I decided to head down to my favourite bream spot on the Swan to see if the recent hot weather had pushed the fish upstream yet.
I arrived to find the water still looking a bit fresh in my spot, but certainly a lot lighter than when I took Doug there a few weeks back.
There was a bit of a breeze blowing into my face when I first arrived, but it wasn't blowing strong enough to make it too uncomfortable.
I decided I would give the area a bit of a test so I rigged up a small baitrunner reel on one rod and rigged the other with a little blade lure.
The baitrunner was baited with a whole bluebait and I cast it into an area where I have had some success before.
While the bluebait soaked I worked my way up and down the bank casting to likely areas where there was either good structure or shade from overhanging trees.
Unfortunately there was no takers for the blade so I switched to a Slam Ultrabite and cast that around some areas near the reeds and a large, half sunken tree branch. That also failed to attract any attention.
Hoping that this wasn't a sign that the bream weren't around I swapped the SP over for a lightly weighted rig which I baited with half a bluebait and once again headed off to try some casts near some likely structures.
A managed a few touches and while I was waiting for something to put some weight on the line a heard my baitrunner go off and saw a bow wave heading out into the centre of the river.
Unfortunately, by the time I battled through the reeds and reached the rod, whatever it was spat the hook.
I somehow managed to miss three other runs and was starting to think I had lost my bream mojo.
But then things turned my way.
A lightly weighted blue bait was soon picked up and taken at speed towards the centre of the river and at last I felt the weight of a fish.
A good, sharp tussle and I soon had a beautiful, little bream.
That proceeded to be the shape of things for the rest of the afternoon and I ended up with 10 bream (all released) and 2 long necked turtles. Interestingly all the bream were roughly around the same size. Not big enough to get excited about, but still fun on light line, especially when they tried to run me around the local branches.
It was a great little session and hopefully a sign that the bream fishing is going to be pretty good this year in my little spot - which should really start firing in a few more weeks,
All the best, Colin Hay