Episode 517: The Quest For Really Big Bream With Andrew Death

Overview of Andrew’s Quest For Bigger Bream

• Andrew is a successful and very accomplished kayak bream angler who consistently manages a full bag of bream during tournaments but is on a mission to increase the weight of his bag.
• He’s interviewed 5 of the country’s most successful bream anglers and one fisheries scientist with a passion for bream. As a result, Andrew has pulled together some amazing ticks, tricks, advice and hacks for serious bream anglers.
• A common thread across all of the interviews was that to catch big bream it’s important to slow down your retrieve to a point that’s almost uncomfortable for most anglers. A second common thread was about having the right mindset and focus to catch big bream consistently.
• The following is a summary of some key points from the interviews with each guest.

Callum Dowell

• Callum is the creator of “The Muss”, a unique bream lure that has proven to be exceptionally successful. When Andrew was creating his interview list he spoke with a number of top anglers to pointed at Callum’s record for catching seriously big bream, which led to his inclusion in this line-up.
• An interesting part of the conversation with Callum was around bite periods for big bream and he pointed listeners at a resource that can help to understand when the peak times are for big bream to be actively feeding.
• Of course, the conversation also turned to the development of “The Muss”

Jason Meech

• Jason is a NSW Central Coast angler and a fierce competitor on the tournament scene, regularly dropping big bags on the scales on the final day to snatch a podium place.
• Jason’s bream fishing is carried out predominantly in water of depths less than one metre and using almost exclusively small shallow diving hard bodies.
• An interesting perspective on fishing in wind is something that should definitely grab the attention of keen bream fishers as Jason attributes some of his success to an unconventional approach to fishing windy days.
• There are also some great tips in this interview about finding fish and using the bottom and weed colours to identify places where fish are holding.

Steve Steer

• The inventor and creator of Cranka Lures and of course the famous Cranka Crab is as passionate about trout fishing as he is about bream – an interesting crossover when he explains how understanding trout has made him a better bream fisher!
• Steve has made a career out of developing bream lures that fill gaps in the marketplace and meet fishing needs that other lures don’t meet. His success comes from being a super astute and competitive angler himself and recognising what he needs to catch more big bream and then developing lures that fit.
• There’s a particularly notable part of the interview where Steve explains an observation during a fishing competition that clued him in on what the fish were feeding on and allowed him to change game plans and win the comp.

Paul Malov

• Another fierce competitor on the bream tournaments, Paul recently took out the Gippsland Lakes Big Bream Classic with his father, claiming the all-time heaviest bag of bream using “The Muss”, modifying the lure and fishing it on heavy tackle.
• Paul is a wizard on the use of electronics for bream fishing and shares a ton of great info during his conversation with Andrew.
• Take particular note of Paul’s discussion about how he won the Gippsland Lakes Big Bream Classic with he and his father using techniques that run against the common wisdom to extract 10 fish with an average weight of 1.3kg.
• Paul’s explanation of the amount of preparation that goes into a tournament win, or even just a social recreational trip is another great example of how to set yourself up for a very successful day on the water.

Dylan van der Muelan

• A big part of catching big bream is obviously to be able to find them. Dylan is a scientist with NSW Fisheries as well as a passionate angler. He’s put a ton of time and research into understanding bream and Andrew was keen to use that information to home in on the places where the bigger bream tend to aggregate.
• Based at DPI Batemans Bay has enabled Dylan to study both black and yellowfin bream and to understand key difference between spawning and other behavioural habits between the species.
• There is an opportunity to get involved in some DPI Fisheries bream research in future and this is discussed during the conversation.
• Importantly, Dylan shares some critical information about how to get access to important scientific information that can help you to understand your target species and their behaviours.

Steve Morgan

• Steve Morgan operates the Fishing Monthly Group and ABT tournaments. He’s a super passionate and super knowledgeable angler who is also a fantastic communicator.
• His interview explores multiple different systems and structures and how they fish differently for bream, but also some unusual techniques that he’s developed, including the “Double Aqua” approach with two hooks and rigs on one line (yep, it’s legal).
• A technique that can help with upgrading the quality of your bream is to leverage the natural aggressive nature and pecking order of school fish. Steve has developed techniques that create a situation where larger fish will exert dominance by snatching a lure from the mouth of a smaller fish.