The Bream Fishing Project

The Lure Fishing Project heads north for the 2026 Daiwa Bream Series Atomic Gladstone Round, held on September 19–20.

Gladstone proved to be one of the most unique stops on the calendar. Small neap tides, huge tidal variation, mangroves, bridge pylons, rock walls, shallow reefs and deep drop-offs all played a part — and almost every angler interviewed talked about just how much fun the fishery was.

In this episode we speak with the top three anglers from both the non-boater and boater divisions and break down exactly how they caught their fish.

NON-BOATERS

3rd – Allan Lavell

Allan relied heavily on plastics, particularly Hurricane Sprats, while also finding fish on deep-running Chubbies. After pre-fishing with Jon Fitzgibbon, Allan was paired with Jamie McKeown on day one and Brett Crowe on day two.

He talks through fishing rock walls, drop-offs and mangrove edges, keeping jig heads light and adjusting to the aggressive pikey bream.

2nd – Michael Maas

Michael was paired with Marc Saric on Saturday and Wade Walker on Sunday.

He found an unusual pattern slow-rolling Z-Man Grubs around bridge pylons before changing completely on day two and catching numbers of pikey bream on heavy Cranka Crabs worked slowly down a steep rocky bank.

1st – Mitch Vane

Mitch travelled across from Western Australia and adapted quickly to a completely different fishery.

Fishing with David Yuill on day one and James Graham on day two, Mitch used Gulp presentations around bridges before sight-casting prawn-style lures to bream pushing onto mangrove edges.

A big day-one bag gave him the advantage he needed before bridge pylons became critical on Sunday.

BOATERS

3rd – Jamie McKeown

Jamie mixed deep-running Chubbies, topwater and crab presentations while exploring the huge Gladstone system.

Fishing with Allan Lavell on Saturday and Gordon Pullin on Sunday, Jamie’s approach was heavily influenced by tide height, reef timing and constantly moving until he found active fish.

A strong day-two bag pushed him onto the podium.

2nd – Steve Morgan

Steve draws on years of Gladstone experience and explains the importance of bridge fishing, shallow reef patterns and understanding exactly how tide, wind and water level change the behaviour of Gladstone bream.

The difference between being on a location at the right tide height — or just a little too early or late — proved critical throughout the event.

1st – Peter Cashman

Peter went through the entire Friday pre-fish without catching a bream, but rather than abandon the area, he backed his plan.

Deep Z-Man plastics, forward-facing sonar and a willingness to stick with what he believed in ultimately produced the tournament win.

And make sure you stay to the end — there’s a great post-event story from Peter that’s well worth hearing.

Gladstone might not produce the biggest bream bags in Australia, but this episode shows why it remains one of the most interesting and entertaining tournament fisheries on the calendar.

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The Atomic New South Wales Tournament Series headed south to Mallacoota for Round 5 — and as usual, Mallacoota produced plenty of fish and some seriously interesting bream fishing.

Across the weekend, the top teams found bream everywhere from shallow flats and snags to deeper edges, with some fish sitting so high in the water column they were almost on the surface.

First up, Luke West and Dean Henry-Smith from Flick Wits break down a huge weekend that saw them catch more than 150 bream across pre-fish and the two competition days.

Using LiveScope, Hurricane Sprats, Hybrid Shrimp and lightly weighted plastics, they found schools of black bream suspended incredibly high in the water column and finished third with 10 fish for 7.91kg.

Then Josh Jeffrey and Connor Jackson from Team Zero Technique talk through a very different tournament.

After a slow Saturday morning, they adapted with lightly weighted plastics and deeper presentations to put together 4.11kg, before a change in conditions on Sunday saw the bite improve dramatically. They backed it up with 4.41kg to finish second with 8.52kg.

Finally, Jason Mayberry joins the show after another victory for Team Shimano.

Jason explains why the Hurricane Sprat in Cleaver became the standout lure of the weekend, how he used LiveScope to locate moving and mudding fish, and why he was confident fishing just 2lb line at Mallacoota.

