Niall

Hey Guys, Had a fun session this morning fishing around Captain Cook Bridge at the mouth of the George's. I'd fished there yesterday too and managed to stave off a donut - landing a very respectable 44cm bream. I'd spent a lot of time yesterday paddling around the oyster racks and structure round Woolooware Bay - water was still very murky from the rain - today I decided to head straight to the bridge. Good call. Started off casting a soft vibe around - I've only ever caught one jewfish before and it was on a vibe under this very bridge. No interest from anything big so switched to a smaller black vibe - hooked up soon after but got dusted almost instantly. Re-tied and started casting around a load of foam that had settled on the surface near the bridge. Wind was pushing against current which I think creates the foam - managed a decent trevally that I wished was a big bream. I was just making my way over the first pylon again when I saw a huge spray of bait and an almighty bustup which I presumed to be tailor given the time of year. I cast in the splash prawn and after 2 or three pops something large took it. Seemed quite sedate at first and was coming in pretty easy - definitely a tailor. No sooner had I spotted the leader knot when the fish took a massive run - probably peeled off 30m of line like it was nothing. This was on my rod that I use for surface bream-ing - 10lb braid and 12lb leader so I backed off the drag and made the decision that I didn't need to rush. I had plenty of space and the water is deep there - I'd already drifted about a 100m from the bridge. For the next 20mins or so I slowly wore this fish down - still hadn't seen the fish itself. The water was still quite murky so probably only about 1m visibility. Spotted my leader knot about 4-5 times before I got a look at the fish and knew it was a good king - heartbeat rose about 60bpm when I saw the yellow tail. Finally got the exhausted fish to the surface and netted it - there were quite a few excited cheers from me and a round of applause from some spectators on the bridge. My first legal King landed from the kayak and my biggest to date at just over 70cm. Won't forget that one in a hurry. Might hit the same bridge tomorrow if anyone wants to join - some good fish around for sure. Easy launch from Taren Point Reserve. Cheers s

Nice one mate. Definitely pays to fish the low tides in all those same zones. Oftentimes the fish are just little further off the bank than high tide. I've had some of my better sessions on the last of the runout.

I run about an arm-span - probably slightly less once I've tied a knot

I was using a 6lb co-polymer leader for a while. It was good but I never really noticed much difference in affecting the action of my lures or making it easier to work them. I switched to using 12-16lb fluro as I’m fishing a lot of structure on the kayak and need to be able to pull fish away pretty fast sometimes. Also it’s a bit of insurance for when the occasional kingfish takes a liking. The fish don’t mind at all and I lose less lures. I’ve not really explored using mono as leader for surface as I haven’t ever felt the need to. Not quite sure what would explain it - might be something weird about my way of doing it. I’ve honestly never had much issue with sinking leader. Probably best just to play around with it and see what works for you.

Land based fishing for bream is tricky at the best of times - mid winter is very very tough in my experience. I doubt I'd be getting much without the kayak

Ah mate I'm always very jealous of the southern anglers that have that option in winter. Yellowfin I fond are a much different prospect in winter and the chances if finding them in a shallow creek are very slim indeed. I'd love to bend your ear for some general locations for chasing black bream though - I'd be happy to take a drive while I'm waiting for the yellowfin to come back to life.

