The Bream Fishing Project

In this episode we are winding the clock back to 2021, to March. In this event we fished in some of the worst weather that I have fished in during a competition. For anyone fishing the St Georges Basin round of the Hobie Kayak Bream Series later this year, this episode is for you. First up we hear from Bradley Hart. This was Bradley's first time on this waterway and he shared how he moved around and found fish. Bradley used a few different lures and techniques to fill his bag. In second place we have Pine, who spoke initially about having some average results in prior competitions. Pine decided to commit to fishing the round, head down for a prefish to try and work a few things out. As you will hear this decision to commit to the competition and prefish, really paid off! Then in first place I spoke with Sean Hill. Sean had been fishing very well for a couple of years and it was no surprise that that he was able a win. Sean was in third place over night and on the Sunday we had a shortened competition day. I found it interesting when Sean spoke about what he was thinking on the Sunday morning. The weather was closing in and he had to make a decision about fishing where he fished on Saturday or heading for more protected waters. Listen in to hear what he decided. I also want to make mention of Simon Morley who finished in 4th place. Simon had the same weight as Bradley, but finished in 4th on a count back. I hope to be speaking with Simon in the coming weeks!

In this episode we cover the recent round of the ABT Daiwa Bream Series held at Lake Macquarie on the 3-4 June 2023. We have 5 angler interviews for this episode and each has an interesting story. Starting with second place in the non - boater division Daniel Reynolds. Daniel is a local to Lake Mac and usually fishes land based. Dan has only fished a handfull of events in this interview you will hear how he was able to finish in second place. In first place for the non - boater division I had a quick chat with Lance Marsh. I have to admit, this was one of my favourite interviews. You will hear how Lance was able to win this event with just 5/6 fish. If you have listened to my interviews for a while you will know that I like to hear about the father and son teams. In this interview you will hear about a relationship with a difference. We then move back to the boater division and talk with former Australian Open champion and previous Bream Fishing Project guest Jamie McKeown. Jamie talked though all the things he had to do to end up in third place. Jamie was fishing within casting distance of the winner Mark Healey and he spoke about all the decisions he made over the 2 days of competition. Jamie also spoke about all of the extra things a competiton angler needs to contend with while fishing in a very specific location on Lake Macquarie. In second place was an old fried of mine from the Southern Bream Series days, Jason Mayberry. Jason fished differently to Mark and Jamie and used 2lb to catch some of his fish. Jason spoke about how one of his bigger fish had him in "knots" during the fight. Tune in to get hear about a slightly different approach. Then for the second competition in a row, I spoke with the winner Mark Healey. There wer a couple of parallels between this competition and the last competition on the Hawkesbury River. Fishing along side Jamie, Mark concentrated his efforts in one location to grind out a win. Over the years Mark has proven himself to be a champion angler and this interview and the last interview from the Hawkesbury River round some true insights about Marks approach. I would also like to say thanks to Berley Pro who have come on board as a new sponsor. Next week I am hoping to announce full details of their promotion. Thanks also to James from Hunter Watersports for continued support. Thanks also to Adam at fishin.com.au for his continued support.

This was the biggest kayak bream round ever held in Australia! You will hear from our first female guest Marlee Percy and her fiancee Peter Cook. This was Marlee's first kayak fishing event and what an event it was for her. Marlee finished 1st in the womans and 27th overall. I am looking forward to seeing how the womens division develops ove the next year or so. Then we have repeat guest Steve Pryke back to the show with another impressive performance. Steve finished in third place and also took out big bream for the competition. Steve now has an impressive record at Woy Woy and you will get to hear how he targetted and caught his fish. Then you will hear from Guy Sruthers who travelled from Queensland to fish this event. Tune in to hear how Guy caught his fish. Guy is a professional fishing rod builder and he talks about some of the rods he used at this event. Then we move on to our winner and repeat guest Glenn Allen. This has been along time coming! Glenn is one of the most talented anglers I know, but he has not been able to take a win in a Hobie Round. I think in talking to Glenn there was as much relief as there was happiness in taking the win. Congratulations to my good mate Glenn. Thanks to Adam at fishin.com.au for his continued support! Thanks also to our new sponsor Hunter Watersports for coming on board. Tune in to hear all about it!

