The Bream Fishing Project

The Hawkesbury River delivered another outstanding round of the 2026 Daiwa BREAM Series, and in this episode of The BREAM Fishing Project, Andrew Death reviews all the action from the Bait Junkie Hawkesbury River Round held on May 16–17.

With six detailed interviews covering both the non-boater and boater divisions, this episode provides a complete breakdown of how the event unfolded, the techniques that produced results, and the lessons learned from one of Australia's most iconic BREAM tournament waterways.

The non-boater division produced a remarkable story, with first-time ABT competitor Sam Di Mauro taking victory in his very first event. Having followed tournament fishing for years through podcasts and media coverage, Sam finally took the plunge and entered an ABT event on his home water. His account of the experience, from meeting anglers he had listened to for years through to landing a tournament-winning bag, is one of the highlights of the episode.

You'll also hear from Rodney O'Sullivan, who backed up last year's Hawkesbury success with another podium finish, and Jesse Rotin, whose consistency continues to make him one of the most dangerous non-boaters in the country.

In the boater division, Captain Risky returned to winning form with an impressive two-day total of 9.545kg, ahead of Judd Kirkland and Steve Morgan. Their interviews provide valuable insights into pattern development, adapting to changing conditions, and extracting quality fish from the Hawkesbury system.

Across the six interviews you'll hear discussions covering:

Wash fishing with Cranker Crabs

Fishing Hybrid Shrimp presentations around rocky shorelines

Pontoon and marina tactics using soft plastics

Monster Rolling Cranks and crankbait strategies

Working river rock walls and current lines

Vibe fishing techniques for quality BREAM

Tidal influences and bite period timing

Rod, reel, braid and leader selections

Pre-fish strategies and tournament preparation

The realities of fishing from the back deck as a non-boater

Lessons learned from experienced ABT competitors

Rodney O'Sullivan details how he built both of his bags fishing wash zones with Cranker Crabs and Hybrid Shrimp presentations, while Jesse Rotin dives deep into his approach using Bait Junkie Risky Critters, 295 Flicks, Monster Rolling Cranks and finesse presentations around pontoons and rock structure.

First-time competitor Sam Di Mauro shares his tournament journey, including landing a 1.25kg fish early on day one and learning firsthand how different anglers approach the Hawkesbury system. His story is proof that newcomers can be competitive when preparation meets opportunity.

Whether you're preparing for your own Hawkesbury trip, looking to improve your tournament fishing, or simply enjoy hearing Australia's best BREAM anglers break down their techniques, this episode is packed with practical information and tournament insights.

2026 Daiwa BREAM Series Hawkesbury River Results
Boater Division
🥇 Kristoffer Hickson – 9.545kg
🥈 Judd Kirkland – 8.740kg
🥉 Steve Morgan – 7.705kg

Non-Boater Division
🥇 Sam Di Mauro – 4.590kg
🥈 Jesse Rotin – 4.485kg
🥉 Rodney O'Sullivan – 4.450kg

In this episode of The Bream Fishing Project, we head to the mighty Hawkesbury River for Round 2 of the New South Wales Tournament Series, brought to you by Atomic and sponsored by Force Lures.

Run on 26 April 2026, this Hawkesbury round produced a technical and challenging bite, with anglers dealing with low fish activity, timid bites, heavy current flow and tough conditions around the deep rock walls of the river system.

The episode opens with a breakdown of the bite periods and tidal movements, before diving deep into interviews with the top three teams from the event.

First up, Mitch and Mat Simonis from Team Off The Scales break down their third-place finish with 5 fish for 4.06kg. The boys explain how they targeted deep rocky bottom with crabs and blades, how current speed completely changed the effectiveness of their presentation between pre-fish and comp day, and how a late kicker fish helped secure another podium finish. The interview also covers drifting techniques, fishing deep structure, lure control in heavy current and the importance of staying in the strike zone around the Hawkesbury’s brutal reef systems.

Next, Tim Vickers from Team Cronulla Slipways talk through their second-place finish with 4.15kg. Tim details how they chased the outgoing tide upriver using heavy cranker crabs on deep rock walls before adapting late in the session with washes, flats and forward-facing sonar. The interview covers using Mega Live and forward-facing sonar around structure, tracking fish schools on the flats, fishing Box Head washes, leader selection, and how a critical late-session upgrade secured second place in an incredibly tight field.

Finally, event winners Scott Wilson and Col Wilson from Team Surge break down their impressive winning bag of 5.03kg. Fresh off travelling back from Tasmania, the father-and-son team committed to fishing crabs on deep Hawkesbury rock walls despite having no pre-fish. Scott explains how rotating crab sizes, colours and scents — while constantly moving to fresh walls — helped them consistently upgrade throughout the day. They also discuss fishing extremely heavy tackle around reef structure, dealing with ultra-timid bites, fishing around boat pressure, and how they converted key bites into kilo-class fish.

