Eli.Bray14 Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 Hey guys, im new here... but i need some advice! Ive been fishing a lot recently around forster/tuncurry and i’ve caught some quality flathead on soft plastics (3inch slim swimz) With all the flatties being around 35-50cm, im curious as to why i haven’t caught any Bream aswell? I have seen a few around and caught a good one on cut bait! Any advice on how to improve flathead and bream fishing would be much appreciated. cheers guys!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Hornet Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 With just the information you've provided, possibly drop your leader strength and jig head weight right down. For bream a 6lb leader is a good start and a jig head as light as you can use to get your plastic down to the bottom. As for the retrieve, slow your hops down, shorten the lengths of the hops to around 60cm and increase the pause time of the lure sitting on the bottom. You could also try a 2.5 inch Zman grubz and see how that goes. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelm Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 Yep agree, Bream and Flathead require different techniques, and I have found Bream are more likely to be in different areas, around rocks, trees, jetties and so on, of course they are also out in the open too, but, most success is in close to structure. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirvin21 Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 As formentioned lighter leader makes a big difference. Not sure what jighead weight you're using but with bream fishing , lighter heads generally work better, my standard bream heads are between 1/12th oz - 1/20th oz 2.5 inch slim swimz and grubz are a better choice than the 3 inch Bream are all about the subtle differences, whilst you can get away with a rough jerking retrieve for flatties, bream you need to twitch or tap your plastic 2 or 3 times when hopping it then let it sink on a small belly of slack line Make sure your plastics are rigged nice a straight on the jighead, can't stress this enough 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebel Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 (edited) Welcome aboard. Try Watermelon Red ZMan. Bream seem to like them. Edited July 9, 2021 by Rebel 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pafisho08 Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 HI Check out Schroom on Tube .This young man has good tips on the Bream lures etc. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoods Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 Welcome Eli, Good to see another fisho from the mid north coast. Tight lines, Hoods 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingie chaser Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 Some good all-round advice above. If you want to target bream more Id also look at adding a few more types of lures to you kit to try. A lot of people do very well on hard bodied vibe, blade or crank type lures as well. There are a lot of them, like Samaki vibelicious as one example or Atomic Hardz bream crank & many makes of metal blades. As mentioned you need to work the particular lure differently to a SP & bream can be just ignore something crossing in front of their nose if it does not look right to them. Plenty of good youtubes around on technique. I also like to watch the tournament guy's, how they fish & what they use to. Good luck 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquibblyDibbly Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 Flatties hit the plastics when you lift you rod, lifting the lure up from the bottom. Bream hit the plastics whilst they are sinking. Bream want the plastic to look like its naturally floating around / slowly sinking. Bream like a bit of structure like oyster leases, moored boats, wharfs, mangroves. For flatties I use heavier jigheads (1/4) with a big hook and a 3" plastics. For bream I use the lightest practical jighead (1/16 or 1/20) with a small hook and a smaller plastic. I use my 6lb setup for bream. Both like a plastic with a good wriggly tail action. Technique for both the same. Cast, let plastic sink to the bottom, lift rod, lower rod, wind up slack, allow to sink, repeat. For bream I keep my finger on my braid so I can feel the bites/know when it hits the bottom. Hard to go past the nuclear chicken grub tail plastics. Good luck. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamoDamo Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 (edited) 6lb braid, 4lb fluorocarbon leader. 1-2, 1-3 and 2-4kg rod with a whippy tip but enough backbone are perfect for bream fishing. For the reel pick a 1000-2500 size as that is all you will need to fish for them effectively. In regards to lures, i've had success on zman 2" grubz and 2.5" grubz in watermelon red, gudgeon, midnight oil, bloodworm and motor oil. The slim swimz you have will work well too in 3" but cut them down a centimeter or so, this retains the fatter profile of the lure whilst becoming a smaller sized plastic. 2.5" slim swimz are also great for this. Squidgy 65mm wriggler in bloodworm work super well along with red rum, all these lures I have done quite well with. With jigheads get size 2 jigheads for 2.5" grubz as they fit perfectly and don't catch the tail as much as size 1's do however either side will work well on grubz and slim swimz in the 2.5" size. Use size 4 jigheads for the 2" grubz and squidgy wriggler 65mm ones. With weights 1/8th will work however if you want to catch more fish I suggest you get sizes from 1/12th to 1/20th or even lighter if you can get them. Hidden weights in size 1 work well for the 2.5" grubz and size 2's or 4's for the 2" try get around that 1/20th size. If you have the coin invest in some crankbaits! Prolure cranks, Atomics and all sorts of other crankbaits will work a treat! With scents for bream specifically you can't go past pro cure shrimp or saltwater yabby/nipper S factor also works