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Melbourne's worst bream fisherman
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 8:37 am
by Laze
Hi everyone, long time lurker here and I've decided its time to make the jump.
Got into urban fishing about a year ago here in Melbourne.
I've since learned a lot and bought way too much gear
Thing is, bream are what really turned me onto the scene and they are by far the most elusive and frustratingly hardest fish to catch on lures.
I caught one when I first started at the end of summer on a hard body in the Maribyrnong river but not since
I've scoured these forums for tips and have tried hard bodies, soft plastics and micro vibes.
I mostly try around Docklands, but have tried upper and lower reaches of the Yarra, Maribyrnong and Mordialloc.
Was out at the docks early this morning, on my way back to the car I saw a fella pull a bream on his baited line.
Are the bream so accustomed to having bait they don't bother with lures?
As much as I love the thought of using lures, specifically biodegradable ecogear prawns, its starting to kill me that I don't even get a bite when I'm out for hours.
Would anyone have a suggestion where I could go to build some confidence on Bream around Melb (Don't mind driving an hour from the city)?
Re: Melbourne's worst bream fisherman
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:08 am
by Sebb
Laze wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 8:37 am
Hi everyone, long time lurker here and I've decided its time to make the jump.
Got into urban fishing about a year ago here in Melbourne.
I've since learned a lot and bought way too much gear
Thing is, bream are what really turned me onto the scene and they are by far the most elusive and frustratingly hardest fish to catch on lures.
I caught one when I first started at the end of summer on a hard body in the Maribyrnong river but not since
I've scoured these forums for tips and have tried hard bodies, soft plastics and micro vibes.
I mostly try around Docklands, but have tried upper and lower reaches of the Yarra, Maribyrnong and Mordialloc.
Was out at the docks early this morning, on my way back to the car I saw a fella pull a bream on his baited line.
Are the bream so accustomed to having bait they don't bother with lures?
As much as I love the thought of using lures, specifically biodegradable ecogear prawns, its starting to kill me that I don't even get a bite when I'm out for hours.
Would anyone have a suggestion where I could go to build some confidence on Bream around Melb (Don't mind driving an hour from the city)?
I feel you.
Metro bream are so picky and not easy to catch on lures. Quite easy to catch on bait, but fooling them on lures is like 1000x harder, especially Docklands.
Out of the three, I find Docks is the hardest. My catch rate record on Docks bream is terrible compared to yarra or outside Melbourne. My best record was fishing the sunset in early/mid spring with metal vibes such as ecogear zx or TT Switchblade, and autumn crab lure. Clear water Docks is super hard. Not impossible though, there are some bream gurus here, I fish metro a lot and still get frustrated with Docks bream.
Further out in Gippsland and Otways, the bream are easier to fool.
I live in Point Cook, and in summer, the bream in Sanctuary Lakes are quite easy to catch, but there isn't a lot of landbased spot, and it's super weedy. I wrote a long story about Sanctuary Lakes, do a quick search in this forum.
I heard Patterson river can be good sometimes, but the good spots are inside the system, which isn't exactly for public landbased fishing.
Re: Melbourne's worst bream fisherman
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:31 am
by Laze
Thanks for the tips, will check out other systems and give the metro a rest.
I'm heading down towards Lorne in late November, have you ever fished the rivers down that way (like Thompson creek, Spring creek, Anglesea river, Painkalac Creek)? I feel like the change of scenery would be nice and surely the bream there are game.
Re: Melbourne's worst bream fisherman
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:41 am
by Sebb
Laze wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:31 am
Thanks for the tips, will check out other systems and give the metro a rest.
I'm heading down towards Lorne in late November, have you ever fished the rivers down that way (like Thompson creek, Spring creek, Anglesea river, Painkalac Creek)? I feel like the change of scenery would be nice and surely the bream there are game.
There's heaps of metro bream topics discussed in the past in this forum, use the search function and you'll get a few useful info.
I've fished Anglesea and Painkalac. They have bream there. I think Anglesea is more reliable and consistent. Haven't fished there for a while though.
Re: Melbourne's worst bream fisherman
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 11:00 am
by mazman
Sanctuary lakes bream are by far the easiest to catch in "Melbourne" in my experience. Second would probably be the nong in summer. The area down around lorne is a good place to build some confidence on lures, most of the systems down that way have a large number of smaller fish in them which is great for learning the basics.
Technique wise its hard to give specific advice without knowing exactly what you're doing but for those systems out west I would recomend going a fairly basic soft plastic setup with a grub on a 1/16 oz and slowly hop the plastic along the bottom. For the nong when they are up on the edges once it warms up either a lightly weighted (1/28 or 1/32oz) plastic slowly hopped back with the current along the rocks 1-2m out from the edge or a small hardbody like an sx40 twitched along the same areas usually does the trick. Other things like stick minnows, micro vibes unweighted aquas are great for catching fish but have a few extra tricks to them that can make it a bit more difficult to start out on imo.
For patto I would probably skip it if you're still getting the hang of things and especially landbased, it tends to be a bit trickier to fish than other systems once it warms up and the only time I'd say its a bit easier is when the fish are sitting deeper and schooled up a little bit in the cooler months but even that is pretty reliant on a sounder to find the schools initially.
Re: Melbourne's worst bream fisherman
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 12:45 pm
by Seniorfisho
Laze wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 8:37 am
Hi everyone, long time lurker here and I've decided its time to make the jump.
Got into urban fishing about a year ago here in Melbourne.
I've since learned a lot and bought way too much gear
Thing is, bream are what really turned me onto the scene and they are by far the most elusive and frustratingly hardest fish to catch on lures.
