Bait Junkie- Switching It Up

By Grayson Fong

Have you ever been bream fishing and thought is this the best lure or soft plastic for me to use at this time? As we know there are many types of plastics that you can use for chasing bream, whether it is the traditional grub that has dominated bream tournaments for several years, to the semi new kid on the block being the minnow and lastly the creature style that lightly weighted can be deadly on vertical applications.

During certain times of the year, bream bite patterns can change as we know, a flat however is one area that you can generally find bream all year round. More often than not the bream will be cruising around on a flat looking for a feed. When you have established they are in the area, choosing the right soft plastic could maximise your catch rate and keep the bream feeding without shutting them down quickly.

In this blog I am going to concentrate on when to use a Daiwa Bait Junkie 2.5" Grub versus a 2.5" Minnow and the subtle changes you can make to improve your catch rate. To start, I find the grub to be an effective ‘wake up’ bait. Long tail and plenty of movement is a sure way to say ‘here I am guys!’ which is always a great method to catch the attention of roaming bream on the chew. Often this is good to used in low light hours or dirty water with the heightened water displacement being advantageous in grabbing attention. 

But have you often thought, maybe not all bream like the the loud, boisterous movement of a bait and how many shy away from it? Believe it or not this does happen and a simple bait switch can change the whole scenario.  

Taking a subtle approach and switching to a 2.5’ Minnow can be fruitful because of its slender profile and finer tail movements as I have often found big bream can sometimes prefer a quieter bait and often bully the smaller ones out of the way to grab the falling soft plastic. Keeping with the same retrieve, the Minnow produces enough vibrations to attract fish but is more tempered in its movements for a much stealthier approach. 

So next time you are out chasing your favourite species be sure to keep in mind that subtle adjustments can be fortuitous, making an average days’ fishing a good one.