I headed out the other day after a couple of weeks of seriously average fishing - even for winterl. I decided during the slower season to try to get my head around fishing blades in deep water around structure and under boats - definitely still need a bit of work at this. I've found myself busted off by good fish around mooring ropes a few more times than I'd care to mention. Anyone with winter bream fishing tips please feel free to chime in below - I'm all ears as I've found the bite to be very inconsistent day to day. Even through the winter I'm tragic enough to still always have a surface lure rod handy. There's room for 4 rods on my kayak so I've generally got a decent spread to cover most scenarios. Over the past couple of years I've come to build up a reasonable mental-rolodex of spots where I've managed to find surface feeding bream in the cold months - and once in a while one of these spots comes up with the goods. I've always maintained that, although the winter surface bites from bream are few and far between, they are normally responsible for better than average fish. I only had a short window to get out on Tuesday morning so I got up with enough time to get to Rozelle Bay for just before first light. Got a small bream first cast on the black blade - I think it's a Gomoku one. They all work as long as they're black and about 30-40mm. Not long after I had a cast with the Splash Prawn at a spot that's come through many times before. Sure enough I didn't stuff up the cast and landed the prawn within about 20cm of the edge of a pontoon over about 2-3m of water. Within a couple of short jabs of the lure a decent bream had one then two then three whacks at it before it covertly slurped the treble from underneath, getting the jump on me and heading straight for some wooden poles. I put a pretty substantial amount of hurt on what felt like a heavy fish until it took a powerful dive and pulled the hooks - rookie error on my part. That was gonna haunt me for the rest of the week. I pretty much thought that was my morning ruined at that point. I managed a few more small fish on the blade over the next hour. Tried a few more known surface spots but got nothing - the bite earlier had obviously been a fluke. I paddled over to the end near the fish markets for one last shot between the party boats. It was still shady back there even though the sun was well up by then. First cast between the boats attracted a menacing looking boil and a loud smack of a big bream hitting the air. He missed that time, but came straight back and nailed it taking an instant dive as soon as I put pressure on. I saw the line going almost horizontal and realised the fish was running under the boat next to us - for once I made the right move and jammed pretty much my whole rod into the water and managed to put enough pressure on to turn him. After a few more lunges and dives I had a very large bream in the net - he went 45cm to the tip. A proper donk. After a picture and a measure I put him back and he swam off happily. Pulled around the corner and cast between another couple of boats only to get nailed again by another smaller bream. And another a few casts later. I guess they're not all hanging on the bottom in winter hey? Funny how all the better quality fish that day were taken off the surface and the more conventional winter technique (blading) only seemed to come up with smaller fish. Gotta love when the fishing gods send a bit of love your way. Hope everyone's well and catching a few. Niall

I believe his local waterway is Harrington on the mid north coast. Last time he was posting semi regularly he was planning on starting a business to teach people land based lure fishing. Maybe he thought the free video content was encroaching on his new business? I know he'd disabled comments on all his videos, probably to stop people revealing spots. I've been to Harrington a few times and I don't think a lot of the local fisho's appreciate his broadcasting some of the better local spots all over the internet - maybe he decided to take them down eventually out of respect for those folks. It was really easy to tell in a lot of videos where he was fishing based on the background if you knew he was in and around Harrington. Incidentally I can't recommend Harrington enough as a fishing destination. Hard to throw a lure anywhere in that place without pulling in a good flathead - my PB was from there at nearly 90cm. Definitely worth the drive.

I haven't been fishing from shore nearly as much lately as I've been pretty enthusiastically throwing myself into kayak fishing for the past 18 months. One look out the window early this morning and I knew it was gonna be a tough one on the yak - big southerly and a sprinkle of rain. Rain I can deal with on the kayak but anything over a moderate wind I find really uncomfortable. I even made it to my launch at Birkenhead Marina this morning but bailed at the last second and decided on throwing a few lures around Iron Cove along the bay run. Probably the best fishing decision I've made in a while. The tide was still running out when I parked the car at sunrise. Not too many dog walkers around. I had an ever reliable MMD Splash Prawn tied on in the Honey Bee colourway - I have utmost confidence in this lure - it's caught me many, many fish. To be honest though I wasn't very confident at that point. The southerly was pretty nasty but I figured if I tried to fish with it on my back I could make things work. First cast along the edge got smashed before I could really even move the lure - definitely woke me up a bit. In came a 30 odd cm bream - not bad for a start. From then on it seemed like I couldn't cast anywhere without getting a follow or a hook up at least. In the first hour I think I landed 8-10 bream and a couple of tailor (they don't count in my world). Nothing massive, but it was clear that I was fishing in a serious bite window. That glorious "pop" of bream kissing at the lure was a near constant soundtrack for the morning. Add a couple of proper whiting in there to change things up and the first hour or so definitely had my confidence sky high. Good things never last right? Wrong! The bottom of the tide came and went. It made no difference. The sun came out. They kept on biting. Same lure, same technique. Pop, pop, BANG! There was definitely an increase in bites whenever I came to a particularly wind blown point and the better quality fish were being caught off the shallow, oyster covered rocks but really they were just everywhere and hungry. I kept walking and covering ground and just kept catching fish - there wasn't a dull moment in the full 4hrs I spent wandering the banks. It got to the point where if I didn't get a follow I just knew there wasn't a fish in that particular spot. I even managed a topwater flathead towards the end that would've been tipping the 50cm mark. I only stopped fishing when a bream finally got the better of me and busted me on some oysters at around 1030. Lure gone, I was tired, hungry and caffeine starved. Time to call it. I sat back in the car and just laughed at myself in disbelief - you really live for these sessions. I must have landed over 20 bream. Anyone looking to give this style of fishing a go - Now is the time. This really is my favourite time of year to fish. Tight lines, folks!

