The Bream Fishing Project

In this episode of The BREAM Fishing Project, we recap Round 2 of the Vic BREAM Classics — the 2025 Atomic East Gippsland BREAM Classic, held at Mallacoota Inlet on 13–14 September 2025 (rescheduled earlier in the year due to weather).

This one delivers three different stories, three different approaches, and three strong results, with a full breakdown of key prizes, bite windows, tides, and detailed angler interviews from the teams that finished on the podium.

🏆 Event Awards & Key Prizes

Sunline Best Bag: Team Bream Burglars (Liam Allen & Marlon Thompson) — 5 fish / 4.885kg

Eco Gear Big BREAM: Team Fanatics (Phil Hulsman & Ben Thompson) — 1.165kg

Zip Baits Monster Movers: Team EGM Revisited (Paul & Justin Conn) — 4.025kg and moved up 24 places to finish 19th

Junior Angler Prize: Team On The Drop (Beau May) — finished 38th

Miller Rogue: Team MAD (Mark Cribbes & Dean Gamble) — flathead 81.5cm

🌙 Bite Periods, Tides & Activity
Saturday

Fish activity wheel: 28

Minor bite: 8:10–9:10

Low: 5:56am / 0.4

High: 12:05pm / 1.19

Sunday

Fish activity wheel: 13

Minor bite: 9:00–10:30

Low: 6:50am / 0.44

High: 1:19pm / 1.4

🎤 Angler Interviews & Technique Breakdown
🥉 3rd Place — Team Marlo Bait & Tackle
Braddley Young & Harry Young — 8.100kg total

Day 1: 4.010kg

Day 2: 4.090kg

Key takeaways:

Built an early bag fast fishing up-river and working through schools

Used Eagle Eye sonar to identify fish and help target better quality fish

Key lures included Double Clutch hardbodies, plus Bent Minnow when things slowed

Notable observation: increased activity under wattle flowers on the surface

Line: 4lb FC Rock

Late-day adjustments + strategic moves to lock in upgrades

🥈 2nd Place — Prestige Worldwide
Steven Emerson & Damien Dwyer — 8.215kg total

Day 1: 4.150kg (included 1.015kg kicker)

Day 2: 4.065kg

Key takeaways:

Started on fish located on the sounder during prefish (marked but not pressured)

Strong early bag using a Z-Man grub (slow worked along the bottom in ~12ft)

Heavy by-catch (tailor/salmon) and managing efficiency through the day

Used Active Target in scout mode to find fish and guide casts

Key adjustment on Sunday: dropped to 2lb when it glassed off, improving bite rate

Core pattern: motor oil grubs + subtle bites, steady upgrades, and relocating away from the pack

🥇 1st Place — Team Bream Burglars
Liam Allen & Marlon Thompson — 9.215kg total

Day 1: 4.885kg (included 1.155kg big BREAM)

Day 2: 4.330kg

Key takeaways:

Locked into Top Lake due to conditions and fish numbers

Core lure: Hurricane Sprat on 1/20, fished slow, allowing long sink time into the zone

Major pattern: fish were often deeper than expected (2–3m off the edge), with many bites coming after the lure sat on the bottom

Bite style: many fish were “already on” when lifting the lure rather than clear taps

Leaders: 4lb fluorocarbon

Huge weekend haul including trophies, prize packs, and additional awards (Sunline biggest bag, rods, and more)

🎣 Final Wrap
A fascinating event recap — especially when you compare it to the Hobie competition fished the same weekend just a couple of hours up the coast, where results were completely different.

Thanks for listening, and I’ll talk to you next week on The BREAM Fishing Project.

🎣 Warrnambool • Hopkins River • 2025 Shimano & Hobie Vic BREAM Classics (Final Round)

We’re heading to Warrnambool on the Hopkins River to break down the 2025 Shimano & Hobie Vic BREAM Classics – CMA BREAM Classic, held Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th October 2025. It’s the final round of the Vic BREAM Classics season before the Grand Final, and compared to last year’s tough event, this one produced far better fishing, bigger bags, and more full limits.

To set the scene, I run through the fish activity wheel, major bite periods, and the tide timings for both days — then we dive into the results, the key awards, and what stood out compared to the same event last year.

🏆 Event Highlights & Awards

Heaviest Bag Day 2 / Best Bag: Team JL Angling (Lewis & Jessica) – 5.505 kg

Big BREAM (Ecogear Big BREAM): Team Rooworks (Greg Rooke & Gary Carruthers) – 1.51 kg

Big Perch (Miller Rogue Big Perch): Team Hamilton Marine – 1.255 kg

Monster Movers: Team JL Angling (moved up 14 spots into 3rd)

🎙️ Angler Interviews in This Episode
✅ 3rd Place – Team JL Angling (Lewis & Jessica)
A huge story: 17th overnight → 3rd overall, including a Day 2 session where they describe a one-hour stretch producing constant upgrades, capped by a 1.3 kg kicker. They also cover an electric motor issue on Day 1, their lure mix (including Cranka Crab, Bait Junkie Wave Minnow, and nail bombs), and how they approached pressure and wind.

✅ 2nd Place – Boden Zisu (Wild Wings TXD)
Boden talks about finally cracking the Hopkins after past struggles, how a pre-fish two weeks prior helped form a plan, and how they built their bags using grubs, plastics, and blades (including old-school gear like the TT Ghost Blade). Plus: the last-cast upgrade that helped lock in second.

✅ 1st Place – Michael Malone (Team Midfield)
Michael breaks down a super consistent two-day performance (4.17 kg + 4.155 kg = 8.325 kg) and how freshwater flow and colour played a role. He shares how they got on fish early, what changed from pre-fish to comp days, and why the Bait Junkie Minnow in “Mud Blood” became a key player.

