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Australian Bream Challenge
By Nickfish
The Australian Bream Challenge is a new competition that was run over two days on the 10th and 11th of September 2022. Me being the person I am, I had to get myself into some of the action. I was fishing with my mate, whose dad has a hut up in the bay where we were going to be fishing for the weekend.
I had the game plan in my head. Begin fishing in the bay, knowing that's where my numbers would come from and then move into Water Park Creek, which is where the bigger bream come from. The idea was to get our bag of bream and then try and upgrade from there. We arrived at the boat ramp and took off immediately, headed toward my most trusted bream spot, a nice mangrove lined shoreline, with various small creeks and drains spread throughout.
We were about halfway there and then the worst possible thing happened... our motor stopped. After fifteen minutes of frustration, I decided to pull up the anchor and drift toward some mangroves up ahead. Thankfully, because of that decision, we headed right into a little honey hole of bream. My mate and I were almost instantly onto some nice bream.
I had rigged up TRD CrawZ in Hot Craw colour, to imitate a small crab, on a 1/8oz 1/0 TT HWS (Hidden Weight System) jighead, which gave the lure a natural slow fall. I fished it by casting up current and letting it sink to the bottom, while keeping in contact with the plastic to feel any bites. Finn rigged a 1/8oz TT Switchblade in Brown Mongrel colour and was fishing it with a hop and fall action, with the bream picking it up on the fall. We both ended up with a nice 27cm bream, which was a great start to the trip. Unfortunately, as the tide started to rip out of the creek, so did the fish.
By this time my dad had caught up to us and of course the motor started on the second pull and off we went. We pulled up to a yabby bed, complete with a drain with bait holding in it. It looked too good not to have a flick for a bream. My mate was rigged up with a 1/4oz TT Switchblade, to get good casting distance, and it was also the perfect size to represent the bait holding in the drain. I rigged a ZMan 2.5” GrubZ in Gudgeon colour, paired with a Green TT DemonZ jighead.
Finn quickly hooked up to a solid flathead on the Switchblade. It would have been well over 55cm in length, but he dropped it at the boat. Shortly after that I caught a smaller flathead, just under legal. Although I could have spent all day catching flathead, we still needed three more bream each. We moved on to the original spot that I had planned to fish. This spot was basically unfishable due to the large tides that we had that weekend and as soon as the lure hit the water it was out of the strike zone.
So, we needed a Plan B and decided to fish a big rocky cove that offered protection from the flow. This spot was loaded with big tarpon but unfortunately no bream. The flow had slowed right down by this point, so we decided to move upstream a little bit, positioning on a cockle patch. This spot provided me with two more small bream, which wasn't ideal, but at least I had my four bream on the scoreboard.
The sun was getting low in the sky and the mozzies were getting thick, so we decided to begin our journey home. The motor had different ideas. The same thing had happened again, so we decided we were not going to catch anything just sitting there not fishing. We decided the best course of action was to start fishing. Almost immediately I hooked up to a nice 31cm fish on the GrubZ that I was fishing with earlier. This quickly knocked off the smaller bream that I had caught earlier.
Finn and I both lost a few big bream, before I landed another 27cm fish, meaning I now had a decent bag of bream. Finn then hooked up to a good fish on the switchblade and I knew that this could be the bream of the trip. The net was in the water, ready for a big silver silhouette of bream... and of course, it's none other than the gold spot estuary cod. Dad returned to fix the motor and we left as it was getting dark, just in time for an early dinner. A successful first day, finished off with dinner cooked on the fire.
With high expectations for the second day, we needed to; A. get me some bigger bream and B. get Finn two more fish to get his bag. We went downstream looking for the big bream holding in the eddies and the backwaters. Around the first bend and of course, the motor stopped yet again! Finn persisted with his Switchblade, while I rigged up a ZMan 2.5” Slim SwimZ in Pearl Blue Glimmer colour.
We fished there for a while with no success as the flow was just ripping the lures around, making it virtually impossible to fish. I managed to get my lure stuck on a tree and I just let it sit there for a bit as it was holding the lure in the strike zone. Sure enough, the line took off and thankfully the fish swam away from the snags and not into them. It was a good bream. A lovely 34cm yellowfin bream that made the trip and knocked one of the smaller 24cm fish out of my bag.
Again, we got the motor started, after thousands of pulls, and managed to get all of fifty metres into a fish barren spot. So, we waited for our tow boat (Dad) to arrive. Once we got back, we didn't want to leave with Finn with a bag of two fish, so we fished off the boat ramp. Here he hooked up to healthy 33cm yellowfin bream, meaning we only needed one more bream for Finn.
Almost immediately, he hooked up to another good fish, but this one was in a dangerous spot. This fish wanted to get home, however, after some manoeuvring, we landed the fourth and final fish that Finn needed. We stopped fishing after that and went to have brekky and pack for home. Finn ended up with a 24, 27, 31 and 33cm bream for the weekend, while I scored two 27cm bream, along with a 31 and 34cm fish. Not too bad considering the bad tides and motor problems that didn’t allow us to get to the better spots.
Finn and I both came through with some good results. I managed 10th overall for juniors with 218 points, while Finn and I tied for 8th biggest bream in Queensland with a 30.5cm caudal length. Although we didn't do as well as we had hoped, we did really well, considering the problems we faced. It does go to show that persistence does get results. Just as an FYI, the motor is off for repairs before the next competition.
Cheers, Nick
Gearing Up:
TT Black Mamba Spin Rods – BMS701L 7’ 1-3kg
Okuma Helios SX Spin Reels – HSX-20
Platypus Pulse X8 Braid – 6lb
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader – 10lb
Okuma Cerros Spin Rods – CER-S-701ML 7’ 2-4kg
Okuma Epixor XT Spin Reels – EPXT-30
Platypus Pulse X8 Braid – 15lb
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader – 10lb
ZMan 2.5” GrubZ
ZMan 2.5” Slim SwimZ
TT HWS (Hidden Weight System) Jigheads
TT DemonZ Jigheads
TT Switchblade – 1/8oz and 1/4oz