Newbie Alert

eplea · #1 15-09-2009, 01:44 AM

G'day all. Moved from Canada to Melbourne about 3 years ago and just getting back into the swing of things.

Been to Docklands heaps and seem to have no trouble pulling in pinkies ranging from "you sure that's not a goldfish?" to "hey, nice catch!" but the bream seem to be giving a miss.

That said, was out on Saturday and after strapping myself to the dock (windy as!) had a good day out. First hit came on a Strike Pro vibe. No headshake as I've come to expect from pinkies....could have been my first big bream at Docklands....stupid thrown hook. Followed with pinkie, pinkie, more pinkies...sun setting....pinkie... then as I was leaving....another massive hit. Different spot, different vibe, but again, no head shake, buckled rod and thrown hook just before hitting the surface.

Had a look at the vibe when I got home at the front treble was chewed. Bream have that much strength in there jaw?

I'm using my old Daiwa interline Procaster-Z (2-10lb) with a butchered Penn reel spooled with with 2lb Fireline/4lb mono or 6lb Fireline/8lb FC.

Have been reading through some posts...hopefully I'll be able to contribute as much as I've been able to pick up reading the forum.

---
Ed

PS.....if anyone is interested in some weekend fishing at Docklands, feel free to PM...I'm almost always free.

Danmaso · #2 15-09-2009, 01:46 AM

welcome mate, im heading to canada at the end of the year perhaps you could give me some tips

Breamkid · #3 15-09-2009, 01:48 AM

Welcome mate,
I saw you down there on saturday, Your doing better than me on the pinkies.
As for bream try ecogear vx's or go soft and use grubs deep.

eplea · #4 15-09-2009, 02:03 AM

Cheers for the welcomes guys.

Dan, where abouts in Canada are you heading? Looking for trout, chinook, muskies, large mouth, small mouth?

Breamkid, deep is where I'm hooking into pinkies. Have used every type of plastic I have (Lunker City, Gulp, Ecogear, Gene Larew, Bass Assassin, etc) on hooks ranging from weightless to 5g but no bream as yet. Will see what the mrs. has to say about it but might head down again on Saturday.

Crayfish · #5 15-09-2009, 03:10 AM

Maybe try upgrading the hooks on some of your lures. Ive found OWNER hooks are best, they def wont let you down

Breamkid · #6 15-09-2009, 03:11 AM

I've been getting a couple on Snapbacks and wrgglers

stelmo · #7 15-09-2009, 08:33 AM

try working your soft plastics dead slow deep

Piscateur · #8 15-09-2009, 11:01 PM

Welcome aboard mate, Looks like youre doin pretty wellon the Pinks, Bream will come They are not on full chew at the moment and will get "easier" in the coming months.
As mentioned Vibes are the go atm but always have the gulp worms handy too.

Danmaso · #9 15-09-2009, 11:41 PM

Mate im heading to toronto, looking for anything really... will be there in december so will everything be frozen over?

Minnows · #10 15-09-2009, 11:49 PM

Docks is quite inconsistent as far as breaming goes, some days you get heaps! some days you get none.. if you're getting sick of the little pinks then pay a visit to some flats on either the yarra or nong, bream cruising the flats will generally smack lures more readily then the bream at the docks. And yes bream do bust up your trebles from time to time (even owners) but that's fishing..

eplea · #11 16-09-2009, 06:45 PM

Dan,

Lived outside of Toronto for 10 years before moving to Australia.
December is a bit of a tricky time. It's cold, but often not quite cold enough to make the ice safe.

This time of year (autumn) is outstanding for smallmouth bass,
pike and muskie but I've always found fishing slow & unproductive
in the time between the end of autumn and before the ice freezes
over. Once things have frozen over (if it's a good winter usually late December, early January)...whitefish and perch are the
more common catches with the occasional pike and crappie.

Danmaso · #12 16-09-2009, 09:48 PM

will see how i go might try and find a local to show me the ropes, if not just drink i guess!

eplea · #13 16-09-2009, 11:10 PM

Cheers for the advice guys.

I've been casting along the dock and letting lures sink (plastics, blades, etc).
Plastics have generally been allowed to sink until slack is out of line followed by a gentle lift of the rod tip, one wind on the reel and let it sink to a tight line....repeat. The odd time I'll throw a moderately heavy (5g) jig with a paddle tail grub and retrieve with a constant slow retrieve with a twitch every now and then and a pause every couple turns on the reel.

Blades were slow when I got there for my first session using them on Saturday afternoon, but I cracked the code and 4:30'ish onwards Saturday near every drop of the lure was getting hit. Let's see if the code remains the same this weekend. I'm going to go down again on Sunday.

Breamingwithjoy · #14 16-09-2009, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eplea

but I cracked the code and 4:30'ish onwards Saturday near every drop of the lure was getting hit. Let's see if the code remains the same this weekend. I'm going to go down again on Sunday.

Cracked the code huh??? Care to share with the less fortunate???

eplea · #15 16-09-2009, 11:41 PM

Breamingwithjoy,

Well, the code that was working from about 4:30-7:30PM last Saturday was a 35mm Strike Pro blade vibe. I was using the ones in the matt gold/black and the metallic red colours.
Short cast about 3m from the dock, let sink to the bottom. One crank on the handle to get it just off the bottom. A quick lift of the rod tip from about 3 to 1 o'clock, let sink. Reel in slack and repeat. Two/three times should get the lure close to being directly below the rod tip. Another slow lift from 3 to 1 o'clock. Let it sink. A quick short lift (rod tip moves about 10cm), pause a few seconds, another quick short lift, pause.....
Nearly every cast, after that second short lift and pause my rod would load up.