By Derek ‘Paffoh’ Steele

Many kayak anglers despair the onset of winter. The lack of morning light accompanied by crisp, cutting air can cause that dreaded alarm clock to sting for days. Kayak fishing in winter, no matter where you’re from, can be an arduous affair. The wind chill can be horrendous on the body and the ambient temperature taxing on the mind. The simple thought of a drop in water temperature and the slim pickings below can bring any seasoned waterman to his knees. When comparing our nation’s cooler coastal areas some appear to cop only a glancing cold snap while others leave an impression of being completely frozen over. Past experiences fishing these ‘doldrums’ can easily be reversed by trying a different approach. A change in tactics, technique and a little experimentation will find you thinking less about the nippy water temperature and more about the fish within it.
Locating estuary species in cool water can be quite a challenge but, like most things from a kayak, it can be done. The technique applied by most bream tournament anglers fishing icy waters from their boats is ‘go deep or go home’. When a system appears to shut down due to water temperatures fishing at depth can be a far more productive affair than just hugging the shoreline and plugging away at some stark flat. During winter, it’s what lies beneath the surface that tends to concentrate the fish. Whether vertical or horizontal, bream or flathead, when it’s cold fish, won’t hold around shallow water structure.
On smaller systems, fish may prefer to wander around as the tide ebbs and flows, rather than fixate themselves around underwater formations (as is evident on some deep flats). Your local area may seem to shut down for days or weeks in winter and then, when action resumes, only fire around the bends of a river’s bank. For fish to hold pattern in minor waters they don’t just require structure (like a series of rocks), they need a place to shelter away from its current flows. Deep bankside roots and runs provide this and a lot more, be it some offshoot creek or river anabranch. Situated away from a main basin, most will be subject to less boat traffic and consequently less angling pressure, especially from the hungry bait brigade. Some of these waters will be just as deep as they are wide, perfect areas to explore from a kayak.

The Subterranean Approach
Rather than just using a chuck and chance approach, angling deep water is about utilising the tools at your disposal – in this case your kayak of choice. For example, by using your kayak’s length and width combined with the elements, you could effectively set up a free flowing drift to cover ground quickly. Another option could be deploying a drogue or sea anchor to slow a downwind drift. The advice offered by Neil Schultz’s article in the last issue of Yak Fisher, ‘Drift Fishing on the Briny’ is a perfect example of how drifting from a kayak can be employed – grab a copy and study it.
When fishing with soft plastics you could position the kayak bow first into tidal flow, which would impart a slow sinking and lure wafting approach. For example, targeting bream around bridge pylons or breakwalls works best with a drifting technique against a current flow. You could also drift with the current and cast across its course to keep your presentation flowing through the water at the same speed as the kayak (great when fishing drop-offs). Why not try drifting with the current and casting directly ahead of the kayak’s bow, a great way of getting your lure offering to sink quickly before you and your kayak catch up. Each approach has its virtues, and time and place. Knowing when and where to deploy one can be critical to your winter success rate.
Most winter species such as bream won’t bother venturing up through the cold water columns for just any lure. Luckily, large estuaries such as St Georges Basin on the New South Wales south coast allow for more conventional methods of pulling fish from its chilly depths. Even though it’s an immense waterway with plenty of traffic in winter, including regular bream tournaments, the fish are relatively easy to come by if you keep it deep. Getting a successful lure or bait presentation down here from a kayak comes down to tackle selection and a combination of positioning and approach. While fishing in any open space could pay off, using a fish finder/sounder to help you concentrate on a water depth around 10–15 m will provide happier hunting. At these depths, you will most likely encounter what initially looks like barren ground, however pinging the depths with a sounder will reveal all.
Scattered with cockle rubble and sand along with occasional weedbeds, this is a great place to target bream, snapper and the occasional jewie. With the current flowing stronger higher in the water column, species like bream concentrate on sifting through the silt and shells. This means producing a presentation that sits on and just off the bottom –the all-important strike zone.
Keeping a tight line from a kayak is critical when maintaining contact with the estuary floor. Simply cast out the desired distance, allow the lure to sink under a tight line, wait for the slack on the surface to indicate you have hit bottom, hop the lure off the bottom, lower the rod to reduce slack line and then whip the tip slightly when the line is almost tight again. This will offer a larger hop followed by a smaller, quicker one. When fished with a blade it’s a deadly combination.

