Nude Bombs

The first time the term “Nude Bomb” became apparent, was through Australian Cricket circles. It was a somewhat derogatory, tongue-in-cheek term, used to describe the great Mark Waugh’s off breaks. Mark remains one of the country’s most stylish and elegant right-hand batsmen with 20 centuries and 47 fifties and both a batting and bowling average on the high side of 41. Whilst probably not in the true all-rounder class, Mark took wickets with both medium pace and off-spin, but it was his spin, or perhaps the lack of turn he extracted, that coined that phrase. It was suggested his off breaks had “nothing on them” meaning the ball lacked meaningful revolutions in the air and pretty much went straight through with the arm. Probably all a bit harsh, but teammates do what teammates do.

When trying to find a name to describe unweighted, sink-rate fishing with plastic grubs and creature baits, we needed a term or name to reference this style of presentation. And one didn’t seem to exist. So, in regards to weight, the presentation “had nothing on it”. The more traditional standard jig head had been omitted in favour of a bare, unweighted worm hook. The term Nude Bomb was respectfully repurposed to describe this type of lure fishing.

It was the deployment of a naturally sinking (not a floating) soft plastic, which at the time [2017] seemed a long way removed from the mainstream technique of weighting plastics, which helped cast lures of lightweight a reasonable distance and also enabled them to sink toward, or onto the bottom. This descent was relatively fast, depending upon the weight of the head.

Technique Development

In previous editions, techniques like bent minnows on trout and slow sinking swim baits on bream were discussed and the development of nude plastics followed a similar vein in the sense they were both borne from observation and opportunity. Trying to make new lures or presentation styles work for the sake of making the claim isn’t time well spent. There are already a lot of great ways to catch fish like bream and forsaking time honoured techniques and the hard work done by others is best undertaken when those techniques fail and you’re out of options. If something different can work in that situation, and its brains fish in numbers, then the technique and its ideology are likely to stand the test of time. Furthermore, if the technique isn’t set to offer prospects into the future, its development probably isn’t worth the time or effort.

The initial targets were aggregations of spawning bream. A lot of people have observed surface spawners and a lot have failed in their pursuit of them. That included me on a grand scale. These fish are notoriously tough to tempt and apart from small windows around dawn and dusk, bringing them undone with consistency during daylight hours when they can be easily observed had proven to be a bridge too far. And, that was okay back then. A relocation from QLD to Tasmania around 2010 was all about the trout, and bream were more of an occasional distraction when trout were slow or a change of scenery was warranted. But these fish can do your head in, and that’s exactly what happened. The frustration of seeing them in upstream locales over several years and not being able to catch them had led to some sole searching. Observing them while angling for them hadn’t transitioned into witnessing feeding behaviour. So many questions were posed to oneself. Did they feed during the spawn at all, or live off fat stores? Did they feed primarily at night? Did they feed in deeper water out of sight?

All of these questions came up blank when fishing at those times and areas so the decision was made to go and watch these fish without fishing tackle. Yep, go to the water, find some nice high ground with a great view of the resident bream and sit and watch. It is a harder decision than you might think when the fish are an hour and a half away, and time and money need to be committed without making a cast.

A Room with a View

The first journey to the area had eventuated, and a prime viewing area located in some gorge country on an intermittent system. This large, comfortable rock was to be the venue that designated many visits. After four or five trips to the location, an acquaintance of sorts had been made with some of the resident fish. The system didn’t have the spawning numbers of what would later be found in major systems, but modest numbers were to be seen, nonetheless. There was one particularly large fish witnessed on a few occasions. She appeared to be attended by about a dozen smaller, but significant fish (probably males). These fish spent time seemingly doing very little and extended periods facing in the same direction. This part of the puzzle would come together some years later. Time was also spent nipping at her tail and this behaviour may help explain why older and often larger bream have tatty and shortened caudal fins. They didn’t chase her because she wouldn’t run from them. This beast of a fish would not be intimidated.

