to be the most productive over broader
conditions whether it be summer or autumn or
whether clear or overcast, white and clear
always produce fish.
Profile can be important as well and is one
area that is forever changing. It seems like the
trend has been to use bigger and longer lures
than previously. Again, it’s situational. If
bream are feeding on small fry or whitebait
they’ll zone in on lures that have more realistic
fish profiles. If prawns are running and bream
are herding them on the surface making them
skip, then a surface lure displacing water with
a slender profile in natural colours will be
called for.
The key takeout is to be observant and try to
decipher what the bream are feeding on and as
the cliche saying goes - match the hatch.WHERE & WHEN?
The perception used to be bream were only a
legitimate target on surface in summer, when the
water temps are up fish are actively feeding and
this was the best time to catch them. Broadly
speaking this has been debunked and the more
widely held view is that bream can be targeted
on surface for much longer than previously
thought. Over the past summer, we were
catching quality fish well into Autumn and the
key factor was water temps not atmospheric
temps. Most fishos will tell you the
warm water from summer hangs around
longer than the changing weather
patterns and while there’s still some heat
there, the bream will play ball. During
winter, bream will go deep and become
sluggish, especially around Sydney
however things may be different in
more northern parts of the coastline.
The other myth is time of day. The
view used to be that low-light periods
of dawn and dusk were necessary to
catch surface bream when in fact, they
can be targeted throughout the day,
weather conditions dependent. While
dawn and dusk are obviously a prime
time, peak bite times can be extended
considerably if there is cloud and rain.
There’s no doubt the full force of the
sun belting down at midday into clear
shallow will shut down the bite. BreamRIGHT: Bream can be
targeted in shallow
water on topwater,
a tactic which works
well af ter rain.
BELOW: Experiment
with differnt t ypes
of surface and sub
surface topwater lures.
RIGHT: Bream can
be caught year round
on topwater.
COVER STORY: TOPWATER BREAM
14 fishingworld.com.au | September 2019are cautious creatures and while they can fire
up and bite freely, they can be timid.
The best assistance to prolong the bite is wind.
Again, the presence of wind helps ruff le the
water’s surface which gives bream a sense of
comfort. Makes sense. Fish are often predated on
from above and below, and if they are up feeding
shallow then a ruff led surface will make it less
likely they’ll be attacked from above. We often see
this behaviour when f lats fishing with plastics as
well. Wind is a key bite trigger for bream and at
times, the harder it blows the better.
The last point to make is around depth and
water clarity. The more ruff led the surface and
poorer the clarity, the shallower bream feed
which plays perfectly into the hands of surface
lures. Don’t be afraid to cast lures into water
that will barely cover a bream’s back.
A rising tide will also see them move
shallower to feed, especially if the water is a
little discoloured. This is especially so after
heavy rain. We’ve found our largest bream in
ultra-shallow water just after a major downpour
when the water was murky, again, all relating to
a sense of protection.
Success though is about observation and
selecting the right lure for the task. If the wind
is howling and bream are hunting shallow, then
subtle surface lures such as Berkley Scum Dogs
or Ecogear PX45s may not get noticed. It may
require a popper such the Storm Gomoku 40s
or a popper with an in-built bubble trail such as
the Strike Pro Rack Popper to create enough
disturbance to get seen. Even the subsurface
Bent Minnow can be used in these
circumstances to dive under the commotion