Episode 351: Japanese Dudes, Silk Worms And Bream With Steve Morgan

Key Messages From Steve’s Interview

• Topwater breaming has historically been about small hardbody stickbaits and poppers.
• Around a decade or so ago Ecogear brought out a line of lures known as “Grass Minnows”, which have since become famous. Grass Minnows are cylindrical lures with lightly ribbed bodies and paddle-tails.
• Fishing 3” Grass Minnows in the pale pink, phosphorescent colour on unweighted #1 worm hooks has proven to be a deadly technique on all species of bream around Australia. The technique is to cast long, burn the lure back across the surface and about half way through the retrieve, just stop, allowing the lure to sink slowly down.
• The Japanese have taken this lure and technique to the next level by developing a product called Ecogear Aqua, which is a natural, biodegradable, scented plastic made from the dead pupae that are a waste product of the silk industry.
• Enormous research has gone into not only the design of the body shape of the lures to make them sink horizontally and very naturally, but also to make them move and smell like something irresistible to bream. It will catch other species, but it is specifically a bream lure.
• Ecogear pro angler Takayoshi Orimoto visited Australian on multiple occasions to extensively test this lure against the other leading bream lures, a process that took around 5 years before the lure was released for sale.
• The Ecogear Aqua can be rigged on a #1 unweighted Vanfook Magic Beak Worm Hook, taking care to get it properly centred, as is the case with all soft plastic lures. It’s cast long to the bank or into structure and is worked along the surface with twitches and skips until either you can’t see the bottom or a bream is spotted following it. At that point, the line is laid on the water and the lure sinks horizontally. It’s very important to lay the line on the water, otherwise the horizontal fall of the lure will be affected and catch rates fall off. A following bream will almost always eat the falling lure. When fishing them in this way it is necessary to strike fairly hard to set the hook, don’t make the mistake of trying to just wind the fish on.
• These are a clear, shallow water lure and will often take bream that are super fussy towards other lure styles. When bream are rejecting other topwater lures is often a prime time to put an Ecogear Aqua into action.
• These lures can also be rigged using a 1/12-1/20 oz jig head when you’d normally throw a ZMan grub. However, rather than fish them with sharp twitches (like the grub) Steve finds it more effective to fish them slower and horizontally, essentially slow rolling it along the bottom in 10-15ft of water. When a fish takes the lure, simply wind it on to hook the fish.
• Steve likes a slightly longer, stiffer rod for Aqua fishing, 7’3” to 7’4” long, , 2500 reel, 4lb braid and enough 4-6lb fluorocarbon leader that the knot isn’t quite on the reel. Steve’s favourite leader is the Yamatoya Chinu Harris, which was designed for this style of fishing and has the perfect sink rate. When fishing them on a jig head it’s necessary to drop down to a 4lb leader.
• As with Berkley Gulps, these lures do have a shelf life and need to be used within a few months of opening the packet, otherwise they tend to go a little hard and shrivelled and lose their effectiveness.