BrassRoots

Beautiful fish. I love them baked with garlic and coriander stuffed inside.

Number 3

Another one

So I moved to Brissy a while ago and have really struggled catching much of anything. Mostly ive realised it was a technique issue more than anything. I was casting into the water instead of along the waters edge. A change in tactics this arvo resulted in 4 small bream in the heart of Brisbane. I live a short walk from coronation drive which has a fairly rugged coast line since it is made up of rough rock and boulder placed by humans to prevent erosion. The rock are scattered with mangrove trees too. So although it is not as picturesque as the wild cliffs and beaches of Sydney it has some amazing structure for bream fishing. Combined with the dirty water it means that the fish push right up to the shore line. Went through three lure changes before an olive crank started producing hits. Luckily because of the dirty water I was able to fish 8lb leader and still land fish. All in all landed 4 fish. All below legal length but still good to get on the board. It's nice to know you can still catch so close to home but i definitely prefer the brighton/hays inlet area. Rod was 6.6' 2-4kg savage. 2000 Sedona woth 6lb main line.

Dropped the wife at Chatswood on Friday and drove down to Davidson Park to flick along the bank. Started out under Roseville bridge with hard bodies for bream/flat head and large soft plastics for jew. No takers. Switched to a spanyid sniper vibe (black colour, 13g) for the bream outfit and continued up and down the bank both up and down river. Caught a small chopper and a lizard fish/grinner. I could see lots of smaller bream around the rocks but couldnt get any takers. Towards the end of the session I walked up towards the smaller creek that drrains into the large bend at the north end of davidson park and startedd casting around. Felt a little tap and then a heavy weight. Felt like a good fish striaght away taking good runs. I fish a heavy drag for 6lb brain too so I knew it had some decent pull. I knew it wasnt a flattie either cause it didnt have the distinct head shakes so wasnt worried about sharp teeth. Finally get it close to the bank and see a large flash of silver and suddenly a monster appears. The biggest bream I've caught so far. I fish without a landing next and so grabbed the line and flicked in onto the muddy, rocky bank and the line snaps. But I have it trapped with my feet. A quick measure and then back in the water. Condidtions were sunny and hot with the tide just about to hit slack on the low side. The fish was hooked more towards the middle of the chanel as you would expect.

It seems like there are quite a few new people looking to get into soft plastics in Sydney. I was in the same boat about a year ago and found one thing: don't overthink it too much. Don't get caught up too much in lures and colours etc. The most important thing to do is keep moving if you aren't getting any bites. Really. Keep moving until you find the fish. As you learn more about fish behaviour from being on the water you will find that you have to move less and that you can key in on them pretty quickly. For example, you pick a day you are going to go fishing. First thing, check the tides. Is the tide rising? then aim for some flats or creeks that will fill up as the tide moves in. Is the tide falling? Aim for the spots where the creeks and flats drain out For landbased, I also check the wind. Is it a southerly or nor-easter? I generally prefer to have the wind at my back for ease of casting. However, sometimes the wind can push food for shrimp and baitfish up against the shore line so sometimes casting into the wind can be more productive. Tecchnique will go further than lure colour. Having all the lures won't make much difference if they aren't presented well. Get a couple colours between 2" and 3" and just try working them in different ways and getting a feel for fishing fast and fishin slow. Scent is also a big one I find. I have been in situations where I'm not getting any nibbles, put scent on then land a flatty next cast. In my opinion it works. There really are no bad spots in Sydney but some places will be harder than others to get the good sized trophy fish. I have a few videos of some spots around Sydney on my youtube. You can see the places I've caught fish in lately and I would definitely recommend them. So long as you are doing the miles, you will get the smiles.

If you're new to lures stick to SP until you're comfortable catching fish. Hard bodies can be an expensive habit.

A lot of the reviews are BD too cause they got it for free or are terrible shills or whatever. I was mainly sold sold on the spare spool which has turned out to be so damn useful. But you can get a spare Sienna spool for $18.

So a few months ago I picked up a cheapo reel online. I wanted a 1000 size reel for. 1-3kg rod I had also recently bought. Normally I would go with my fav the shimano Sedona but money is tight so had to branch out. Decided that $50 max for a reel was what I could afford. Locally the quality for $50 and less is garbage. Plastic spoils etc. so went online. Started tossing up between kastking and seaknight. Ended up going with the seaknight ss1000 as it came with a spare spool. It was also $36. Both spools are metal with the main spool being shallower with a carbon drag and the main spool deeper with a felt drag. First thing I did was strip it right down to inspect the components. I found several flaw immediately. The body was completely unsealed. There are two oil/grease ports on the bottom that are only sealed by loose fitting plastic. The second major flaw is that none of the bearings are shielded. So I greased and oiled it to the gills. This was bought for land based estuary fishing so I'm not anticipating much longevity. Performance wise it is fine for bream and flathead but haven't landed anything of a decent size yet. The build is also pretty solid and is nice to use. But i don't like the way the line comes off the main spool. It feels like there is too much resistance. Result: I could have bought a shimano Sienna for $43. I'd recommend doing that instead.

Yes zman plastics will melt a tackle box unless it is a special box to hold that type of plastic. Also. The small hooks will catch flatties no problem but the bigger hooks will filter out the keepers from the throwbacks. The weights are good for flatties too as the weights will give you some good casting distance

its a slippery slope. Just make sure you don't get an "all rounder" rod. You just end up getting a soft plastic rod or popping rod later.

I want to get profficient at hard body lure for bream/flathead. Also want to get good at whiting on lures.

If you can make it to the eastern suburbs, try giving Global Tackle a call. They stock lots of specialty stuff.

Went down to Dolls Point to pick up the goodie bag from the DPI. I tried fishing near the jetty on the other side of the Bridge, flicking soft plastics around towards the structure. There were some solid takes but I couldn't make them stick. The 22 knot onshore wind became too much for my little 00 ball sinkers so I decided to ditch Dolls Point and head to Kyeemagh boat ramp. Flicked a few different types and colour of lure but I'm noticing that whenever I'm in the Cooks River system the squidgies whip bait in rotten tomato gets a lot of hits. While at Muddy ck I think I fished the slack tide and probably the first hour of the incoming tide. I dont think I fished the best parts as I spent way too much time where the two creeks meet. I didnt start getting proper bites until I walked up muddy creek and went into the mangroves. Then pulled out these two: That's a 60mm lure so the fish aren't that big but it's good to know I'm doing something right. I probably could have gone further up the creek and pulled a few more out as I noticed that the school of chopper were making their way up stream but by then I had to leave. It's really starting to hit home the fact that you have to move to find the fish. I must have walked past at least 8 people fishing bait and not catching anything but if they had been more movile would definitely have hooked on to something.

Those lures are a bit big for that area. Whenever I've fished Gordons Bay with lures I have caught fish on 20g twistys. Most people I see heading towards sharks point use 20-40g silver twistys. could be worth downsizing.