This is another huge episode of TheBream Fishing Project. On the Saturday the anglers fished in super calm conditions which then changed to periods of strong wind and rain at different times on the Sunday. The fishing was difficult on both days for different reasons. It was interesting to hear how the anglers adapted to the conditions In the first interview I spoke with Grayson Fong but we did this with a little twist. You will need to tune into this to see how this played out. We did have a lot of fun and I hope you enjoy it too! However we did get down to business and spoke about lure design and then moved on to talk about how he caught his fish. As usual Grayson has some interesting insights about being a non - boater. At one point Grayson was being out-fished by his boater and he borrowed a few lures from his boater. I then spoke to the winner of The non-boater Division Taka Kawasaki and he went through all the things he did to bring back his fish and take the win. This was Taka’s first win and he was happy to share everything that helped to get the job done.This was Taka’s first visit to The Bream Fishing Project, but he still managed to do two interviews. I didn't spoke to the angler in third position in the boater division, Kris Hickson. Kris had just come off the back of third place in the Australian Open and backed it up here with the third place again. In this conversation you'll hear how he ground it out particularly on the second day. Kris then landed a 41 fork bream to anchor his bag and put over 4 1/2 kilos on the scales. In second place in the boat of division was Michael Colotouros. This was the first time I have spoken to Michael we had a very interesting conversation. We went through everything from what lures to how he works them through to rods reels and line combination. Michael has been an amazing angler over the years, in this interview he gave us all some insights into how he achieves his sucess. Finally in first place, I spoke with Mark Healey who dropped a huge bag on the scales on the Sunday to take the win. This was also the first time I have spoken with Mark and we had an awesome conversation that I think you will all enjoy. Mark too has been a very successful competition angler over the years and mark also gave us some great insights into how he caught his fish. This was another fun podcast episode to put together. I got to speak with anglers I've never spoken to before and they were all very giving In what they shared. Thanks again to all the anglers who gave up their time to have a quick chat.

In this episode I cover the Yakhunters Woy Woy Round held on May 7 2023. This was an interesting competition that was held on a day that had very strong winds forecast to hit around 10AM -12PM. On this day, the second day of the ABT Daiwa Bream Hawkesbury River was being run from Pittwater. Although I did not see a tournament boat on the Sunday, you will be able to compare the reports when the ABT Hawkesbury show is released. As noted above, I did fish this event and caught decent fish. I finished in 5th position in the elite division and gave a short run down of how I caught my fish. Warren Allen came in third place in the amateur division. Warren is a well seasoned angler who would normally compete in the elite division, tune in to see why he competed in the amateur class. Jaydan Pepperall is a young angler who is making some waves within the Yakhunters competition. I had a quick chat with Jaydan to see how his day went. Claudio Araujo is an angler that has competed in competitions catching Bass on Portugal. Since moving to Australia he has continued to compete in a few competitions here. Tune in to see how he won the amateur division. In third place in the elite division was the second Allen brother for this episode, Glenn Allen. When we recorded this segment I expected that it would be released prior to the Hobie Competition held on May 20-21, despite this Glenn shared all the tips and techniques he used to finish in third place. The final angler on the show was Jason Meech who finished in second place. Anyone who has heard Jason on the show will know Jason is an inspiring angler and excellent speaker and that this segment is not to be missed. Finally we have a mystery guest, who would normally be fishing this event. Tune in to see why I asked him to appear on the show!

