sebcox Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 (edited) Hey guys! So after tides/weather/work were no good for me the past week to fish my favourite LB spot that some of you will know from my previous reports, today I decided to get out there before the long weekend is over and its back to work. First I made a trip to catch a few little poddy mullets which were nice and easy to get today. I forgot to bring a float but made a a makeshift one by tying line to the back ring of a surface lure. Managed about 10 perfect sized poddys in under 20 minutes including hooking one through the mouth on the lure the size of the mullet itself. Got down to my spot at about 2:30pm giving me just enough time to rig up and get baits out before the rain came pelting down. I took cover in a little cave formed in the rocks right near my rods. It was absolutely pouring and I was still getting wet in my cave, watching the rods bounce lightly but not enough to get me out of the shelter. About 20 minutes it took for it to stop raining and I was back out fishing. Sent a poddy out only to be smashed as soon as it hit the water. The rod buckled then quickly snapped back. Sat it there for another 30 seconds with no action before bringing it in to find only a head on the hook. Repeated this about 6 times coming back with only a head until I decided to hook it through the back... Well that just meant I brought back the head plus the part of the back with the hook in it Instead of wasting another mullet i put on the little bit left behind the head, cast to the same spot and brough in a nice 34cm tailor. Since the poddys were nearly out it was a releif to get some more bait. Next few casts resulted in pesky little snapper then everything quietened off, I had a bit of a flick with plastics for nothing before going back to my rods and rebaiting for the famous last cast. I only had a size 1 hook but chucked on a big chunk of tailor about 5x3cm and lobbed it out while I packed up. Before I even got off the rock to go to my stuff the rod bends over hard and screams off with a big first run. My guess was on a big flatty after catching a 60cm model there last week, After a solid fight on 4lb I got a big silver flash on the surface which ruled out a flatty and got me even more excited. After assuming a soapie in the dim light of the sunset, I got it up to see this monster. Ive never in my life seen a bream this size! I was sure it was a snapper a little bit far from home when it first came up. It wasnt till I got my phone out to take a photo that I saw it was a bream! With the mozzies starting to come in I quickly packed up the last of my stuff with a huge grin on my face and took the big girl home to measure and show the family. The second photo is after gutting it and everything you see next to the fish is mussle shells. I couldnt beleive how full she was! Also how long does it take a fish like that to break down the shells? There were far more shells than food in the stomach. This is by far my biggest bream to date, smashing my PB by 8cm! Coincidentally my previous PB came from the same spot only 3 weeks ago. Hope you enjoyed! EDIT: The fish went a huge 45cm and 1.35kg after bleeding Edited April 6, 2015 by sebcox Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamski Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Your thread title says it all dude, that's a monster bream!!! Great job and congrats on the new PB! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amkr Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 wow that is GIANT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SgtBundy Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Horse of a bream - good work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilledFisho Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 chunky bream! nice mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welster Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 That's a huge Bream. Your spot just keeps producing for you. If you haven't eaten it take a pic with scissors for cotm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papafish Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Great effort Seb!!! I was there on Sunday night!!! Not a lot happen for us and fish were not even half your size lol!!! I got to say this must be ur lucky spot^^ and hopefully one day we'll meet by surprise. At least I know how u look:) Once again! Great stuff mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tide'n'knots Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Top bream mate ..... In all the excitement you forgot to tell us how big she was??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tide'n'knots Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 All good ...I just realised you have a tape measure on her at 46 cm ...., that a horse! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest no one Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 I can see my house!! Good catch bro... Stick that beast in for COTM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebcox Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Cheers everyone, I'm still over the moon! I had always wanted to crack the 40cm mark on a bream after having caught atleast 10 coming in at 36-37 over the last year but I never thought if catch one this big. The photo truly doesn't do it justice as I'm sure most people that have got amongst bream this big will agree. It was absolutely freakish. Great to see you can still get whopping fish in a Sydney system. Fingers crossed that this isn't the last time I get to break a PB on bream. Will be taking a photo next to scissors and will enter it in COTM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Thats an exceptional bream. Good work getting a session in during the rain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rigga Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 if you dont me asking where abouts did you get the poddys from there? (feel free to pm if you dont want to publizise it)i find that place very off an on for me, amongst the snags mozziestop fish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebcox Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 if you dont me asking where abouts did you get the poddys from there? (feel free to pm if you dont want to publizise it) i find that place very off an on for me, amongst the snags mozzies top fish The poddys didnt come from the spot there. When I need poddies I normally go to scarborough park, beleive it or not. Very very dirty system but full of mullet of all sizes and plenty of bream. Ive caught mullet to 30cm there and bream to 28cm but you would NEVER eat a fish caught from there. There are plenty of mullet at the spot the