By the time winter arrives, many southern bream have departed from the shallow flats and edges in favour of deeper haunts. Brent Hodges discusses how prospecting relatively featureless open water with metal blades can prove highly effective within Victorian estuaries.

When I was growing up, chasing black bream required a delicate spread of the very best local live baits, be it tube or sand worm, Bass yabby, crab, prawn or shrimp. I still have vivid recollections of my first bream fishing excursions. Collecting sandworms from the beach at low tide was the first piece of the puzzle for my brother and I, followed by rigging the rods and packing dad’s car, before getting a good night’s sleep in preparation for an early rise the next morning. Making our way along a fairly well-worn track at first light, the iconic Werribee River cliffs, tall reeds, thorny shrubs, muddy banks, and even the green cabbage weed used to keep the sandworms alive overnight, have each left an everlasting imprint on my memory. Of course, none more so than watching our rods buckle over to the tune of a singing drag as keeper bream bolted for the horizon, or at least the far bank… Relatively light monofilament lines, running sinker rigs, chemically sharpened hooks, lengthy slow-tapered shock-absorbing blanks matched to threadline reels and fresh live baits were about as specialised and technical as bream fishing got back then. Fast forward thirty years or thereabouts and our passion for chasing bream remains as strong as ever, though our methods have evolved substantially. Like many, a progression from bait to high-tech modern lures and scented soft plastics was inspired by a shift in the entire light tackle sport fishing industry, which has steadily gained momentum since about the turn of the new millennium to the point where it now seems permanently ingrained.

In recent years, metal blades have become one of the most effective tools in a tournament angler’s arsenal.

Nowadays, bream are prime candidates for carefully presented bibbed minnows, soft plastics and even surface lures, especially during the warmer months from late spring through to autumn. However, once the water temperature starts to decline, bream tend to become less active and more difficult to tempt on lures. By the time winter arrives, most have moved away from the shallow flats and edges in favour of deeper haunts in open water. Enter the metal blade phenomenon. In relatively recent times, these highly effective vibrating gems have put a whole new spin on luring bream. Admittedly, blades have been around for several years now and perhaps I’ve been a little slow on the uptake. Recent visits to Victoria’s East Gippsland region specifically in search of schooling winter bream have proved to be a real eye opener. Venues including Mallacoota Inlet, Bemm River, Marlo, Gippsland Lakes and many systems in between offer some exceptional breaming on blades. West of Melbourne, the Hopkins and Glenelg Rivers are the two standouts with bream often schooling in the lower reaches of both systems over winter. Who would’ve thought a tricked up piece of metal hopped across a seemingly featureless mud, silt, sand or fine gravel bottom could prove so effective on the wily old black bream of our southern lakes and estuary systems?

A quality sounder is a must for locating schooling winter bream. This is just a snap shot of a huge post flood congregation bunkering down below the freshwater line.

Who would’ve thought a tricked up piece of metal could prove so effective on the wily black bream of our southern estuaries?

Key Target Areas
Whether preparing to spawn, resting between more active feeding periods, travelling from one part of a system to another, escaping from floodwater, or perhaps all of the above, one thing is for sure, black bream school in big numbers over wide open and seemingly barren ground during the cooler months. Once conditioned to religiously targeting various forms of structure, chasing bream out in the middle of a tidal lake or river, well away from snags, undercut banks or rock walls, certainly takes some adjustment. Sounding is the key, and whilst I’m not all that technologically savvy or patient in this regard, it pays to concentrate on more subtle features such as a ledges, drop offs or sloping banks adjacent to a fertile weed bed or mud flat. Sweeping bends, points, feeder creek junctions, patches of reef or gravel and slight depressions or mounds all seem to attract schooling winter bream. Following periods of heavy rain and flooding, expect the fish to push even further downstream. Depending on the system, this may simply mean further out into the lake, closer to the mouth or perhaps outside the entrance entirely. As the water clears with every incoming tide, bream will gradually move back upriver. If you’re lucky enough to find these post flood schools, they really can offer some mind blowing action. Imagine all or most of the bream within a given system gathering in one general area, waiting for the floodwaters to ease and salinity levels to return to normal. Whilst they tend to bunker down and sulk for a few days or perhaps even a week or so, depending on the amount of freshwater runoff, it won’t be long before they’ll be hungry and on the lookout for a feed. Metal blades are the perfect lure choice for this scenario and indeed whenever bream are holding low in the water column.
Blade Breaming Essentials

