Land Based Bream and Estuary Perch + Lure fishing advice

Pier Fishing, Rock Fishing and general land based fishing around Melbourne
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mazman
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Land Based Bream and Estuary Perch + Lure fishing advice

Post by mazman » Mon Nov 18, 2019 5:07 pm

Hey guys,

Managed to squeeze in a quick session over the weekend as I had a bit of time between my exams and wasn't flat out studying. Came up with a plan to go on a quick landbased trip for bream and eps.

The trip started off well with a follow first cast but things got a bit slow from there and I spent a bit of time working my way around trying to find some actively feeding fish. This eventually paid off and I hooked a good size bream around some heavy structure, it went on some nice runs but I eventually managed to control it at my feet, or so I thought. It had one last run in it and managed to find a bit of structure to bust me off on, I was pretty disappointed with this, I estimate the bream was in the low 40s (40-42) and it got away with my lure that I had just fitted with new decoys. With a bit more confidence I kept fishing and started to see a couple of fish, some of which were very large. On one cast I had a bit of a bump in part of my retrieve that wouldn't typically interest a bream so I fired my lure back out and changed up the retrieve a bit, I was quickly rewarded with an EP.

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Which was followed by another.

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Which was followed by another.

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I managed to pick 6 estuary perch up out of the school, hook and drop a few and had follows from a few more that didn't result in hits before the action died down. I hung around for another 10 minutes before moving on and looking for some more fish as I was incredibly limited for time. Working over different structure and features to try and find a pattern. I hooked up again shortly after on a small flat that was partially shaded and had a small bream on the board.

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With not long to go now I sped things up a bit an returned to the area I had seen the bream earlier, and I eventually got the hit I was looking for. There was a lot of weight some big headshakes but no drag taken and one of the largest bream I have seen in Melbourne popped up shaking its head. Unfortunately I had put myself in a poor position to make the cast and didn't have anywhere nearby to land the fish. As I was trying to find a way to get down to the water I dipped my rod a bit gave it some slack and the trebles just popped out. I got a great view of a high 40s bream slowly making its way back down to the depths and was left devastated on the banks and now out of time.

It was an eventful little trip for a couple of hours fishing and one that will stay in my memory for what could have been.






There's been a few questions on here regarding getting into lure fishing and there's a few more members who are just a bit past that point but still trying to work things out so I thought I would chuck up some advice that I have found increased catch rates on lures around Melbourne.

For starting out the gear I would recommend a graphite rod (see below for size chart) doesn't have to be ridiculously expensive but there is better feel and feedback in more expensive models generally. Braid for the mainline, once again increases feel and is more versatile than a fluorocarbon mainline which when starting out is always a good thing, as you don't want to ave multiple technique specific outfits. Fluoro for leaders, I'm not 100% sold on the refractive index of water stuff anymore but one thing I can confidently say is that the abrasion resistance is incredibly useful at times. For reels I would look for something in the 2500 size class.


Now onto the lure fishing tips

Fish light, this includes rods, reels, mainline, leader and jig heads if using sp. What "light" is really depends on the situation but I'll chuck up some starting points and a few factors for making decisions.

Bream/trout.......................1-3kg rod........4lb leader.........6lb braid
Ep ...................................1-3kg rod........6lb leader.........6lb braid
Flathead/small pinkies...........1-3kg rod........8lb leader.........8lb braid
large pinkies/ small snapper.....2-4kg rod........12lb leader........10lb braid

A few things to consider after this are;
Water clarity, dirty water you can bump up leader, super clear water drop down the leader weights.
Structure where you are fishing. Heavy structure bump up leader weight, no structure drop it down. Same goes for rods.
Fishing pressure. Heavily pressured areas it always pays to drop leader size for a more natural presentation.
Lure choice, some lures require light leaders to work.

Similar to above, long leaders, I'm not talking 1m or one rod length. I use two rod lengths as a starting point and adjust from their depending on the situation.

Fish where the fish are, on a boat this means use your sounder to locate schools, drop offs and likely areas. Landbased is a little bit more limited but there are still marine charts for a general idea and good polarised sunglasses can also help to identify underwater structure, it can pay to scope a spot out on a super bright still day to see whats there and then come back and fish it in conditions more conducive for catching.

The follow on from this is cast accuracy when fishing to structure, you really want to be getting your lure as close as possible to the structure. For me fishing pontoons/pylons for bream I aim to be within 10cm of my target but the closer the better.

Lure choice is a whole topic on its own but when starting out the match the hatch principle is simple to follow and effective. Basically just use lures that closely mimic the predominate food source in the area. The other thing I will add is if you are new soft plastics are a good option to keep costs down while still fishing an effective bait that doesn't have too many real tricks to using.

Sp retrieves. When you are starting out the main two I would focus on are hopping it along the bottom, letting your lure sink to the bottom two or three hops and then letting it settle back to the bottom and slow rolling, slowly winding your plastic in and letting its action do the work, the only thing to note here is it needs to have some sort of inbuilt action. From these two main retrieves you can start adding more variation and trying new things as your confidence grows.

Hope this helps a few people, get onto some fish and start getting the hang of lure fishing. There is heaps of other things I think about when fishing but it starts to get pretty complicated.


Cheers Alex

Please don't quote this entire post
Youtube channel:Hawkesy Fishing

MasterBaiter24
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Re: Land Based Bream and Estuary Perch + Lure fishing advice

Post by MasterBaiter24 » Mon Nov 18, 2019 6:11 pm

Nice post, really informative and great for beginners

Would you be able to provide a general location if where you fished?

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Re: Land Based Bream and Estuary Perch + Lure fishing advice

Post by happyfriggincamper » Mon Nov 18, 2019 6:38 pm

Cmon mate... hes just typed out a massive report with loads of advice + there is plenty of indicative information online about where to find them...

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Re: Land Based Bream and Estuary Perch + Lure fishing advice

Post by ben475 » Mon Nov 18, 2019 6:41 pm

nice bit of advice there

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Re: Land Based Bream and Estuary Perch + Lure fishing advice

Post by greggo » Mon Nov 18, 2019 6:51 pm

Good post Alex. :tu:

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Re: Land Based Bream and Estuary Perch + Lure fishing advice

Post by wem21 » Mon Nov 18, 2019 7:49 pm

Wow nice post, thanks :)

You gonna put a video out on this?
Last edited by wem21 on Mon Nov 18, 2019 7:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Land Based Bream and Estuary Perch + Lure fishing advice

Post by rb85 » Mon Nov 18, 2019 7:50 pm

Great write up Alex will no doubt help plenty of readers here out.
Nice catch of EPs as well well done
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Re: Land Based Bream and Estuary Perch + Lure fishing advice

Post by rb85 » Mon Nov 18, 2019 7:52 pm

happyfriggincamper wrote:
Mon Nov 18, 2019 6:38 pm
Cmon mate... hes just typed out a massive report with loads of advice + there is plenty of indicative information online about where to find them...
Agree 100% especially with EP’s we don’t want them getting smashed by people following reports.
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Re: Land Based Bream and Estuary Perch + Lure fishing advice

Post by Lightningx » Mon Nov 18, 2019 8:45 pm

Top write up mate! :tu:

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Re: Land Based Bream and Estuary Perch + Lure fishing advice

Post by mazman » Tue Nov 19, 2019 2:58 pm

Thanks guys, was a fun little trip
Youtube channel:Hawkesy Fishing

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