My first squidgy bream

[pw-bream]

I have finally landed my first bream on soft plastics.

I had a short try under the Westgate Bridge at the mouth of the Stoney Creek Backwash where two other anglers were already fishing, one was using several rods and bait, the other was fishing soft plastics. I wonder if he is a member here, I asked if he had got any fish and he said a couple of small bream earlier and one bust-off. He stopped fishing and left shortly after I walked off and followed the bike trail down to the pontoon where I caught my fish.

At approx 10:00 am I pulled a barely size bream out from under the front of the first pontoon downstream from the Westgate Bridge in Yarraville/Spotswood, basically across the road from Scienceworks.
Under a smoky, haze darkened mid-morning sky I used a 1/32 oz round jig head with a 65mm Squidgy Wriggler in the Jelly Prawn colour. I slowly "trolled" the lure along the front of the pontoon with a pulsing wriggle action. The fish was solidly hooked on the first touch. My soft plastic bream number 1 gave a good account of itself and swam off hastily when released. Some of the other people fishing from the pontoon using long poles seemed suprised by my quick success and release of the fish. This was also my fist time using Fireline, previously I have always fished 2kg mono all the way.

After exploring several other areas along the west banks of the Yarra and Maribynong Rivers without any further success I crossed the Maribynong at Shepards Bridge and went on to the Centre Pier at Docklands.
I saw a few fish here, but none would do more than half-heartedly follow my lure then veer away. This has been the pattern at Docklands on my last two visits.

I saw several anglers in boats who appeared to be competing in the B.R.E.A.M. tournament which was held in conjunction with the boat show. Disappointingly the fishing comp stuff appeared to be inside the boat show area and an admission of $7 was asked to enter this area. I wasn't interested in the boat show so elected not to visit the fishing comp area.

[bluefin]

Good on ya P W I bet the adrenalin was pumping

It will be the first of many!!!!!!!

[pw-bream]

Thanks Bluefin, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself.
I've caught Bream on fly and bait and hard bodied lures before, and quite a few other species on soft plastics too. For some reason the bream and the soft plastic had never come together for me before, the fish always dropped the lure or the hook pulled when I've had previous bream hookups. This morning it all worked out for me.

[pete s]

well done peter

you didnt miss out on much.....between 36 of us fishing only 11 anglers landed 19 fish ....very long days fishing. lots of little fish around the 20-25cm mark but not many legals....i landed 1 of 24.5cm


oh well....always next year

[johno13]

well done pw i hope to catch my first bream on a lure shortly had a try today and all i caught was a blowie

The one fish i hate is the blowie

John

[pw-bream]

Originally posted by johno13
all i caught was a blowie

Thanks Johno13,
I have a pink grub with a perfect impression of a toad/blowie beak bite out of the tail. The Queenscliffe boat harbour has some beauties in it :-)

Speaking of Queenscliffe, has anyone else been watching the huge eagle? DohDohDohDoh that swoop up the channel and around the moorings there? My son and I saw several at low tide a few weeks ago and the largest must have been nearly 2 metres across. They are very dark on top with light, whitish markings.
They really are a sight to see!

[Dave W]

Good 'onya PW

I'll back Pete up on the hard fishing in the comp.....

I managed 1 fish over the 2 day period that weighed in at 440 grams, and that got me 7th place as a boater and $200....

Shows how hard it is in there at the moment if some of the countries top Bream anglers can only manage such a small amount of fish

[cody]

Well done PW

Hopefully there will be many more and many bigger ones to come.

[rodmy]

good job u avoided the boat show, it was a rip off. less intersting than a wander around JV Marine. all the boats big criusers no tinnies or v nose punts like the Bream competitors were using, i lasted 7 mins there

[Dave W]

I've got to agree with you rodmy, at the last Sydney Boat Show (probably one of the biggest in the country) there were only about 5 'pointy punts' decked out for sportsfishing - when are the major manufacturers going to realise how huuuuuge Bream Spinning (and estuary/inland sportsfishing) is going to be???