Bream are by no means classed as a big fish although a fish of 1.5 kilo (3lbs) upwards would be seen as a trophy fish in Australia. Therefore the fishing rods and reels are very specialized for this type of fishing. There has to be a balance of lightness, strength and finesse.
Bream are a clever customer and very unpredictable, one minute they can be feeding freely and be reasonably easy to hook and within five minutes they can shut down and refuse any lure thrown at them. One well known Australian fishing identity reckons bream fishing is the piscatorial equivalent of playing chess. That's why you have to have gear that can be adapted on the day to either fish lighter or heavier to trick these Wiley little scrappers.
Bream usually live in rough terrain including oyster covered rock bars and reefs, oyster farms, mangrove lined shores, trees that have fallen into the water, moored boats and so on. For this reason most keen bream fisherman will have at least two specialized bream outfits. By specialized I mean a light 1 to 3 kilo (2.2lb to 6.6lb) graphite rod with a 1000 to 2500 size spinning reel with 2 to 4 pound braided line.
The other outfit would be 2 to 5 kilo (4.4lb to 11lb) graphite rod with a 1000 to 2500 size spinning reel with anywhere from 6lb to 10lb braided line. The lighter outfit would do for your general bream fishing around shorelines and weeded flats. Mainly areas where there is no nasty structure like oysters.
The heavier outfit you would use around rough terrain as mentioned earlier e.g. oyster lined rocks and mangroves. This rod would be known as your "come here rod" The bream is rated as a sport fish in Australia as they are a tenacious fighter, once hooked they will fight all the way to the net. They are known for their last dive or lunge as the fisherman attempts to net the hooked fish only to have the fish throw the hooks or bust the line.
Lures for catching bream are many and varied, the two most common would be soft plastics and small hard body or crank bait lures. Rigging the rods for bream would consist of using braided or gel spun mainline with about a rod length of fluorocarbon leader tied to the end of the mainline then a jig head or hard body is tied to the fluorocarbon leader.
The fluorocarbon is necessary as it serves two purposes, the first reason we use fluorocarbon is it is virtually invisible under water adding to the stealth factor and the second reason is it is much more abrasion resistant then the mainline, giving the angler more chance when the fish runs you line around something sharp whilst trying to escape. For more information on how to catch Australian bream go to http://www.ausbream.com.au
Written By Mark Goverd
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Mark Goverd - EzineArticles Expert Author