Yak Tackle
Blades or ‘metal vibes’ make up a huge amount of my winter estuary lure arsenal, followed closely by deep diving cranks and soft plastics. While most anglers reach for the plastics first I save them and the hardbodies for more structured environments, like boat hulls and bridges, and use the blades for more open water. A rapid sink rate with the chance of being hit on the drop is one bonus, another is its telltale vibration when retrieved. If a treble fouls on weed when it’s swimming deep you feel it straight away. It’s these features plus the numerous tow points, great for vertical jigging, that make it the perfect winter estuary searching lure. A 5 g Ecogear ZX35 is a great starting point, followed closely by a Berkley Big Eye in 1/6oz and a 6.6 g Strike Pro Cyber Vibe. Using the same lift and hop technique as mentioned previously you can increase the profile and go heavier if the situation suits.
When it comes to soft plastics, those with curl tails, like a grub or wriggler, provide a more subtle presentation and can often tempt those fish reluctant to strike a more aggressively worked stickbait. Picking a size and style soft plastic to suit a winter bite can be difficult, but 50–75 mm in a natural colour is a good start. Like all lure angling, sometimes it’s worth trying a ‘bigger is better’ approach, especially when the water temperature has recently dropped. The profile of a 100 mm Squidgy Wriggler or Berkley Gulp 4in Turtleback Worm could be the difference when trying to persuade those really big brutes to push through the pack.
With jighead selection, it’s best to start on a light weight, say 1/32oz and move up or down depending on water depth and conditions. Darter styled heads will sink with a more vertical presentation, great for wafting down deep pylons, whilst a similar weighted round ball jighead will descend more evenly, perfect for rock bars.
Line sensitivity and leader choice is paramount in detecting bites, especially when dealing with finicky bream. Gel spun braid offers a lower stretch and more raw strength than monofilament, providing feeling right through the rod blank. Mainline breaking strains of 4–8lb will keep you out of trouble. Fluorocarbon leader selection is based around the same rating. Accompanied with a smart rod and reel selection, using braid is a great way of knowing what the lure is doing at all times. A 2 kg leader tied correctly on 8lb braid and used with a giving drag setting keeps the fishing sporting, while still providing enough power through the mainline to tackle that rogue by-catch of thumping tarwhine, winter jewfish. I prefer to use 7ft, small spin reel outfits with a light rating to fish soft plastics and bait deep, teamed with 6ft 6in, slightly larger spin reel combos with a medium-light action for blades and sinking hardbodies.
Lure colour and pattern isn’t as much of a factor down deep as any well worked lure will catch bream and flathead. On certain days some colours and colour combinations seem to trigger more strikes than others do but a rule of thumb that works for me is creating a silhouette when working the top and adding a bit of flash on the bottom. In my experience fish holding deep in estuaries respond well to a gold pattern, add some dirty/cloudy water to the mix and the probability of a decent catch doubles. White and silver seem to work well in open, clearer waters while more natural colours like green, yellow, gold and browns produce the goods in enclosed waters. However, don’t get too hung up on winter colour selection as most colours will work if the presentation is right.

Frosty Genoa Black taken on a slow sinking Wriggler.

Other Targets
One of the most commonly targeted estuary species from a kayak is flathead. In winter these crocs, frogs or lizards, depending on where you’re from, become quite docile and less aggressive, adopting a lure crunching attitude rather than an inhaling summer catch. They remain in large enough numbers to target and, in many states, it’s the colder months that bring out the bigger females.
There are some great tips on hooking up with big winter flathead from a kayak and many include a common message – downsize your lure, cover water leisurely and slow your retrieve. Using a rod, reel and line combo similar to that for bream, try targeting a water depth that is a little shallower, say 5 m in depth. With light leader, you could drop a few yak side but you there is a good chance you will land more than you lose.
They seem to hunt relentlessly in summer and will often strike at a vigorously worked lure on numerous occasions before the final hookup, this is definitely not the case on the NSW south coast in the cooler months. At this time of year these fish are just too docile to take a large, heavy imparted stickbait approach and they won’t move any great distance from their comfy ‘lie’. The use of scents can improve catch rates and a liberal smothering of Squidgy S Factor or Megastrike could bring an upsizing approach into play and/or allow you to slow your retrieve even more. I tend to use plastics that are 3 or 4 inches rather than the larger 5 or 7 inch sizes. Slimmer profiles like sandworms and minnows seem to work better fished slowly than shads or paddletails. The same can be said for a deep diving hardbody’s silhouette under water. The slower, drawn out action of a minnow shape seems to grab their attention just a little longer than the fatter shads.
Flathead still inhabit the areas you normally target them, albeit a little deeper. Ambush points still include rock bars and the usual weedbed scenarios but they just don’t seem to chase down an offering as effectively without a few key cool water changes. During winter, the standard signs of a flathead on your line are less subtle and your lure will be more than likely hooked in their lip rather than inhaled. If you’re targeting flathead around structure, instead of loading up the rod completely, before you strike and set a hook slowly lift the rod tip and wind the reel. With your kayak’s bow towards a drop-off or channel and with the current ebbing or flowing, ‘quarter’ cover the same areas that you would in summer. By quartering an area, start casting at a clock hour hand position of 9 and retrieve, continue to 11 and cast again. Repeat this until you have covered up to 3 o’clock and move on, either under tidal influence or paddle / pedal stroke.
Trolling soft plastic lures or blades on the bottom is another great winter option, especially when visiting sandy grounds. Kayak fishing an estuary on the troll in warmer water is usually about imparting a predictable action on your lure at around 3 km/hr, getting your lure hovering just off the bottom and occasionally smacking down. When water temperatures plunge, slow your paddle / pedal stroke down to well below walking pace, just enough to drag a soft plastic or blade along behind you. The key here is to haul your lure along the bottom stirring up as much sediment as possible, while moving to or from fishing locations. Your soft plastic will slightly spring up with each stroke and create smaller flurries of sand, movement and disturbance. At these speeds the weight of the blade and lack of its natural action will cause it to sit flat and pull sideways. While perhaps not the flathead’s number one food of choice, this creates a walking action similar to a crustacean’s scurry and the commotion will be investigated!
Conclusion
Every kayak fisherman has his or her favourite time to target an estuary, usually for a bloody good reason. Certain species definitely seem to fish better at different times of the year and, just like fish, some kayak anglers appear to shut down in winter, opting for gear maintenance and tackle organisation instead. Whoever braves the elements and ventures out of bed early during winter will hookup first, while others are still at home dreaming about it. Some of the best days I have had on the water have been during winter chasing estuary dwellers. Remind yourself why you became addicted to kayak fishing in the first place. That same stealthy manoeuvring and quiet that only a kayak can provide in the summer shallows will work just as effectively over the wintry murk!
These tips and techniques are provided to motivate you to visit your local during winter, no matter what you’re chasing. There are plenty of other species around in winter such as mulloway, snapper, tailor and trevally, but nothing is as bread-and-butter to an estuary angler as a bream and flathead combo.