# popping for Noosa bream



## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

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With the wind howling for the last several days and huge swells gladdening the hearts of the holidaying hordes of board riders here at Noosa over the last week, getting offshore has been difficult recently. So yesterday, needing fish for the plate as our stocks had been totally depleted by our Christmas visitors, I decided to get back to some Noosa basics -- poppers in the estuary.

Mainly out of laziness I waited until mid afternoon before heading for Weyba, one of the creeks which make up the myriad of waterways locally. The prevailing SE wind can be discouraging in my favourite section of Weyba, but on arrival I could see that the wind had gone around a little to the east, leaving my chosen area fishable but still with sufficient breeze to get a decent drift going.

The area I had chosen is covered in eel grass (Zostera), a favourite food of black swans and refuge for hordes of tiny critters such as crustaceans and molluscs. At low water, the area is unfishable as the grass is sufficiently long to form a floating mat which fouls any sort of lure and masks any bait cast into it. But a flooding tide makes all the difference -- the tops of the sea grass gradually become submerged and as the current strengthens they conform with the flow, increasing the clear space between the grass and the water surface. A place such as this is ideal for a fisherman in a kayak, but it is wise to wait until there's about 50cm of water over the tops of the waving grass -- enough for the larger bream to be able to see and attack those animal denizens of the grass which get dislodged from their grassy hiding places by the tidal flow. Popper time!

On launch and first look at the grass below me I could see that the tide had just started to ebb, as the grass-tops were pointing downstream. But there was the requisite amount of water so I set up a drift which worked well with the ESE breeze channelled down the creek. Up here there was little or no boat traffic and certainly where I fished the water was unsuitable for anything other than a kayak or canoe.

Sometimes here, despite all of the indicators being good, the fish are just not there, or perhaps not biting. But even if the bream aren't biting it's still a pleasant experience, five minutes from home, with the creek all to myself except for the ospreys, pelicans and black swans.

My first ten or so casts produced no response but as my drift pushed me toward the trailing edge of the grassy area I knew from previous experience that my chances were improving -- for some reason the last 100m or so before the grass gives way to clear sandy bottom is always more productive. And so it proved yesterday. My popper was slammed in an unmistakeable bream strike and the little rod bent into a pleasing arc as the hooked fish took off. A few seconds later the fight was over -- a nice fat bream around 30cm lay beaten beside the yak.









_Typical Noosa bream -- a sucker for a tiny popper_

By the time I 'd photographed the bream and stowed him in my fish box my drift was finished -- I was outside my drift area and over clear sand bottom. So it was a quick turn around and a quick skim over the grass back to the start of a new drift. The action was consistent but not hectic -- every few casts a follow or hit. I don't think I've ever done better than a hit to solid hookup ratio of better than 3:1 and yesterday was no exception. The conditions were quite choppy and sometimes I feel that the fish have difficulty getting that moving target into their mouths -- there's a swirl and a splash behind the popper but no connect. As I sometimes do, I opted yesterday to simply stop the retrieve when this happened and just flick the popper gently as if it's an injured or exhausted prey animal. This worked many times yesterday, with the bream coming back for several hits while the popper lay inactive. In many cases they successfully hooked up after several tries but sometimes I got the popper back quietly to within a couple of metres of the yak before the fish gave up.

So there was plenty of action. One bream came in with the popper completely inside its mouth but most were easily unhooked.









_This one completely swallowed the popper_









_Quite often bream show body damage or defects. This one has a notch at the front of its dorsal area and portion of the dorsal fin missing._

Once I had six bream for the table I changed to an SX40 for a brief drift casting over the clear sand area, hoping for a flathead but the wind in this instance worked against me, making it very difficult to hold in my chosen shallow area for more than a few seconds. Perhaps I'll take the anchor next time.









_Six nice bream from 26 to 31cm, fresh from the Noosa estuary._









_Two battle-scarred poppers. These two have taken dozens of fish. I don't think colour matters but the top one was the only one I used yesterday._

Tight lines, AKFFers. Thanks for reading


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## sailfin (Jul 31, 2008)

Great fish and top pics mate, gee i miss the salt.


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

Kev, you just keep on ticking those boxes for me as to why I should move up there...

Look forward to joining you one of these days..


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## joejoe (Sep 28, 2008)

A good read and some nice fish you cant beat that.joe


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## grinner (May 15, 2008)

thanks sunshiner and thanks for the picks of the lures too. i have thought that a slightly larger popper may be easier to cast, they look pretty small so well done pete


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## DougOut (Dec 31, 2006)

nice bag Kev .... good to see ya Bream'n when conditions prevent the offshore stuff  
well scripted report too ..... there's a few lessons in there for the Newbies to the Art of Yak-fishing 8)


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## HardPlastic (Jul 2, 2007)

Please teach me your ways master.

A great read Kev as always - love your work.

Greg


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## bushwoodboy (Oct 5, 2006)

Beautiful report as always Kev.
Didn't strike any with two heads did you?  
Cheers Mal


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## Ironsides (Jul 10, 2006)

Well done Kev.
Great report and pics, as usual.
Good to see some decent Bream from the river.
Is there anything you cant do?

Great stuff.

Ian


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## tobes (Jul 8, 2008)

congrats on the catch mate .maybe thats what im doing wrong obviously alli gotta do is take most of the color off my poppers ;-)


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## imnotoriginal (Jan 13, 2008)

Great report Sunshiner. Thanks for all the extra info, will be helpful with picking spots next time I break the poppers out.
Joel


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## YakCult (Nov 4, 2008)

Great mornings work Sunshiner!
You will have everybody breaking out their popper collection now!  
Well done!


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## PhilC (Oct 10, 2008)

G'day sunshiner,

Great bream on popper recount! I only wish I could write half as good as you! Have you thought about trying to get published?


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

A nice bag of tucker. onya Kev


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

Davey G said:


> Kev, you just keep on ticking those boxes for me as to why I should move up there...
> 
> Look forward to joining you one of these days..


Mate, you're very welcome, as a visitor, or as a new local -- and bring your VHF radio ;-) . I reckon it's paradise for a yakker or anyone who likes beaches, surf, sunshine, warmth, friendly people, light traffic, forested national parks. It took me 50 years to get to live here -- I hope it takes you less.


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## Drewboy (Mar 18, 2008)

Loved your beautifully written post, but particularly liked your bream catching strategy.
Thanks for sharing.
DB


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## dunebuggy (Dec 21, 2008)

Thanks for a great read and pics. I guess I don't fish enough, I have never heard of bream being caught on poppers.


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