After a lot of recent rain the local river was firing. I arrived early at the ramp and with the water still quite murky I knew the bream would have ideal hunting conditions. So the Jackall Chubby was the first lure out there as it’s always been the go to hardbody for most people since it’s introduction. The bream were hitting the deck with consistency with the best being around 37cm fork length. Not bad fishing but I was after something bigger.
So I decided for my next trip I would upsize my lure an went for a DCherry in gold craw. I was a bit early for the tide as I needed more water over the rock wall I wanted to fish. So I tried a different spot while I waited, I tied on a 1/8th stand up jig head and rigged up a 2″ cover craw.
Casting in tight an watching the line for any subtle bites I let the craw sink down to the bottom, from there it’s just a slight slow lift and drop all the way back to the boat. After drifting about 30 metres the first bream was on, not a big fish but a start. Minutes later I had a solid whack on the craw an some big head shakes followed, this was no bream.
After a screaming run it was clear to me a Jew had taken a liking to my craw. So 45 minutes later I landed the Jew a long way from where I hooked it ! Always worth taking your time though to ensure you land the fish. A quick pic an measure an then I released it, an now back to chasing this big bream.
I lost almost an hour of tide chasing the Jew around so it was time to head to the shallows which now had enough water on them so I could start throwing the DCherry. I had my first bream after around four casts and although it wasn’t a giant at least I knew the size didn’t put him off. Pretty soon the fish started to get bigger and as I slowly bounced my lure along the bottom……whack !
Next thing my drag was screaming ! This fish was cutting a lot of water,I knew this could be the fish I wanted. As it come closer to the boat I could see how big it was and I backed off my drag a little to ensure I didn’t pull the hooks next to the boat. Once it was in the net I looked at the lure in the side of its mouth and although it may have seemed large for bream fishing, it sure looked pretty small hanging out of this guys mouth. It just goes to show you never know unless you try.
Monster bream on DCherry
So now I’ll go digging through my lure box wondering what else will work an how big can I go before it’s too big ?
I caught a 38 cm fork length along with the big guy at 42 cm fork and a stack of other nice fish before the tide changed and the bite stopped.
All in all it was a great few trips and like each trip fishing I learned a little bit more. @lowysfishn
38cm fork length along with the big guy at 42cm fork on DCherry
