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Classification

Animalia (animals) > Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes) > Sparidae (porgies) > Acanthopagrus

In the Acanthopagrus family we have quite a few members in Australian waters.

From both a commercial and recreational fishing point of view the main members of the Acanthopagrus family are the yellowtail bream, the pikey bream and the black bream as described below.
 

Yellowfin bream (A.australis)

Yellowfin bream bream have silver to bronze bodies and the lower fins are yellow to white.

Yellowfin bream are well dispersed along our coast line from Townsville to Victoria and they are predominantly found in estuary systems and in close coastal waters including harbors and rocky reefs and coastal saline lakes. The size of bream you find in these locations very much relates to their breeding cycle.

Spawning occurs during winter in sandy beach areas close to estuary systems and the tiny fry (less than 1cm) quickly move up into the estuary systems that will be their home until they reach maturity at about 5 years and reach around 22cm in length.

Maximum size is around 50cm. Once mature all male fish spawn.

The habitats that juvenile bream and mature bream share in estuary systems includes natural environments made up of weed beds, the edges of mangrove banks, inundated mangroves, overhanging trees and drowned trees and vegetation, sandy and muddy areas and rocky reefs, shore lines and rock bars and also man made environments including rock walls, bridge pylons, jetties, pontoons and bridges and under moored boats etc.

After spawning not all mature fish return to estuaries and some disperse into close coastal waters including harbors and coastal rock bars and saline lakes, with the bigger fish in particular ranging much further than they did as juveniles, where they favour the same types of habitat they did as juveniles but with a greater emphasis on rocky shores and rocky reefs and rock walls. Older fish prefer deeper water.

Pikey bream (A.Pacificus)

Pikey bream are sometimes mistakenly called black bream which is a completely different southern waters species.

The pikey bream breeding cycle is similar to yellow fin bream but both juvenile and mature fish favour much rougher muddy/sandy terrain than silver bream and spend a lot of time in deeper water than yellowfin bream.

Maximum size is around 27cm.

Black bream (A.butcheri)

Black Bream are one of the most important recreational and commercial species in the estuaries of southern Australia particularly Western Australia. They are endemic to Australia, and are well dispersed throughout our southern waters from Shark Bay in Western Australia to Ulladulla in New South Wales, as well as Tasmania.

They grow to about 60 cm and 4 kg and are often confused with the yellowfin bream as their range overlaps. The yellowfin bream has whitish-yellow ventral and anal fins, as opposed to the black bream, which has greyish-brown/black ventral and anal fins. Yellowfin bream and the pikey bream both lack the characteristic dark spot at the base of the pectoral fin.

Black bream have a silver/olive brown upper body with brown/black fins and complete their whole lifecycle within an estuary and can cope with salinity and temperature changes that would kill many other species. As hardy as they are, they are still ultimately reliant on healthy rivers and estuaries for their survival.

Black bream almost never leave the estuary. This has led to genetically distinct populations within each estuary.

They cope well with salinity changes from freshwater to ‘hypersaline’ (highly salty) water. Juvenile bream tend to inhabit shallower waters. The preferred adult habitat includes overhanging banks among the branches of dead trees, found in the bottom of deep pools in most rivers in WA.

In late summer and early autumn, after the spawning period (when sperm and eggs are released into the water), black bream juveniles and adults are common in the upper estuary. They are often flushed downstream with the first rains in late autumn.

In open estuaries, adults are sometimes flushed out to sea after very heavy rain, but usually return to the estuary.

Although a hardy species, black bream can be seriously affected by poor water quality. In many estuaries, reduced river flow and increased nutrient run-off have adverse effects. These factors can cause harmful algal blooms and hypoxia (low dissolved oxygen in the water) in summer, resulting in fish kills.

On the south coast, where many estuaries are closed by sand bars in summer, low river flow and high rates of evaporation can cause estuaries to become extremely hypersaline, again resulting in fish kills.
Lifecycle

Unlike many other estuarine species, black bream don’t migrate to the ocean to spawn.

They typically spawn in spring or summer, at the boundary of the salt wedge (where freshwater from the river runs over a ‘wedge’ of denser saltwater from the ocean). At this time, the salt wedge is typically located in the upper estuary.