Daiwa Bream Australian Open 2023 This is one of the biggest and most anticipated events on the Bream calender. The event was held on May 2-4 , 2023 at The Drummoyne Sailing Club in Sydney Harbour. First up you will hear a first time observers perspective from Nic Eggleston. Nic was a last minute inclusion in the observers group (thanks to his brother Lucas), but was lucky enough to spend day 2 with Steve Morgan and day 3 with Kris Hickson. Hopefully this will inspire a few more observers to attend next year. In third position Kris Hickson shared the highs and lows of his three days on the harbour. One of the things I found interesting was the bait caster setup that Kris used to muscle Bream out of the washes. He explained why he uses it and what reel and rod it he prefers. I found it interesting and encouraging that Kris weighed fish that he caught in the dying minutes of a session. Kris also speaks about his sounder time being two minutes late and how it nearly made him late. Tom Slater from Daiwa Australia was the angler that finished in second place. Tom explained how he fished some areas that would usually produce fish, but didn’t catch any in these locations. He learned later that the locations had been recently fished by the human bream vacuum that is Kris Hickson. While Tom had a fantastic event finishing in second, he dropped a fish on day three that “would have made things interesting.“ Tom gave an in depth account of how he fished the competition including lures and techniques. Finally this huge episode is concludes with Steve Morgan who dominated the event using his Garmin Live Scope. As the tournament progressed Steve dialled in his techniques using the Live Scope and the Outback Breamer Baits Mussel lure. Steve also snuck in a little Baby Vibe action. Steve shared everything including a run down of how he has his sounder set up. I also messed up the intro for Steve, but his response made me laugh, so I left it in the final cut. Finally thanks to Steve, Tom, Kris and Nic for for coming on the show so quickly after the event. The anglers had a huge week, away from their families and still made time to speak to me on my timeframe. This was a huge effort and I appreciate their time, effort and willingness to share. This was a cracking episode and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed recording it.

With the upcoming Hobie kayak event on the Georges River in June 2023, we are reviewing the Georges River march 30-31-2019. First up we have repeat guest Jonathon Chen in 4th place. After a rough start on day one, Jonathon was able to locate some bait on the sounder and used that information to great advantage throughout the competition. Jon gives a complete run down of the lures he used to finish in 4th only 10 grams behind Kris Hickson. In second place Glenn Allen runs through his competion weekend. Glenn explained how he uses lightly weighted plastics on the edges. Glenn also spoke about how he and Luke Kay fished the same area and both were able to catch awesome bags of fish. In first place was Luke Kay with a massive bag weighing in at 5.63kg and was 980gms ahead of 2nd placed Grenn Allen. On the Friday night before the competition, Luke had given a talk with Jason Meech at fishin.com.au in Miranda. Luke told everybody there exactly what he was going to do in the competition. Luke then went out and dominated the field doing exactly what he said he would do. This talk is still available on YouTube, search for the fishin.com.au channel. In this podcast, Luke breaks down how he put together his bags using Pro Lure S36,D36 Cranks and Pro Lure Live Yabbies.

Vic Bream Classic Marlo 25-26 2023. This is the first review of a Vic Bream Classic! What an episode. As you will hear, I really like some of the team names…. They cracked me up! One of the things that I really like about the team events is that it not just mates ,but family members can go out together and compete in a competition. In this event we had two father and son teams in the top three. In third place was Paul and Justin Conn of team EGM Revisited. I spoke with Justin who gave me a complete run down of their competition . I found it interesting that Justin spoke about his dad catching so consistently that at one point Justin was basically a just netting fish. I hope we can talk again and ask Paul some specifics about his technique with blades. It seems like he really had it dialled in! In second place we had the experience of team Hummingbird with Shaun Clancy and Jarrod Healey. This was another interesting story because they borrowed a small tinny to try to get into Lake Corringle. Tune in to hear how they decked this boat out for this particular competition. If you are a Hummingbird owner or are thinking about becoming one I think you will find this discussion very interesting. Then in first place I spoke with father and son team Steven and Lindsay Pryke. After an ordinary prefish this experienced team were able to catch a bag quickly.They then upgraded to 5.27 kg on day one which included a 1.24kg kicker fish. On the Sunday they were again able to put together an impressive bag weighing 5.35kg. The combined bags totalled 10.62 Kg which is a better tha 1Kg average per fish. This bag included a 1.45 kg beast which anchored their bag and helped them take a convincing win. Big bream went to Bruce Robinson and Michael Newman with an absolute beast at 1:55 kg. I really enjoyed recording this episode. Thanks to the anglers who were able to speak with me at short notice and shared so much. I look forward to covering the next Vic Bream Classic in Mallacoota!

Daiwa Bream Australian Open Preview. In this episode we preview the upcoming 2023 open where the anglers will spend three days on Sydney Harbour. I spoke with 2-time winner Steve Morgan and we covered the up coming open to be held on Sydney Harbour, May 2-4, 2023. Steve spoke about the format of this years of this years competition. Steve also spoke about the reasons why a competition might be run as a weigh-in style or an app-based measurement competition. Steve is one of three anglers to have won this event twice. Steve is always a contender, will he be the first anglers to win three? I then spoke with Kris Hickson and he shared some of the things he did when he won back in 2011. Will Kris be able to win again this year and make him a 2 X Australian Bream Open winner. To round this episode out, I spoke with another 2 x Aus Open winner Scott Towner. Scott was also the first winner back in 2004 when it was a teams event. We spoke about the lures and techniques Scott and his two partners used to win. The Fishin.com.au Baby Vibe competition continues, tune in to see how you can win. The Daiwa Bait Junkie/ Hobie competition is currently open. This is an absolute must for any keen Bream angler. Listen in to find out how you can win a Hobie Kayak.

In this episode, we review the Sunline Mallacoota Round of the ABT Daiwa Bream Series. Held on the 18-19 February 2023, this was the second round held in Victoria this year. This event was an app based competition where the fish were measured to the fork of the tail. These measurements were converted into weights using historical data/charts. The big bream I caught at the Bemm river Hobie round measured 38.5cm to the fork of the tail. On the scales this fish weighed 1.24kg and on the chart it was estimated to be 1.266kg. It was an interesting and timely comparison. For anyone interested in the Bream length/ weight table a copy can be found at abt.org.au I spoke with Marlon Thompson, who took first place in the non-boater division. Marlon is new to the ABT circuit and this was his maiden win. An interesting part of Marlon's win is that he was paired with did not catch the same quality of fish he caught. Tune in to hear how he got the job done! I then spoke with 3rd place for the boaters Peter Breukel. Peter is a Hurricane sponsered angler who shared all the information on how he caught his bream. He also eplained how a keen observation helped him to catch some bream in a slightly unusual fashion. In second place was Mitchell Blomquist who shared all of the tricks he used to land second place. Finally in first place, the irrepressible champion Kris Hickson. I was intrigued by what Kris had to say on his form/ mindset coming from Gippsland Lakes earlier in the week. Kris was also generous in his interview explaining all of the techniques he used to catch the winning bag. I hope you all enjoy this episode and I look forward to sharing next weeks episode where the topic is the Australian Daiwa Bream Open.

Here it is! The Bemm River round for 2023 This round for me was an extra special round. Having some of the original anglers turn up was incredible. We all had a teriffic catch up on land and some amazing fishing over the weekend. The fishin.com.au baby vibe competition was also up for grabs at this competition. A single $250 voucher at fishin.com.au was available to anyone who won the competiton or caught the big bream on a Baby Vibe. I was able to achieve both! Tune in to hear what happened. Repeat guest Dale Baxter has come into some form taking third place.Dale gave a complete run down from pre fish to day 1 and then day 2. Listen in to hear where Dale fished and what he used to catch his fish. Tune in to hear how Mitch Maddison stayed on shore on Friday (it was very windy) then put together 2 bags over 2.6 kilos which landed him in second place. This was Mitch's first podium finish and after recording this interview I am sure it won't be his last! This is an unusual episode for me. For those who don't know, I attended and won this event. It was the first time I had won a Hobie round for a long long time. So listen in to hear how it all went down. Listen closely to hear how the day one windy conditions helped my find my first bag over 3 kilos. Hear how using Baby Vibes allowed me to gain a solid lead over Mitch on day one and do enough to stay well clear on day 2. I can't wait for the "Retro Round" next year. Maybe we could see all the anglers from the very first Hobie round down there!

In this episode I talk with the top three anglers for the Hobie Kayak Fishing Series , Woy Woy, April 30 - May 1 2022. This was an interesting round that saw Steven Pryke take convincing lead after day one. Then on day two Darcy Harding dropped a massive sack on the scales to steal the victory from what seemed like an unbeatable lead. Repeat guest Corey Gallagher shares the tips and techniques that helped him into 3rd place fishing sometimes with Darcy through out the competition. Steven runs us through his competition weekend. Steve was able to secure second place and the all important AOY for 2022. Finall Darcy spills the beans on how he went about putting together a massive bag on day 2 and snatched the win from Steve. This is one of the great come from behind stories and is not to be missed!

In this episode we head down the Glenelg River in South Australia to cover the Hobie associated round with the crew from Bream Masters S.A. I had an interesting discussion with Gary Hanson. After being on the kayak fishing bream scene for a number of years, persistance has paid off and landed Gary his first podium finish in third place. Tune in to hear about the lures and techniques that helped him achieve this impressive result. Then in second place we have repeat guest Tony "Robin" Pettie who once again comes home with enough weight to land him in second place. With a first and a second place in three rounds Tony is making an early charge for AOY points. Although Tony had a great round finishing in second he still can't call himself "Batman". Tune in to the Bemm River review in a couple of weeks to see if Simon or Tony gets to wear the Batman shirt. Finally we talk with Dale Baxter who took this round out in style, in third place overnight Dale caught just enough to take his first round win. Dale gave a detailed account of everything from prefish through to grinding out a bag on day three. Congratulations to the three anglers who have all done very well on what was a tough round. Thanks again to fishin.com.au for continued support!

In this episode I talk with Carl Dubios about attending your first hobie bream fishing competition. We take a deep dive into everything from how to enter online through to some hints and tips on how to prepare for competition day. Carl and I are then joined by first time competition entrant Nick Jackson. In this segment tune in to see who won their competition from their kayak and who got the dreaded donut! Hopefully if you are sitting on the fence and thinking about entering a competition this episode will push you in the right direction. Enjoy!

In this episode we review the recent Hobie competition held on 4-5 March 2023 at Camden Haven NSW. This was an interesting round which had the potential to see some huge Bream hit the scales. However it was a very closely fought battle with relatively small fish being caught by most anglers. Some anglers caught really good numbers of bream, but could only manage small fish. In the angler interviews I was able to speak with repeat Bream Fishing Project guests Joel Crosbie and Luke Kay who came second and third respectively. I was also able to speak with Russell Babekuhl via text and he shared how he caught the Atomic big bream for this round. Luke shares how his pre-fish affected his choices on comp day and how the decisions he made ultimately allowed him to finish in third place just ahead of Russell Babekuhl by 10 grams. Luke had just been on the show a couple of weeks prior to the competition and is the second guest to recieve some good karma for coming and sharing on the Bream Fishing Project Joel also spoke about how his cometition played out. Joel spoke about the lures and techniques he used across the weekend. With two good results now in this years competitions Joel sits in first place in the race for angler of the year! Finally I spoke with new comer the the Hobie Kayak Fishing Series, Corey Lean. This was Coreys first Hobie round and taking the win is testament to his angling skills. Winning a round with 96 anglers is very difficult. Corey's win did not come with out some drama. Corey made a small error which nearly made a massive differnce to his result. Tune in to see what happened! Thanks to fishin.com.au for continued support! I hope you all enjoy this one!

In this episode we cover the recent Hobie Kayak Fishing Round 1 which was held in Marlo Victoria. I also reach out to the fishing women around the country in an effort to build The Retro round in Bemm River to be held on 1-2 April 2023. I covered all the stats and information and did a comparison to some previous competitions held in Marlo. This round proved to be very difficult for many competitiors with only two full bags recordered. I spoke with James Kilpatrick who was able to back up a good day one restult and end up in third position. James is the owner operator of Hunter Watersports and is well know for helping anglers keep their kayaks on the water especially during competition weekends. We then spoke with repeat Bream Fishing Project guest Dave Hedge who was able to use the same techniques that he eplained previously on the show to achieve an awsome result. To bring the episode home I spoke with Tony Batman Pettie. Tony gave some great insights into his weekend. He explained how the shortened competition day affected him on day two. Tony runs us through the whole Batman and Robin thing he has with Simon Robin Morely. Once again, for anyone fishing in Marlo Victoria or who wants to upgrade their bream fishing skills there is something in this episode.

In this episode we go way back to 2010 and 2011 to visit Camden Haven. Jason Meech who won the first ever round there gives a full run down of the river system. Jason also shares the techniques that helped him win. He also gave us an account of his experience at the first Hobie Fishing Worlds which had a practice day and day 1 of competition at Camden Haven. Luke Kay was able give another perspective on this round and waterway. Luke told us about his day 1 experience which left him thinking that he would not fish day 2 or maybe even another competition. I was lucky enough to have Greg Lewis share his experience at the Hobie Fishing Worlds. Greg is the only angler to ever win "angler of the year" in a hobie series with a perfect 500/500 points. Greg won 6 rounds in a that year. Hobie Fishing Worlds Champion Scott Baker shared his unique experience fishing Camden Haven. He explains how he did not think he could win, so he followed some advice which helped him to become the first world champ. This is an interesting look into some of the first Hobie Kayak Fishing competitions.

