Monster Bream! PB beaten by 13.5cm

[eaglesilk5]

I have only fished afternoons before, never in the morning or night.

I had a rare opportunity to fish early morning as I was living in a hotel next to the water for one night, I planned to fish 20 minutes from the first light into the morning. I woke up feeling bad as my bed was really uncomfortable but I couldn't go to sleep as I was too excited about fishing early morning for the first time. I walked to my fishing spot and it was still dark outside with no people around. I only had chicken, prawns and squid for bait and I decided to start by using chunks of chicken. This produced a few snapper and some small cardinalfish.

Some of the squid started to defrost to a level where I could actually put it on the hook. The squids I had were very small ones. They were about 15cm from the top to the bottom of the tentacles. I decided to split it into two parts; The squid head and the hood. At this point, it had already started to turn into day. For squid I used the hood on a 30lb rod and the head on a 10lb rod. The 10lb had tons of action with a few runs and it resulted in a few snapper. 

As I prepared some bait my 30lb rod started bending over and I ran over and struck, but the hook didn't connect with the fish, frustrated I reeled in my rod with a destroyed squid hood really quickly and as soon as I was about to lift the bait, I saw a flattie chasing it that looked 60+cm. 

Frustrated, I decided to cast a new squid hood out. As I was preparing more bait again, my rod suddenly bent over like crazy and the drag started going off. I ran towards my rod and quickly grabbed it and tightened the drag. I set the hook and I was on the fish! At first the fish felt like a big flattie as it just felt like a weight with some resistance and a few headshakes but as I got it closer the headshakes started getting more powerful. Then suddenly I saw the fish, it was a massive fish. That fish was miles bigger than any bream I had ever seen. In my excitement, I nearly lot it on a pylon on the wharf but thankfully I was using 30lb line and after catching the fish the line was frayed a bit. There was some difficulty bringing it up as there was no-one in sight and I didn't have a net. I didn't want to lift it as I really wanted to land it so I put the rod on the ground and leaned over the edge. I managed to barely grab the fish and bring it up. I let out a sigh of relief. Also I must have been lucky as what I did was risky and the bream could have dived and disappeared with my rod.

After getting the bream up, I knew it was a very special fish. I went and measured it and it turned out that it was 45.5cm!! This was absolutely massive compared to my previous biggest bream which was 32cm. The bream was massive, miles bigger than any bream I've seen before. After getting a nearby person to get a picture I went and released the bream. I had hooked the bream on the back of its tongue and I could still see the squid so I just cut the line at its mouth. When releasing I feared that I had left it out for too long but after a minute in the water, it swam off.

After that I continued using squid hoods and heads for a few more snapper and some tarwhine. There was a few big splashes far away where I couldn't cast to and it wasn't too eventful after the bream.

Also nearly all the snapper were 25cm for some reason. 

[ireallylovefishies22]

Well done matey!!!!!!!!! I am so jealous that you managed to catch this absoluelty mosntrosity of a bream. Jeffrey street wharf was the spot if anyone is wondering !!!

[Welster]

What a fantastic report and a cracking fish.  I don't think many people could say they have landed a bream that big congratulations.  Well done on the release too.

[SpeedyGiraffe49]

Congrats bro 😃 That’s a sickk fish

[big Neil]

Great report and a day you will never forget. Always worth trying something a bit different, hungry fish are everywhere, just gotta have a bait in the water to be in with a chance.

Well done. That Bream is probably about 30 years old. Top job Eaglesilk5.

Cheers, bn

[Yowie]

Nice bream. Any past the 40cm mark is a good one, and that is a good deal over that size.

[Larkin]

Huge Bream! Well done on the PB! 🤙

[44jeff]

Awesome fish bro, huge!!!!. wish i went 😁🤑

Edited May 13 by 44jeff

[DrRaymondSnapper]

Nice fish !! Well done !!  A bream that size is a handful and will let you know that he`s not happy.

[Pickles]

Great report @eaglesilk5, I’ll bet you’ll be fishing more mornings now after such a mammoth result. They are certainly good scrappers and on light line you know you’re hooked up. Good on you releasing her, certainly an old fish given their slow growth rate.

[linewetter]

Well done!! I bet that woke ya right up with the adrenaline and runs it probably made on you. Those fish are surprisingly strong for their size especially once they get bigger like that. It’s like their strength doubles every cm over 40 no joke. 
 

What a beautiful snapper you caught too. Love the colors on that thing. 

[jenno64]

That is a cracker! What a PB upgrade!! Top effort👍

[eaglesilk5]

Thanks guys for the replies

just a shame I was using 30lb so I reeled it in really quickly and missed all of the awesome fight that these bream would give