Winter breaming in the Bay

July 6, 2021

WINTER in the bay means three things, snapper stocks increase, tailor turn up in reasonable numbers, and the humble bream are easier to find due to it being their spawning season, and they school up around most creek or river mouths. Some of the better areas to target bream are the river and creeks on the northside, and areas like the Hornibrook Bridge and Shorncliffe Pier produce good catches. Bay bream

Further south the river has a number of spots to try, from Boggy Creek, Cameron Rocks, Bulimba Creek, Newstead Park, West End, Wynnum Creek and Wynnum jetty, Mud Island, from Macleay Island down to Jumpinpin, and the rock wall and piers at Dunwich. My three favourite places for bream would have to be Mud Island, Kalinga Banks and Tiger Mullet Channel near Jumpinpin. Bay bream

Making the decision on what to target is not always an easy one, however I let the weather make up my mind for me. On good days I head out chasing bream and tailor, which also gives me the chance of snaring a few snapper, while on not so perfect days, fishing the river for bream and jewies is the alternative.Bay bream

snapper came from the shallows around Mud Island at night.

Bream and tailor are two species that I target at the same time and are good fun once you have found an area where both are in good numbers. When targeting bream I use a bait that is small enough for bream to eat, whereas for tailor I prefer to float a small pillie out. Fishing in winter may not be the most comfortable activity, but the chance of catching a big bream soon makes you forget about the frozen fingers.Bay bream

It pays to be out there early in the evening or in the morning on a changing or incoming tide. My favourite baits for bream are mullet gut and chicken gut in a bread crumb mix – the breadcrumbs create their own berley trail. I also throw a few plastics around on jig heads in either 1/8oz or 1/6oz weights, with plastics in pumpkin seed, motor oil or bloodworm colour, and a little Pro-Cure Scent also goes a long way to enticing a bream.Bay bream

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