This is the first review of an ABT bream tournament on The Bream Fishing Project. In this epiode we run through the tides and bite periods as well as all the competition results. I spoke with the boater division winner Joseph Gardiner, as well as the second and third placed anglers Karl Stait and Alex Griesdorf. I also spoke with the first and second ranked anglers in the non-boater division, Matthew McCarthy and Ruan Van Der Berg. Its a long episode filled with tips and tricks for all bream anglers and should serve as a valuble episode for anyone fishing the the Swan River.

In this episode we take a deep dive into the yakhunters 2023 calender. I spoke with John Couri, Warwick Holmes and Luke Lispet. The Yakhunters organisation had very humble beginings and Luke explains how it went from a few mates to thousands of members and participants around the country. In this episode you will find out everything from how to enter through to when and where each event is for 2023. If you are on the sidelines and considering entering a kayak fishing event, Yakhunters is the perfect place to have a go!

In this episode we go way back to 2015 to review the Hobie Kayak Fishing Series, season 7 which was held in Marlo Victoria on the 21-22 of February. I cover all the statistics including fish caught, weights, tides and bite periods all the way through to angler prizes and pay outs. This particular weekend was just after a massive rain event an the waterway had been turned to a "rust" colour. It is interesting to hear how the winning anglers fished in these conditions. I did miss the big bream which went to Peter Whelan weighing in at a healthy 1.52 kg on day one. For the angler interviews 2nd place Corey Gallagher spills the beans on how he caught his fish using a technique that I have never used for bream. Corey also explains how a sea fog can affect fishing at Marlo. Ist place Joel Crosbie runs through how he caught his fish using a lure that was a proto-type at the time. Joel shares how using this lure he was able to catch fish within a group of competitors while most were struggling. This was not Joel's first win at Marlo so we also discussed his first win at the end of the interview. I then spoke with a mystery guest who has achieved some massive 3 fish bags at Marlo. This guest shared some of his insights as to how he caught this massive bag. This episode is a "must listen" for anyone competing or just fishing for bream on lures at Marlo.

In this interview I talk with Jim Barrie from Hobie Australia. We run through the 2023 fishing calender discussing each round, covering dates and locations etc. Jim also talks about the extra species and possible plans for the future. If you already fish in the Hobe bream competitions this episode is for you!

Full review of the Hobie Kayak Fishing Series at Bemm River February 29 - March 1. 2020 In this episode I cover all the relevant statistics to do with the 2020 Bemm River round. This was and still is the biggest round of the hobie kayak fishing series in Australia and turned out to be the only round held that year. First I spoke with Richard Patterson, we talked through his whole comeptition from prefish to leading after day 1 and finishing in third place. Richard shares how he dropped a fish that may have been enough to get him first. Then I spoke with Jason Deenan who came slid into second place. Jason also ran through his prefish and explained how it affected his planning for the competition. After having drive issues on the start line Jason was not able to reach his preferred location first. Jason explained how he recovered from this early set back. Jason covered lures, colours, techniques and structure types. I spoke at length with the winner Nick Mace who had an impressive win. Nick didn't hold back anything and shared everything that helped him win against a massive field. We discussed the lures and techniques that he used. Nick also spoke about staying in the same house as Richard and how they shared or didn't share information. I think you will find this very informative show that will help you to plan and catch more fish next time you visit Bemm River

In this episode we cover the Hobie Kayak Bream Series , Round 3 Georges River , April 7-8, 2018. Before the angler interviews I quickly run through the statistics and tide conditions that were present on this weekend. I talked with the winner Chris Purnell where and how he caught his winning fish. In this discussion Chris tells me about a lure he used that I have never owned. Chris also shares how he powered away from the field.... that was not following. Coming in second was Adam Costa who gave a great insight into his competition weekend. Adam also told me how Hobie Kayak Champion Angler Stewy Dunn came to the rescue with some hard to find lures in a special colour. Rounding out the top three was Kris Hickson. Kris talked me through his weekend and ran through how he targetted and caught his fish.

A short introduction to tell listeners and anglers what the Bream Fishing Project is all about.