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Backyard Breaming
By Jacob Iedema
Bream are a common fish species found in estuaries around Australia and they can put up quite a fight when fishing with light spin outfits. Bream are also one of the most diverse species in our waterways as they can be targeted using many different techniques in so many different environments. Fish can be caught in thirty centimetres of water, to over fifty metres. They're one of Australia's premier light tackle sport fish, especially when targeting fish above the thirty five centimetre mark, with many tournament series built around them in Australia. A lot of the bream fishing that I do around my home waters of Moreton Bay is focused on two main structures; the flats and canals.
The Flats
For me, targeting bream on the flats is by far the most enjoyable way of fishing for bream, along with other by-catch such as flathead, whiting and trevally. Whether fishing on foot, by kayak or boat, flats bream can be a lot of fun. Open flats with little structure surprisingly hold a lot of fish, however I enjoy targeting them on mangrove flats or on coffee rock flats. These areas often hold a lot of bream as the bait is attracted to the structure. The downside to the structure is that there will be some fish that you'll have no control over when fishing light.
Slow rolling soft plastics over coffee rock or skipping them up into the mangroves is very effective. Some go-to soft plastics include the ZMan 2" GrubZ and 2.5" GrubZ, along with the Slim SwimZ range and various Ned Rig baits (TRD BugZ, TRD CrawZ, etc.).
Bream often school up on the flats and sight casting them is a whole new experience. On the flats remember that the wind is a friend, not an enemy, as it increases stealth, casting distance and often encourages fish to feed. The flats are an essential habitat for fish, however when fishing them it's more than the fish that keeps us coming back.
Canals
Canals have to be one of the best hotspots for bream fishing. The manmade waterways provide everything that a bream needs, as they supply food, shelter and safety. Fishing canals for bream can be made complex and often confusing, however it often all comes down to casting accuracy. If your lures aren't where the fish are, how are you going to catch any? Constantly landing and working casts parallel and close to pontoons will almost guarantee the attention of any bream around the structure. Canals constantly hold bait, however usually it's tiny and matching it can be difficult. The ZMan 2" GrubZ is a great presentation when the fish are honed in on tiny baitfish or shrimp.
When selecting where to start fishing in canals, the shadiest side of the canals will always out fish the sunnier side. An exception to this is early mornings, when the sun heats up the water around pontoons, so the warmer water on the sunniest side often produces fish, especially on a cold day.
The effects of the barometer on bream can be difficult to understand as on a low barometer day they can be the only species biting and on a high barometer day they can be the only species not biting. It's all about getting out there, finding what's on the chew and targeting that species that is biting.
Fishing like this will most likely eliminate any donuts on the water. Locals often feed bream in the canals, so a stretch of pontoons that get fed can hold some massive but wary bream. A strong run out tide is the best time to target bream, however they can be caught on any phase of the tide.
Rock walls in canals also hold bream as schools often patrol them picking off oysters, crabs and baitfish. Bream regularly feed along rock walls and usually sit where the rocks meet the sandy substrate or mud. Hopping blades or soft plastics along the edges of rock walls can often be the undoing of some cracking bream, especially around low light periods.
At low light bream move up in the water column or move shallower, up against rock walls to feed. Bream move up and start picking off oysters and other creatures around the edges of pontoons and a kissing sound is the tell tail sign of bream doing this. Low light triggers fish to feed more and they are usually less wary of their surroundings. Early mornings, late afternoons and times of lots of cloud cover are definitely the prime times to target bream.
Canals hold some of the biggest bream found anywhere in our estuaries and on light gear it is a heaps of fun targeting them. Slow rolling soft plastics or hardbodies along the front and sides of a pontoon is a very effective technique. Jighead selections when slow rolling soft plastics can be a little heavier than when hopping soft plastics. A 1/12oz through to a 1/4oz all work well for me when slow rolling plastics for bream, however it will depend on angler casting abilities, the retrieve speed and desired depth that you wish the lure to run at.
If the fish are sitting lower in the water column, skipping lightly weighted soft plastics in behind pontoons and hopping them out is also a very effective technique that usually attracts by-catch such as flathead, trevally, javelinfish, cod and only with a little luck can you stop a mangrove jack.
My go-to soft plastics for canal fishing consist of the whole ZMan GrubZ range, 2.5" Slim SwimZ, 3.75" StreakZ, 2.5" TRD CrawZ and 3" MinnowZ. Bream in canals are also suckers for a small well-presented blade, such as the TT Lures Switchblade. The smaller the weight, the better for bream, so a 1/8oz or is best for blades.
I find 8lb leader and lighter is best for bream. I've been using the Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader for a while now and it has been super nice to use as it's ultra-supple, super thin and almost invisible to wary fish. Give the humble bream a go, they're readily available to most anglers and are great sport on light gear.
Jacob Iedema
Gear List:
ZMan 2" GrubZ
ZMan 2.5" GrubZ
ZMan 2.5" Slim SwimZ
ZMan 3" Slim SwimZ
ZMan 2.5" TRD CrawZ
ZMan 2.75" TRD BugZ
ZMan 3.75" StreakZ
TT Lures HeadlockZ Finesse
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader