Starting out with soft plastics on the Nong

[GTurvs]

Around two months ago I set out to catch my first bream from the Nong. I started off bait fishing, catching pinky after pinky, session after session, until I finally landed my first Nong bream on a big fat prawn. And here he is: (Cue angels with trumpets.)



After achieving that goal I found myself suddenly and terrifyingly addicted to goal number 2: catching a bream on soft plastics. I started reading around, lurking on this forum, watching videos, generally making my addiction worse.

In the process I’ve upgraded my gear and started collecting bits and bobs towards a general purpose bream setup. Here’s what I have so far:

Sienna 2500 reel
Sunline PE 6lb braid



6lb mono leader (to be upgraded to 6lb fluro). Leader length of about 1.5m.
7’6” Fenwick custom rod, must be like 15-20 years old. I think it’s in the 1-3kg range – fine for flicking SPs but not very stiff.
SPs: Bloodworm and Gary Glitter Wrigglers, Strike Tiger 3” Grubs in Honey Seed (thought it looked like a ZMans Motor Oil) and Pumpkinseed Turtleback worms.
Jigheads: 1/16 & 1/24.

So not a huge array of options to try right now, but steadily building towards a multi purpose kit I hope.

I’ve had about 6 sessions using SPs so far. All donuts unfortunately. I don’t often get long to fish, or the right tide due to other commitments so I’ve been fishing at low tide, high tide and everything in between. Don’t usually fish at night, only daytime. I’ve only had a few follows, touches and one-hookup but lost the fish. Most of those using Wrigglers. Been fishing around structure a lot, places that bream hold even at low tide (pontoons, pylons) then working the rock walls along the river if I get there around high tide. I’ve definitely learnt that you won’t catch the bream you see, so aim for those I can’t.

That’s about it for the condensed version of my journey so far. All I have right now are questions..

Is there anything you would add to my SP arsenal? Are there any obvious missing options for the beginner bream angler fishing a tough place like the Nong?

What are some good fluro brands available?

When is the best time to fish lighter jig heads vs. heavier jig heads?

Any comments at all on my setup so far?

[bubuli]

mate, I'll go down 3-4lb leader (I use FC rock flourocarbon by sunline) and get some creature baits (hawgs, monster mikis, air craws) are the go to plastic at this time of year just my two cents

[yellow door 1]

Only problem with the nong and plastics is the amount of snags you will encounter.

I remember spitting the dummy after re-rigging 16 times in a session and switching to hardbodies for a few years

Alot of the productive areas have been designed to snag plastics on. If you pause a plastic and let it sink onto the rocks that line the river - you are going to have a bad time. I'd suggest a constant jittery retrieve over the rocks in close.

The secondary drop off is a better bet for a hop hop pause retrieve. But even then you will have to deal with weed and other obstacles people have thrown in there.

Its a very productive river - but its consumes a heap of plastics if you let them hit the bottom

[Alex]

I woldn't go lighter than 4lbs leader to be honest. I also thought a 3lbs will bring more bites. It did, but the fish just broke it at the knot
However, it was Toray which I have never used before so I cannot say that all 3 lbs leaders are weak.
It has never happened before so I'd rather stick with 4-6lbs. I found a 5lbs
Fluoro is a good medium size (not too thick and not too thin).
FC Rock, fc sniper by Sunlineand Unitika are the most brands I use.

Plastics for the Nong? I say mikis

The second photo in YD's post are the banks you want to fish plastics. I found the times around high tide are the best. You'll need a good pair of polarising glasses to be able to see the rocks edge where you want your plastic to be.

Cheers

[Sloth]

Some good tips above. My experience has aligned with what Alex and YD have suggested.

I'd add the less spooky fish are staging at times on the second drop-off/transition. The spooky fish are on the first.

