MyFish 27-8-09 (Reddy Firing Up)

27/08/09

Last Thursday I had the chance to have an early morning prefish with Jay for the BIBS invitational Comp held over the weekend. Jay was keen to check out how Redcliffe was fishing as over the winter we had found the fishing a little slow with both plastics and hardbodies as the annual spawning season was in full swing. Our first port of call was Castlereagh reef at Scarborough where we quickly wanted to cruise over some shallow bommies to see if they were holding fish and not to spook them too much for the weekend comp. I started off fishing topwater (Megabass Dog X Jr) while Jay went through his massive lure collection and threw everything bar the kitchen sink to try crack a pattern of what lures would fire the bream up.
Within minutes I was onto a nice bream (27cm FL) which smashed my lure in a foot of water which was a great sign that fish were feeding up in the shallows chasing bait and shrimp. We then move to some other reefs in the area that we had spotted on the lowering tide that may hold fish due to their surrounding drop offs and nice flat tops. Jay’s endeavor to crack a pattern was working, if we were fishing in a ‘pike’ comp, as these lure stealing vermin were the only things showing him love over the morning session!! Continuing my topwater fishing, I got smashed again in really shallow water with this fish giving me one hell of a fight to get him clear of the surrounding reef and rocky outcrops. This one turned out to be what we were looking for hitting the measure at 33cm FL (Fork Length) much to Jay’s delight as this was very ominous for the weekend.
Before I go on, I’ll explain to our new readers what’s involved and the reason why a prefish is done. A prefish is normally done a day before a comp starts to source areas that may hold fish so you can return the next day to that area to fill your bag. It’s normally done by not fishing areas too heavily so you don’t run the risk of scaring or ‘stinging’ fish from returning to that area. It’s sometimes hard when you catch a good fish and you want to catch more because it’s great fun but at the end of the day, BIGGER FISH IN A COMP = BIGGER PRIZEMONEY = MORE TOYS!! So hence the process of prefishing.
Our next port of call were some reefs just north of the Redcliffe jetty where Jay has pulled some good fish in the past and was worth looking at as the tide was low and the crashing waves were stirring up the water for fish to eat. I changed my approach to a shallow Jackall Chubby in Clear shrimp colour to see if this would work by contrasting in the slightly murky water. This bought immediate success and as I pulled a healthy 26cm FL bream off the top of some breaking reef in just a few casts. As we circled this reef I noticed the top of it was starting to become exposed as the tide had reached it’s bottom so that only mean’t one thing….. Welcome back to the stage… Dog X Jr!!! And in the first cast, Whammo!! I was on big time and it had weight to it. As this fight went on it got more exciting, navigating the fish out of treacherous terrain which was helped also by Jay steering the boat into clearer water. On landing this awesome bream it went 32.5cm FL which wasn’t the biggest we’ve encountered but certainly one of the better fighting.
Then it was off to our last stop which was some patchy reef just south of the Redcliffe jetty which was another area we wanted to check out on how it fished on the low tide. Up to this point Jay was getting his butt kicked by a 5’7” Asian, fishing from the back of the boat, who (by the way) was wondering how Steve Morgan lost my invite to the BIBS Comp!! (Maybe next year Steve?? Haha) But like in all fishing, true fisherman can catch fish when it matters and FAST and this is exactly what Jay did at our last stop. Within half a dozen casts, Jay had nailed 3 bream going 27cm, 28cm and 28.5cm in quick time using a shallow Jackall Chubby in Brown Suji Shrimp over the tops of these reefs. So Jay was back on the board and this concluded our prefish.
This goes to show sometimes changing lures to try and crack a pattern can sometimes be your undoing as sticking to what you know works, can be the percentage play to run. So breamers, arm yourselves with hardbodies for the fast approaching Summer as if this spring session is anything to go by, it’s going to be a cracker for shallow breaming!!!

Happy breaming and remember the sunscreen, Grayson

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