WINTER = BIG BREAM

You know winter is here when it takes several hours for a packet of frozen pillies to defrost, you occasionally leave home in your slippers without realising and you won't think twice if someone offers to go and get a hot meat pie!

Though winter as we know it may not occur this year given the serious wet days we've already experienced in the first few days of winter. Winter is usually crisp and cool in the early mornings and late afternoons, with mild warm sun shining down on us in the middle of the day. This winter I am talking about is exactly what we need to welcome the big sea bream into the rivers with open arms.

All the rain fall in our catchments over the last few weeks has given the rivers another really good flush out and as a result quality pilot bream and school jew have been feeding throughout the lower reaches. The cool change and uncovering of vast rocky areas 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.

Yellowfin bream are one of Queensland's most popular estuarine species as they frequent our waterways year round. They are easily distinguished by their bright silver colour but depending on the colour of the water they live in, colourings can range from silver to a dark grey-green. The yellow coloured fins are also obvious indicators. Current records are 45cm or 4kg in size and these bigger fish are usually found in the surf but visit the rivers to spawn.

Bream form shoals of several hundred fish, and during spawning season which is right now, they swim with similar sized fish. This is great for anglers who do land a decent size fish as usually there will be more hanging around where it came from.

WHERE TO GO: 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 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 35cm 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 pilot bream on their pilchards!

WHAT TO USE: A well organised fisherman should have plenty size 6, 4 and 1 Mustad 4200D or 4202D saltwater series hooks to make up gangs. Or if using prawns or squid use size 4-1/0 Mustad long bait holders, small barrel swivels and a variety of ball sinkers. Rig this tackle with a running sinker style to allow the baited hook to wash around in the current.

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 tiddlers. 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.

Soft plastics are also an option for the adventurous angler as bream really test your reflexes. Storm WildEye Twitching Nippers (unrigged) in pearl and Berkley 3" power bait in Pumpkinseed are popular. Rig these on the lightest jig head possible so that they have a natural action when worked. A 1/8oz jighead is sufficient because of it's fine gauge hook - always a good bet.

If a hard bodied lure is your preference then it would be worth trying some of the new products on the market such as the Hawk Chunk, Surecatch Crystal Clear Super Lucky 2 and the Izumi Ti-Sing Blade. They have been recently highly recommended for mid water action. Top water fishing demands a lighter option such as the River2Sea Baby Rover 50 or a Lucky Craft NW pencil 52 for a walk the dog style retrieve and the Hawk Splasher for a popping action.

And as always rod/reel-wise I can recommend the Silstar 6'6" Estuary Special with a 350 Mirage reel and 8lb mono line for bait fishing or the Berkley 7' 2-4kg drop shot rod, Surecatch Ovation 25 reel with 6lb braid for using lures.

WHEN TO GO: Make sure that you are well prepared for the craftiness of bream and stay out of the shallow water because bream can be notoriously timid and sensitive to movement, noise and lights, so try to conceal your identity. 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.

Over the coming weeks we will follow on from this article with more indepth tips on baits, rigs, and techniques for catching the bream.

LOCAL FISHING REPORT

Noosa: Snapper off Sunshine Beach and sweetlip from the Rocks at Coolum. Quality tailor and trevally in Woods Bay and around Munna Bridge. Mud crabs at the entrance to Noosa Waters Canal.

Maroochydore: Grunter 30-38cm between Bli Bli and the motorway bridge. Chopper tailor, bream and flathead to 45cm in the mornings at Cotton Tree.

Kawana: Dart, bream, tarwhine and whiting Kawana Beach between Point Cartwright and access 15. Quality bream in around the moorings. Plenty of gar along La Balsa Park. Tailor and bream off Point Cartwright.

Caloundra: Snapper and sweetlip around Brays Rock. Quality bream around the deeper holes and ledges from the military jetty. Flathead in the Blue Hole and opposite the Military Jetty.

Adam West was targeting bream with strips of mullet when he jagged this 1.7kg tailor off the point of Chambers Island.

Using his own homemade lures worked a treat on these flathead and trevally caught by Geoff Hobart in the mouth of Petrie Creek.

John Hopcott welcomed the cold snap and took home a 1kg bream from the Mooloolah River.

Matthew Planck and Tommy Harvey from Swan Boat Hire enjoyed a day off on the water and brought home a feed of snapper from Murphies.