At times they appeared to be no more than casual playmates or passive company, and on other occasions, perhaps a mild annoyance. At different times she would park up hard on the gorges cliff face, with rock behind her tail and her imposing menace quite possibly staring down the numerous potential suitors. It had been an education watching these fish and a thoroughly enjoyable experience, but no feeding behaviour had been observed. None! Thoughts around pulling the pin on the entire charade were entertained, but after arriving home that evening, a commitment to one final excursion was decided upon.

On this occasion, the prime ground under the viewing platform wasn’t holding fish and they were located further up, and into the gorge. Another viewing area was found but this time it was more of an uncomfortable squat, well up a ledge, not the comfortable rock that had hosted past visits. The water was deeper. Time was again spent watching the fish in the hope of seeing signs of observable feeding behaviour. It seemed it wasn’t to be, but it was a lovely afternoon and to be fair my attention had drifted into a bit of a daydream. Peering into the water but without really watching anything in particular, my gaze was stolen by a large dark shape inching its way into the small school of fish from below their position. The bream didn’t spook. After about a minute it had risen another foot or so and was directly under the bream. The distinct stripes of a massive Luderic slowly become evident, which was no real shock. Polaroiding bream sees blackfish in attendance at irregular intervals.

As the big fish continued to rise in the column, the white on the inside of the bottom lip of its mouth was easily visible. It wasn’t unlike the white colouration inside the mouth of a trout. Its mouth could be seen opening and closing continually, as were its gills, which again was of no real consequence at the time. Luderic are regularly weed eaters and filter feeders. My gaze then averted to the mouths of the bream, which seemed to be doing the same thing and then the penny dropped. Were they filter-feeding too? Had I been looking at them feeding for numerous hours, embracing a number of trips, without ever noticing?

The next half hour was spent watching the bream intently. And learning new things for the first time. It won’t be the last time that fish, can leave a fisherman, feeling particularly inept.

Game Plan

If the fish were filter-feeding, then a conduit to permit this behaviour needed to be discovered. As someone that is somewhat obsessed with fish scents as an additional attractant to just about all lure presentations, Squidgy scent was chosen over a host of others to begin trialling with. Both its texture and the ability to dissolve relatively quickly put it on top of the shortlist, as did its well-earned reputation as a stand-out performer within the scent market. Oil-based scents that stick to plastics particularly well were found to be far less effective during the trial phase.

The next thing to decide about was the presentation or individual lure form to carry the scent. Back then, the use of tiny, slow-sinking swim-baits had been well proven, and they had accounted for fish throughout the pre-spawn and up until the fish were primarily situated on or near the surface. At this point, their action wouldn’t tempt the fish and theories was speculated around it being too aggressive. So while they weren’t catching these top water aggregations of fish, the small light offerings could regularly be introduced to fish without having them spook, providing a natural, unassisted drop was implemented. That alone was a big enough deal to take plenty of notice of.

Based on that, and thoughts around passive actions and slow sink rates it was decided to start with plastics with narrow body profiles. Profiles with limited actions. Curly tail grubs were ruled out early in this process. Without head weight, the tails fizz through the air like a propeller and slow up the lure in the air, which dramatically impacts casting distance. The sound is absolutely audible. Trial and error with the smallest heads possible began, but they sunk plastics through the water column too quickly. From there the search was on to find plastics that would sink by themselves. This turned into a somewhat frustrating endeavour as it was to become quite apparent that most plastics floated.

A lot of time, effort and money was spent until Prolure paddle grubs were found. These, like the many before them, were trialled at home with a worm hook inserted through them and dropped into a glass of water. After experiencing some initial joy in freshwater, salt was added to the glass until it tasted like seawater. Dropped back onto the glass, the plastic still sank and was nice and slow to boot. We had a starting point. Over the ensuing years, several other plastics have been added to form an arsenal of slow-sinking plastic presentations, but the paddle grubs were the beginning of a presentation style that would change the way I fish for bream, and several other species, including trout.

Very few things within angling literally change the way people fish in a profoundly different and positive manner. This should be the essence of the grossly overused phrase “game changer” but rarely is.