Most blades built for bream range in size from 3 to 4.5 cm in length and weigh about 3 to 6 grams. In terms of colour: darker shades are the go. There seems to be a distinct preference for black and much of my success can be attributed to new Berkley Power Blades in Midnight and the original Big Eye design in the Tassie Tiger pattern. I always smear a thin layer of fish attractant scent over hard bodied lures, including blades, which seems to improve hook up rates, particularly when bream are not actively feeding or perhaps spread out over a larger area. A pair of split ring pliers and a spare supply of needle sharp Owner treble hooks help to ensure even the most tentative takes remain connected. Long nose pliers are also vital for the safe removal of those tiny trebles from an angry bream’s molars. Rods suitable for working blades require some power in the tip to get the lure up off the bottom and vibrating with energy, but enough give to cushion and protect the tiny hook holds. Look for a 2 to 5 kg graphite blank with a medium to medium/fast action from about 2.1 to 2.3 m in length. A small threadline reel spooled with low stretch fused, gel-spun polyethylene or braided line, no heavier than say 2 to 3 kg breaking strain, connected with a rod length of fluorocarbon leader material of about the same strength is standard practice. Some elite tournament anglers opt for line and leader far lighter again, but for those just starting out, slightly thicker string is easier to manage. Personally, I’ve been running both 4 and 6 lb Berkley Nanofil and 4 lb Trilene or Sensei Fluorocarbon leader. In relatively featureless open environments, there is little risk of being stitched up by a big bream, provided the drag is set correctly and you remain patient during the fight. Unless you’re prepared to drift blindly over large expanses of water, hoping to find a few fish, a quality sounder and GPS unit is a must for winter breaming with blades. A state of the art tournament style rig is certainly not a necessity and a couple of good mates of mine do particularly well casting on the drift from their humble half cabin. Others are equally successful from small tinnies and kayaks. Irrespective of your chosen platform, an electric motor is preferable, which combined with a drogue or sea anchor helps to control the speed and line of the drift, keeping your blade in the key target areas for longer.
Technique and Tactics
Ideally, depths of about 1.5 to 8 m are preferable, though blades can certainly be worked outside of this range. The most basic retrieve involves casting down breeze and ahead of a slow drift. Unlike fishing shallow flats where a stealthy approach is paramount, there’s usually no need to make extra-long casts with the fish schooling down deep. As the blade descends, keep in contact by maintaining a slight bow in the line. In my experience, bream will intercept a blade either on the drop, both after the initial cast and during a pause in the retrieve, or whilst it’s lying motionless on the sand or mud. Either way, hits usually occur within half a metre or less of the bottom. If a bream bumps, nudges or intercepts the lure before it reaches the bottom, the line with flicker or twitch ever so slightly, which is your key to lift the rod tip and set the hooks. Fail to detect this subtle indication and chances are you’ll miss the fish altogether. If the blade makes it through the school without getting hit and comes to rest on the bottom, the line will relax. From here, a simple lift and pause style retrieve is a good way to start. The idea is to feel the blade vibrate through the line and rod tip, but it must be kept close to the bottom at all times. A short, relatively swift rip of no more than about 20 to 30 cm, is all that’s required. When the fish are really switched on, a faster double-hop may elicit a more aggressive response. Similarly, three to four short sharp jabs, barely lifting the lure off the bottom, but at the same time generating plenty of energy and vibration, followed by a pause, often attracts some attention. Bream will also pick up a blade whilst it’s motionless on the bottom and the next time you lift the rod to impart action on the lure, you’ll feel weight. When this occurs, keep the rod moving back over your shoulder, take up any slack line and drive the hooks home. A number of fish are bumped off in this scenario, which can be frustrating. You may also foul hook quite a few in the side of the face or under the chin.
When all the elements align and you’re confident in your technique and ability to find fish out in the open, it’s possible to put together catch and release bags of forty, fifty and even sixty plus legal size bream in a day! With two or more anglers on board, double hook ups are surprisingly common, which is terrific sport for any season, let alone winter. I’m sure this all sounds farfetched, over the top and highly exaggerated to some, and until recently I didn’t fully appreciated just how effective metal blades can be on schooling winter bream.


Brent Hodges has been fishing the western side of Port Phillip Bay and its tributaries for more than 20 years. He has also fished extensively in both salt and fresh water around Australia. Brent writes regularly for a range of print and online publications, including Sport Fishing Australia and Freshwater Fishing magazines. Currently he is sponsored by Berkley, Abu Garcia and Honda Marine. As well as a keen angler, Brent is also a school teacher and sub-district cricketer/coach.