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Join here: breamfishingproject.supercast.com

🎧 New episodes every Tuesday — tips, tactics, and conversations with Australia’s best BREAM tournament anglers.
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We’re off to a brand-new Hobie Fishing Series location for Round 7 at Wallaga Lake, on the NSW South Coast, held 13–14 September — and like most new venues, the hype was real.

The setting? Almost perfect. Warm September weather, light winds, and what might be the best Hobie event launch I’ve ever seen: a sandy beach with a clean drop-off, a brilliant Big4 setup, and even a food truck doing coffees and bacon & egg rolls from early. The fishing though… totally different story.

This round was tough — 55 donuts on Saturday — yet we still saw cracking fish come across the scales, including a phenomenal 6-fish bag over 6kg, which is massive for a NSW Hobie event.

In this episode you’ll hear three different approaches that produced Top 3 results, with interviews from:

Chris Byrne (3rd) — creek mission, slow snag fishing, weedless plastics and a Nomad shrimp bite

Jamie Cole (2nd) — Cookie stealth blades early, then a late adjustment that delivered big upgrades

Jason Marshall (1st) — no prefish, a dominant win, and the key adjustments that separated him from the field

Key event notes & stats

Fish Activity Wheel: 28 (Sat) → 13 (Sun)

Tides: Low 5:54am (0.4m) / High 12:27pm (1.47m) Saturday; Low 6:49am / High 1:30pm (1.43m) Sunday

Saturday donuts: 55

Big Bream: Jason Marshall — 1.33kg

Monster Mover: Carl Dubois — 1.57kg

Young Angler: Ethan Howard — 0.87kg

Masters: Peter Nord — 4 fish for 2.16kg

Plus, I share how my weekend played out — including finally jagging two fish late on Sunday after being part of the Saturday donut club — and what’s coming next in the Hobie season.

Join The Collective
Two of the Top 3 in this round are active members of The Bream Fishing Project Collective — if you want to learn faster and fish smarter with the crew, jump in here:
breamfishingproject.supercast.com

Support the show:
buymeacoffee/andrewdeath

Thanks for listening — and I’ll catch you next week on The Bream Fishing Project.

Welcome to Episode 172 of The BREAM Fishing Project, our first Monthly Fishing Report of the year, with Andrew and Brett Geddes covering a huge range of fishing, gear, community updates, and milestones from around the country.

This episode blends real-world fishing sessions, lure tinkering, tournament updates, and the lighter side of the sport with plenty of Boofhead Moments — plus an important conversation around mental health and the Fly Program.

In this episode we cover:

January tournament updates with Action Fishing Tournaments
(Raby Bay QLD, Parramatta River NSW, and Port Macquarie)

A major milestone as The BREAM Fishing Project turns 3 years old

Growing the YouTube channel and why listener comments and engagement matter

Andrew’s recent sessions on the Cooks River, focusing on bridge fishing with forward-facing sonar

Lure talk and experimentation, including Cranka Crabs, mussels, Baby Vibes, Squidgies grubs and bugs

Tinkering with rigging ideas for surface and shallow applications

Brett’s bass fishing update, including stocked fisheries, surface bites, and local sessions

Flathead and BREAM sessions under pressure from holiday boat traffic

What Cheeses Me Off and a stack of classic Bullhead Moments

A wrap of sponsors and supporters who helped make the Collective challenges possible

The Fly Program – More Than Fishing
Andrew also shares his recent experience with The Fly Program, a men’s mental health retreat wrapped in fly fishing, connection, and time in nature.

A fundraiser has been launched with a goal of $2,800 to help support two participants who may not otherwise be able to attend.

👉 Fly Program Fundraiser:
https://flyprogram.org.au/campaigns/the-fly-program-more-than-fishing/?updated=1

Every contribution helps — big or small.

Join The BREAM Fishing Project Collective
The Collective gives you access to:

Early and bonus podcast content

Past and current challenge replays

Member-only discussions and updates

Join here: breamfishingproject.supercast.com

Support the show
Buy Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee/andrewdeath

If you enjoy the Monthly Reports, please consider subscribing, rating the show, and sharing it with a mate — it genuinely helps keep the project moving forward.

Tight lines,
Andrew

We’re heading to Western Australia for Western Australian Tournament Anglers (WATA) – Kayak Round 3 of 2025, held 7 September 2025 on the Moore River (Guilderton, WA).

This round dished up some of the nastiest conditions you’d choose to fish in — heavy wind, driving rain, and a river mouth that’d been open for weeks, pushing current and foam through the system. Despite the grind, we still saw a standout winning bag and some really interesting insights into how the top anglers adjusted their approach to get bites when it counted.

In this episode, you’ll hear from:
✅ Travis Newland (3rd) – talks through tough winter fishing on the Moore, working contours and drop-offs, and how the open mouth + dirty water changed everything.
✅ Joseph Gardner (2nd) – breaks down his competition plan, the reality of slow fishing in brutal weather, and exactly how he works a pygmy mussel in current.
✅ Matt DeBoer (1st) – a massive win with 2.52kg for three fish, including a 1.19kg big BREAM. Matt explains how he kept his lure presentation natural with wind/tide fighting each other — and how that big fish came unstuck on the day.

You’ll also get the quick rundown of the Fish Activity Wheel and the key bite window for the session.

Sponsor shout-out
A big thanks to Getaway Outdoors  for supporting the WATA kayak series — and for anglers travelling over, there are kayaks available for hire so you can jump into a WA round without dragging your whole setup across the country.

Want more than the free show?
Join The Bream Fishing Project Collective for extra content, challenges, replays, and more:
👉 https://breamfishingproject.supercast.com

If you enjoy the episode, a follow/subscribe and a quick rating helps more than you’d think. 🤝