# NSW South Coast 11/05 - Changing Planets



## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

When you have an otherworldly experience you can't help but want to recreate it. But moments are just that - moments. You can't create a moment. It's experienced then gone forever. Most times the attempt to resurrect such moments leads only to hollow disappointment. Worse than that, it can taint the previous moment for all time, devaluing it by association.

This wasn't one of those times.

I had planned to meet up with Premium at my local, Mummuga, for a Friday morning fish. It was the last morning of his brief sojourn to the region (http://www.akff.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=54874), but he and I both had a few hours to kill. After my experience two days earlier (http://www.akff.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=54843), my plans and ambitions had elevated somewhat. I was able to get a PM to him that led him to my previous trip report and an eagerness to help me relive my moment and perhaps steel a one or two for himself. So my local No 1 was ditched in favour of my local No 4.

I awaited my local child care centre to open at 7:30am. Both Xavier and I were a little bleary but eager for our respective days. By 8:00am I was unloading and setting up. Premium arrived at around 8:30 as planned. His setup time being not dissimilar to mine, I was on the water before him.










There were many differences this morning from what greeted me on Wednesday. The sun was shining brightly, there were zephyrs visible on parts of the lake, there were more birdlife stirring waves upon the millpond, and I had a wealth of anticipation. I subdued some of that by flicking plastics at the shoreline in the launch bay, and more by trolling a deeper diver in the featureless depth of same. It felt different, less fishy. The weight of expectation was doubled, having conned a partner from a plan well proven.










Premium launched and we trolled our way towards the honey pot. I tried a Min-Min, but found it dug too deep into the mud. Premium trolled a sinking HB that he'd never tried before. He soon wondered why when it was attacked. A short fight yielded an undersized bream. AN UNDERSIZED BREAM! That was previously unheard of in these waters, at least in my sample set of three. This was indeed concerning, as was the lack of interest from the sizeable Flathead I was targeting with my diver. I changed lure, but not my expectations. I should have left well enough alone.

I didn't register a touch in the kilometre troll to my honey pot. This was despite following the droppoff with vigilance to the teachings of my sounder. No structure, no bait balls, no fish beeps, nothing.










Arriving at what I thought was my zone of fulfilment of Wednesday, I changed to my destroyer, the snapper plastic, the 5 inch Gulp Jerkshad Crazy Legs in Charteuse Pepper Neon. It's a mouthful, but not to its intended targets. Their mouths were more than ample. I soon had a few touches, small vibrations, short feisty runs, all signs of undersized bream. Then tragedy. A strike parted my leader at the knot. One down and one to go. I was especially careful retying my 6lb leader to my 4lb braid. My line class now matched the target species, if not my lure. My final presentation well presented, I began flicking it around the honey pot. All went quiet, except for the occasional bloop of lure hitting water. No wind now, no ripples, no traffic noise, no excuses.










It wasn't long before we got some more interest. I could hear the occasional exclamation as Premium struck but came up loose. I too was edgy, getting taps through my slow roll, tip bends during my pauses, but no tight lines on my double twitches. Then another tap or two. I lowered the rod tip, saw that telltale bend and struck - tight. Not a big fish, I thought, but hardly a tiddler either. It under-promised and over-delivered. At 40cm it was much bigger than what Premium was used to. After all, he wasn't here Wednesday. But to me it was just another oversized bream from my new local. How times have changed.










The next model followed soon after. Its fight and weight promised a larger specimen. It bent my rod tip into the tea coloured depths and under the Adventure. It lived up to its promise too. I thought it was short of Wednesday's PB. I had succeeded in fooling myself with my smugness. It later proved to be 46cm, a full 2cm bugger than my PB. It was even graced with a lump on its head in keeping with the lure I used to target it.

That half hour was gluttony in the extreme. I landed another two bream going 39cm and 44cm, plus a very cranky flathead at 51cm. The flathead leap and double twist out of the landing net was rated by Premium as a 9.5. It was soon re-netted, destined for consumption with the two smallest bream by the family that evening.










Meanwhile, poor premium, not blessed with 5 inch snapper plastics, was having less luck. When I say less luck, I mean no luck. He tried plastic after plastic, but was left exasperated.










I almost handed over my one and only crazy legs that had somehow managed to survive the onslaught. Almost! I was therefore more than relieved when a switch back to the sinking HB did the trick. He soon had a rod bend that I'd become all too accustomed to. The result was a new PB. At 38cm, it almost seemed like a juvenile.


















