I’m waiting for a break in the weather to go out and chase some bream in the Crookhaven River.  I spent a lot of time fishing the Crookhaven River for bream as a young bloke and they are still one of my favourite species to fish for.

  Pound for pound they are one of the hardest fighting fish on light tackle.  Over the next few weeks I’m going to give you some tips on fishing for bream on bait, soft and hard bodies lures.  This week’s Gone Fishing with Jonno video is on fishing for bream on lures, hope you enjoy my talk with Chris Neville from McCallum’s Tackle World, Nowra.

The two main species of bream you will catch in the local estuaries and lakes are black and yellowfin bream.    Black bream are sometimes confused with the yellowfin bream, the best way to tell them apart is that the yellowfin bream has a whitish-yellow ventral and anal fins, as opposed to the black bream, which has greyish-brown/black anal ventral and anal fins.

Black bream are also known as blue-nosed bream and can grow up to 3.6kg and I’ve seen quite a few over the 2kg mark in the local area.  Fish this size can be over 20 years old and are the breeding stock so it’s recommended that you get a pic, then release them.

Bream of all species are timid and are sensitive to light and sound, so try to keep noise to a minimum when fishing for them.

The best time to fish for bream, particularly when using bait, is the last of the run-out tide and the commencement of the run-in tide.  Early morning and late afternoon are the best time of the day to chase them.

Bream love to hang around structures such as fallen trees, rock bars, wharfs, bridge pylons and they also like deep channels and holes.  Fishing structure, whether it’s snags, drop-offs, oyster lease racks or weed beds is vital when chasing bream on soft plastic and hard body lures, but this week I’m going to focus on using bait.

Live yabbies, prawns, black crabs and bloodworms are probably the best baits for bream.  Use a 2-4 size bait holder hook and as light a sinker as possible to get it down the bottom.  Fresh fish baits like striped tuna, slimy mackerel, and fillets of mullet and pilchard work well as well.   Bream can be timid feeders and will often not bite if you are using too much weight so keep it light you’ll be right.

I like to use a 1000 size reel spooled with 2 to 4 kg line paired with a light rod around the 7ft length.  One of my favourite set-ups for bream fishing is a Shimano Sustain 1000FG reel and a Shimano Finesse Bream 721 rod.  This combo is very versatile as you use it for bait, hard body and soft plastic lure fishing, and the rod in my opinion is one of the best value for money bream rods on the market.

When there is not much run in the tide or when fishing shallow water I like to use a small sinker down on the hook.  When there is a bit of run in the water I use a ball sinker that is enough to get it down on the bottom with a swivel to about 5ft of 4 to 6kg trace.

When biting, bream will either tap at the bait or engulf it, just wait for the rod to load up with the weight of the fish and strike to set the hook.

Next week I’ll give you some tips on fishing for Bream on hard body and vibe lures.

Tight lines.