Presentation

Trials in earnest started in about 2017 and some fish were caught despite those results being modest. But modest was a significant improvement over bugger all. Then, as quickly as it had all begun, spawning behaviour for that season finished and angling to these fish was forced to a halt. As someone with a pretty solid pedigree on the yellowfin bream front, which had its roots in Queensland on hard-bodied lures from the 1990s, a lot of black bream behaviour including spawning time frames and how bream interact within a given system over their biological year needed to be ascertained with far more precision. Blacks and yellows are certainly a chalk-and-cheese proposal at times and are probably better treated as completely different fish, rather than two animals within the same family.

In short, there was a hell of a lot to learn about catching spawners and their location within systems after spawning began. There were no rule books, and no literature we knew of to guide us. It was a learning process and those processes continue to this day.

One of the first important distinctions to make within presentation strategies is that the term sink rating refers to the speed the lure will sink, and not the literal way those lures catch fish. While the sink rate allows for the presentation, that’s a starting point at best and simply allowing these things to descend via their physical properties, ie. in a free fall, won’t account for a lot of fish.

It will definitely account for some, and that’s regularly in a limited time frame after the lure splashes down, however, other presentations can be taken by fish like that, so it is difficult to state with any certainty that this particular presentation entirely accounts for those fish. Rather than word-smithing anecdotal evidence to support these theories, it’s best to stick with the substantial realities that are further empowered by analytical observation. That means fishing these presentations in a results-type format, against timehonoured traditional techniques within the same session. Although much of that information had been gathered over the proceeding years, which allowed the development of these techniques, due diligence would not have been served if all available options were not pursued to rule out things like overtly aggressive or inconsistent fish behaviour, on any given day. Within the following season, most of this had been completed. We had a killer technique on our hands in a fishery that had frustrated lure fisho’s from about the time bream on lure became part of the accepted fishing landscape. It was pretty much virgin territory to our knowledge and was an absolute buzz to be a part of.

Regarding specific techniques on both ‘nudes’ and slow sinking stick baits (the advantage of which became apparent during this process), they fall in general terms, into four separate/defined methods. High sticking and ‘stepping’ the lure through the column toward the bottom, Low sticking is the same method. Keeping the lure at a specified depth during the retrieve and ‘flick baiting’. High stick ‘stepping’ is made far easier on longer rods and appropriate tackle and this will be discussed shortly. After making the cast the rod tip is held high with small rod tip movements both halting the lure’s natural sink rate and orientating the lure, briefly, towards the surface. It is sinking but has the appearance of trying to struggle its way toward the surface. This works both in spawning periods, high in the column, and at other times of the year, but is at its best when fish are not exhibiting aggressive traits. It can be slowed up to painfully slow during the spawn. Low sicking is not dissimilar in technique, but rod orientation allows the lure to sink a little faster, which is still comparatively slow and encourages more horizontal movement during the retrieve. Speed continues to be very slow.

Keeping the lure in a specified zone can be done with both techniques and this can help mitigate wind or current issues. When fish are biting at very specific depths, high in the column, this can be manipulated to have the plastic moving even slower than the abovementioned methods.

The final technique of flick baiting with ‘nudes’ was developed as an offshoot of these techniques and is particularly effective when fish appear to shut down at other times of the year. In this situation, the lure is allowed to sink and rest on the bottom before being given a sharp flick. Fishing in a similar manner to this is no doubt already practised by many fisher folks, but the enormous advantage of employing it to unweighted plastic is how slowly it settles back to the bottom. Weighted plastics plummet to the bottom in comparison, whereas ‘nudes’ waft seductively back to a point where they settle. This action brings undone nearly all resident estuarine species and can be an absolute killer. Nude, 6-inch Gulp Worms, are in a category of their own as a creature bait. They don’t cast particularly well, which is a common theme amongst many of these lure types, however, they are so good at producing strikes, we modified tackle specifically to help present them at a desirable distance.

