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Kaj “Bushy” Busch
Fishing Personality And Lure Designer
Bushy is something of an icon in Australian fishing. Well-known for his television appearances back in the day on “Rex Hunts Fishing Adventures”, regular radio and magazine column contributions and occasional tournament participation, these days the “Human Broom” is far too busy fishing for any of that stuff! He is selling the occasional hand-carved lure though, so drop down to the bottom of the page to see if there’s a lure available for purchase!
Bushy’s Top Bream Fishing Tips
- The deadliest technique to learn in black bream fishing is to pause a suspending crankbait. Bream can rarely resist this technique and by reading their body language you (and they) quickly know that they’re going to crunch your lure!
- Gippsland Lakes is a system in recovery, thanks to good management by Victorian Fisheries and local catchment groups. The fishing is steadily improving and will continue to do so for years to come.
- Bushy recommend super light line fishing for bream and reckons it’s not so scary once you get used to it – but light gear seriously improves your results.
- In his youth Bushy yearned to fish for American large mouth bass because of the massive variety of lures they can take. Then he discovered that bream will take all the same lure styles once you figure them out.
- It seems counter-intuitive but using light lines and leaders (1kg) in dirty water makes a huge difference to catch rates.
- Bushy reckons most of the theories about when to fish for bream are nothing more than BS. He recommends fishing for them right through the day and on any tide and moon phase. He especially reckons it’s not worth sacrificing a sleep-in for an early morning bite and prefers to hit the water later, after a hearty breakfast.
- In the late winter to early spring months the Gippsland Lakes bream are moving up into the river systems in preparation for spawning. Once they locate water of suitable salinity they’ll stay put and not move much for several weeks.
- If the fishing is tough, find some water 6ft deep with a good breeze and use a technique called “boogering”, which is described below.
Bushy’s Recommended Bream Fishing Tackle
- It’s not unusual for Bushy to have seven rods in his boat all rigged up and ready to fish, but that’s a hangover from his tournament days.
- For the weekend angler huge recommends a lightweight spin rod in the seven foot range with a whippy tip with matching reel, 4lb braid and light (2lb) fluorocarbon leader as the main outfit.
- For sinking plastics and crankbaits he recommends a similar setup but loaded with 3lb straight through fluorocarbon line – or even 2lb fluorocarbon.
Bushy’s Black Bream Fishing Lures
- A soft plastic lure is always a good starting point and Bushy recommends the 100mm Squidgies Wriggler or the 2.5″ Zman Grubz in Motor Oil colour. He generally fishes these on a 1.5 to 2g head, depending on conditions. Technique varies depending on the conditions and what the fish are doing. A couple of good techniques include hopping the lure gently along the bottom on a 2g head if the fish are deep or zig-zagging it mid water on a 1.5g head if the fish are marking mid-water. The other effective technique in the lake is called “Boogering” and involves casting long ahead of a drifting boat in fairly shallow water and starting the retrieve immediately with some hefty jerks of the rod, letting the lure sink between jerks.
- The 86 mm OSP bent minnow is a great bream lure that isn’t always effective, but is a lot of fun and at times will slay them. It’s a sub-surface lure that is best fished on a floating leader rather than a fluorocarbon leader – and if you replace the hooks make sure it’s with the exact same hooks the lure came with. Work the lure in sweeps with pauses between to allow the lure to return to the surface
- A shallow swimming Jackall Chubby is another effective bream lure in the lakes and can be fished on a simple slow roll over flats of in the rivers.
$80 🎣
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$170
Sold to Matt Stanley for $170 + postage. Congratulations Matt!
Hi Greg,
Been listening to your podcast for some time now and love your format. We’ll done mate and keep up the great work. Is it true you are a South Aussie too?
Anyway, as you can see by my silly email, I love catching barra. I now live in Melbourne and get my fix ounce a year fishing remote NT rivers during tbe runoff’s. The BOM is forecasting a La Nina this year, fingers crossed! To be honest, I do tend to gravitate to your barra episodes, but also loved the yellowfin episode on the northern beaches on metro Adelaide which I also knew well growing up.
Anyway, to possibly get one up on my mates on our barra trips, I was hoping you could put me in touch with Buschy to purchase a coupe of his barra lures. I’d be keen to by some of yours too if you’re making any.
During this time in Stage 4 here in Melbourne, your podcast’s are my therapy.
Cheers,
Marty
Hi Marty, Thanks for your kind words mate, glad the show helps provide some comfort during lockdown. I’ve passed your details on to Bushy to get in touch with you, let me know if you don’t hear anything and I can give him another nudge.
Yes, Adelaide born and bred, though I haven’t lived there for four decades or so……