Episode 305: St Georges Basin Bream With Greg Reid

Reidy’s Basin Bream Fishing Tips

• From November through April the bream population in the basin become active surface feeders, taking prawns and insects from the top in shallow water.
• The basin is the northernmost bastion of good numbers of black bream, although yellowfin are more prevalent.
• The current season is extra productive because the floods last season have brought nutrients to the estuaries and nourished the prawns.
• The best structure to look for bream at this time of year is points that jut into broken seagrass beds. Ideal spots are where the lure can be worked through weed and paused over a sand patch.
• The basin has unusual hydrology with minimal tidal movement, but the fish still respond to lunar cycles. Greg likes days where there is a little breeze and recommends starting later in the day to give the seabreeze time to build up. Periods around the new and full moons fish well, although Reidy finds that the bite is usually slow when the full moon is in the sky during daylight hours.
• Long casts and fine lines are essential to avoid spooking the fish and quality polarised sunglasses are important as it is a huge advantage to be able to watch the behaviour of the fish.
• Often bream will approach a surface lure 4, 5 or 6 times before taking it. If you have a strike but fail to hook up it’s important not to strike and drag the lure away from the fish. Be patient, pause and wait a while before subtly twitching the lure again.
• Big tailor often come along and snaffle a lure intended for bream, so keep your most prized and expensive lures aside to fish other places.
• “If there’s no wobble there’s no gobble!” Reidy suggests casting the lure with the wind behind and flipping the bail before it hits the surface to make the lure skip a couple of times.
• If the fishing is hard, Reidy suggests putting a smear of S-Factor scent on the lure and potentially reducing the leader to 3lb breaking strain, plus extending the leader length.

Reidy’s Preferred Bream Fishing Tackle

• Reidy loves long rods for fishing the flats at St Georges Basin and usually fishes 8’, 8’6” or longer rods in the 2-4kg class, with 2500 size reels, 2-3lb braid and 3-4lb FC Rock fluorocarbon leaders. He favours custom rods from Messiah Custom Fishing Rods.

Reidy’s Basin Bream Fishing Lures

• The Pro Lure SF62 is a pencil style lure. Cast it with the wind and far as you can, flipping the bail just before the lure hits the surface to skip it a couple of times. Then hold the rod high and work it vigorously for a couple of metres before pausing the lure for up to 20 seconds before moving it. If there is a fish underneath a subtle twitch at this point can be all that’s required to get the strike. Greg likes canary and finds the vivid yellows, pinks and sometimes clear lures for basin bream, but the Pro Lure SF62 is being released in a motor oil colour this week, which Reidy reckons will be the good on sunny days. The new colour is intended to look like a surface prawn. Other good surface lures include the Kazami 60 and Sammy 65, which are a little old school these days but still catch fish.
• If the bream are down deeper, the Jackall Chubby is a classic lure that has won numerous tournaments and continues to fish extremely well in most locations. Alternatively, the Pro Lure S36 is a 36mm crankbait that has intentionally been designed with a different towpoint and sound signature to the Chubby (more subtle) and Reidy finds the matt black and combat colours work well. These lures can be cranked until you feel the vibration, then paused and allowed to slowly float to the surface before starting again. Other good crankbait alternatives include the 75mm Luckycraft Gun Fish in vivid yellow.