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Casting his lightly weighted worm bait towards a few rocks only a couple of metres from shore the old boy left the line loose so he could snare another bream.
Grinning madly, I strode past the old feller’s spot and casting my lure upstream on the other side of the rocks I started to dance my lure back through the water behind the rocks back to my feet. “ What are you blokes fishing for?” the old boy asked.
“Bream,” replied Chris my companion for the day. With that the old man laughed saying “Bream on lures, no way mate!”
“Can’t be done. Don’t you young blokes know lures are designed to catch fisherman not fish? Ha Ha,” laughed the old boy.
“I’m on!” cried Chris and sure enough, under the old boys steely gaze, Chris’s rod was loaded up into a working curve while his little reel gave line to a determined but unseen fish.
The swirl of water near Chris’s feet indicated the fish was close then after a few cranks on the reel’s handle a beautiful silver bream with a mouthful of red and white Majik Mulga lure appeared.
“It’s a fluke,” cried the old fellow but then suddenly whack and I’m on too. By the headshakes being transmitted through the cork grips I reasoned this was a good bream. I assured myself as my light threadline spinning outfit yielded line to a good fish. The fish pulled the 1.8kg Fireline effortlessly on a few occasions and I was confident I was on to a good bream. Twice the fish swam for the rocks a few metres to my right.
After a big swirl at my feet the fight ended with 79cm of glistening mulloway (jewie) laying on the surface in front of me with a little pink Taylor Made Nippy Shrimp hanging proudly from the fish’s lips. After shooting some pics of the two fish we returned the fish in true catch and release ethics to the amazement of our older companion.
Although bream spinning has been an accepted as a normal fishing pursuit enjoyed by lots of people in the eastern states, the opposite can be said here in South Australia. Ten percent of the whole fishing fraternity within our state have endured constant remarks and put downs from ignorant people so that they can enjoy the experience of this exciting pastime. This small percentage of cutting edge anglers are now often seen fly/lure fishing for bream in the few waterways that bream frequent in South Australia.
Black bream are aggressive and often these fish can be caught on lures 8cm long. The Serge Flathead Diver, with metal bib in the perfect example, This particular lure dressed in its uniform of brown black with pink stomach and blackspots swims with a tight body roll and shimmer and has been the undoing of many large southern black bream.
Other hard body lures that are favoured by South Aussies include:
I often smother these hardbody presentations in a coating of Halco’s Freshwater Aniseed lure gel and have had impressive results.
Rod and reel combinations consists of small light threadline combinations spooled with either 4lb or 6lb Fireline. Platypus has just introduced their own light braided lines onto the tackle scene down here so it will be interesting to see how the bream spinning community will take to the new products.
A lot of lure fishers attach lures with a small lure snap or Mustad fly clip but I tie a loop knot onto my leader to attach the lure, even on leadhead jigs for soft plastics. The particular loop knot I use is one I devised myself and named after Dick Lewers of Modern Fishing Fame.
LEWERS LOOP KNOT
Step 1. Form a loop in your main line by overlapping twice.
Step 2. Now feed the tag through the tow point and feed back through your formed loop and cinch down tight.
Step 3. Now circle the main line twice and by holding the two formed loops between thumb and forefinger, pass the tag through the two formed loops from the rear, then lubricate the line before pulling the main line tight.
Step 4. Both knots pull together to form a loop. Trim tag and cast away.
Locations
South Australian bream can be found in the following locations
1/ Glenelg, Inman, Hindmarsh, Murray, Onkarparinga, Patawolonga, Port, Torrens, Gawler and Todd Rivers on the mainland. In addition, the creeks around Port Pirie can produce excellent bream with Wallaroo’s Marina always producing exceptional captures.
2/ Most little creeks and rivers on Kangaroo Island also produce bream.
Of these only a small number could handle bream catch and release tournaments.
These are as follows;
Unfortunately at the time of writing this article the top of the Port River and Barkers Inlet have been closed due to the weed infestation of Caulerpa taxifolia. This exotic weed, which has infested these areas, was originally released from someone emptying their fish aquariums contents into this waterway. West Lakes, a large nursery system for bream, was contaminated with this weed and so the waterway was closed to fishing for approximately six months, drained of its saltwater content and replaced with freshwater from the Torrens River system. This change of conditions has not damaged the bream stocks within the lakes as a recent fishing trip with soft plastic lures confirmed with 50 odd bream caught landed and released within two consecutive fishing sessions. Fisheries have since advised me that the top of the Port River system will be closed indefinitely due to the weeds infestation problem and to combat this weed in both locations Fisheries have employed the use of Divers to either smother the plant in a pile of rock salt or cover the weed entirely with black plastic and fasten to the waterways bottom. Paul Tatterelli of fisheries advises that the salt covering process has been the most efficient weed killer in the least amount of time.
Autumn to the late spring is the time to chase wily large South Australian bream and so when visiting South Australia tie on a larger than normal size bream lure and you too can enjoy a black bream experience.