Sorry this is a bit short notice but thought I'd put it out there. Anyone fished Woolooware Bay / Towra racks recently for bream? Heading out tomorrow on the kayak an wondering how it's fishing recently and if anyone's got any pointers. Have been once before and did ok but was a bit overwhelmed by all the options in the area. Cheers in advance!

All good mate 🤙

Not having any issues finding and catching fish. Just looking for people with kayaks that wanna join in 😂 Plenty of kings in the inner west mate - not so much this time of year.

Hey Everyone, Putting the word out to anyone fishing Sydney from their Kayaks for bream (mainly) and kings (occasionally). You'd wanna be on a Hobie or something pedal based or you'll likely struggle to keep up. I love fishing heavy structure for bream using all kinds of lures - not very experienced on the kayak yet but I'm getting fish so I must be doing something right. I'm based in the inner west so Sydney Harbour, Cooks, Geroges and the Parra are my main hunting grounds. I'd love to fish further afield and explore Middle Harbour, Pittwater and the Hacking some more. I do shift work so most of my spare time is early to mid-week. Weekend trips are a rare occurrence these days. Hit me up if anyone wants to join and I'll send through my mobile number. I love fishing solo but it's so much easier to get yaks in and out of the water with two people. Cheers, Niall

Yeah you'll definitely find the odd fish venturing up into the shallows throughout the day but more often than not they're all hanging together in the deeper water. Find that current and there'll be few there for sure. Judging by the few fish I've caught on other people's straight-through setups, it's a lot easier to keep a hold of fish (not really an issue when you're fishing plastics as it's a big single hook). You can also pole fish out of the water more readily because you needn't worry about a leader knot breaking.

Probably best to leave it till spring/summer/autumn mate. It'll be a lot of casts between fish at this time of year unfortunately. Give it till September at the earliest

Interesting you're using the straight through fluro for plastics fishing. I've always associated it more with fishing hardbodies and cranka crabs and the like - I believe it helps a lot in helping tiny treble hooks keep a hold of a fish. I've yet to venture down that road but I did drop a couple of fish the other day using cranka crabs w/ braid and I reckon a little stretch might have kept me hooked up in that scenario. I'll have to buy another reel now and try it out - my wife will be thrilled 😂 Definitely tough work throwing lures from shore in the winter - need to find that deeper water and some current. The bays that all fire in the summer go cold, still and clear this time of year. Fishing the edges is mostly fruitless unless you're out extra early or fishing nights I reckon.

If you're after a reasonably priced reel that's sealed I'd be looking at the Daiwa Freams in anything from 1000-3000. They do a 2500 and a shallow spool 2000 as well. I've got the shallow spool 2000s and it's great for bream - the lower gear means having the ability to reel a lure back slower which is super helpful for bream fishing. Think they retail around 220 bucks.

Thanks heaps for the tips guys. The weather was pretty atrocious the whole time we were there. I actually didn't see any of these replies before I headed down so it's interesting to see what we did vs what was suggested. @Green Hornet we ended up doing pretty much exactly what you've advised here on the Friday arvo. Launched at the boat ramp near Bream Beach and headed south along the shoreline. Heaps of tailor about and I had a 70mm Splash Prawn taken whole by one of the resident Dino-tailor within about an hour of starting. We found a few bream and EP's along those ribbon weed edges. I was surprised by how shallow it stays and how thick the weed is in places. Definitely a surface lure place for sure. Second day we launched at the same spot in the morning and went the opposite direction. Probably not the best call as the feeder creeks were pushing so much fresh into the basin and the water was chocolate brown. We changed tactics in the arvo and decided to look for cleaner water elsewhere. Ended up launching at St George's Basin boat ramp and fishing the two small islands nearby for a few bream and whiting - bit of a tough bite but we found a few here and there. On the last morning we launched near bream beach again and explored up one of the feeder creeks to get out of the wind. Managed a few flatties up there and got smashed by a few EP's in the snags. So it was a little bit of a disappointing weekend in terms of the weather. I think a return visit during some better weather is own the cards for sure. Had a ball throughout the weekend in spite of getting drenched. Thanks again for all the tips guys.