He also breaks down his unusual Sprat retrieve — skipping the lure across the surface like a fleeing prawn before allowing it to settle — along with an incredible session where yellowfin bream were feeding from just under the surface right through to the bottom.

Team Shimano finished with 4.42kg on Saturday and 4.34kg on Sunday for 8.76kg and the win.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• Mallacoota black and yellowfin bream
• More than 150 fish across three days for Flick Wits
• Bream feeding just below the surface
• Forward-facing sonar and LiveScope
• Hurricane Sprat in Cleaver
• Hybrid Shrimp
• Lightly weighted plastics
• 1/40oz, 1/28oz and other ultra-light jighead presentations
• Fishing 2lb, 5lb and 6lb line and leader
• Sight casting to big black bream
• Adjusting presentations as fish become pressured
• Skipping plastics across the surface like prawns
• Tournament bite periods and decision-making
• Jason Mayberry's Team Shimano victory

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Joseph Gardner has become one of Australia’s most consistent tournament bream anglers — Australian Champion, Angler of the Year winner, and an angler capable of producing results on completely different waterways around the country.

So what is behind that consistency?

In this episode of The Lure Fishing Project, Joseph sits down with Andrew during the Hobie round at Wallaga Lake and breaks down the surprisingly simple approach he uses to catch bream around Australia.

Joseph started tournament fishing in 2014 — and donutted his very first competition. Just a year later he recorded his first win, and from there began a journey that would eventually take him to the top level of Australian tournament fishing.

One of the biggest lessons from this conversation is just how small Joseph's lure rotation really is.

Rather than constantly changing lures, Joseph relies on a handful of presentations he knows extremely well and concentrates on putting them in the right places.

We go deep into three of his key bream presentations:

🎣 Z-Man StreakZ — from shallow weed beds and timber to Gold Coast pontoons, including jighead weights, retrieves, colours and the violent twitching action Joseph uses to make the lure dart.

🎣 50mm Ecogear Aqua Bream Prawn — including Joseph's incredibly simple worm-hook retrieve, how he watches his coloured braid rather than the lure, and why he believes in setting the hook hard.

🎣 Blue Lip Baits Pygmy Mussel — a lure Joseph helped create, including how he fishes it around structure, bridges and sand flats and why tiny movements can be so effective.

But perhaps the most important part of the episode is Joseph's approach to casting accuracy.

He explains how he used to take a bucket to the park and practise casting into it over and over again — and why he believes that work has made one of the biggest differences to his tournament results.

As Joseph puts it, you can make ten casts to a dock in the wrong place and catch nothing, while the next angler can make one accurate cast and catch the fish.

We also cover:

• How Joseph researches a completely new waterway before arriving
• Why he can travel across Australia and still rely on the same core techniques
• How he plans a pre-fish and eliminates unproductive water
• Why he prefers fishing away from crowds
• Why using identical rods and reels helps his casting accuracy
• His unusual approach to changing lures — or not changing them
• Why an extra 100 casts can matter more than constantly trying new presentations
• Fishing tough tournament days without losing confidence
• His Lowrance electronics setup in the kayak and boat
• A memorable 49cm black bream from Denmark
• The tiny bream that started his obsession with lure fishing
• Joseph's three biggest tips for improving as an angler

Joseph's final three pieces of advice are beautifully simple:

Casting accuracy. Confidence. Time on the water.

This is a detailed conversation with one of Australia's best tournament bream anglers and an episode packed with practical information you can take straight onto the water.

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The Gippsland Lakes have produced something special.

In this episode of The Lure Fishing Project, we head back to the 2026 Club Marine East Gippsland Bream Classic, where some enormous black bream and extraordinary bags hit the scales.

At the top of the leaderboard, father-and-son team Brad and Cooper Hodges from Team Berkley produced a tournament for the record books.

They opened with five bream for 7.095kg on Saturday and backed it up with 6.935kg on Sunday, finishing with 10 fish for a massive 14.030kg — believed to be the first 14kg two-day bag ever weighed at a Vic Bream Classic.

