Bunbury

WA West Coast

You’ll find quality over quantity in the rivers

BUNBURY Whiteys Tackle and Camping

Black bream are a popular target over winter, with the Collie and Brunswick rivers always holding a few. While they can be tough to find sometimes, the quality makes up for it.

With the cooler freshwater flowing, leading into the river, the winter bream get sluggish and that means time to get out the soft plastics and vibes. Slow your retrieves down using long pauses, and small movements are the key to targeting winter bream.

There are certain plastics on the market that have a large amount of scent built into them to provide the bream a smelly scent-filled target in the dirty water. In this situation some of the most successful plastics are the Berkley Gulp Crabbies and Worms and the Ecogear Aqua Prawns. Generally you will need a little bit more weight on the jighead to counteract the harder flowing water, so look at using between 1/16 and 1/8oz with a hook size to suit your plastic choice.

In regards to vibes, the River2Sea Baby Vibes are an absolute killer with either the darker colours or baitfish colours that give creeks or run-offs feeding into the main branch of the river because there’s a good chance bream will be waiting to pounce on any offering flowing into the river.

With winter rapidly approaching, thoughts turn to the inshore pink snapper fishery with these pink slabs coming in close to shore in great numbers. The rough weather presents a good opportunity for the pink snapper to forage for food that gets bashed around and dislodged during and following the numerous cold fronts that will be coming through over the next few months. Due to the fact that they move around a lot looking for their next meal, the best results usually come in the form of setting the pick and getting a solid berley trail going, bringing the fish to you. Some days it will only take minutes for them to appear and once they come up in the berley trail the fishing is generally hot with fish coming one after the other. A berley that consists of fish frames, old bait and scraps works a treat but can be a messy job to do at home. Nowadays though, there is quality frozen berley options available in good tackle shops that are perfect for the job. Once the berley trail is established all you need to do is present an unweighted or lightly

Kev Moore with a quality black bream from the rivers.

off a bit of flash doing the damage. Rigged with a solitary treble hanging off the rear end, these bream magnets will bring the fish from far and wide and with such a small profile lure the hook rate is exceptional! Cast in close to the timber and let it sink down, but be ready to strike and engage the bream because he will race out and nail it and be back to his lair given the chance.

If you are in the mood for sitting back on the river bank and chilling out, a small ball sinker running down to a baitholder or shiner hook laced with a fresh strip of mullet will usually fool these cunning fish. Look for weighted mulie/scalie on a gang or snelled hooks with hook size determined by the bait used, 4/0 to 6/0 sizes are the most common.

I have found occasionally they will go off the bite (usually when you drop a fish!) and then it is good idea to change it up to get them switched on again. By that I mean put the baits away and try a couple of lures, good results will come on soft plastics with the vibes being especially deadly, they can change the mood of the fussy pink snapper. With lures, they will hit it out of aggression and can get them feeding freely again. Another technique to get them biting is to drop down a micro jig in the 5-20g range. This smaller offering flicking and darting of the bottom will replicate a small baitfish, you also could get a bonus by-catch of any skippy that are milling around the berley trail. • As always, call into the store to get the latest info on where they are biting! And the crew at Whiteys Tackle and Camping in Treendale are always more than happy to share their knowledge of the southwest and fishing techniques so don’t be shy, come on in and say hi, show off your catch and ask any questions you may have. Tight lines! – Reece Cooper

From page 102

Plenty of juvenile dhufish around the 40-50cm range are coming from the shallower waters in the 12-25m depths with bigger fish turning up in 40+ depths. Bait fishing has been productive with squid, mulies and octopus scoring some big fish. Soft plastics as usual are attracting big dhufish and pink snapper with Gulp 6” paddle-tails in glow white being pretty successful jigged close to the bottom. Harlequin and bight redfish have been showing up regularly in some of the larger reef areas and are all over the soft plastics.

Beach fishing remains pretty solid with sand whiting all along the eastern and western beaches, Dead Finish and Ringbolt. Skippy Rock Beach although harder to get to has also had some nice sized whiting turning up as well as big herring and some 1kg+ skippy towards the rocks on the southern end. Try fish strips, squid or mulie pieces on a paternoster rig for most consistent results.

Rock fishing has been a bit iffy with some very strong winds and heavy rainfall making life on the rocks pretty dangerous at times. The only consolation has been that the temperatures when the weather is fine remain in the mid 20s so the rocks dry off quickly and with the heat absorbing into the granite it’s quite pleasant even when the fish

A family fishing trip for Blake and Hayley Muller resulted in another dhufish to add to their impressive tally.

are off the bite. Elephant Rock, Knobbies and Cosy Corner are all worth the time to berley up with a slick oil, pollard and fish mash for the chance at a kingie, samsonfish or shark. Use live herring, yellowtail scad or whole squid unweighted if possible and drift it out into the slick as the tide turns to go out. • Unpredictable weather can quickly affect the fishing conditions and slippery rocks are a recipe for disaster. Please remain vigilant when rock fishing, wear a life jacket and tie off to something solid. You can hire one for free from Augusta Xtreme Outdoor Sports at 66 Blackwood Avenue Augusta – the local tackle shop and font of all local fishing knowledge. Look for the big green sign on the roof, it’s right next to the BP Service Station in the centre of town.