Episode 3: Clarence River Bream With Darren Borg

Darren’s Top Tips For Clarence River Bream

• Slow down. Don’t rush into making a cast, take the time to position your boat and make the every cast count. “If you’re not losing lures you’re not catching fish”.
• Bream fishing is about being persistent and trying new things. Don’t fall into the trap of using the same lure over and over. Keep trying new lures until you can catch fish on every lure in your box.
• If you’re used to fishing a particular style of structure elsewhere, try fishing the same type of structure in the Clarence. Also, the Clarence is a deep water fishery, good results can come from fishing 15-20m depths.
• Watch your sounder and if you find fish sitting on the bottom, note the spot. Come back at other phases of the tide and if the fish have risen above the bottom you’ll most likely catch them.
• It’s worth “pimping up” your reel drags because you’ll be using very light gear and a jerky drag can cost a lot of fish.

Darren’s Top Lures For Clarence River Bream

• Squidgy or Gulp curl-tail grubs in the 50-75mm are perfect for both rock wall and deep water bream in the Clarence River size range with 1/32 to 1/4 jig heads, depending on depth and current.
• Good quality hard body lures in the 35-40mm size range. Shallow diving versions are great for the shallow flats and lakes, deeper diving hard bodies work well along the rock walls.
• Crab imitation lures have been one of the go-to lures that work well in all parts of the Clarence system. The trick to using them is to do nothing and fish them the same way as you’d fish a bait for bream.
• Vibration lures will work when other lures don’t. They are especially effective when there is little current movement. The best technique is tohop them across the bottom in little lifts, “yo yo” style.

Darren’s Bream Fishing Tackle

• 2000 size spinning reels with 1-5 kg or 2-5 kg rods, buy the best you can afford, but it doesn’t have to be the most expensive gear on the market.
• Darren prefers fluorocarbon right through, rather than braid with a leader, 2 kg line is common, but 3-4 kg is ok if you want a little more strength.

Darren’s Preferred Times To Fish The Clarence

• The Clarence River fishes well for bream all year around, but winter is a great time because fish are spawning and the bigger fish tend to be a little more aggressive.
• Bream fishing in the Clarence River fishes is usually best when there is a little bit of colour in the water. If it’s too clean the fish can be shy, if it’s too dirty they can go off the bite.
• If the weather has been dry and the water is clear then a run-out tide works best. If the water is a little cloudy then a run-in tide brings cleaner water and tends to fish better.