Leon C

They certainly fight hard for their size.

Yep, such a nice spot. Just have to pick the tide to be able to use the boat ramp.

Why do you open the bream up that way?

That's a solid bream, I've read that ones that size might be decades old.

I had a productive session on the water this afternoon. Fishing from my rowing skiff as well as a bit of wading, I went looking for some bream and flathead with a fat crankbait and a soft plastic grub. Despite covering a fairly wide area of sea-grass, sand flats and channel, I got nothing. As the light faded, something was stirring up the baitfish on the surface. While rowing up the creek in the direction of the disturbance, the first tailor hit the grub I had trailing in the water. This was a bit of unintentional trolling, 1 metre from the boat. This one spat the hook after a brief fight, but I was quickly onto another. I landed the small tailor, which was only significant in that it is my second ever fish on a soft plastic lure. Seeing some frantic surface action, I switched to a 70mm Sugapen. This picked up two tailor in as many casts, before I was bitten off while fighting another. I think a fish other than the one I had hooked must have chomped the line, since I lost the whole leader. Switching to a second rod, I clipped on a 90mm Sugapen and landed a few more. All the tailor were between 30 and 40cm. The action stopped fairly abruptly with the last bit of light. The whole situation was pretty nerve-wracking, since I had only a 6lb leader. Once I was finished with the tailor, the tide had turned and I decided to try some bait fishing. I rowed to the creek mouth and started drifting back in with the first movement of the incoming tide. Some bits of tailor fillet, unweighted, provided me two bream in half an hour. The largest was 30cm. I could see there were plenty more around, but by that point I had plenty of fish. My little family is going to be eating quite a few fishy meals in the next couple of days.

Some amazing looking fish there.

Sounds like a good approach. The key seems to be to fish beaches without many people and their dogs, so you don't have to keep everything about your person.

I was a bit suspicious of the stuff, since it often seems to be in the bargain bin at tackle shops. So far, so good though.

Nice catch. Here's a question I've been pondering lately. Do you take an esky or cooler bag when walking the beach like this, with the intent of catching a feed?

That's an interesting point. The Gliss line I am using now claims to be some sort of hybrid material. Could just be marketing but I will investigate. I must say it has been working really well the last few days.

Ok, I might pick some up. Do you have any preferences for brand? I've been using 8kg braid - would that be about right for mono? I wonder if I could get away with lighter line. I'm realistically only looking at tailor/salmon with lures and maybe bait fishing for bream/whiting/flathead with this setup.

I am fishing for a feed most times, just the undersize ones I need to release. Would you attach a single hook directly to the split ring or use an assist cord? I don't suppose there is any reason to use singles with inline eyes on a lure like this? The BG is on a lighter setup I was just using for the small soft plastic this afternoon. With the metals, I'm using a 3m rod, 5-8kg rated. It has a 40 size reel. When I bought this setup a couple of years ago, I spooled it with 15lb Platypus braid. I had no end of trouble with casting knots. I thought I was winning if I had half a dozen casts in a row without some sort of hang-up. About a month ago, I changed over to Gliss line. It has a similar strength rating but is a much smaller diameter and seems way smoother. I also switched from the Alberto knot to the FG for my leader. Since these changes, my use of this combo has been totally transformed. The tangle today was maybe the second or third in several sessions. It has made spinning from the beach or rocks actually enjoyable! A spare spool would be a good idea, although this reel has a mechanical defect so is not worth getting another spool for unless I repair it.