In conjunction with good mate Daniel Davis, we committed two summers [2019/2020] to try to exploit what is perhaps the last sacred bastion of nearimpossible fish that had eluded us. Large rogue fish in summer during easterlies on crashing barometric pressure. These conditions aren’t as difficult in the colder waters dished up in other seasons, but are really tough in warm waters, and even more problematic in glass outs or the calm waters that regularly present themselves fishing lee shores with the wind behind the angler. Over this period we targeted those conditions on purpose. There are many hypotheses regarding the overwhelming successes achieved fishing both ‘blind’ to fish at depth and to tailing fish in super shallow water. There’s too much information to include and describe that in this article, but suffice it to say these things can be a phenomenon in warm water. ‘Nude’ techniques can be undertaken for the specific, observable, behavioural traits exhibited by the target species and/ or the exact conditions mother nature dishes up to us, on any given day.

Talking Lures

This description can be fairly short because trial and error has omitted a load of lures and left us with some absolute standouts. Regarding sinking plastics that sink via plastisol density and not wet scent impregnation, Prolure Paddle Grubs and Kietech 3-inch Shiners cover most scenarios and are a great starting point, as are the pin tail models from the same manufacturer. These offerings also allow for the addition of any chosen scents. Smell and taste appear to be a real and not imagined benefit where discerning fish are concerned. With scent-impregnated, wet plastics, offerings from Gulp which include their 6-inch worms are particularly effective in summer whilst they may be far less successful in very cold water. In short, many chemical-type reactions are aided by heat. It may well be the case that more scent dispersal takes place in these conditions. It’s also likely that conditional factors, controlled by any number of weather phenomena, change what tastes and smells become more or less attractive to bream and other species throughout the year.

Talking small stick baits, Prolures SK62s regularly produce the goods. There have been several other slowsinking stick baits available in the past that tick all the boxes, but the availability of the Prolure product and the fact they cast a mile and work well means they too are a great starting point. Trials with some new sticks with different actions will commence this year. Regarding colour, colour is a big, big deal to spawning fish, in particular, there is some trial and error needed on behalf of the angler. It is worth mentioning that the attrition rates of these offerings are regularly very high. One packet of plastics can last 20 minutes with toads or jackets on the chew. Be prepared and take what’s necessary. Running out on the water, amid a great session would be devastating. We’ve even enjoyed some success on things like ‘tailing’ chub. If there’s a tougher target than those, it’s difficult to assert what that would be.

Gearing Up

Forefront in our minds regarding tackle selection should be that nude grubs, in particular, are very light. Skinny diameter braids from pe 0.3 to 0.5 are suitable and effective. As an example of diameter, pe 0.3 is approximately a quarter of the thickness of quality 3lb fluorocarbon. The scope of these types of advantages is mind-blowing.

With casting being such an important component to fishing ‘nudes’ effectively, long rods in the 2- 4kg range have proven to be very effective tools. Messiah Customs 9’,6” in that power rating has seen the development of many of these techniques and the extra length helps considerably with the line angles necessary to help control and maintain lures in specific areas within the water column. At the time of writing, Andrew Death just won the Hobie Bream round at Bemm River using a Messiah 9’.6” @ 2-4 kg. The long, light, lure rod genre is now penetrating the extremely competitive mainstream, rod length market. These rods are the real deal, and regarding distance casting, they remain unparalleled.

Spin reels in the 2000/2500 size range are effective and balance out most combos nicely. Great drags are more important than bearing counts or overall reel costs when it comes to maximising pressures on the particular leader or mainline strengths. Landing large bream regularly means pushing tackle into red line zones (regarding failure) if necessary. Trusted, consistent drag systems are crucial.

Conclusion

Far from a flash in the pan, these techniques have been six or more years in the making (for us) and the learning process is ongoing. Another of the many benefits is the multi-faceted applications of the technique. From making the lures look like a struggling prey item to the extremely passive deployment of the lures to carry scent, imitate nothing in particular, and simply deliver a scent stream to what are most likely filter feeders. In more recent times, mussel and other shellfish profiles have exploded onto the bream scene and while they can sink faster in general terms, they still fall into the category of general sink rate fishing applications. Moving forward and toward 2030, it would be difficult to imagine any other bream or light line, lure technique, gaining more popularity. This form of fishing is fun, and demanding but rewarding to learn, and produces fish that have traditionally been very difficult to tempt using other methods.

To quote the great Molly Meldrom, “Do yourself a favour”, and consider the benefits of these insanely effective techniques.