Preparing for KFT (part 2)

Author: JayPenfold

Category: Trip Reports

Created on Thursday, 03 March 2011 19:07

Written by Jay 'Yakfisher' Penfold

As the first Gold Coast round of the KFT Bream series nears, I thought I'd better put some casts in and target some wily ol' bream. Sailfish they ain't, but there is still something alluring about luring these fickle fishes. Humid, hot and overcast conditions and a top of the tide greeted my 9:30 AM launch at my usual upper Brunswick River "boat ramp".  Yesterday I paid Ross at my local fishing tackle shop a visit and spotted something I'd seen pop up on forums a bit and wanted to try for a while. Squidgy Pro "critters". Having seen an absolute honker of a bream caught in my crab pot last week and knowing the bigger bruisers were out there called for thinking outside the box. Some shoutbox discussion led me to rethink  my everyday strategy. Go large or get a better match for the hatch?  These critters seemed very similar to the little jelly prawns seen beating a hasty retreat across the surface at the mangrove edges so why not give them a crack?

At first, there was very little action at all, no fish and very little bait on the sounder.  I pushed up higher into the system hoping that all manner of fishes had followed the bath-warm water up. I concentrated on water under a metre deep, casting a 1/16th oz nitro darter super tight up current to the submerged mangrove edge, just deadsticking the plastic. The odd very gentle twitch to impart some movement seemed to be the retrieve of the day. I put in a good long cast and watched the braid floating for a bite/hit bottom indication when all slack pulled out of it and 32cm to the fork of bream muscled it's way accross the half meter deep gravel flat. Had me all around in circles and  at first I thought I had a small trevor. 

A quick measure, photograph and back to the briny for another day she goes. (Then a quick email to 2Pinkanchors and upload to facebook!)  Another four bream were boated over about an hour, ranging from hand sized rats to one that would measure ok for KFT.  Heading back for the boatramp I tried just deadsticking the plastic in about a meter and a half of water over a gravel bottom as I drifted. I felt a distinct knock through the braid and a solid fish took off. Another good bream methinks.  When it came to landing, she stayed too low in the water column. Surprise! A little big eye trevalley had nailed this dead slow presentation on the forage.

I have been a fan of Berkley Gulp shrimps and 3" minnows for some time, but a few of the Squidgy Pro range have started to give me some good results. In fact, I think I may just have found a new go to for backwater breaming. The one plastic survived multiple hits and maulings from a variety of sized fish today and will fish again tomorrow. I can't say that the Gulp would have fared so well. The Squidgy just seems far more robust. I think it's time to seek out some more of their range and shelve the gulps for a while. Here's hoping I can catch a few like this for the tournament.