As rudimentary hermaphrodites, black bream have both immature ovaries and testes when young, but will turn either male or female before their first spawning.)

Females release tens of thousands of eggs in several batches during the spawning season. However, many eggs and larvae won’t survive to become mature fish. As they grow, females produce more eggs. Really big females may produce more than six million eggs per year.

The larvae hatch from the free-floating eggs after 2.5 days. After about four weeks, the larvae are about 10 mm in length. They then develop into juveniles and settle to the bottom of the estuary.

They mature at two to five years of age, when about 15-20 cm long, and the lifecycle begins again.

Best times

The phases of the moon influences the occurrence of bite windows.

• The best time to fish for bream, and most fish, is the first 7 days after the new moon.
• As for all fishing the time just before and after sunset and dawn can be a significant time for a bite window.

Other considerations

Bream are a slow growing species and it doesn't matter which part of Australia your fishing in, or the actual species of bream your targeting, by the time they reach their minimum legal size which can vary from state to state and time to time they are around 5 or 6 years old. With that in mind I always exercise catch and release when fishing for bream.

• Generally bream are most active when the tide is rising and on the ebb of the rising tide. Keep in mind however that once the tide inundates mangroves bream have a tendency of move deep into the root systems making them hard to target with artificial baits such as flies, lures and soft plastics. Keep in mind that when the tide changes bream have to retreat from the mangroves and for the early part of the falling tide become much easier to target.
• Bream snack throughout the day with bite windows generally triggered when there are concentrations of food and in the hottest part of the day tend to forage deeper and in the cooler part of the days around dusk and down tend to forage more widely depth and terrain wise.
• In the hottest part of summer bream can be particularly active at night when the water is coolest and not only forage over a greater range of depths and but also forage right up into shallower water.
• Juvenile bream tend to be relatively resident for long times in the same area for long periods and only move on if conditions become unfavorable.

Stealth

Keep in mind that bream are easily spooked so you have to be stealthy in your movements and casts.

• So when you approach an area you going to fish do it slowly and if available quietly under the power of your electric motor and take advantage of any cover that's available. Don't cast a long shadow over or motor over over the water your going to fish. Longer casts are important and cast to the side of any fish your targeting.
• If your using an anchor deploy and retrieve it slowly and quietly so that there is no bumps or chain noises that will scare fish.
• Part of the stealth equation is fishing as light a leader and tippet as you can get away with flies, lures and soft plastics that have just enough weight or bib action to get those baits down to where bream are holding or feeding.

Techniques

Bream are both opportunistic feeders and predators in that on the one hand they will foraging around the bottom, in and around structure for tucker yet on the other hand they will will take advantage of structure and wait for food to come to them. They eat a wide range of tucker including prawns, shrimp and other crustaceans, crabs, molluscs such as oysters, worms and vegitation. They generally feed in small group from the same cohort in and around weed beds, drowned timber, man made structures including bridge pylons, pontoons and bridges, under moored boats and even on flat open sandy and muddy bottoms searching for food.

At the end of the day for both bream and bass it’s a matter of matching that hatch and feeding depth or just inducing a strike because the fish is feeding or defending their territory.

Flies, lures & soft plastics catch more fisher folk than fish ... have a small selection of "baits" you have confidence in.

Fly selection

You can fish for bream on a #6 weight outfit and very light leaders and that can be a lot of fun but in Central Queensland I suggest that you go up to an #8 weight outfit with a leader that has a butt section half the rod length of 14lb fluorocarbon and a tippet half the rod length of up to 7-9lb fluorocarbon. The reason for the heavier outfit in Central Queensland is that you never know when your going to get more than what you bargained for from other species including grunter, flathead, pelagics or even barramundi.

My default fly line is an intermediate but I do carry a floating line for surface feeding bream and very shallow water and a fast sink line for deeper water or to contend with currents and wind.

In any case put in a long cast to where the fish or holding or you expect them to hold and retrieve the fly or flies using a range of retrieves until you work out what suits the bream and the conditions at that time. Hits can be on the drop, retrieve, a pause, the hang or on the lift. Don't strike at a hit to aggressively and just hand strike the line or wrist strike the fly rod to set the hook. If the fish doesn't hook up let the fly settle as the same fish or others are just as likely to try again.

