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» Three Bream Favourites Part 1
Three Bream Favourites Part 1
By Luke Smith
As humans we are creatures of habit... pair that with the confidence of tying on your favourite lure and it means that we quite often stick to what we know. For me there are two staple bream lures that most estuary anglers would own, the ZMan 2.5” Slim SwimZ and the almighty ZMan 2.5” GrubZ. In recent times I have been using another plastic that I am confident enough to put on the same tier as the other two… well almost. The ZMan 2.5” PrawnZ is a cool, versatile plastic, that is a fish catching machine! It is miles behind the achievements of the Slimmy and GrubZ, that have a lengthy list of tournament wins, however in time I think it will be in a lot of fishos arsenal.
To cover this topic of three bream favourites I am going to break it into two parts, rather than write a short novel, even though these plastics just might deserve that novel. Below I will detail the plastics themselves and their characteristics, the colours that I love and how I rig them. This will lead into part two where I will talk more about how and when I fish each of them.
The Slim SwimZ, GrubZ and PrawnZ are three different types of plastics, that all have very different characteristics but also some key similarities that I will start with. Ultimately there are four things that we as anglers all love about ZMan soft plastic lures. Firstly, they float. With ZMan plastics being naturally buoyant and floating, it opens the door to different rigging options and fishing techniques.
Secondly, these plastics are truly 10X TOUGH! After years of being smashed by Aussie fish, these plastics have held up time and time again. They have truly proven themselves to be the most durable plastic on the market. Thirdly, a key factor in their effectiveness is ZMan’s unique colour range. Leading the way with unique colours that are full of UV, they have certainly set the bar in the last ten years. This brings me to the fourth and crucial similarity that these three plastics have... the fish just love them 😊.
It's only fitting to begin with where it all began for me, the ZMan 2.5” GrubZ. I first found this lure back in May 2013, when I was working at BCF in Warrnambool. I was putting out stock on the shelves and came across some new lures that we hadn’t stocked previously called ZMan. I believe that we originally received two types, a shrimp and two different colours of 2.5” GrubZ. The two colours were Violet Sparkle and Chartreuse Sparkle. I knew nothing about these plastics, hadn’t heard of them and with a Vic Bream comp on that weekend I bought a packet of each to give them a go. After all... they could be the next big thing.
It was a tough comp, in cold and wet conditions, and we were struggling with the usuals, being a worm and wriggler, so I decided to give these GrubZ a go. I wasn’t confident in the colours but started with a Violet Sparkle and before long we had our first legal. At the end of that first day of fishing, I proceeded to buy the only three packets of GrubZ the store had so that no-one else could. I knew they were going to be handy the next day. I did share a couple with mates, who all said they were the difference on the Sunday.
From here the colour range slowly expanded and with the release of the Motor Oil colour, they truly became a bream favourite and a must have for every tournament angler in the country. Since then, there has been many new colours added to the range, along with two other variations in size, however for me, the 2.5” GrubZ is king.
The plastic features a short but solid ribbed body, that leads into a sizeable curl tail. It doesn’t take too much weight in the form of a jighead to make the tail work, which leads into some super subtle presentations. The floating aspect also creates a great bit of tail action when rigged heavier and fished in current. When using this method, it can be deadly fished slowly in flowing water situations as the tail is allowed to dance around in the current.
When chasing bream in my local systems in southwest Victoria I’m not faced with too many situations where I am having to deal with flowing water, therefore I fish relatively light all the time. In fact, 1/12oz is about as heavy as I go for the bream as the black bream usually prefer the lure to be worked super slow. If there is little wind, or I am fishing the edges or a flat under 1.5m deep, I will be using a 1/16oz jighead. If its deeper than 1.5m, or there’s some wind to contend with, I will bump it up to a 1/12oz to enable the plastic to sink a bit better and bump the bottom easier. The heavier weight also allows me to keep in better contact with the lure. If fishing rock walls and in a no wind situation, I may go to a 1/20oz head just to get that super subtle sinking action from the tail.
Hook size depends on the type of jighead and if using a standard TT HeadlockZ HD jighead, with Mustad heavy wire hook, then a size 2 is my preferred hook. However, I predominately use the TT HeadlockZ Finesse, finer gauge Japanese Gamakatsu hook and find the equivalent hook to be a #1. When rigged, from memory, the hook normally comes out around the second or third last rib toward the tail. Recently we have seen the release of the painted HeadlockZ Finesse UV jigheads and this for me is an absolute winner, saving the fiddly hassle of having to paint them yourself.