The bite went quiet, so we headed to the other spot that yielded results on Wednesday. It was the sandy shallows with structure that the bream had haunted en mass. But this time the surface was featureless. No tiny boils or bloops that had given away my prey on Wednesday. After 10 minutes of flicking I'd decided it didn't seem right, and headed off in search of new untested waters. Premium kept plugging away with some success while I skirted the sanctuary zone to try the shallow flats nearer the lake entrance.










The shoreline yielded no prize. I rolled across the shallows, identifying a remnant channel on the sounder. By now my crazy legs was very weary indeed. I charged it up again with gulp juice and tried to find a mangle free 2cm where I could rethread the jig head with some solidity. I cast along the channel, got a few tiny taps, lowered the tip, felt the subtle weight and struck. All hell broke loose. The shallower water only increased the ferocity of my quarry. It peeled line and boiled all around me until finally subdued and slid towards the net. It seemed slightly smaller than my second model and was considerably lighter, but it proved to be 47cm. Another PB. I was by now needing to organise the contents of my blue painters bucket in the front hatch just to house my growing stash of seafood.

My next cast saw my dilapidated and decapitated crazy legs fly a hundred metres away as my leader parted. I broke out the 5 inch Gulp jerk shads in Nuclear Chicken. They didn't hold favour with me or the bream. That was the last of the action on the flats.

I returned to the dropoff where Premium soon joined me. I was actually sick of catching bream and wanted a larger feed of Flathead. But I just couldn't shake them. I hooked up again, this time to a puny 38cm model, bringing my total to half a dozen bream from 38cm to 47cm. I was indeed on another planet. Either that, or I'd somehow exchanged personalities with Squidder of Fiddy, and wouldn't realise it until I saw myself in the mirror. It was the most sensible explanation after all.

Midday had long passed and with it our already delayed time of departure. We slow trolled and flicked our way back to the launch site not wanting it to end and already calculating how soon we could each return. Maybe next time I'll be disappointed. Maybe next time I'll crack the 50! Imagine that. Half a metre of bream, HOF, SOO, BAMF! Now that would be a different universe entirely.


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

PS. I know some of you Bream worshippers will think me less than human for keeping all those trophies. I would agree except that I've lived at the coast for almost a year now and have had to resort to buying fish and chips. That's just appalling behaviour, totally unbecoming of an AKFF member of so many off topic posts. This is a welcome interlude for me. I can assure you that no more bream will die in the making of this epic min-series &#8230;. unless my freezer is empty &#8230;. and I don't catch Flathead as intended.


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## SharkNett (Feb 20, 2006)

Great writeup. I have no problem with anyone eating bream, as long as I don't have to. Eaten a few but never a good one.


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## DieterT (Feb 21, 2011)

Top read - as usual. You crack me up!!! And the fish - superb.


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## carnster (May 27, 2008)

Stonker bream bud


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## Wrassemagnet (Oct 17, 2007)

The bream make the flathead look puny, usually it's the other way round when a bag of fish is put on display. They are truly impressive specimens and enjoy your feed mate, well deserved.


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## pauly200200 (Feb 28, 2012)

very nice ive never seen bream that big ever.im the same tho i cant stand eating them very strong taste and not much meat to many bones.


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

pauly200200 said:


> not much meat to many bones


You are obviously catching them the wrong size. ;-) . These have been a snap to boneless fillet.


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## Guest (May 13, 2012)

Where is the real Ado? Has someone hacked your account? The real Ado doesn't catch this many fish! Congrats dude, they are ripper fish and well worth taking home for a feed.


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

Hey chin up man eventually these monster bream will stop hassling you


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

nezevic said:


> Where is the real Ado? Has someone hacked your account? The real Ado doesn't catch this many fish! Congrats dude, they are ripper fish and well worth taking home for a feed.


To leave no doubt, this has nothing to do with me or my fishing abilities. It's all about the real estate. Location, location, location.


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

patwah said:


> Wow Ado, congrats mate
> Does X know what you do when you drop him off?


Since I mostly doing mathematical modeling of poo being eaten I figure some ignorance is bliss. He knows when I go fishing though.