And they did it fishing incredibly light around some seriously nasty structure.

Brad breaks down why he trusts 4lb leader around jetties, how he uses free-spooling to get big bream around pylons and ropes, why casting accuracy is so important, and how Berkley Grubs in camo rigged on 1/16oz jigheads played a major role in their win.

We also hear from second-placed Team Zero Technique — Josh Jeffrey and Kez Coleman — after an incredible Sunday charge.

After sitting sixth overnight with 5.290kg, the pair produced a monster 7.460kg Sunday bag, including the 1.710kg Ecogear Big Bream, to finish with 12.750kg.

They talk through fishing the Hollands area and the Straits, changing locations and presentations, fishing hard structure and flats, and the confidence it takes to keep searching for those bigger bites.

Then Jarred Healey from Team Hummingbird takes us through another remarkable Sunday turnaround.

After weighing 4.970kg on Saturday with his wife Michelle — fishing her first competition — Jarred teamed back up with Shaun and made the gamble to head to the opposite end of the lake.

Using Hummingbird side imaging, 360 and live sonar, they found huge schools of bream and spent hours watching fish react to their lures in real time.

They eventually weighed 6.495kg on Sunday to finish third with 11.465kg.

In this episode:

• Brad and Cooper Hodges' record-breaking 14.030kg victory
• Fishing 4lb leader around jetties and heavy structure
• Berkley Grubs in camo on 1/16oz jigheads
• Weedless rigging for mussels, timber and structure
• Why first-cast accuracy matters so much
• Free-spooling big bream around pylons and snags
• Josh Jeffrey and Kez Coleman's record 7.460kg bag
• The 1.710kg Big Bream
• Fishing Hollands, the Straits and Lake Victoria
• Jarred Healey's massive day-two gamble
• Finding schools with side imaging and 360
• Watching bream respond to lures on live sonar
• Hybrid Shrimp, Hurricane Sprats, Chubbies, CrushCity and more
• Michelle Healey catching a crucial fish in her first tournament
• Three generations of the Hodges family competing at the same event

This is a cracking tournament story and another reminder of just how good the Gippsland Lakes bream fishery can be.

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Bream Masters South Australia kicks off its 2026 season on the Port River — and it proved to be a seriously tough day on the water.

Paul Cook came out on top with three bream for 1.72 kg, continuing an impressive run at the venue. In his last five tournaments on the Port River, Paul has now produced four podium finishes — along with one memorable donut!

Paul breaks down how he prepared for the round, what he learned from his pre-fish, and why the extreme summer heat had him focused on making the early part of the session count.

After a frustrating first two hours, Paul eventually unlocked the fish with an OSP Dunk fished around rock and structure. He explains why he has been experimenting with heavier straight-through fluorocarbon, how he fishes the Dunk around nasty structure, and the Miller Rods and Shimano setup he uses to do it.

We also catch up with third-place finisher Ben Gibbs, who went into the event without a pre-fish and relied on a familiar Port River milk run. Ben landed two quality 37 cm bream early before the bite virtually disappeared, forcing him to grind out the rest of a very difficult session.

Ben talks through his Gulp Crabbie and Pro Lure Grub approach, fishing vertical structure and rock walls, using forward-facing sonar, and why sometimes staying put and methodically working productive structure is better than constantly chasing new water.

In this episode:

• Paul Cook’s winning 1.72 kg bag
• Ben Gibbs’ third-place 1.35 kg result
• Fishing the Port River in tough summer conditions
• OSP Dunk hardbody tactics
• Six-pound straight-through fluorocarbon around structure
• Pro Lure Grubs and Gulp Crabbies
• Rock walls, oysters and vertical structure
• Forward-facing sonar
• Adjusting when the bream simply won’t commit
• Why persistence and experience matter on tough tournament days
• The Bream Masters SA series and its pathways to the Hobie Australian Championship

A great insight into grinding out a result when the fishing doesn’t go to plan.

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