HOME »
Saltwater »
Bream
» Getting Grubby in Glenelg
Getting Grubby in Glenelg
Owen Mcpaul
This adventure had me flying down to Melbourne to meet up with my great friends Tony, Joel and Jacob from Weflick fishing to target black bream and estuary perch. Our destination was to be the Gippsland region but due to heavy rainfalls and flooding a couple of days prior to my arrival we were forced to find a new location that had been less affected by rain. We decided to make the long journey down to a beautiful little town on the SA / VIC border called Glenelg.
Anticipation levels were high as we all talked it up on the long trip down and we arrived at Glenelg late into the night, rigged our rods with light TT jigheads and ZMan 2.5" GrubZ and got a bit of shut eye.
We headed out at first light the following morning onto the cold glassed out waterway of the Glenelg River and it wasn't a long run from the ramp to our first location. The boys were quickly onto the fish, pulling them in left right and centre on the GrubZ. After a short period of time I was informed that a more finesse approach was needed to tackle the blacks as they feed much differently to the yellowfin I am used to catching.
It didn't take too long to adjust my technique and I soon found myself catching some healthy blacks and holding par with the boys. Our approach was to target high cliff faces with 4 to 7 metre drop offs straight into the water using 1/20oz TT jigheads rigged with ZMan 2.5" GrubZ. We were casting them hard against the ledge, before letting the tails work their magic to the bottom. Once on the bottom we were giving them a couple of slight twitches of the rod and watching for any movement of the braid in between to strike on.
This was a very effective retrieve that saw us pulling great numbers of bream and the odd EP (Estuary Perch). Our colours of choice were Amber, Motor Oil, Violet Sparkle and Chartreuse Sparkle, with Amber being the number one stand out of these colours.
The day was nearly over and it was time to head to our accommodation. I was over the moon, catching my first ever black bream and EP (estuary perch) and the boys were just as happy that they had been able to get me onto the fish.
We followed the same steps over the next two days, working our way a little further up the river on each trip. We had to work hard to get onto the fish, but with small moves were able to find where they were holding, pulling anywhere from 5 to 10 fish over each small stretch of bank.
On the final day we had a short 2 hour window to fish, as we needed to take the long journey back to Melbourne for me to catch the plane home. We headed out and I was hoping I could improve on my best fish of the trip at 38cm. We pulled the boat up just fifty metres from the ramp and on my first cast with the ZMan GrubZ in Motor Oil I had an almighty clunk as soon as the lure hit the water, before a nice run from the fish had line peeling as it tried to make its way off with my lure. After a short fight we landed the fish and it was a solid 43cm to the fork, my personal best and the biggest bream of the trip.
This had me wishing that I had a couple more days to spend on the water, but unfortunately all good things must come to an end and it was time to get home to my beautiful wife and kids. A special thanks to the boys from Weflick fishing for sharing their waterways with me and getting me onto the fish. I am very much looking forward to catching up again later in the year for our next adventure to Gippsland. Thanks again to the team at TT and ZMan for once again having the goods to make my trip a most memorable experience.
Owen McPaul