Hi Everyone, I'm heading to St George's Basin tomorrow with a mate for a couple of nights. We'll be staying at Bream Beach Holiday Park and we'll both be fishing from a Hobie. Neither of us have been there before but we've done a bunch of research and put together a little bit of an idea of how we were going to approach it. However, these plans have been thrown out the window somewhat by the biblical downpours we've experienced this past week that are set to continue over the weekend. Neither of us are afraid of a bit of rain but we're at a bit of a loss as to what to do now - there's obviously been a lot. Are we looking at fishing in a bowl of chocolate milk all weekend? My dreams of fishing the edges for bream and catching giant flathead all weekend are starting to get away from me. Would anyone care to enlighten me as to how we can get the most out of this weekend? Granted we're both pretty exclusively lure fishos so any advice in that direction would be ideal. Cheers legends, Niall BTW If anyone local wants to meet us for a beer on Friday to give us the lowdown, my compadre and I will happily shout you a few rounds for your trouble 🤙

It's worth having a few small poppers in the bag as well as the sugapens and the like. They're easier to work and easier on the wrist on a long session. Pretty much any sub 70mm popper will work. No need to make any huge splashes with them. Just little pops are more than enough most of the time. It'll only take getting a few good hits or catching a couple on surface for you to be hooked - I suggest you persist 😂

Holy s&%! that's massive! Maximum respect getting it in on the yak.

The crankas are deadly on bream for sure. I've caught some proper ones through the winter on them but it's always a heart in the mouth moment casting them around structure. Definitely don't size up the gear for them. Unfortunately you need an ultra finesse approach to get the best out of them. Really light rods with a soft tip so you don't pull the tiny trebles. The trick to using them and not losing them is to never work them along the bottom unless you're casting over flats or you know the bottom well. They snag better than any lure I've used. I always either cast them (or vertically drop them) next to structure (usually a wharf, pylon or pontoon) let them sink slowly to the bottom on a slack line, The line needs to be slack to get them to drop vertically - if they pendulum then the bream think it's suss. Once they hit the bottom count to ten (or thirty or a hundred) then wind in and try again. 99/100 they get whacked on the drop. Keep a good eye on that slack line. Try the single hook ones if you're worried about snags. They work but the little plastics claws are quite fragile. Also be careful of the treble hook models' legs. They're a crucial part of how they sink and if they get warped and your crabs starts twirling on the drop it won't work nearly as well. Definitely figure out a way to store them like they are in the packaging - I've melted a few before leaving them in a tackle tray with other stuff. This is my best one on cranka from last year - he went 41cm.

Another thing I just noticed with your reel - I think the bail arm has pretty well had it mate. Looking at all that gnarly scuffing right where the line rolls through, I'd say you're not far off losing fish or losing your rig on the cast just from the abrasion of that part on the line. Just in case you're looking for an excuse to treat yourself to some new gear 😂

Hey Mate, I'd say that rod and reel are bit heavy for casting anything but the biggest poppers. Your casting distance will be hindered massively by using mono as well. If you're into the idea of a a new rod/reel setup then have a look around at something in the 1-4kg or 2-5kg range. You want something that can cast stuff as light as 4-5g. Pair it up with a 2500 reel and spool it with 4-6lb braid. Tie a short leader to the braid - can use mono or fluorocarbon for this. You'd be amazed at how far you can cast such light lures with light braid. With this setup you'll be able to cast light poppers with ease and you'll have a tonne of fun fighting salmon and any decent tailor.

Yeah mate same lure all morning even after the guide popping off