With the cooler days and nights becoming more of a common theme over the past week, bream numbers have remained stable with an expected bumper weekend with the full moon last Saturday night. The larger high tides overnight will be very popular among bream anglers wanting to catch a feed.

Bait: 

Although bream are opportunistic feeders that will pretty much scavenge on anything, there are definitely a few stand out baits. When it comes to high turnover baits, fresh prawn and mullet are at the top. Fresh and live baits are always the best, the list below all produce good feeds:

Live Bait: Sand worm, blood worm, whole prawn, herring and small poddy mullet.

Fresh Bait: Pike, herring, mullet, yakka, slimy mackerel, gar, flesh baits and squid used as cut baits.

Frozen Bait: Whitebait, frogmouth pilchard, baby blue W.A pilchards, mullet gut, chicken gut, hardy heads, mullet fillets, bonito fillets, prawns and squid.

Strips of flesh bait, pilchards and prawns can be soaked in tuna oil to increase the chances of a hook up. The oil slick caused after marinating baits is enough to attract bream from far away.

Tackle:

Bream are very finicky feeders and will often pick at the bait for some time before grabbing it in their mouth and swimming away. This is why anglers need to have small enough hooks for the bream to fit in their mouth and sinkers must be light enough that the fish won’t feel too much weight, that it will drop the bait.

Swan Boat Hire’s resident bream fanatic, Tommy Harvey was more than happy to impart some knowledge on what tackle best suits bream.   “Matching your tackle up to the bait used is very important.  Mustad make beautiful sharp hooks, as do Surecatch, both are perfect for bream fishing.  Look at picking up some bait holder or long shank bait holder hooks in size 4, 6, or 8”. 

Tommy swears by the bait holder range of hooks when using fresh baits as they are ideal for species with a smaller mouth gape, i.e. bream.  “The tiny barbs along the shank of the hook assist soft fresh baits such as worm, prawn and bread to hold onto the hook.  Because bream are timid and pick at their bait, the bait holder enables the bait to last just long enough to snag that picky bream”.

If you are a live bait type of angler, Tommy suggests the Mustad Big Mouth, Penetrator or Big Red hooks in size 1, 1/0, 2/0 or 4/0 depending on your live bait size.  The Big mouth series of hooks have a large shank between the eye and end barb, which is the most efficient for live baiting.  The Penetrator and Big Red options have a similar shape, this extended gap allows the live bait to swim freely, giving a natural fish movement and tricking the prey.  These hooks should be placed just under the dorsal fin for best results.

Strip baits and while pillies need another type of rig all together.  Tommy says gangs are best to allow the bait to be presented naturally and increase the rate of hook up. 

“Mustad and Citer make the best gangs on the market and range from size 6 – 4/0.  With bream, the smaller gangs around size 6 and 4 are best suited to strips of mullet flesh, gar, slimy mackerel or white bait”.

“Small barrel swivel and ball sinkers are necessary to match the strength of the tide. It is also worth considering a high abrasion resistant fluorocarbon leader for bream fishing as they are invisible to fish in the water and have abrasion resistance around structure”. Be sure to hit Tommy up for some more tried and tested tackle tips next time you are in Swan Boat Hire.

Next week we shall look into techniques needed to target bream.

LOCAL FISHING REPORT

With another cold snap expected to hit us this weekend, it should have the bream and tailor on the bite both in the rivers and off the beaches. The cool change and uncovering of coffee rock patches along our beaches and river mouths will provide much needed feeding and spawning grounds for our key winter bread and butter fish species, the yellow fin bream.

Yellow -fin bream have picked up in numbers and are weighing in at reasonable sizes at the moment - they will be on the menu for anglers young and old over the next few months. Winter is the time when these big fish migrate to feed and spawn in coastal gutters and river mouths. In particular any rocky rubble or out crops areas will be the best places to target these fish. We have already seen good hauls over the past few weeks with a few fish up over the kilogram mark. The Mooloolah River has been firing well with really good numbers of bream around the boat moorings, La Balsa Park and the rock wall. The lower reaches of the Maroochy River, in particular the mouth is fishing well with bait during low light periods with an increase in the number of bream around 40cm last weekend. The stretch between the Pincushion and Marcoola beach has a few nice gutters scattered along its length and the tailor fisherman have been hooking big pilot bream on pilchards, half their luck! Things can only get better over the coming weeks for big bream.

Make sure that you are well prepared for the craftiness of bream. Dawn, dusk, top of the tide, overnight in the same spot and fishing structures like jetties, boat moorings, rocky areas and near the bar are all important facts to consider. Don't get caught when your out at the Pincushion and you lose your last set of gang hooks snagged on the rocks and the blokes fishing next to you are dragging in kilo size fish. A well organised fisherman should have plenty of pre rigged gang hooks or at least a box of Mustad 4200D or 4202D saltwater series hooks to make up gangs. Tru Turn hooks in style 711 are also very useful when rigged with black crane swivels rigged in between each hook. The swivels allow the hooks to twist and set in the fish's mouth, avoid destroying the pilchards flesh when inserting the gang hooks and help to minimise line twist. Always carry a small spool of bait mate elastic cotton in your tackle box to help lash your pilchard to the hook and avoid loosing it to tidlers. Gangs are also ideal when fishing small baitfish like whitebait, herring, frogmouth pilchards and small strips of mullet fillet.

