# TAS - POW Bream Busting



## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

The Place: Prince of Wales Bay on the Derwent River, Hobart TAS
The Time: Gentlemen's hours, on the water at 9:00 am.
The Crew: AndyC, Vertigrator and Blaen
The Temperature: Maximum of 12 degrees today, Water Temp was 6 degrees at time of launch :shock: and grew to 9 degrees as we landed.

Prince of Wales bay may well have been picturesque at some stage of it's history, but these days it is fairly industrial despite the lovely park and boat ramp that the council have provided. The bay is now full of structure almost completely lined with commercial wharfs and even a recently sunken yacht adding to the plethora of structure. The Derwent River is in fact home to some of Australia's biggest Black Bream and now holds a place in the National ABT round of competitions, where the bag weights often exceed those recorded in other states. Enough of the history and sociology lesson&#8230;&#8230;. :lol:

Vertigrator, Andy and myself all met up at about 8:40 and hit the water by 8:55, Vert was keen he headed straight for a likely piece of structure, while I was sitting there looking at the myriad of wharves and pylons wondering where to begin. It took Vert all of 10 minutes to hook up on to a thumping fish, he called out "I am on!",  I yelled back "I can see" 8) as I watched the tussle. I could see the fish trying to dart back into the structure, then make a break back towards the kayak in an attempt to go under it. Vert was up to the challenge though and as the fish was splashing around near the surface and a couple of attempts to reach for the landing net, in between tail flicks from the fish, he was in the yak.










Measuring in at 39 cm, he was what they call a "standard" fish for the Derwent River, after a couple of happy snaps he was returned to the water with one final tail splash. It was a top start to the morning.










On top of that fish he also scored another bull blue nose that came in at 41 cm, which I wasn't there to capture for posterity.

Andy was trying an all together different technique, jigging Saltwater Flies at various spots around the bay an extremely successful technique that netted him over 30 Flathead for the day. Any where else that would have been a huge haul to take home, however due to the amount of industry around the Bay and the close proximity of the Electrolytic Zinc Plant eating resident fish from the Derwent River is these areas isn't recommended. The river is getting cleaner but some stretches you just don't risk it from. Thankfully with Andy hooking heaps of fish, his faith in Hobart fishing has been renewed, especially after our last trip together which was a donut trip for both of us. The only regret is that the only picture I got of him was when he didn't have a fish on. Actually that was Andy's only regret&#8230; :twisted:










My day how ever started off slowly, I had one tap early and not mush else till later on. My first fish was a little yakka (yellowtail), he put up a surprising fight for a fish only 6 inches long and spat the hook as I was lifting him into the yak. I sent the little Squidgy out again and found what must have been chasing the school of Yakka about. The drag on the reel screamed, what ever it was had buckled over the rod an was heading under the yak at speed, I managed to get the tip of the rod around the front of the yak just in time, then came the familiar sight of a Couta launching it's self out of the water. I got him close to the yak and saw that the SP was well inside his mouth, how much longer could the leader last in amongst those teeth? Not long, I was just about to net him and saw he was close to 70 cm long, when he made a final dash and the leader was cut clean on his teeth. 

I re-rigged and set about casting again, a school of something past under me on the sounder so I sent a cast behind me and sure enough was rewarded with a hook-up, bringing to the surface a small Mullet just over legal length at 29 cm.










He was sent back to the depths and I continued my search for the elusive Black Bream, however the best I could manage was a couple of Flathead from under a couple of moored yachts.










Overall it was top day, but next time we will try for a place where you can eat the fish. Seriously though the fish in the bay were all healthy looking and there was quite a huge population and variety of species, obviously the attempts to clean up the area are working and the fish are returning,


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## AndyC (Feb 29, 2008)

Wonderful day and the best of company. Thanks fellas. Great report Blain. I don't think I can add anything, other than that it was a blast.

Bream???? There were bream?????? LOL

Cheers,

AndyC


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## ArWeTherYet (Mar 25, 2007)

6 Degrees? :shock: :shock: .....thats bloody cold. You blokes down there must freeze your nuts off.  :lol:

Great report, and a thumper of a bream.

Nice part of the world down there, but I dont think I'm in a hurry to paddling my leaky swing there.


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## craig51063 (May 30, 2008)

brilliant
thats a great bream .
i was down there at xmas doing the family thing .fishing around the cas its a fantastic fishery .


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

ar-we-ther-yet said:


> 6 Degrees? :shock: :shock: .....thats bloody cold. You blokes down there must freeze your nuts off.  :lol:


My thoughts were the same as AWTY when I saw the water temp as we are grizzling because it is 21C at present, and air temps mid 20s :shock:

A variety of takes there and always marvel at the horse bream you blokes see down that way


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## AGE (Oct 7, 2007)

Great variety and report. Well done!


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## Duane (Oct 20, 2007)

Nice Work, I wouldn't have picked POW as a flatchap location, show's how little I know about fishing 

I did drop down to the boat ramp a little before midday to say hello, but you guys weren't in view.

With water temps like that I think my yak's in hibernation until spring :?


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## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

Thanks for the kind words folks, it was a very pleasant outing and I think we were colder once we got off of the water than down on it.



Duane said:


> Nice Work, I wouldn't have picked POW as a flatchap location, show's how little I know about fishing
> 
> I did drop down to the boat ramp a little before midday to say hello, but you guys weren't in view.
> 
> With water temps like that I think my yak's in hibernation until spring :?


I must have just missed you Duane, I came back in at about 11:45 for a much needed relief break, had a chat to a few locals about the Outback and headed back out to sit under the bow of one of the Tug boats for a while. Bugger ;-)


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## bomberjames (Dec 5, 2007)

Nice bream.
A standard 39cm bream in Vic would be mounted on the wall according to my Asian freind.
His house is now on the market and he is heading South.
Cheers


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## vertigrator (Jul 25, 2006)

It was a great day out, and top company too.

The cold temps aren't so bad when there's no wind. In fact my family spent the day on the beach today down at Slopen Main on the Tasman Peninsula. Cooked up some snags, marshmallows and cups o' tea on a beach fire. And the kids built a sand mermaid.

It was great to have a tussle with some bream again, it's been a while since I've targetted them. The first one came from right under structure, letting the soft plastic sink all the way down between two pilons under a jetty. He did his best to go back under there too. Man these bream have V8 motors on them. 8)

I had a few other breamy taps later on. But couldn't manage a hookup on those ones. The fish just aren't as aggressive at this time of year - 6 degree temps will do that.  :lol:

Then on the other side of the bay I managed to get my second one when I cast the lure to within 5cm of hitting one of the biggest pilons on another jetty. I let it sink down the pilon for a few seconds and then gave a few ginger taps to put some life into it. Then the line took off and the yak is getting towed into the structure. :shock: :shock: :shock: A bit of side pressure made him swim in an arc away from the pilons, while he still peeled off line. Then before I know it my yak has run into one of the pilons and I'm in danger of pulling the bream back into the structure. So I held the rod with my left hand constantly appying pressure, while I used my right hand to paddle backyards. That worked a treat and I was then able to fight him on my terms. A couple more runs later I had a very fat 41cm bream on board. Unfortunately I didn't pack the camera cause showers were forecast. But he was definately one of the biggest bream I've caught. The excitement of pulling solid power-house bream out of tight structure like this is just awesome fun. 8) 8)


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