bream came from (and big ones at that. 40cm+) but have never targeted them there. If you go down for a long session your bound to see (or hear) atleast one free jumping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchie18092 Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Sheesh. Thats a serious fish. Its funny, my PB bream which was just on 40 almost started forming a bump on its head like a mature snapper, that one doesnt seem to have it at all. Amazing the amount of shells in its belly as well. Big congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rigga Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 The poddys didnt come from the spot there. When I need poddies I normally go to scarborough park, beleive it or not. Very very dirty system but full of mullet of all sizes and plenty of bream. Ive caught mullet to 30cm there and bream to 28cm but you would NEVER eat a fish caught from there. There are plenty of mullet at the spot the bream came from (and big ones at that. 40cm+) but have never targeted them there. If you go down for a long session your bound to see (or hear) atleast one free jumping. ohh ive definetly seen and heard mullet jumping, saw a school of about 10 of them. awesome to watch. who knows i might see you down there one time. p.s how annoying is that final platform to get down to the beach when carrying all the gear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebcox Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 Agreed Rigga! I always pack very light though. 2 rods in one hand, bucket in the other and a bag on my back. Though being an agile 21 year old does help. Especially hopping along the oysters either side of the beach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Great fish and congrats on the PB. I would definately put that in for cotm as well. Nice to see the big bruts around. Cheers scratchie!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RexSenior Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Well done mate. I love hearing about these awesome catches and that these monsters exist, makes fishing that much more fun! Sorry for the long post however I've always wondered why every time I catch a bream over 35-40cm's it's stomach is full of shells/ barnacles/ oysters etc, so I did a little research a while back - the best explanation is detailed below: Q: I would like to know how fish digestive system works. Most fish eat other fish, prawns and crabs with hard shells. How do they digest the hard shells, bones, etc orthe hard parts just got discharged ?A. The mechanisms of digestion vary considerably between the different groups of fishes. Some of the cyclostomes (lampreys, hagfish, etc), a primitive group of fishes, do not have stomachs, and their digestive system is much reduced when compared to the other fishes. The gnathostomes have a much more complex digestive system, and the mouth and jaws are considerably more developed. Many of the Osteichthyes have a complex arrangement of muscles, nerves and ligaments associated with the jaws, all of which facilitate the ejection of food particles. Many predacious fish appear to regurgitate large food items from the stomach with great facility. It has been suggested that this is made possible by the pronounced development of striated muscle in the walls of the esophagus leading to the stomach. The periodic regurgitation of stomach contents allows the fish to selectively expel non-digestible food particles and reingest nutritional food particles. However, many species of fish that feed on crustaceans and insects have been found to have a relatively high chitinase activity in their stomachs. The chitinase is an enzyme that breaks down chitin, the material that makes up a large proportion of the arthropod exoskeleton. The presence of these enzymes allows the fish to obtain some nutrition from the chitinous shells of prey items such as crabs, squid, and insects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toboggi Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 what a beast of a bream! congrats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebcox Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 Cheers Scratchie! RexSenior, that's some top notch research and thanks for answering my question! Makes sense. On the topic of the big bream eating hard shells, (in this case mussels) I've posted in fishing chat on collecting mussels for use as bait or other prime bait for big bream with no replies just yet but if anyone sees the comment here any tips would be great! (Mussels/crabs etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RexSenior Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 In Lake Macquarie we have cockles, pippis & mussels. I haven't tried the technique (partly because I thought the old fellas were having a lend of me) however i've been told if you crack the shell open half way and hook the flesh while finishing the straight section of your hook along the base of the shells that big bream etc go crazy over it. The idea is that it mimics the form of a dead or dying mollusc (hence no shutting of the shells when predators approach), with the bonus of the fact that only the bigger bulls can get to the flesh / hook. Sounds OK to me but I still can't get my head around throwing out a bait with the shell on! I'll give it a go one day though!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rigga Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Agreed Rigga! I always pack very light though. 2 rods in one hand, bucket in the other and a bag on my back. Though being an agile 21 year old does help. Especially hopping along the oysters either side of the beach. Definitely does man! Also thongs and oysters dont mix well, haha! (wear runners), ive used a small knife to open up oysters and used them for bait, but there pretty soft and get picked/stolen easy check this out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SgtBundy Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 As a kid up the north coast we used to use oysters as burley - smash them open and let a slick go down river. Seemed to work fairly well at times Not sure its actually legal though on my last reading of the rules. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryder Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Great fish, WOW and great report. Some interesting information coming thru too. Tailor is a top bait for many species, including tailor. I just watched rigga's video link, whole mussels in the shell as bait, so natural. I wonder if the same would work with pipis on the beach, or would they bury themselves? Congratulations on the PB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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