Newbie requesting feedback on gear

[trout_bum]

Hi folks,

What a stroke of luck to find this forum. I have been digesting a wealth of info for the past few hours and am very glad to see the sense of community amongst the members of this site. I used to fish a lot for bream as a teenager in the mid 80’s on the NSW mid-north coast, and it is stunning to see the developments in the sport since then. Its mind boggling compared to the old days of unweighted nippers in the local marina as a 14 y.o.!

I recently had an offer too good to
refuse. A regular client wanted to swap some bream/flathead gear for a new fly rod. He had purchased the gear last month for a trip that never eventuated. As I am headed on a trip next week to northern NSW, it was the perfect deal….

In the swap I got the following NEW gear. A Stella 1000 and a DSR820S GLX spooled with a top quality jap braid. Along with this was some fluoro and about 80 hard bodied lures (Small Fry 11, Pygmy 11, Mini Toad, Micro Min 40mm Float dive 1.5 and 2.4 metre, Fake Baits 50mm float and sink, Reidy’s Little Lucifer) and the following plastics….see pics as well from the juro site…

Firebaits

TWITCH BAITS
PHOTO OF COLOURS BELOW



CAPT. KEV'S MINNOW
PHOTO OF COLOURS BELOW



LONGTAIL MINNOWS
PHOTO OF COLOURS BELOW



2" WIGGLE BAITS
PHOTO OF COLOURS BELOW




4" WIGGLE BAITS
PHOTO OF COLOURS BELOW


REIDY’S RUBBERS

8 x Tiger Green 3� Shad
8 x Gold 4� Shad

What I need to ask is given the sort of gear I have acquired, does anybody have any suggestions on the lures/plastics mentioned? i.e. What should I prioritise using, considering I will be roaming the rivers between Ballina and the Qld border looking to fish structure land based. As you can imagine, having never fished them, the sheer number of options here is a bit daunting. Are there any other plastics that one should definitely not be without?

I haven’t cast anything other than a fly rod for fifteen years, so I took the gear out the last couple of days into the backyard (lakes) and caught some good trout to 4lb and redfin to about 2lb. Despite a couple of blokes telling me the rod is not a good option for SPs, I had no trouble casting 1/32oz heads a fair distance (surely they are incorrect?). Can’t wait to hit the water and chase a few bream (and flatties –sorry!).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
TB

PS- I am starting to realise after reading a lot of other posts, that many of my SPs are too large for bream. Any hints on some suggested additions given it will be a trip to nth nsw between late June and mid-July....

[Powerbream]

Your rod is perfect for plastics and most ppl use 2"-3" plastics for bream.

[BoofHed]

Just throw them aroun the structurs as u would with nippers unweighted and u will do fine. Just watch for movent of the loose line in the drop as this is more than likley the time you will find the Bream will take the lures.
Bruce

[CHUNQX]

Your outfit can't get any more ideal than that for plastics!!! The GLXs are a bit stiffer than the non GLX dropshot which makes them ok for hardbodies too but I use mine for SPs mainly.

[Hotrods]

looks like you got a fairly comprehencive line up...
dont to to scared of using bigger plastics...i have had surprising success with the 4" berkley minnows and during the spawn (spring) i regularly use 6" worms...
the longtails and specially the twitch baits are great for breamming...using a long drop / sink, followed buy a sharp twitching lift for these

the smallfry's, pygmy's and minmins are all proven bream producers...general technique is to cast, few quick winds to take up the slack and get the lure down to working depth, then slowly draw the rod tip back, feeling the lure working, pause, and wind up the slack...the majority of strikes occure on the pause...

good luck and hope to see you braging soon !

[trout_bum]

Thanks for the replies guys.....I just had a read of them, as well as a number of other threads on various sections of the site. Am looking forward to hitting the rivers between Ballina and The Qld border for a couple of weeks starting this Monday, then hopefully another week around my old stomping grounds in Port Mac from about July 8 onwards.

BTW given my current SP/lure collection, can anyone advise a good departure point for fishing this area in the next few weeks?

Thanks again. Will post some pics when I return from the trip...;-)

Thanks
TB