I thought I would share some tips in understanding the conditions on the water to help catch our favourite elusive bream!
Weather – Funnily enough, some of my best sessions and biggest bags in a comp have come in still, cloudless, sunny conditions. I tend to drop leader size or switch to fluorocarbon straight through as well as fishing lures as light as possible. Sometimes it can pay to fish surface lures.
Cloudy/Rainy days can give fish cover from above enabling them to go out in search of food in the shallow waters. It also tends to make them a lot less tentative in attacking lures. Fishing on cloudy/rainy days can still be challenging due to the barometric pressure fluctuating. More often than not these days are some of the best days for action on the water!
Tides - In most systems around Australia the rise and fall of the tide trigger the fish to either come out and hunt food or stay hiding under the pylons. Personally, incoming tides are my favourite, and I often target the slack water just in behind the pylons or jetties when fishing on an incoming tide.
Putting your lure in the strike zone is probably the most important tip. The strike zone can vary depending on where the fish are sitting so don’t be afraid of fishing all around the structure and you will often find a pattern as to where they are sitting. Slack tides are also great times to fish large structures such as bridges as the bream will often come right up to the surface feeding on freshly submerged food.
