Unexpected catch on green weed

[Little_Flatty]

Picked up some green weed this morning and popped down to Huntley's Pt for a luderick session. Spend the obligatory five mins cleaning up rubbish (an occupational/reputational hazard of fishing harbour wharves) then get fishing.

The incoming tide was really flowing and it made for speedy upstream drifts. Had to set the float pretty deep, perhaps about 10ft.

On about the third drift, got a tentative, then definite down. I tightened up and was onto a fish. Didn't feel huge but it was still a scrappy fighter.

As it came closer, I saw silver which was a bit of a surprise. Not a lud? Up comes a fat little bream. My first ever on green weed. I know that it's not uncommon for bream to take weed baits, but this is the first time it's happened to me.

Release the bream, fished on a bit for two missed downs and then it was home time. All over in a little over half an hour.

Good fun for a morning, wished I could've stayed longer, but had to get on with my day. Grateful that I could squeeze in a quick session on a weekday.

[Burger]

Biggest bream I ever caught was on a bit of cabbage! 

[Peter KH]

Great job, I think they particularly like it for the small crustaceans and worms that live/feed/filter off the weed. Ive only have 1/2 a dozen or so bream on weed. I got a smaller one at the start of this month. 

[Green Hornet]

Nice going Mike, it’s always fun to catch something out of the norm.

I heard a guy caught a barra in the harbour a few years ago 😁

[Little_Flatty]

1 hour ago, Burger said:

Biggest bream I ever caught was on a bit of cabbage! 

Fishing is always full of surprises! I bet you’ve seen a variety of species on weed and cabbage in your time.

1 hour ago, Peter KH said:

Great job, I think they particularly like it for the small crustaceans and worms that live/feed/filter off the weed. Ive only have 1/2 a dozen or so bream on weed. I got a smaller one at the start of this month. 

Cheers Peter, yes I’ve noticed that some weed I collect is very buggy. I’m sure that’s part of the appeal for luds and other species alike.

21 minutes ago, Green Hornet said:

Nice going Mike, it’s always fun to catch something out of the norm.

I heard a guy caught a barra in the harbour a few years ago 😁

Cheers Pete. Yes the Barra was a real surprise.

A couple of years back a friend of a friend got one on a weed fly in the lower harbour, so that tops my capture!

[faker]

6 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

Picked up some green weed this morning and popped down to Huntley's Pt for a luderick session. Spend the obligatory five mins cleaning up rubbish (an occupational/reputational hazard of fishing harbour wharves) then get fishing.

The incoming tide was really flowing and it made for speedy upstream drifts. Had to set the float pretty deep, perhaps about 10ft.

On about the third drift, got a tentative, then definite down. I tightened up and was onto a fish. Didn't feel huge but it was still a scrappy fighter.

As it came closer, I saw silver which was a bit of a surprise. Not a lud? Up comes a fat little bream. My first ever on green weed. I know that it's not uncommon for bream to take weed baits, but this is the first time it's happened to me.

Release the bream, fished on a bit for two missed downs and then it was home time. All over in a little over half an hour.

Good fun for a morning, wished I could've stayed longer, but had to get on with my day. Grateful that I could squeeze in a quick session on a weekday.

since when were bream herbivores?

[Little_Flatty]

2 hours ago, faker said:

since when were bream herbivores?

Maybe it’s like how we want some salad with our steak 🙂

More seriously though I’m sure there have been more than a few accidental captures of bream, tailor, salmon and kings on weed and weed flies. I think bream do eat weed occasionally or at least the bugs in it, and the others might mistake weed for a baitfish.

[Yowie]

Not common, but not unusual. I have found weed chunks inside bream and small reddies.

Something different is always good Mike, otherwise fishing would be boring. (only kidding 🤣)

[Ryder]

7 hours ago, Peter KH said:

Great job, I think they particularly like it for the small crustaceans and worms that live/feed/filter off the weed. Ive only have 1/2 a dozen or so bream on weed. I got a smaller one at the start of this month. 

Nice catch Mike. 
Weed with the little red worm is particularly attractive to bream.

I’ve seen a mate catch a decent flathead, and hook a good sized kingfish on the weed. We reckon it had more to do with the profile than bait.

The King was at Valentia Street, it followed the bait on the retrieve, when Trevor saw it he stopped winding and just tweaked it like a fly or a plastic and BANG! he was on.
 

[Burger]

I think Ryder is on the money with the profile of a drifting weed bait looking like a small baitfish.

Apart from the bream on cabbage, I've hooked a salmon and flatty on weed and had a follow from 4 kingies when winding in. Initially I was excited about that, then though... jeez what if one takes it! 6lb leader and only 100m of line on a centrepin with a good sized kingy!!! I was glad when I pulled it out of the water and they turned away from the rockwall!