I caught one when I first started at the end of summer on a hard body in the Maribyrnong river but not since
I've scoured these forums for tips and have tried hard bodies, soft plastics and micro vibes.
I mostly try around Docklands, but have tried upper and lower reaches of the Yarra, Maribyrnong and Mordialloc.
Was out at the docks early this morning, on my way back to the car I saw a fella pull a bream on his baited line.
Are the bream so accustomed to having bait they don't bother with lures?
As much as I love the thought of using lures, specifically biodegradable ecogear prawns, its starting to kill me that I don't even get a bite when I'm out for hours.
Would anyone have a suggestion where I could go to build some confidence on Bream around Melb (Don't mind driving an hour from the city)?
I will give you the surest way of getting a bream on plastics in the nong. Buy a pack of Turtleback worms in pumpkinseed color and rig it on a 1/16 size jig head, cast along the edges using a bit of slack in your line as slowly hop it along the bottom. The reason for the bit of slack in your line is so that the plastic slowly hops up and down on the spot and doesn't bounce along the bottom like a ball would, the plastic will still move forward but with a much more realistic presentation
Re: Melbourne's worst bream fisherman
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 2:21 pm
by greggo
The way the Yarra is at the moment, dirty and fresh, keeps the fish on the bottom.
By far the most productive method for the Docks is using the Ecogear VX 35 or the Strikepro A18 vibes. Drop it next to a pylon and give it a couple of quick lifts (about 200mm max) and then pause. Repeat at least 30 or more times, remembering to pause. This method in dirty water has accounted for huge numbers being taken.
I fished there from the yak on Saturday for snapper and was kicking myself for not chucking in my vibe lure box!
Re: Melbourne's worst bream fisherman
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 9:59 pm
by Laze
mazman wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 11:00 am
Sanctuary lakes bream are by far the easiest to catch in "Melbourne" in my experience. Second would probably be the nong in summer. The area down around lorne is a good place to build some confidence on lures, most of the systems down that way have a large number of smaller fish in them which is great for learning the basics.
Technique wise its hard to give specific advice without knowing exactly what you're doing but for those systems out west I would recomend going a fairly basic soft plastic setup with a grub on a 1/16 oz and slowly hop the plastic along the bottom. For the nong when they are up on the edges once it warms up either a lightly weighted (1/28 or 1/32oz) plastic slowly hopped back with the current along the rocks 1-2m out from the edge or a small hardbody like an sx40 twitched along the same areas usually does the trick. Other things like stick minnows, micro vibes unweighted aquas are great for catching fish but have a few extra tricks to them that can make it a bit more difficult to start out on imo.
For patto I would probably skip it if you're still getting the hang of things and especially landbased, it tends to be a bit trickier to fish than other systems once it warms up and the only time I'd say its a bit easier is when the fish are sitting deeper and schooled up a little bit in the cooler months but even that is pretty reliant on a sounder to find the schools initially.
I'll definitely keep a fairly simple setup when I head out West. As of late I've been trying micro vibes dropped on pylons and slowly twitching them up and down though I reckon I'm still moving too fast). I have had good luck with pinkies on a lightly weighted aqua rigged on a weedless worm hook and cast out onto rocky outcrops around Brighton and Sandringham rock groynes but not a chance for bream haha. All in all that's fishing and nothing beats the chill, quiet air. All that's left is to head out and keep trying
Re: Melbourne's worst bream fisherman
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:02 pm
by Laze
Seniorfisho wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 12:45 pm
Laze wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 8:37 am
Hi everyone, long time lurker here and I've decided its time to make the jump.
Got into urban fishing about a year ago here in Melbourne.
I've since learned a lot and bought way too much gear
Thing is, bream are what really turned me onto the scene and they are by far the most elusive and frustratingly hardest fish to catch on lures.
I caught one when I first started at the end of summer on a hard body in the Maribyrnong river but not since
I've scoured these forums for tips and have tried hard bodies, soft plastics and micro vibes.
I mostly try around Docklands, but have tried upper and lower reaches of the Yarra, Maribyrnong and Mordialloc.
Was out at the docks early this morning, on my way back to the car I saw a fella pull a bream on his baited line.
Are the bream so accustomed to having bait they don't bother with lures?
As much as I love the thought of using lures, specifically biodegradable ecogear prawns, its starting to kill me that I don't even get a bite when I'm out for hours.
Would anyone have a suggestion where I could go to build some confidence on Bream around Melb (Don't mind driving an hour from the city)?
I will give you the surest way of getting a bream on plastics in the nong. Buy a pack of Turtleback worms in pumpkinseed color and rig it on a 1/16 size jig head, cast along the edges using a bit of slack in your line as slowly hop it along the bottom. The reason for the bit of slack in your line is so that the plastic slowly hops up and down on the spot and doesn't bounce along the bottom like a ball would, the plastic will still move forward but with a much more realistic presentation
Will give it a shot, would marukyu isome sandworms work the same way? Got some already. Do you rig the whole pastic or cut it shorter?
Re: Melbourne's worst bream fisherman
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 10:14 pm
by Laze
greggo wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 2:21 pm
The way the Yarra is at the moment, dirty and fresh, keeps the fish on the bottom.
By far the most productive method for the Docks is using the Ecogear VX 35 or the Strikepro A18 vibes. Drop it next to a pylon and give it a couple of quick lifts (about 200mm max) and then pause. Repeat at least 30 or more times, remembering to pause. This method in dirty water has accounted for huge numbers being taken.
I fished there from the yak on Saturday for snapper and was kicking myself for not chucking in my vibe lure box!
Right, will focus much more time on each pylon. Any idea if this works anytime of the day? I usually head out in the dead of night or really early morning (quite dark).