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

----

QlpoOTFBWSZTWRvgU5gAABBfgAAQQAEEgAEAWAA/55+gIAB1DVH6p6JtTCeoBoyDVPyp6TQNNAaaHqIAgF66hUkuldXgec40qIllKYmgSRhEoubZINhR0pZ0ZeUa9SNFHkLaxmYB+L+6tFjMKLOKE+L1k724FjFArVtoQm0/xdyRThQkBvgU5gA=


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## Bretto (May 23, 2010)

Geeze Ado. Are you sure they're not snapper painted black?


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

I was looking at the pics, thinking yeah yeah, not bad, not bad.
Then I realised your pb bream(s) are quite a bit bigger than my pb schnapper and I know how well that fought.
Congrats on the fish and the spot.
As far as I'm concerned, bream are just another fish and quite a common one at that, anyone who wants to eat them has the right to.


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## pescado (May 17, 2007)

Horse bream Ado, you've cracked a most unlikely pattern. A 5 inch snapper lure wouldnt be my first choice but its working for you...awesome.


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

Lazybugger said:


> This spots in qld isn't it


As if you get bream that big in toad town. Bream, Salmon and Snook are about the only things we can outdo you on.



BigGee said:


> I super rate those crazy legs Gulps in the mind bogglingly long name colour.


Me too Gee. I just didn't think I'd be rating them for bream.



RedPhoenix said:


> 47cm.. nearly half a meter of angry bream.


I'm confident you'll be able to remove the word 'nearly' very soon.



Junglefisher said:


> Then I realised your pb bream(s) are quite a bit bigger than my pb schnapper


Check out my PB snapper JF. :lol: . Snapper are all tail fin. A 44cm bream is much bigger than a 44cm snapper.



pescado said:


> you've cracked a most unlikely pattern. A 5 inch snapper lure wouldnt be my first choice


It wasn't mine either. I got my first bream on Wednesday on a big Squidgy Fish. I upgraded from that to the gulp to try to stay away from the bream. I'm targetting Flathead remember. It would seem a perfectly good choice for Flathead. I don't target bream because they are too hard to catch. Post 40cm bream are becoming my new pest species.


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## Guest (May 14, 2012)

Ok so if you are catching 40+cm bream with impunity in these virginal waters, when you find the flathead just how big are they going to be? Are you sure you are not using too small gulps already? Perhaps you need to up the ante...


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

nezevic said:


> when you find the flathead just how big are they going to be?


My thoughts exactly. I've pulled 3 flathead from 45cm to 51cm. I have the feeling that there may be many 1m+ models lurking. Maybe I should start using a Hobie Sport dipped in Gulp juice and fitted with trebles.

On a more alarming note, I called in to the local tackle store this afternoon. I told him I was catching monster bream but didn't tell him where. He then told me that monster bream were being caught in two of the local lakes, including this one. The word is out!


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## Artie (Dec 19, 2011)

Hmmm.... looks familiar.....










No fish though.... Ado must have emptied it.....


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## 4weightfanatic (May 19, 2011)

Great report Ado - the yellow fin bream up here don't do much for me compared to the blacks I used to chase down south but that haul would be well worth "accidently" catching whilst targetting other species. Cheers Pat


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## kanganoe (Apr 30, 2008)

Some beautifull fish there.Good luck with the HOF quest.


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

Well the bream should nearly be gone now, so it should be easier to catch flathead.
Do you have a commercial licence ?
Nice fish.


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## bombora (Mar 8, 2006)

This is not an attack on keeping bream, nor your catch. That's great fishing! But it is a plea to think about growth rates when deciding which species of fish to keep for dinner. 
South Coast lake/lagoon "black bream" are very slow growing fish. 40cm plus fish might be 20 0r 30 years old, or older. Personally I have doubts about going home with say half a kilo of bream fillet that is the result of two or three decades growth. That's a lot of years for a little flesh.
On a related note, spoke to a fisheries biologist who said 95 per cent of all NSW south coast black bream are actually hybrids _ crosses with yellowfin bream.


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## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

I did make that point Bombora. I have released all Bream I've caught since.


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## Beekeeper (Aug 20, 2011)

Another most interesting report, Ado... your reports usually have me smiling whilst reading them.

They're horses of bream and they did make the flattie look puny!

I still reckon that bream taste better than snapper any day!

Isn't it a bugger when you know that it's your fault that your favourite lure is gone! (leader parted???)

Keep up the good work...

Jim


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