Different techniques required for those two areas, I've had a lot more success with the less spooky ones

I'm still a bit hit and miss on the Nong. Fished it for an hour last night on what I considered as a good conditions for the location and I got no touches whatsoever. Jumped in the car and went to the other river. Flattie on 3rd cast and then dropped a bream shortly after. Was fishing a plastic at night which I normally don't do and the bream smacked it just under the surface. I didn't realise I'd hooked it so shallow as I could basically see sweet FA ... so when I gave it some curry to drag it from the structure where I thought it was, I basically launched it like a sub-surface bream missile. It did some funky Tony Hawke's moves and see ya later

Sorry about the side story.... As suggested above focus around the high on the run-in and personally I'd target the secondary drop-off or the outer edge of any structure you find. Oh ... and worth walking the banks on a low-tide if you get a chance. You'll spot "structure" that you can then later target on the high.

You can get the spooky fish. Well .. Alex can lol. I've found them near impossible so far, so go for the low hanging fruit

[Alex]

Dave, I can get spooky ones only when they are not spooked
Meaning that I target the fish which cannot see me and I cannot see them.

But you raised a few valid points as well.
Firstly, the second drop off is a definitely a target area for plastics. I would target the edge with a shallow running hb rather than sp.

The other good suggestion was to walk the banks at the low tide and observe the terrain paying attention to where the weeds are starting to appear as they are definitely make fishing sp an almost impossible job.

Cheers

[Martin Lo]

I had days of frustration in Sydney's more pressured harbors, even hiding behind objects didn't work with fish in the open. Only on the last couple of days I started targeting specifically clumps of weed with soft plastics and showed results there.

As to tangling with weeds, the solution is simple, rig'em weedless, weightless and slowly crawl work through the weeds.

They do take a bit more pressure to expose the hook but as long as the line is kept slack and no pressure is felt by the fish they seemed to commit after the 2nd or 3rd nibble. A softer plastic helps in this case also.

Maybe it was the prawn imitations, prawn likes weeds.

[Martin Lo]

Originally Posted by Sloth

Some good tips above. My experience has aligned with what Alex and YD have suggested.

I'd add the less spooky fish are staging at times on the second drop-off/transition. The spooky fish are on the first.

Different techniques required for those two areas, I've had a lot more success with the less spooky ones

I'm still a bit hit and miss on the Nong. Fished it for an hour last night on what I considered as a good conditions for the location and I got no touches whatsoever. Jumped in the car and went to the other river. Flattie on 3rd cast and then dropped a bream shortly after. Was fishing a plastic at night which I normally don't do and the bream smacked it just under the surface. I didn't realise I'd hooked it so shallow as I could basically see sweet FA ... so when I gave it some curry to drag it from the structure where I thought it was, I basically launched it like a sub-surface bream missile. It did some funky Tony Hawke's moves and see ya later

Sorry about the side story.... As suggested above focus around the high on the run-in and personally I'd target the secondary drop-off or the outer edge of any structure you find. Oh ... and worth walking the banks on a low-tide if you get a chance. You'll spot "structure" that you can then later target on the high.

You can get the spooky fish. Well .. Alex can lol. I've found them near impossible so far, so go for the low hanging fruit

Found all hooks thin enough will bend giving it a good go. But the round bends were the ones that lost fish. Others bent too but still held onto fish even after sending them airborne 3m from landing.

[Ribskull]

This bream that can see you thing, if i see them from the footpath and walk past them fisb up further then work back are they still not going to bite, i once saw 4 good 40cm Bream, did exactly that but got snagged on first cast.

[vxcalais]

Originally Posted by Ribskull

This bream that can see you thing, if i see them from the footpath and walk past them fisb up further then work back are they still not going to bite, i once saw 4 good 40cm Bream, did exactly that but got snagged on first cast.

Bump to Sloth..........

[laddercat]

The best advice anyone can ever receive when starting out using plastics is. fish as slow as you can and then fish slower.

IF you must, count the pause between lifts...
Count a 15 second pause and then proceed to hop the plastic, recover your slack line and pause for another 15 seconds.

Goodluck and make sure you post a photo of your first bream on plastics.