Get yourself a decent hook file or stone to sharpen the hooks in between fish. Most hooks are sharp new out of the box, but some even require a touch up before use. A small sure catch hook sharpening stone only cost $4.50 and is a very smart investment for any angler. A variety of different sinkers to allow for varying currents and waves heights as well as a couple of different strengths in monofilament and wire leader material are needed for adapting to changing fishing conditions. For those who wish to fish at night it would pay to have spare batteries for your head lamps or torch and some clip on glow in the light for your rod tips so that you can see the bites and what you're doing. Be prepared for changing fishing conditions and the worst case scenario that you loosing hooks to big tailor and you should be rewarded with good fish.

Over the coming weeks we will follow on from this article with tips on baits, rigs, specific locations, tides, moons, tackle, lures and techniques for catching the big pilot bream.

LOCAL FISHING REPORT

Winter is the time of year to bring out the big guns on the beaches, offshore and even in the estuaries.  But many local anglers rarely mention that they are planning an early morning or late evening trip to the rocks.  Rock fishing can produce some of the best catches and it’s an excellent sport for anglers of all types.

The main issue with rock fishing is that you must obey the hard and fast rules of rock fishing:

1. Never fish alone, always go with a mate, preferably someone who has had rock fishing experience.

2. Always keep your eye on the sea, and if possible retreat at the first sign of a dangerous swell.

3. If you are caught by a wave surging over your spot, stand with one foot in front of the other, with your weight on the front foot facing the surge. Go in prepared, know the impending weather forecast and also spend time observing the sea conditions on the spot you want to fish before committing yourself.

The allure of rock formations to the big species is the cover available from white water caused by waves breaking on submerged reef and rocks.  Channels and gutters between the rocks also offer excellent cover to fish. You can bait spin these areas with the same bait and tackle you would use on the beach or the river.

Fishing on the bottom will naturally result in lost tackle due to the wave action sweeping your gear around rocks. If you can put up with this, good fish such as bream, small snapper, cod etc. can be caught again using the same bait and methods you would use on the beach. Fishing with a float will minimize lost tackle and allow your bait to move with the surge.

When you hookup a fish from the rocks strike with the same lift and wind method, but play the fish out in open water before bringing it close in. Smaller fish can be lifted out of the water, but large fish may need gaffing. A rock gaff should be about 3 to 4 meters long. Gaffing the fish is the most dangerous part of rock-fishing. The gaffer is often in closer to the swell and lower to the ground then the angler to reach the fish.

Spinning off the rocks with lures is just as successful as on the beach. Use the same lure types and methods, but be prepared to lose a few of them to snagging on rocks. If you have to bring your lure or tackle over shallow rocks, lift the rod and wind it fast to skip it over.

Gear-wise, once you’ve got an idea of which fish you hope to catch and the types of areas you’ll be fishing, it’s then a matter of assembling the appropriate tackle. If the majority of fish you’ll be catching from the rocks average a kilo – 2kg, there’s no point in using really thick line or giant rods. For the majority of my Winter rock fishing I take one rod which is designed primarily as a tailor rod but is capable of handling jew, snapper and even small tuna, and if the rocks aren’t producing the goods this rod also works well at the beach.

A sensitive tip is great for feeling the bites and tossing light baits and the stiffer butt is there to help land stubborn fish like tailor and jew. Although sidecast reels are popular and durable, I prefer the versatility of a threadline reel spooled up with 6lb, 8lb or 10 lb Berkley Fireline. If you want to chase big fish, a heavier outfit will be required. In this case a strong sidecast or overhead reel spooled up with 8kg to 15kg mono such as Schneider is appropriate.

So take a night off and bring a friend for a great night of rock fishing and you too can reap the rewards.

LOCAL FISHING REPORT

Noosa: Snapper and a few coral trout over night and mackerel during the day on Sunshine Reef. An 80cm jew and a 65cm flathead from the beach near Double Island Point. Tailor and whiting along the north shore. Trevally, tailor and flathead from the river mouth. Flathead in lake Cooroibah.

Maroochydore: A few bream around the 28-30cm mark, chopper tailor and jew around the motorway bridge pylons and the river mouth. Flathead from Chambers Island, Bli Bli and the cod hole. Mud crabs from the wetland stretch.  

Kawana: Gar and sand crabs in the lower reaches. Whiting, bream and flathead  along Kawana beach. Tailor off Point Cartwright and the rock walls. Big bream and golden trevally from the Mooloolaba boat mooring and along La Balsa Park.

Caloundra: A 1.5kg bream was taken just south of Coochin Creek. Bream from the boardwalk and the bar. Flathead and bream off the Military Jetty. Whiting in good numbers around Bells creek.

Jordan Arndrr and his mate pulled a day off school to go fishing and ended up catching and releasing several bream, keeping this 28cm specimen for the table.

Despite the cool weather there are still a few full buck mud crabs on the move in the upper reaches. Tommy Harvey potted these coppery bucks from the wetland stretch.

Shadow fished from the rocks at Double Island point using mullet strips for this 80cm jew and 65cm dusky flathead.

Gary Gardiner prefers to use bonito strips for bait around the rocks at Yaroomba to lure jew like this 11.5kg specimen.