Hey Chunqx & Yellow Door 1

[michbau]

Guys for us novice fisher folk, I know that people dont like to divulge their favorite spots, which is fair enough yourve done the hard yards and deserve the peace of a private spot.

But as you head out around Melb which essential baits and lures do you take, or would not be without.

Michaelb

[CHUNQX]

Its not so much where you fish or what you use because very often we fish right under the noses of everyone else. I'm very flattered to be mentioned on the same line as Yellow door though I don't believe I deserve that honour. What I know so far I have learnt from others like Swank_E (Yarra guru), Yellow Door (Docklands and Yarra on bait) and many more.
There's only so much you cn learn from theory, I found out when I fished with Swank_E it was worth 100 magazine articles in just a few hours of fishing with him. I don't mind passing on the little I know but its better to meet up and fish together rather than telling you what to do. I won't be telling you what you haven't already heard. For example... use high quality graphite rod, 4lb Fireline with 4lb fluoro leader, light as possible jigheads, small, dull coloured scented SPs, VERY slow retrieve, cast next to structure, and PERSIST even if it seems dead. Showing all that is a whole different matter altogether.
Tell you a funny story. I used to fish the Docklands extensively with bait and was quite successful. I met another cahp who was really keen somewhere else and after a few sessions he wanted to fish the Docklands too. I brought him there and this place was an old unused wharve with railway tracks in the middle. He proceeded to go to the end where the water was. I stopped him and asked him to fish in BETWEEN the tracks instead. He refused thinking it was ridiculous and asked me to fish while he watched. 15 minutes and 3 fish later he was convinced! Before that he was adamant you couldn't catch bream like that.
Hope that helps. We could meet up sometime for a fish of the Yarra. Also, the guys on this site organises unofficial comps. they're more like get-togethers of the bream luring nuts. Go for them and you will pick up heaps ..*personal experience*

[yellow door 1]

I'm with Chunqx - Swanke's the man for plastics in the Yarra. Very glad I hooked up with him early on. Chunqx seemed to have been a better student than me when it comes to plastics in the CBD.

I'm still much better with bait. What ever you use make sure its alive or as close to it before it goes on the hook. Even though you've caught bream on frozen baits before they dont compare to livies. The $8 you spend on a punnet of live worms is more than worth it. Nothing worse than spending $4 and not catching anything when for $8 you could have had a ripper. P.S. Bream are a protected species in the CBD and all must be released

I remember when I started trying for CBD bream this tackle shop owner was telling me I had to get livies or I was wasting my time. He was flogging a dozen Bass yabbies for $5 and after pumping my own there was no way I was paying that. I'd caught heaps of bream on frozen prawns so I was like - yeh what ever dude just give me the prawns. CBD bream will fall for frozen prawns but for consistancy go for the livie. Marine worms represent the best value for money in my opinion.

[michbau]

Gentlemen, thanks for the response, some time in the future (not to far away hopefully), I would love to catch up and see how you guys do it, I am available any time on weekends, but fishing is a personal thing and I appreciate that having learners like me can be draining, so any opportunity and I'm there. I'll keep an eye out for any gatherings.

Michaelb

[CHUNQX]

Glad to help anyway I can.. just paying it forward to the great help the Swank_E has done for me. he's the chap to get hold of. Unfortunately at this moment, the snow is calling out to him louder than the water is. can't blame him; fishing with plastics in the Yarra at the moment is really slow but you still stand a good chance of landing something if you persist... Or you could go the bait way...

On not paying $5 a dozen for yabbies I can understand the unwillingness there. I wasn't even about to pay $4 a dozen! But lately I find myself having no time to pump for yabbies or to travel for 3 hours (return trip) just to get yabbies for the next day's fishing and ended up buying a miserable dozen for $5.50 because its not all that worth it after some intense calculation to get them myself
Its the hardest $5.50 I've had to part with. I'd gladly hand over $10 for plastics or anything else I might never use but for yabbies which I used to pump for 45 minutes and get 80..... Some downsides to working full time.. Upside is I can now afford to buy bait but geeee whiz.. is it hard to part with once you've gotten it yourself!

Doesn't help that my lower back has been causing me some grief too..

[carltonbreamman]

Hi Guys, as you might have guessed by the name another inner city breamer, does any one know a tackle shop close (by train or tram as have no car) that I can get bait from ?

[pw-bream]

JM Turville in Victoria St Nth melbourne would be your closest live bait stoickist I think. It isn't a bad shop, but not as good as it was years ago. They normally have live Bass Yabbies, etc.

[yellow door 1]

malones in newport under the west gate bridge usually has worms on the weekends

[carltonbreamman]

Thanks for that pw-bream that is real close and won't be to hard to get to.

hey yellow door where do u get ur bass yabbies close to melbourne, is the thing about cbd bream being pretected made up or for real?

[yellow door 1]

I personally havent pumped any productive yabbie banks in PPB. The Yabbies are there in small numbers at the river mouths I've tried but not anywhere like the numbers and size you get in Westernport. I think bait collecting in PPB intertidal zone is now illegal.

Some of the Bream fisherman I've seen using them say they pump them at Altona and Werribee but I dont know exactly where. They also get some great big black worms from down that way.

My Yabbies come from Westernport.

I forgot to put a smilie face after that "bream are a protected species comment"

aohh ok, i brought home about 50 from torquay and we were planning to use them in docklands but they died cause the wehter tuned and we didn't get to use them the weekend afta. hey lawrence i get off skool completly next week, u up for a couple of docklands sessions at some time, i am gunna do some real early sessions during the up and cuming weeks, u interested in doing a couple of sessions some time?

[yellow door 1]

Yeh I'll be in it. I usually do my bream spinning after work as getting up early is a massive effort for me. So if you'd consider the last few hours of light I'd be keen for a bash. I dont work week ends so we should be able to work something out.

[yellow door 1]

Originally posted by fish_man
aohh ok, i brought home about 50 from torquay and we were planning to use them in docklands but they died cause the wehter tuned and we didn't get to use them the weekend afta.

I get a bit more life out of them by wrapping them in a small section of wet towel. Once a couple die in the bucket of water it turns into a death soup.

If you dont have an aerator and you want to keep them in water make sure its in a shallow tray. The more suface area - the more oxygen gets it. A deep cylindircal bucket full of water has very little surface area. This turns the bottom of the bucket into an oxegen free zone

[CHUNQX]

back from the Gold Coast and I'll put some comments up later...

Bass yabbies... when they die the water turns murky and stinks of rotten prawns. This then causes the other yabbies to lose a bit of life in them and then eventually lose their life altogether...
What I usually do when I get yabbies is I bring a spare bucket and store a lot of saltwater in them so I can change the water regularly. I do that even when I have an aerator. Its amazing how quickly they come back to life when you change the water...
In Gold Coast they sell live bass yabbies for $3.75 for 25 yabbies!
If that's the price they sell it in Melbourne, I would stop pumping for them too...