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Modern Bread and Butter Fishing

By Bo Sawyer

If you ask any angler where their fishing journey began, there’s a pretty good chance that it started off with bread-and-butter species. Not only was it a great pastime to hand down to the next generation, these basic species were the foundation that inspired (or hooked) a new wave of young anglers. On the lighter side it’s also a tonne of fun and I continually find myself coming back to this form of fishing. With the advancement of fishing techniques over the years however, we’ve seen a steady incline of people ditching the bait for a more modern-day approach.

Now, when we talk about bread-and-butter species, the three main species that come to mind are bream, flathead, and whiting. All three are fantastic fish to target and their availability in almost any estuarine environment, coupled with their year-round presence, make them a great option. Another good thing is that they’re not overly difficult to target and with a bit of fine tuning can be caught in great numbers.

My introduction to bread-and-butter fishing was from my father when I was just a young lad. We would stop off at the servo to raid the hot box, grab a few packets of prawns and I would come home stinking of smelly old bait, much to the horror of my mum. Luckily, we can fish for the same species of fish with soft plastics.

Technique

Going light for the bite is something that we want to adopt here. Finesse fishing will help us catch far more fish and provide extra sport, while also being essential when targeting areas that are heavily pressured.

Fishing small plastics, in the 2” to 3” range, will catch us all three species and provide plenty of opportunity for bycatch as well. We want to pair these plastics with lighter weight jigheads in 1/12, 1/8 and 1/4oz weight range, with hook sizes from 2 to 1/0.

Cast your plastic out and let it sink to the bottom, then hop it back toward you. Make sure that you pause after every hop, allowing the plastic to sink back down to the bottom. This is when you’ll get most of your hits, as the plastic is sinking naturally back to the bottom. Pretty simple, isn’t it?

Where?

Sand banks, rock walls and bridges are excellent places to hit, and they are readily available to land-based anglers as well. My favourite places to target are broken patches of weed across sand flats and the edges of mangrove lines. At night it’s better to target areas that have overhanging lights that attract small baitfish and prawns, in turn attracting predatory species.

By-Catch

The amount of bycatch that will eat these finesse plastics presentations you’ll find is staggering. Small jewfish (mulloway), mangrove jack, reef species, tailor, flounder, luderick, tarpon, trevally and even wolf herring make up just some of the fish that you may encounter. A lot of these species will bite or bust you off on light leader, however at times that’s just the risk you take to get the fish to bite. That being said not knowing what you might catch next definitely adds to the excitement.

Gear

In the rod department we want something light that has a slightly whippy action to cast our small, lightly weighted soft plastics. The TT Red Belly spin in the 1-3kg range is an excellent choice and is going to cover you in almost any situation. The Okuma ITX or Ceymar HD spin reel in the 1000 or 2500 size is going to pair up beautifully with these rods and the smooth drag will assist in pulling up bigger fish with your light line. Speaking of line, we want to fish with 6lb braid and 4-8lb fluorocarbon leader. Platypus has you covered with both and is my personal choice.

In the jighead department, the finesse, finer gauge hooks of the TT HeadlockZ Finesse jighead range, will really help with hooking the fish properly, especially with the often-timid bite from bream and whiting. As stated earlier, we want weights in the 1/12, 1/8 and 1/4oz range, with size 2 to 1/0 hooks. You can also opt for the Ned Rig System, a TT NedlockZ jighead giving your presentation another style of natural look, standing up rapidly on the pause, thanks to the natural buoyancy of the durable ZMan ElaZtech soft plastic.

Now for my favourite part, the plastics. We are pretty spoilt for choice here and the ZMan range has all bases covered. We want to fish with smaller plastics, in the 2” to 3” range and some of my go-to options include the PrawnZ, TRD CrawZ, Slim SwimZ and GrubZ. They have a realistic look and a swimming action that is irresistible to fish. Chuck on some Pro-Cure Super Gel Scent and you are all ready to go!

Bo’s 5 Tips for Modern B&B Fishing:

1. Go light for the bite. You’ll get far more hits fishing with finesse tackle.
2. Target areas that hold life. We are talking about areas that hold small baitfish, prawns, and the presence of yabby holes. Look for reasons why fish may be attracted to a particular area.
3. Go easy on the fish. We are fishing with light line and thinner gauge hooks, so don’t go too hard on the fish.
4. Fishing around dawn/dusk and tide changes will improve your overall catch.
5. Change it up until you find something that works. Switch up retrieves, pause lengths, plastics, and jighead weights, until you find something that starts working.

Well, there we have it, some simple yet very effective tips to get you started on modern day bread and butter fishing. If you haven’t already, make sure you subscribe to the Tackle Tactics free weekly newsletter at www.tackletactics.com.au and you’ll be in the draw to win some fantastic prizes every month as well as receiving a weekly newsletter loaded with tips and techniques.

Good luck out there and tight lines.
Cheers, Bo

Gearing Up:

Okuma Red Belly Spin Rod - RBS701L 7' 1-3kg
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reel - ITX-1000
Okuma Ceymar HD Spin Reel - CHD-1000HA
Platypus Pulse X8 Braid - 6lb
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader - 4-8lb
TT HeadlockZ Finesse Jigheads - 1/12oz, 1/8oz, 1/4oz - Size 2, 1, 1/0
ZMan 2.5" PrawnZ
ZMan 2.5" GrubZ
ZMan 2.5" Slim SwimZ
ZMan 2.5" TRD CrawZ
Pro-Cure Super Gel Scent