The last couple of weeks I've been doing a bit of bream fishing, including fishing in the first hobie bream round of 2019.
Trip One - Patterson lakes, this was just a social trip to get out bream fishing again after a long break, I hadn't checked the tournament calendar to realise I had less than a fortnight until the first round, mainly fished surface and put a few smaller fish on the board. I didn't take any photos this trip but there will be a video shortly.
Trip Two - Patterson Lakes. This time I was there with a purpose, to make sure my livewell worked in time for the competition that was now a few days away. I launched and fished surface again, picking up a nice estuary perch.
and cracking bream
Before switching over to cranka crabs, I struggled to keep the hooks in but eventually picked up a 37 off a boat hull. With the weather heating up and a few things to get ready for the comp I headed home.
Trip Three - Bemm River, hobie round.
I made the drive up on thursday night to fish the prefish on friday but ended up getting in late enough that I slept through pre fish on friday. Saturday morning I came up with a game plan from what the others I was staying with had said but without any time out there myself I was a little worried. The Start was complete mayhem with 98 kayaks trying to get where they wanted to go as quickly as possible by going between a couple of buoys. I shot over to the area I had planned to fish and started casting at the edges. I saw a fish pluck something off the top and quickly skipped my plastic in, straight away I was hooked up, although it didn't last long as I pulled the hooks trying to muscle it out of the trees. I kept working this area looking for more fish but there wasn't much to be found. Without a fish on the board more than halfway through the session I was starting to get worried that I would find myself with the dreaded donut and lost my cool a bit, changing spots too quickly and pedaling around the lake like a madman. Eventually with just under two hours to go I made the call that the next school I found I would sit on and fish until I had to make my way to weigh in. This proved to be a good decision as I managed to catch 4 bream, 2 legal, and a flattie before I had to make my way in. I was really hoping to fill my bag here but I was stoked just to have something to weigh in. My two fish wen 1.5kg and put me in 44th.
Day two I had a bit more of a game plan and knew where to find fish, I headed straight there and put my bag together within the fist hour, after this it was upgrade time, I had one fish I was reasonably happy with but two had to go if I was to have any real chance of advancing up the board.
I kept working this patch but could only find more around the size of my smallest fish. I made the call to find a new school that hopefully harboured a few bigger fish but everywhere I went I was plagued by just legals, a pain today but I could of used one of them on saturday. The wind picked up, a lot, and I made my way back to weigh in early just to get off the water. When I got back in I found more than half the field had already made the same call. My three fish went 1.71kg and bumped me up to 35th.
Not many pics from the weekend as I was a bit more focused on trying to catch fish than taking pics.
Monday after the comp I made my way around to another system to throw topwaters and have a bit more fun, there was a drop out in the wind forecast for around 8 so when the wind started dropping at 6:30 I launched and made my way to a likely looking bank. A few casts in and I had a small fish belt my bent minnow and put up a much better scrap than it's size indicates.
A few casts later I was on again to a smaller fish,after this the wind started to pick up fast and it was blowing straight on to the bank I was fishing. I made my way across to the opposite bank but the chop was still getting in here and with a bit of distance between me and the launch sit and an unreliable forecast I made the call to pack it in and make the big drive home.
Trip four - Patterson Lakes
Another predawn launch, this time my aim was to get fish using different lures to my established pattern. I started off throwing a bent before there was any light and landed a rather small bream. Once the sun was up I broke out my fly rod and some newly purchased prawn imitation surface flies, with the aim of catching my first bream on fly. It didn't take long to get some interest and eventually a hookup but it was very lacking in the size department.
Not long after that I had twisted my leader beyond repair and ended up having to switch back to the bent minnow. The fish weren't sitting in their usual areas but after a bit of exploring I found a few schools but couldn't get more than a half hearted follow and the occasional swipe. This signaled time to move onto new technique number two, stick minnows. The key to fishing stick minnows is slack line and a natural drop, three casts in I found out the downside to this is a delay in hook up after they eat giving the fish a head start back into structure, combined with a lighter drag to allow for trebles to stick resulted in a lost lure. I tied on my other stick minnow and kept working my way around the pontoons, it didn't take long to find another happy to eat this time I went to hard to get it out and pulled the hooks. A few pontoons later I watched a fish follow the stick minnow back in as I burned it back to recast, paused it mid water column and the fish belted it, with a light drag and the rod under the water it was a nerve wracking fight but the fish didn't do a whole lot which was rather fortunate.
I kept working this area and polaroided a few fish sitting high on the flats, I didn't have a lot rigged up but thought the snad coloured cranka crab should do the job, a long cast past the fish and a slow drag back through the area did the trick but it was the smallest fish in the group I was targeting that ate it. After this I went back to stick minnows on the pontoons and it was long before I was smoked around a pylon by a decent fish and lost my last stick minnow. Back to the trusty black cranka crab it was, this got picked up by a couple of fish both of which made their way to the kayak without too much difficulty. After this it was time to make my way back to the ramp. This last trip was filmed as well and will be up in the next week or so.
Thanks for reading,
Cheers Alex
