Lure fishing the estuarys

[joshcarty]

Hey fellas im just wondering if anyone has had any experience in lure fishing the estuarys for bream, flathead and jacks. I have never really tried it and am heading to woodgate just south of bundy in september. Really nice creek there that i have fished before but never had much luck. any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Keechie]

yep i have had a bit of experience. my three hot tips would be:
* Fish the structure
* keep the lure on the bottom(with the smallest amount of lead possible)
* match your lure to what the fish are feeding on
* fish light, you may lose a few fish but you have more chance at getting hits.

what do you know thats 4. go out there and try it you may be quite suprised on what turns up.

regards,
keechie

[nufin_flash]

Nuggstar is a fan of hb lures when it comes to bream and other critters, they do work , search some threads for more advice

[Kleyny]

Boat or landbased?
as keechie said
Pumpkinseed gulps 3inch

neil

[Mark Malcolm]

yep i have had a bit of experience. my three hot tips would be:
* Fish the structure
* keep the lure on the bottom(with the smallest amount of lead possible)
* match your lure to what the fish are feeding on
* fish light, you may lose a few fish but you have more chance at getting hits.

what do you know thats 4. go out there and try it you may be quite suprised on what turns up.

regards,
keechie

What Nic said, A good all round set up to start you off is 1.16Oz jig head on #2 hook with any of the 2" or 3" plastics on them will do the trick.

Structure to fish.... mangroves/flats/trawlers/boathull/pontoons/rockbars/rock walls/bridge pilons.... and many more.... hmmm structure

Enjoi

[joshcarty]

Thanks for that lads, I have a 3.9m seajay with a 15 johnson so thats my main weapon to get to me to the structure. i have never had much luck on soft plastics but will give it a go

[nuggstar]

id be targeting the barra and jacks, not bream up that way. not saying that there is no bream, it's just you have much more fun fish to catch up that way. you could try useing a diving lure like a x rap 8 or a tilson barra and work the snags and rock bars and drains, gutters and run off's and get ya lure as close to the nasty stuff as posibul and keep it slow and try just rolling at first, if that dose not work try twitching ya lure and that might work. if you still feel the need for bream try a eco gear sx 40 or the next size up with the sx lures as then you will have more of the chance of getting a jack as well as the bream. and if that dose not work try fishing with plastics like the other guys have said. or you could try targeting them with poppers as bream, flathead, jacks and barra will hit a well presented popper. just get out there and get flogging

[Noelm]

I guess if the area/fishing method is new to you, then best advice I reckon is use small lures untill you suss out what lives there, fish as close to structure as you can, if you don't loose a lure ot two, you are not in close enough, I always try to fish a runout tide if I am in new Territory, not too sure why, it just seems better, you have a Boat, so most of the walking along banks, looking for places and so on is taken care of, just give it your best shot and good luck, OH did I mention FISH STRUCTURE? that info is worth repeating (I reckon)

[Noelm]

OH I forgot the very obvious, if you are fishing areas that a Flathead is likely to live, use weighted Lures so you are not fishing "over their heads" I know that is very obvious, but at least use the lure that suits your Quarry and Environment it lives in.