a treat. Use scent sparingly, it goes fast than you think. When fishing for bream your retrieves can vary on the day from a singular hop, to the old trusty double hop, and a quick flicky retrieve that brings the lure up off the bottom and coupled with the light jighead it waffs back down to the bottom. Don't be afraid to try different things and see what makes them bite on said day. With bream retrieves try to keep it as slow as you possibly can. Hop every 10 seconds or so and WATCH YOUR LINE you may not feel the bite but you can see pickups, bites and all sorts of useful info when watching your braid. Also fish around STRUCTURE, this can be snags such as fallen tree branches, steep banks, rocks, boulders, drop offs, slower moving water all sorts of things. Try to assess the area you are fishing and fish it accordingly. With leader any 4lb will work but I prefer the berkley vanish brand and sunline fc rock. Both awesome leaders with awesome abrasion resistant if you get shredded into a snag by a bream or hook up to a flatty. Hope this helps somewhat and points you in the right direction regarding bream! They are a tricky fish to target but once you learn the intricacies of these fish I am sure you will smash them! Good luck mate let me know how you go. Jamo Edited July 8, 2021 by JamoDamo 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eli.Bray14 Posted July 8, 2021 Author Share Posted July 8, 2021 (edited) Really appreciate all the advice and tips guys, bit more information on what im using... i have a 1-2kg samki zing 3 rod, on a 2500 daiwa laguna reel, spooled with 6lb braid... now for leader i was using 6lb and 10lb depending on the lures i was using (3inch minnow, 2inch grubz and one of those fat crank baits) most of the time on the minnow style baits i was using a 1/16th jighead on the 6lb leader, i lost 2 flathead over 50cm from poorly picking them up and scraping the leader on the fishes teeth... I went out again today, with some zman grubs and a 1/16th jighead again but unfortunately only got 1 small flattie. (Also im fishing im a marina lots of structure) All my soft plastics are regularly re applied with S factor also. For lure choice i have almost everything under the sun, I’ve been giving the Zerek Shrimp a go, and hooked onto something but i lost it, my concerns is im using it wrong and tips on this also? I will take all of this generous information and get out again after the bad weather, cheers guys Edited July 8, 2021 by Eli.Bray14 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingie chaser Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 6 minutes ago, Eli.Bray14 said: Really appreciate all the advice and tips guys, bit more information on what im using... i have a 1-2kg samki zing 3 rod, on a 2500 daiwa laguna reel, spooled with 6lb braid... now for leader i was using 6lb and 10lb depending on the lures i was using (3inch minnow, 2inch grubz and one of those fat crank baits) most of the time on the minnow style baits i was using a 1/16th jighead on the 6lb leader, i lost 2 flathead over 50cm from poorly picking them up and scraping the leader on the fishes teeth... I went out again today, with some zman grubs and a 1/16th jighead again but unfortunately only got 1 small flattie. (Also im fishing im a marina lots of structure) I will take all of this generous information and get out again after the bad weather, cheers guys This info would have been good to add in your original post! All that considered it could be more about locations then. Find a bit of either natural or man made structure, even under moored boats. Like any fishing you just have to keep plugging away at it to find success 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eli.Bray14 Posted July 8, 2021 Author Share Posted July 8, 2021 1 minute ago, kingie chaser said: This info would have been good to add in your original post! All that considered it could be more about locations then. Find a bit of either natural or man made structure, even under moored boats. Like any fishing you just have to keep plugging away at it to find success Yeah it definitely would’ve been but i was too annoyed about the flathead i dropped last night to concentrate 🤣🤦♂️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquibblyDibbly Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 I swear marina/wharf fish are smarter. Hire a boat and have a flick next to the oyster leases in coolongolook river. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Hornet Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 @Eli.Bray14Coming from Forster and fishing around marinas, I'm assuming your chasing yellowfin bream and not blacks. You mentioned in your above comment that you've been trying a fat crankbait without success. In my experience yellowfin bream much prefer slimmer profiled crankbaits and even slimmer, minnow patterns. The fatter lures are best saved for black bream, which you may have well upstream and in the feeder creeks in your area. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eli.Bray14 Posted July 11, 2021 Author Share Posted July 11, 2021 only a small one, but the advice has helped, cheers legends 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cooper Stewart Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 Hey mate you might want to try out a double clutch for flathead they work great on the troll and casting have caught my best flathead on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Ct Posted July 16, 2021 Share Posted July 16, 2021 I find the ecogear Zx35, Zx37, Zx40 range works well for bream. They may be expensive but they work a treat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirvin21 Posted July 19, 2021 Share Posted July 19, 2021 On 7/11/2021 at 3:11 PM, Eli.Bray14 said: only a small one, but the advice has helped, cheers legends it'll be the first of many as you refine your techniques you'll start catching the bigger models Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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