Heavy Metal Breamin'

by Jarrod Day on 4 Aug 2011 Gippsland, located just three and a half hours east of Melbourne can be classified as the home of bream fishing.

In particular, Lakes Entrance a myriad of lakes and river systems is extremely popular with anglers keen to try their luck using various techniques. Know as 'the fish with attitude' black bream can be challenging at the best of times but with the influx of metal blades into the market, things just got a whole lot easier.

When soft plastics hit the market some years ago, few anglers believed that they worked. Some embraced the artificials and took bream fishing to an entire new level while others tried the fact but couldn’t grasp the techniques required to get a strike and subsequently put them back in the tackle box. These days, metal blades are the new kid on the block and have proven themselves to be an extremely effective lure for bream, trevally, salmon, flathead, tailor and perch amongst a plethora of other species.

The design of a metal blade is really quite simple, a fish shape thin piece of metal with a lead lip along with a few small holes drilled in the back offering different tow points for different retrieves. The front tow point provides the lure with the freedom to deliver the maximum movement when jigging; the middle tow point allows a medium to fast retrieve while the rear tow point is for during a slow retrieve. On the retrieve, the blade vibrates triggering an attack response from bream and other species.

Technique:
Unlike soft plastics which require a more finesse approach to enable the lure to work correctly, blading or vibing is far easier to learn.

The technique required to work a vibe is no more than lifting the rod tip a half meter or so vertically. If you’re not feeling the vibrating action, then on the next lift, you may need to do it a little quicker. Once the vibrations are felt through the rod, the technique is learned. Though this is just one technique, vibes can be used in a range of motions including vertical jigging, trolling and or casting.

Vibes are most commonly used when the fish are schooled up in the middle of a river or lake because they basically 'plummet' to the bottom. They are ideal to get to the school quickly without the need to wait as with fishing soft plastics. Once a school of bream is sounded up, the vibe can be dropped below into or nearby the school. Once it hits the bottom the technique is just a matter of lifting the rod tip vertically so the lure vibrates before dropping it again. This process is repeated until the angler gets a hook-up.

Which vibe:
Metal blades or vibes as they are commonly known are available in a wide range of sizes, colours and weights but when it comes to bream it’s the 30mm and 35mm sizes that are the most popular.

Available in an extensive range of colours, to find the right one is like finding a needle in a haystack. In saying that, depending on which system you’re fishing, you will find the fish respond well to just one particular colour but knowing which one will take a bit of experimenting to work out. With such a range of variations available it pays to have a selection at your disposal allowing you to chop and change where you see fit. Occasionally, even after casting the same colour lure for a period of time without success, just by changing a colour can trigger a fish to bite. Those best suited for bream are available in weights from 1/8oz up to 1/2oz depending on the depth of water being fished.

Although vibes do come factory fitted with treble hooks, it will pay to upgrade them. Most of the brands come standard with VMC trebles, and while these work, injecting the lure with 100% confidence should see it outfitted with either Owner ST 36 #16’s or #20’s or 'W' hooks.

W hooks are basically a set of double hooks which can be fitted to the blade without the need for a split ring. The Idea behind the W hooks is to prevent snagging. This weedless design allows the lure to be worked over rocky and or rough bottom, weed beds and amongst snags without being caught or snagged.

As they say 'out with the old and in with the new' and although soft plastics are still extremely effective and still have their place, casting a vibe will open up a whole new avenue to explore.

The next time you’re hitting an estuary, grab a few vibes and get blading.