For those who missed it first time around in print, here’s a piece on open water bream luring that first ran in FishLife magazine earlier this year: The art of luring bream has been one of the major engines of change in Australian sport fishing over the past few decades. In less than a single generation, catching bream on lures has gone from being an accident or a novelty for most anglers to a regular pursuit for many. Even those who don’t “get it” and wonder what all the fuss is about must grudgingly admit that the pursuit of bream on artificial baits has completely transformed our sport. Before many of you reading these words were born, that doyen of Australian fishing writing, Vic McCristal, offered the opinion that anglers skilled enough to regularly take bream on lures would tend to find most other species easy. It was McSea’s quietly understated way of doffing his cap to the bream clan as perhaps our most challenging piscatorial targets. What Vic could hardly have guessed in those days was the passion with which this country’s sport fishing community would eventually embrace that particular challenge, and how doing so would completely revolutionise our tackle, our techniques and even our angling mindset. Make no mistake: bream luring has radically altered the shape of Australian fishing, and this significant evolutionary upheaval is far from having run its course. Discoveries remain to be made. For many, open water breaming is just one of them. Middle Of Nowhere For most of us, thoughts of catching bream on lures immediately conjure mental images of structure fishing: accurately casting our soft plastics and little hard bodies at shorelines, rocks, snags, pylons, oyster lease racks or moored boats. But what if I told you...
Snag-Proof Your Soft Plastics!...
posted by Starlo
Rigging your Squidgies and other soft plastic lures “weedless” or “snag-proof” is much easier than many people seem to think! And once they’re rigged this way, it’s possible to cast these lures into places you could never otherwise reach or cover effectively without constantly snagging up your line and losing expensive tackle. Trust me, you’ll catch a lot more fish as a result of adding this little trick to your rigging repertoire. These days, at least 75 – 80% of the plastics I cast for barramundi and saratoga in northern Australian waters are rigged weedless/snag-proof. But these innovative rigging strategies go far beyond those species. The same approach works like a charm on any fish that favours hanging out in or around dense snag, rock or weed cover. Bream, bass, estuary perch, flathead, mangrove jack, fingermark, Murray cod, golden perch (yellowbelly) and even trout can all be targeted very effectively by “Texas-rigging” your softies on wide-gape worm hooks. The most important part of this rigging system is a wide-gaped worm hook, or a jig head or other delivery vehicle that incorporates a wide gape worm hook. These hooks may look a bit odd at first glance, but they work really well. Lots of companies now make this style of hook. Some good ones include Mustad, Owner, Gamakatsu, and VMC. One really interesting new addition to the wide gape worm hook field is the KVD Grip-Pin hook from Mustad. This clever hook incorporates a little pin that helps keep the head of the rigged plastic in place, preventing it from being too easily ripped free or scrunched down into the hook bend by a striking fish. Another very innovative presentation vehicle for this style of rigging is the TT Lures Snake Head. The best way to...