Popper Fishing Canals for Bream with Steve ‘Wizard’ Wilson
In preparation for the 2011 Dash 4 Cash Bream events Steve ‘Wizard’ Wilson shares his tips and techniques for chasing bream on the surface in canal environments. Steve has been a regular on the ABT Bream circuit and was winner of Gamakatsu Team Of the Year in 2009 and 2010.
My favourite technique’s for fishing surface for bream on the Gold Coast canal systems are
1: Skimming 2 inch Gulp shrimp
2: Surface poppers.
Lets look at each technique
Technique 1
Here I use a 2 inch Gulp shrimp with a very light nitro torpedo in 1/32nd or lighter. Now the trick here is you need a strong breeze for this to work , a longer than normal rod 7ft or longer and a heaver line 6lb Fireline would be fine. Let’s put it all together as i explain and it will all become clearer.
Now I love to fish a canal that has a mid to strong wind blowing down the centre of the canal. I place the 2inch shrimp on the Nitro torpedo ( it does not matter what colour but try and use natural colours that represent what prawns are prevalent) Then i place my boat so i am drifting straight down the canal and i make a cast 90 degrees straight at the bank between pontoons along the beach sections. Now the trick here is to hold the rod high and slowly wind as the wind catches the line it starts to skim the shrimp parallel to the bank, now start shaking the rod tip and the shrimp will come to life and looks like the real thing as it skims across the surface and if there are any bream nearby they will be straight up onto the shrimp. Now there are two ways to get a strike here. 1 is to keep it going and as the bream sees it getting away he will smash it off the surface and because there is slack in the line he will be able to turn with it and the hook up rate is pretty good. or 2 as a bream comes up behind the shrimp drop the tip of your rod and the shrimp will drop below the surface and he will suck it straight in and then just lift the slack to set the hook. As with all techniques it pays to experiment.
Technique 2
Here I like to use a popper like a Berkley Scumdog
I like a little ripple on the surface but not too much breeze. Best size rod for this work would be 6ft6 to 7ft- 2kg to 5kg I prefer braid 4 to 6lb as distance isn’t as critical as accuracy. Leaders i prefer are around 6lb i prefer mono over Flurocarbon as you don’t want the leader to sink as this will pull the popper under.
The technique that works best is to cast towards the shore at a 45 degree angle past the pontoons and work the Scum Dog in a slow walk the dog retrieve about a metre past the pontoon and stop the lure dead and wait, teasing the bream with the odd movement then wait for that spectacular smash off the surface ….. more fun than a ride at Movieworld. You will get fish smashing it before it gets past the pontoon this is normal but when they are shy the above method should be employed as they are like a cat stalking there prey when it stops and sits there they just can’t help themselves and have to give it a whack
So there you have it these are Techniques that work for me. Get out there have a go and adjust them to what suits you and i bet you have a ball.