Currently there is around 20 colours in the 2.5” GrubZ range, with about eight of them being jam packed with UV reactive qualities. The range consists of everything from Black, Pearl and shades of gold to Chartreuse Sparkle and everything in between. For me though, there are two colours that I have caught 90% of my bream on, Bloodworm (non-UV) and Motor Oil (UV).
Bloodworm is a perfect colour to suit most southern Australian rivers as it often matches up to the water colour quite well. Motor Oil has been the number one colour black bream lure for what feels like eternity. Since its release and rapid rise in popularity, it would undoubtedly be the number one selling bream plastic on the market. The best part is that it works in many water clarity situations.
By accident, years ago, we found that by mixing these two colours together in a packet for a couple of days, the Motor Oil colour would bleed its colour into the Bloodworm. This formed a unique colour that we found was super deadly on its day and we called it Blood Oil. This would be a third favourite of mine and we are now lucky enough that ZMan have made this a production colour so you can buy them straight off the shelf.
The introduction of the Slim SwimZ was highly anticipated and it didn’t fail to deliver. This little paddle tail was another absolute game changer! Featuring a slender body, that leads into a thin tail wrist and then fans out into a perfectly sized paddle tail, the Slim SwimZ certainly was an instant bream catching machine. This lure matched the hatch and was able to imitate small baitfish as the profile is spot on. Pair this with the tail vibration that is created, due to the flexibility of the ElaZtech material, and this lure was the perfect partner to the GrubZ.
This plastic is super versatile and can be used to catch small mullet through to large fussy tuna and other pelagic species. It can be rigged many ways, to suit different situations, such as weedless fishing, and it is an awesome lure to pair with TT Jig Spinners for added flash and vibration, especially when targeting freshwater species.
Much like the GrubZ, I generally rig the Slim SwimZ on TT HeadlockZ Finesse jigheads, in either 1/16oz or 1/12oz depending on the depth and wind conditions. Hook size is always the size 1 in the Finesse range, as it offers a great hook up rate, while not being too long and hampering the plastics range of movement. Whilst I am absolutely loving the new painted HeadlockZ Finesse UV jigheads, there is one time when I prefer a shiny silver head and that is when it matches the plastic perfectly, this being when paired with Bad Shad colour.
Naturally the Motor Oil colour was the number one colour with most fishos, and the fish simply loved it. Eventually people branched out with their colour selections, as did I, and found that the slimmies tend to work a lot of the time, no matter the colour. Sure, there’s better or worse colours on any given day, however sometimes the fish are just tuned in on a particular presentation, whether it be for its size, action, vibration, or colour.
For me I loved the Motor Oil and Bloodworm straight up and they caught a serious number of fish for me. I really didn’t want to use any others. After a while however I branched out and started experimenting on different days, when fishing in different water clarity, systems, and times of year. I started to notice that some colours did work better than my usuals in certain conditions.
I recall one session where I knew that there were a lot of bream about in some clearer water and I just wasn’t getting the results that I knew I could. After mixing it up and trying more natural bait presentations I stumbled upon the Bad Shad colour, which soon became my favourite colour. The bream in my local simply love it and I will back myself fishing it on any day of the year. Other honourable mentions include Blood Oil, Baby Bass, Pearl, and Gold Flake; however, I really could fish any of the colours and be confident as this plastic just works for me.
October 2022 saw the release of the new 2.5” PrawnZ from ZMan. At first, I didn’t get too excited as I was distracted by the ST GrubZ and my little boat was midway through a rebuild, so I wasn’t really focussing on the light line fishing too much. I had a little go of them from the bank and could see they had potential, but it wasn’t really until the start of the following year that I gave them a proper crack, once I was back out on the rivers.
This plastic is a bit different to the other two as it doesn’t have a lot of tail action bult into the plastic, like the other two mentioned. The tail gives off a subtle kick and for me I treat it more like a jerk bait style of lure. So, I have been using mainly when on shallow flats or rock walls. In each situation I will rig it different depending on conditions. For the rock walls it’s all about the lure free falling and slow sinking, looking as natural as possible, so I will try a 1/20oz, swapping to 1/16oz if I need to stay in touch with the lure better.
On the flats I will generally start with a 1/16oz, however will go to a 1/12oz if it’s a bit windy or if I really want to bump the bottom. As you may have guessed, I again love a size 1 in a TT HeadlockZ Finesse jighead.
I currently don’t have a runaway favourite in terms of colours, although I am liking Houdini, Laguna Shrimp and Slam Shady. I really can’t wait to give all the colours a thorough test over coming months.
Well, that’s it for part 1, if you enjoyed and want to read about how I fish each of these deadly bream presentations, be sure to check out part 2.
Cheers, Luke