually haul up and deal with.  As the passengers disembarked from the ferry, I hurried to bring it up to me before people started to reach me.  I got the fish up as the crowd started to walk past.  My hands were shaking with adrenaline. Fishing with an audience is always nerve wracking but I have to admit, I was smiling ear to ear and proud of the fish I just caught.  A couple of people made good comments on the fish as I got it under control.

 

I didn't have any measuring tools because...I was just going out to catch tiny tiddlers with my size 6 hook.  Damn.  I placed my rod down as a reference point so I could measure it at home.  This was the biggest bream I've held and my hands were still shaking from adrenaline and excitement.  I took my pictures quickly and released the fish to make another angler's day.  It measured out to be approx 35cm!  

 

Lesson learned for the day...you never know what you're going to catch so always be ready.  I wish I had brought a measuring tool and I 10000% wish I had setup to record too.  I would have loved to rewatch it over and over again.  Nevertheless, I'm super happy to finally caught a decent sized bream and feel what a good fight feels like.  I hope to catch more of these bigger fish, it was so much fun.

Edited March 6 by linewetter

[faker]

Bread is a good bait. I used to watch a old man in balmoral burley up with tuna oil on it. Then use a float or on weighed strip baits to catch good fish. 

These days I see isofishing  catching like 5-6 big bream in a session on breas/prawns.  It's not even a fair fight 

[linewetter]

23 minutes ago, faker said:

Bread is a good bait. I used to watch a old man in balmoral burley up with tuna oil on it. Then use a float or on weighed strip baits to catch good fish. 

These days I see isofishing  catching like 5-6 big bream in a session on breas/prawns.  It's not even a fair fight 

I’ve been thinking about buying tuna oil or aniseed oil/extract from the tackle shop and mixing it with bread for burley. Maybe on days I have more time to dedicate to fishing to make it worth the cleaning…

[Little_Flatty]

Great job @linewetter, a 35cm bream is a decent fish and as you have found, will present a decent tussle. There's something about fishing with bread for bait that I find really fun, and the prospect of quality fish like that makes it even better.

I see a fresh and well presented bread as like Maccas for fish. Not particularly good for you, but they crave it and will almost always go for it when tempted.

Something I have heard from a mate in the past: apparently flatbreads can be good bait as well, particularly when fishing for baitfish. I thought the idea had potential) but haven't got round to trying it yet. To my way of thinking it could make it easy to present very neat and small baits for poddies and garfish and the like. Anther way to present a neat bait is to use a bread punch (from UK coarse fishing - google them up) - I have a couple and they are great.

[faker]

8 hours ago, linewetter said:

I’ve been thinking about buying tuna oil or aniseed oil/extract from the tackle shop and mixing it with bread for burley. Maybe on days I have more time to dedicate to fishing to make it worth the cleaning…

The guys I know go one step further on iso. Prawn powder bread mix

[noelm]

More than 50% of my Bream fishing is with bread, I like  a high tide right on daylight, fish close to shore where sand and rocks are mixed, no sinker, just a hook and about 6lb line, squeeze the bread on the hook and it will cast quite good, and last a while in the water. Blackfish, Mullet and Trevally will readily take bread. One small tip (I have posted this before) when using bread for burley, wet is well in a bucket of water first and break it up so it doesn’t float, floating bread attracts birds and the birds scare the fish off…..

[linewetter]

3 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

Great job @linewetter, a 35cm bream is a decent fish and as you have found, will present a decent tussle. There's something about fishing with bread for bait that I find really fun, and the prospect of quality fish like that makes it even better.

I see a fresh and well presented bread as like Maccas for fish. Not particularly good for you, but they crave it and will almost always go for it when tempted.

Something I have heard from a mate in the past: apparently flatbreads can be good bait as well, particularly when fishing for baitfish. I thought the idea had potential) but haven't got round to trying it yet. To my way of thinking it could make it easy to present very neat and small baits for poddies and garfish and the like. Anther way to present a neat bait is to use a bread punch (from UK coarse fishing - google them up) - I have a couple and they are great.

Talk about a rabbit hole - I’ve been stuck reading and watching about bread punch and coarse fishing this whole morning. Really interesting stuff, the world of fishing with bread goes so much deeper than I imagined. Did you have to import your bread punches from the UK or were you able to get them within Australia? A cursory search leads me to believe that I may have to order it from the UK since the retailers showing up are all from there. I want to get a set myself now after seeing it…shipping costs more than the bread punch set itself though 🥵
 

I have to give flatbread a try next time I’m at the market. I’ve yet to catch mullet and garfish and have been interested in catching them - just not been good at keeping the super tiny bait on the hook well enough with bread yet. Flatbread seems like it would be easier to stay on since it’s a little more dense/rough

Edited March 6 by linewetter

[linewetter]

1 hour ago, noelm said:

More than 50% of my Bream fishing is with bread, I like  a high tide right on daylight, fish close to shore where sand and rocks are mixed, no sinker, just a hook and about 6lb line, squeeze the bread on the hook and it will cast quite good, and last a while in the water. Blackfish, Mullet and Trevally will readily take bread. One small tip (I have posted this before) when using bread for burley, wet is well in a bucket of water first and break it up so it doesn’t float, floating bread attracts birds and the birds scare the fish off…..

So far I’ve been squeezing balls of bread into tiny balls to get them to sink fast to avoid the birds but I’ve been toying with the idea of mixing bread and water in a bucket to get the burley finer and to disperse better - I suspect my bread balls, while small, are feeding the fish too much at times still. Have you got any other tips or techniques for when you fish with bread?  
 

I saw some videos of people leaving fluffy pieces of bread on the hook too to let it float and slowly sink over time, but I find that doesn’t work too good for me so far. Attracts the birds like you said and also the bread becomes soaked and expands to be a huge piece and at times I think becomes big enough to disincentivize some of the fish. 

[noelm]

Where I fish it’s easy going, but, it’s only ever any good at high tide (it’s completely dry at low tide) and is way better at daylight or just on dark when the tide coincides with those times. Look for places with scattered rocks that might be dry at low tide, go for a walk and turn a few over, you will see lots of little crabs, worms and prawn looking things. These are what attract the Bream at high tide, and under the cover of low light, they will come right in to the shore line, feeding on the “.stuff” living there.

[ireallylovefishies22]

Well done on the PB!

[Jimmy 75]

Nice catch man! 👏

[Robbo from Sydney]

Well done LineWetter!!!

[Pickles]

So true “you never know what you’ll catch”. Keep at it it @linewetter and the bigger fish will come - we’ve all started fishing of a wharf.

[jenno64]

Bread is always a good back up if not premium bait. I’ve caught many bream on bread after lunch on my mates boat up in Pittwater leaving him with dinner!

[Marky mark]

Nice one, I use bread a fair bit too. I remove the crust, get a quarter of a slice, mould it firmly into dough around the eye of the hook but leave the bottom section soft, dunk it in the water quickly, squeeze the whole thing once then cast away, the softer section wafts around a bit and the "collar" holds it on the hook well. When burleying mush it up in a bucket with water to get it to completely break up then add some bread crumbs to firm it up a bit, make golf ball sized lumps then chuck them far and wide, you need to spend a long time working it in the bucket first to get it completely mushed up, that way it just fills the water with the scent but no chunks to distract from your bait!