What to do for winter yellows?

[fisho fanatic3]

Hi guys,
it's winter...no fish on the bite... doing everything possible. What retrieves, softies, blades are you using to get yellows? and colours for clean/clear water, sandy and weed patches.
thanks for any help.

[fishbutler]

Good old gulp shrimp in natural and molting with 1/16th tt jig heads are doing the trick for me

[spawn_again]

dead stick blades and plastics as far as your retrieve goes. try to crack a pattern at what depths fish are holding. down your leader to 3lb

[BloodWorm]

Originally Posted by fishbutler

Good old gulp shrimp in natural and molting with 1/16th tt jig heads are doing the trick for me

Like your thinking even go lighter weight and HWS

[forsterfisho]

Don't fish lake macquarie, after this weekend I am sure there are only a handful of bream in the entire system.

Generally fish slowly and fish deep. Although don't discount finding fish in the shallows as the day warms up and the water on the edges is slightly warmer than the deeper stuff...

[fisho fanatic3]

Thanks guys,
I will give this a go. I have a kayak so getting out deep shouldn't be a problem but spinning around in the current is. So blades and plastics fished sloooww or dead sticked. In deeper water, afternoons when they have warmed up and scent etc. thanks

[fishbutler]

Originally Posted by BloodWorm

Like your thinking even go lighter weight and HWS

Yer I love using the hidden weight heads but where we are fishing the current gets up a bit keeping the plastics from getting down to the bigger bream holding just off the bottom

[Bobby Bass]

You can still catch bream on the banks with lightly weighted plastics just like summer but it is just a little harder to find numbers. I went out land based this arvo and got 4 bream throwing wrigglers in 2 foot of water.

You can generally find better numbers deeper but thats not always the best way to fish. I know a lot of guys fish exactly the same as they would in summer, they never changed their game plan and still get really good bags.

I dont reccomend using topwater lures but other than that you can still target fish in shallow water, just look for the spots full of structure and you may find some good fish. Try fishing slightly deeper off points with blades and slightly heavier plastics (1/12th and up)

Another technique to try is wash fishing. I used to do a bit of this but have stayed well up the waterways lately. Find rocky banks that have the swell break over them. You will need to work out the perfect weight on the day as you will be hung up on the rocks a lot if it is too heavy. I have had some magic days doing this but it can be quite uncomfortable especially on a bass boat.

I technique I use a fair bit if fishing the same flats as I would in summer but I use a blade rather than the plastic. It can be a very slow and booring way to fish but I find you get some really good fish sometimes.

Cheers
Chris

[breambucket]

I think any shrimp type lure will work any time of year really just the style of retrieve changes to some extent.
Slowly hopped blades and plastics work well but I have recently been getting most of my bream in shallow water with hb's so If you see a point or small bay getting smashed by the wind it's a good place to try

[Ado]

2 words like everyone else said.

SLOW DOWN

Don't be afraid to hop the plastic or blade 10 cm's then let it sit for half a minute. Finding them at this time of the year is quite easy, trying to get them to bite.... If you need to go heavier then so be it. Don't forget the banks tho if it's a hot day and the winds blowing!

[breambucket]

Originally Posted by forsterfisho

Don't fish lake macquarie, after this weekend I am sure there are only a handful of bream in the entire system..

I was at Mannering park (near chain valley bay) today visiting my grandmother and it was like a carpark out there. There was some better bags for the guys who were clued up or just lucky but I think it will recover after a few days. I dare say being such a big place that not all the bream hanging around seen a lure this weekend lol

Cheers pete