Lure Fishing for Bream in Moreton Bay: How to Maximize Your Success

Blake’s Top Tips For Brisbane Bream

• The edges around Moreton Bay are the key areas to fish over the October-December period. Quality fish will be found in good numbers in shallow water around mangrove roots or along the rocky foreshores throughout the bay.
• Windy days are great, as long as conditions aren’t dangerous. Blake like to find a shoreline that’s exposed to wind and position himself so he’s casting with the wind to his back and landing his lures in shallow water along the foreshore.
• Best conditions are overcast mornings with at least 30km of wind, big tides and a thunderstorm in the afternoon would be the absolute perfect conditions for Brisbane breaming.
• Blake reckons it’s better to have a handful of lures that you’re confident with and learn to use them really well, rather than be constantly switching lures and never really master any of them.
• If the fishing is really tough, downsize your line and leader and finesse what you can. Look for pockets of fish, even if there’s only a couple of fish, that no one else has targeted as they’ll be less spooky.
• Sometimes what might be a bad day’s fishing is really just a bad day in your own head. Take a break for 10 minutes, have a bite to eat, a drink and clear the head before resetting yourself and starting afresh.

Blake’s Brisbane Bream Fishing Tackle

• Blake uses Duffrods custom fishing rods for his tournament angling. A 1-4kg spin rod is a good general purpose option, coupled with a Daiwa 2004 reel. For beginners, Blake suggests straight through 5-6 lb mono or fluorocarbon line is a good option because tying lines to leaders to fine braid is one of the things newbies struggle with.
• Blake’s choice of the Daiwa 2004 or Megabass reels is partly due to the low gear ratio, which allows him to work lures more slowly when he needs to.

Blakes Top Bream Fishing Lures

• 38mm Atomic Hardz Cranks are deadly lures and Blake has his own favourite custom colours that he likes to paint them. He doesn’t fish the custom colours on pre-fish days, though, just during a competition. These lures are great in water shallower than 3ft, with size 12 Decoy hook upgrades. The bib deflects the lure from getting snagged, allowing the lure to be purposefully driven into the bottom. Work it relatively slowly, making constant contact and noise with the bottom and pausing if the lure gets caught up to let the lure float back out.
• The deep diving Jackall Chubby in Brown Suji Shrimp colour is great, but don’t forget to upgrade the hooks to size 14 Decoys. This lure is used in the same way as the Atomic Crankz, but in deeper water to 6ft or so.
• The OSP Bent Minnow is a classic bream lure that is perfect for getting fish curious and competing with each other to take the lure. Blake likes the 86mm size for extra casting weight and fishes this lure anywhere there’s weeded edges, shallow rock and reefs.