[44jeff]

Earlier this year I had my weed eaten by a kingfish while retrieving it. Sadly my 5lb broke before it realized it was hooked

Edited yesterday at 08:34 AM by 44jeff

[PaddyT]

yeah always a bit of a suprise-ive caught bream, tailor (on the retrieve), drummer, kelpies, garfish on weed or cabbage-conversely ive caught blackfish on bread,worms, nippers, dough and even on lures -including a couple in a few casts on small metals at Terrigal haven-you never know

[rickmarlin62]

Ive caught a few bream  a red morwong  and a flatty  i also had a lud swallowed by a jew about 10 kilo  fought him for 15 mins and 8lb trace gave out at my feet

[Little_Flatty]

2 hours ago, Yowie said:

Not common, but not unusual. I have found weed chunks inside bream and small reddies.

Something different is always good Mike, otherwise fishing would be boring. (only kidding 🤣)

Yep I love it when interesting things happen! I think often we can assume things about our target species that aren’t always true.

1 hour ago, Ryder said:

Nice catch Mike. 
Weed with the little red worm is particularly attractive to bream.

I’ve seen a mate catch a decent flathead, and hook a good sized kingfish on the weed. We reckon it had more to do with the profile than bait.

The King was at Valentia Street, it followed the bait on the retrieve, when Trevor saw it he stopped winding and just tweaked it like a fly or a plastic and BANG! he was on.
 

Cheers Ryder, yeah I thought you luderick pros would’ve seen it all. I’m not surprised about kings eating weed…weed flies form quite a nice baitfish profile on the retrieve.

1 hour ago, Burger said:

I think Ryder is on the money with the profile of a drifting weed bait looking like a small baitfish.

Apart from the bream on cabbage, I've hooked a salmon and flatty on weed and had a follow from 4 kingies when winding in. Initially I was excited about that, then though... jeez what if one takes it! 6lb leader and only 100m of line on a centrepin with a good sized kingy!!! I was glad when I pulled it out of the water and they turned away from the rockwall!

If you hooked up, that would’ve been a painful experience! Imagine the knuckles!

1 hour ago, 44jeff said:

Earlier this year I had my weed eaten by a kingfish while retrieving it. Sadly my 5lb broke before it realized it was hooked

I thought kings on weed would be common, given the baitfish profile I’m some baits can have.

51 minutes ago, PaddyT said:

yeah always a bit of a suprise-ive caught bream, tailor (on the retrieve), drummer, kelpies, garfish on weed or cabbage-conversely ive caught blackfish on bread,worms, nippers, dough and even on lures -including a couple in a few casts on small metals at Terrigal haven-you never know

Interesting Paddy! My first decent kid was on a hardbody lure. Alas this was pre-measure and I didn’t get a length on it (and it was released). The marine world is always full of surprises.

50 minutes ago, rickmarlin62 said:

Ive caught a few bream  a red morwong  and a flatty  i also had a lud swallowed by a jew about 10 kilo  fought him for 15 mins and 8lb trace gave out at my feet

Now that jewie would’ve been a catch and a half! Imagine if you got to keep the lud and the jewie!

[Larkin]

Thats a chunky bream Mike! 

👍👍 on the clean up. Don’t know why some people leave places like that. 

 

[GoldenHourFishing]

Its common to see them grazing off the side of pylons etc so makes sense that would hit your weed. 

 

Sad how you feel obligated to clean up after the filthy casual bait fishos though, Ive done my share of cleaning up after scummy people too. If they banned bait fishing on sydney wharves I reckon you would have no more rubbish, and definitley no more smelly bait bags. Now that we are heading into the warmer months the smell on those wharves is gonna be foul.

[bessell1955]

Fishing, it is always full of surprises!

[big Neil]

You are the master of the QUICKIE...fishing that is. The Bream appears bronze in the photo but looks very healthy. A successful quickie, I reckon. Well done Mike.

bn

[Little_Flatty]

19 hours ago, Larkin said:

Thats a chunky bream Mike! 

👍👍 on the clean up. Don’t know why some people leave places like that. 

 

Thanks Chris, not a big fish but fat!

8 hours ago, GoldenHourFishing said:

Its common to see them grazing off the side of pylons etc so makes sense that would hit your weed. 

 

Sad how you feel obligated to clean up after the filthy casual bait fishos though, Ive done my share of cleaning up after scummy people too. If they banned bait fishing on sydney wharves I reckon you would have no more rubbish, and definitley no more smelly bait bags. Now that we are heading into the warmer months the smell on those wharves is gonna be foul.

Thanks mate, it was a surprise, but I guess it shouldn’t be!

Yes, the rubbish is a real disappointment. It’s an unfortunate reality that we need to clean up after these grubs, lest we lose our fishing privileges on these wharves😟

8 hours ago, bessell1955 said:

Fishing, it is always full of surprises!

Sure is Bessell!

6 hours ago, big Neil said:

You are the master of the QUICKIE...fishing that is. The Bream appears bronze in the photo but looks very healthy. A successful quickie, I reckon. Well done Mike.

bn

Thanks Neil.

Fitting fishing into a busy schedule is my only legitimate claim to any kind of fishing expertise!🙂 Been a bit tricky lately though, even for me!