This is what you want to read if you do not have money, time, landbased etc etc.
What can i say its been around 6 months since I last caught this bad boy on werribee south wharf. he was my first fish ever, a 44 cm bream weighing in at over 1.2 kg , she was caught on a a hardbody kakoda gold series shallow running sprog. but it wasnt shallow running at all (ill explain later). Since then, ive caught hundreds of fish all shorebased and i'd like to share the knowledge and experience that i have acquired.
Heres a recap of that early summers morning 6 months ago at Werribee south beach wharf.
The background;
Ive always loved fishing even as a kid but nobody i knew would take me fishing, and so it would only be something id do once a year halfassedly as a normal 10 yo boy would do without any knowledge, and noone to point him the right way. It was only in the past year that i got back into fishing. Following graduation etc etc, and entry into medical school (in NSW) I really needed a way to destress - fishing. Life had taught me to be open minded, to learn whatever you could and that what worked for someone else might not work for you. Now armed with the internets and adamant mindset i made my debut. So enough with the background information lets get onto the talk about fishing. And in particular, fishing for BREAM.
BREAM FISHING NSW/VIC
This is the type of fishing i do; Rarely beach mostly off the mouths of rivers.
Today i caught another bream. my second largest the first one showed above (pretty hard to top that really...) this boy was around 28-30 cm i didnt measure properly (legal size in nsw is 25cm) so i was way over the limit and you would think that i was lazy as a sloth when i caught this. I woke up at 7 am in my sisters apartment which is alongside a river, i got dressed in my tutorial clothes (hence the shirt etc) made a coffee and had a flick with my rod. Here is the result.
I caught around 10 fish in the hour I was fishing, this was the only keeper but it was absolutely great fun. 6 months ago i would almost always have a fishless trip, whereas these days a bad day would be less than 5. I personally do not feel as if fishing for bream is harder between the cities, but for other species yes this is most likely the case based on my experience
Since i started uni again i had to relocate to NSW, and fishing in NSW has its own problems. There are many more types of fish than victoria in easily accessible areas. When i go for a casual flick at my local spot in sydney i get a mixed bag. That tailor is not legal in NSW btw, someone local said it was and i believed them. lucky no fishos around anwyays I took it home
. that crab however is legal LOLOL. in NSW its like 8 cm across for a blue swimmer. 
The problem with this in NSW is that theres so many fish that unless youre targeting bream youre going to catch other stuff (as shown above). I learned so much theory about bream catching in Melbourne, structure, go light, rising tides etc etc. But sydney allowed me to practice this so readily. If i was presenting my bait too low, i would get yakkas, too high i would get herring/garfish, too fast i'd get tailor and so on. So targeting bream in these environments let me fine tune my technique towards bream. Now the bream i caught today was caught on a small 5 mm cube of chicken from a drumstick, on a daiso hook, (prerigged pack of around 10 (comes with 2lb line) @ $2.80) no swivel onto my main line of 6 lb. Nothing fancy, unweighted. Both of my largest bream the 30 and the 44 was fished within 50 cm of the surface literally half a rods length from the bank/wharf. BUT, i fished both of these guys post rain meaning the water was murky and the fish couldn't see me hang my rod over the side. For both of these bream I caught i chose the location, and after rainy weather with floating debree on the water i decided to cast under or around where there appeared to be floating islands of leaves/sticks/weed. The rationale in my head is that the water is spiraling at this spot due to turbulent water flow, on top of the water we see a spinning island of sticks but underneath, well thats where all the particles in the water will be, Thats where the food will flow to and most likely the fish. What does this mean??? it means that no matter how expensive your gear is, no matter how fresh your bait is, you will not get the fish you want if it is not there. I used to be a conformist and follow people cast out where they did. But if you want to be a better fisho than them you gotta think better than them. Unweighted, and natural presentation is what i use in this circumstance, i let it sink slowly in the spiral and dance around in the current. Remember that i stated i fish at the mouths of river, from what ive read bigger bream will swim towards the ocean to spawn than back up the river after that...meaning most of the larger bream should be further up. Rain would force fish out of the rivers and push them into the ocean so it may be worthwhile trying to capture them as they are reentering the more freshwater of the estuary system. Most of the times however, conditions are not like this and catching bigger bream for me is harder.
On oyster beds or in Victoria more commonly muscle beds, that are found sloping towards a channel, I find that sinkers are fine. I prefer a small sinker actually when im fishing in these areas since I rarely if ever let go of my rod. I go light (1000 sienna reel) i cast out past the shellfish (where the bream usually feed) and i retrieve ever so slowly, once in a while i flick my rod. Motion is what gets the attention, slow drifting is what gets them to bite. the sinker gives me better control of the bait about 40-50 cm away and it lets me feel the shells knowing im in the right spot. In this circumstance the sinker is not going to make the bait sink like a rock to the bottom because it will be bouncing off the shellfish, if anything sparking the curiosity of nearby fish. The bait will trail behind more slowly inducing the bite.
In NSW all I've been using is chicken...reasons are simple. Its cheap and easy to get and as a student I dont really have the time to get my own live bait (although i do catch yakkas, i just end up taking them home and eating them instead of casting them out for Jewies since I cant be bothered hauling my ugly stick with me), and i can also use it for my drop nets...
and catch things like this octopus randomly when crabbing.
FURTHER READING;
Now I havent even begun to talk about tides etc etc, but theres plenty of topics on that. In a nutshell rising tide = good because they come up to feed and are hungry and tend to smash harder. Look for signs of life remember that its an ecological cycle no small fish = no big fish. Jelly bean theory, hungry fish eat something small/ full fish will still probably eat something small.
KEY TAKE HOME MESSAGES;
Location is more important than gear, dont be afraid to search for the fish cast where they are most likely to be feeding and feel safe (near structure and shellfish). You read alot online or in magazines and end up learning a lot of theory about what to do and what not to do, but its situational just do the best you can in the situation and its ok to break the rules; eg using a sinker with a lure (like i did with my first fish) but used in extremely murky water so I didnt feel like it was an issue spooking the fish and i trusted that the sinker would let my shallow running lure get to the depth I wanted and the result was a killer bream. Trust yourself, trust what you learn but always be open minded to learn and try new things and improve on it.
FOR PEOPLE WITH MONEYS; well you have the right gear for any situation than dont you so you dont really have an excuse, its all in your head. Think fish and you will catch fish. Tight lines Guys.
I shall be back in Victoria within a month and putting my new skills to the test. I hope this post will help someone and inspire them to try something new.