During summer most bream caught in estuary waters will generally be 20cm to 30cm in length but in the depths of winter particularly around river mouths, rock walls and rocky reefs you can expect congregations of generally bigger bream.

In clear water I like to use natural coloured flies that have the same form and function as the breams natural food and in coloured water I'm happy with brighter flies.

Bream will feed from the surface to the bottom and all depths in between but generally hold at depths where they have some sort of cover such as the structure I described above.

Given that bream eat mainly prawns and shrimp, molluscs such as oysters, worms and to a lesser extent small fish and crabs it’s not surprising that the best of flies for bream are representations of prawns and shrimps preferably tied on size #2 in summer and up to #1/0 hooks in winter.

Traditional flies such as a Crazy Charlie fly still work for bream as do some Bonefish flies such as Gotcha's and CXI specials.

 
My salt water estuary & coastal waters fly box
 

My sand flats fly box - tropical & temperate Pacific waters
 

Different lure types

My bream and bass lure box carries a number different types of lures and I would go as far as suggestion the type of lure is more important than the brand.

On the surface. It can be a real buzz if you have a popper or two on hand and the fish are in surface feeding mode.

• I like the Sure Catch 5cm popper in purple back.
• Bassday Sugarpen 70mm, 4.3g is a great surface lure in either the lilac or pink colours. You can fish them straight out of the packet or swap the trailing treble over to an Atomic Trick Bitz assist hook for extra effect.

Vibes Both hard and soft plastic vibes are useful and area great option when you want to get your bait down to deeper feeding bream particularly when there is limited structure for you to get snagged up on.

• The River 2 Sea Baby Vibe 43 is a great Bream vibe and it’s also accounted for other species including a couple of good Mangrove Jack, grunter, fingermark and of course the ever present gold and black spot cod.
• Suji coloured 60mm with green eyes
• Samaki vibalicious fork tail soft vibe … white bait is a good colour option.

Blades. The big advantage with blades is that they are relatively small in size, sink quickly and are less prone to the effects of tides.

• I have had a lot of success with the Strike Pro Cyber Vibe 35 when fishing for bream in coastal saline water and have also managed a few bass on them in local bass fisheries. Especially like them in 1460B green camo and JU009 gold colours.

Hard Bodied lures There are just so many options in this one particular type of bait that it's worth reminding you not to get too carried away with colours … lures catch more fishos than fish.

• Yakimoto Devil Edge 60mm 4.0g floating lure that cranks down to about 2m and slowly floats to the surface often inducing a Bream bite. The floating component has a second advantage and that is that if snagged the lure can often be twitched off the snag. My favourite colour is called Pinky but presents more a pink/mauve. Orange is my second choice of colours for this lure.
• The Rapala Jerk Bail Slow Rising hard body in pink or gold are a great option for the 3m range of divers. These area 5cm 6g lure floating lures which helps with recovery of the lure if you get snagged.

Soft plastics work ever so well on bream and are available from almost every company in the fishing retail industry.

I suggest that you carry only 3 or 4 different types of paddle tails in the 2" to 3" range and only a couple of colours.

Also, keep in mind that there are basically three different types of materials that soft plastics are made and that it can be an absolute disaster if you mix soft plastics from the 3 types of materials described above.

Consequently I suggest you stick with just soft plastics of one of the above three materials.

• Traditional plastisol based soft plastics
  These are the sort of soft plastics that many of us slightly older fisher folk grew up. The majority of lure makers produce soft plastics made of traditional plastisol so making a choice can be difficult.
• Z Man softies are made from Z Man's own secret proprietary TPE material called "ElaZtech". This proprietary TPE material melts and deforms traditional plastisol based soft plastics and consequently Z Man soft plastics must be stored away from all plastisol soft plastics in a non-PVC based container or their original sealed packaging.
• Zerek Chasebait, Transams and other TPE lures made from relatively standard TPE material don't have the secret proprietary additive that is in "ElaZtech" and will suffer the same melting and deforming problems that traditional plastisol based soft plastics suffer if stored in the same container as any Z Man soft plastic and may also have a deforming effect on plastisol based soft plastics.

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