Catching timid bream.

[bretto]

I spent an hour watching 30-40cm bream follow my lures around this morning and it got a little frustrating. Has anyone got any tactics for fooling shy bream into biting?

[STU]

pink grubbing

[Terry H]

what leader are you using? Is it possible you can drop down to lighter line? 2lbs perhaps?

[Dec]

Yes a 4lb leader then a 1/40th jighead with a 2" gulp worm it worked for me great at the Gold Coast. We were sight fishing them on the flats and they couldnt resist them.

[Mack_attack]

unweighted baits like peeled prawns or tuna cubes with atmost 6lb flourocarbon.

Not quite as satisfying as lure fishing but pretty much guaranteed a fish.

[pinkey]

I find using micro plastics on 3lb leader or less sometimes works. Im talking 1 - 2inch plastics. on 1/32 jigheads. Make sure the bream cant see you!!!. Stand well back and make a soft cast. With a dead slow retrieve and no fast movements that will spook the bream. Even fishing out bad casts, as in, if you do a crap cast, still fish it back slowly so it doesnt spook the bream. But still, sometimes no matter what you do the bream wont eat, ive thrown bread in.... and they have just swam away from it.

[Dazzamcgee]

Two words! SLOW DOWN!

[Angus]

Yeah leader.

Fishing with Nabs and Dan was a real eye opener. I never realised what 2 to 4 extra lb's of leader could do. When i was using 8lb leader the lads were bringing in bream after bream with me not getting a touch. As soon as i changed to my recently bought Twin Power 1000, still spooled by Ando with 3lb leader, i went from 0 to actually catching up with the guys.

Obviously the risk of loosing the fish is higher. But i would prefer the fight to be lost than have no fight at all!

Angus

[Dan23]

try and get as far away from them as possible and make really long casts. General rule is if you can see them they can see you and will be 100 times more likely to spook. It is amazing how often a really long cast into slightly deeper water will make a difference.

[Cowfish13]

Also, a general rule of thumb is the easier they are to see, the harder they are to catch. Sometimes you will have no chance. We've spent a while in the tributary of the Tweed that has heaps of 40cm+ Bream that won't touch anything:S bait & lures

[bretto]

Wow. So many theories.

Well my setup this morning was 4lb crystal fireline with 3m of 6lb fluro leader. Lures used were:

3 inch gulp minnow in new penny, pumpkin seed and smelt. on 1/20

3 inch powerbait in pumkinseed and watermelon pearl on 1/40

35mm Squidgy wriggler unweighted

River 2 Sea popper and rover

Predatek Micro min

Jackall Chubby( shallow ) which was monstered by a tailor and is now gone.

SX 40.

And no luck.

Changed retreive with every lure. The water was crystal clear so I think I might downsize to 2lb leader and see what happens.

If anyone wants a shot at these biggins they were under the gold coast highway bridge on currumbin creek on the northern side along the wall of the first pylon on deep side on dead low tide as the water stopped flowing.

Thanks for all the advice guys. Gotta love AFO

I'll get em next time......I hope.

[bootyinblue]

Get it to follow your plastic all the way into a landing net :-)

I too am coming down further and further in both leader weight nd jig head weight and suprised at how well things are going. When I first started with plastics I used about a 20lb leader and enough weight to hold strip baits in the surf, but often now will have 4lb leader and 1/16, 1/20 weights.

[Hellcat Dan]

i am with stu were you fishing is it runaway bay

[bretto]

tomcat dan wrote:

i am with stu were you fishing is it runaway bay

At currumbin mate.

Do you mean the small pink gulp grubs?

[username_taken]

expanding bait?

[pinkey]

bretto wrote:

tomcat dan wrote:

i am with stu were you fishing is it runaway bay

At currumbin mate.

Do you mean the small pink gulp grubs?

He means the pink ecogear grubs, use a worm hook or very light hidden weight jighead and fish along the surface n your away, if they follow it and have a go but not hookup, pause and let it sink. Not to sure about it in the area your discribing tho.

[Feral]

I've always found a cast net the best way of catching shark bait (Bream)