This episode is packed with information for anglers wanting to improve their understanding of:

Hawkesbury River BREAM fishing

Deep water crab techniques

Fishing rock walls and reef structure

Current-based fishing strategies

Team tournament tactics

Wash fishing and flats fishing

Leader and tackle selection

Forward-facing sonar applications in tournament fishing

A huge thank you to all the anglers for making time to record these interviews at short notice.

Sponsors & Links
Check out Force Lures:
https://forcelures.com.au

Join The Bream Fishing Project Collective for extra content, live streams, challenges and member-only discussions:
https://breamfishingproject.supercast.com

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In this episode of The Bream Fishing Project we head across the country to Western Australia for the final boat round of the 2025 WA BREAM Series, held on the iconic Swan River in the heart of Perth.

This one-day shootout produced some quality fish and plenty of tactical decisions as teams battled changing wind, subtle bite windows, structure fishing and ultra-finicky Swan River bream.

The episode features interviews with:

Travis Newland & Josh Phillips (1st Place)

Aiden & Herbert Miller (2nd Place)

Callum Dow & Oliver Frank from Outback Bream Baits (4th Place)

We dive deep into:

fishing bridge pylons and retaining walls

mussel presentations

crankbait techniques

line control in wind and current

how subtle angles and lure placement changed the bite

pre-fish struggles and tournament adjustments

Swan River structure fishing strategies

and the importance of timing bite windows on tough systems

There’s also plenty of discussion around:

the Outback Bream Baits Muss

the new Shine Away leader treatment product

crankbait retrieves

tournament decision making

and how WA anglers are targeting big pre-spawn bream in urban systems.

Aiden and Herbert Miller also share the story of their first major event fishing together as a father-and-son team, while Travis and Josh break down the adjustments that helped them turn a brutal pre-fish into a tournament-winning performance.

As always, we also run through the bite periods, tides and key tournament conditions from the day.

A massive thank you to everyone supporting the show and The Bream Fishing Project Collective.

Join The Bream Fishing Project Collective here:
https://breamfishingproject.supercast.com/

Follow The Bream Fishing Project on Instagram:
@thebreamfishingproject

Sponsors & Supporters Mentioned:

Outback Bream Baits

Tackle West

Shine Away

Tackle Addiction

Force Lures

Pro Lure

Shimano

Daiwa

If you enjoy the podcast, please share the episode around, tag a fishing mate and leave a review on your podcast platform.

The Tasmanian leg of the ABT tour wraps up in style as the 2026 Duo Tasmanian BREAM Teams Open heads to the iconic waters of St Helens, Tasmania. In this episode of The Bream Fishing Project, Andrew breaks down one of the most unique tournament formats seen in recent years — a catch-photo-release teams event where anglers could upgrade their five-fish bag across both competition days.

With late 10am starts, gentleman’s hours, changing tides, and fish spread between racks, flats, gutters and shallow edges, this event forced competitors to think differently. The result was a dramatic two-day battle where no lead was safe and teams could surge through the field right up until the final session.

This episode features full interviews with the top three teams from the event, diving deep into the tactics, lure choices, and adjustments that helped them unlock the St Helens BREAM bite.

In this episode:
🥉 3rd Place – Team Cranka Shimano
Steve Steer breaks down an incredibly technical tournament built around:

Fishing shallow oyster racks with crabs

Working gutters and channel markers at low tide

Using Cranka Crabs in the famous spotted crab colour

Adjusting tackle overnight after getting smoked by big fish on day one

Fishing “gentleman’s hours” and why the late starts suited St Helens perfectly

Steve also shares detailed insights into:

Fishing crabs away from structure

Subtle rod-tip movements for natural crab presentations

How tide movement positioned fish on the flats

Why St Helens fish fight so hard in shallow water

🥈 2nd Place – Team Force Lures
Jon Fitzgibbon and David Shanahan detail a massive comeback charge from outside the top spots into second place after finding fish on shallow wind-blown flats late on day two.

Topics include:

Fishing lightly weighted DUO Sprats in the Cleaver colour

Using Force Paddle Tail Grubs around racks and shallow edges

Pushing the boat through freezing Tasmanian shallows to access hidden water

Big shallow-water fish nearly spooling reels

The importance of adapting when racks shut down

The pair also discuss how one decision to abandon the racks and drift a protected shallow flat completely changed their tournament.

🥇 1st Place – Team Australia 2 + Tas
Peter Maisey and Jesse Rotin take the win with an impressive 6.221kg combined total built around:

Bait Junkie 2.95 Flicks on light jigheads

Daiwa Infeet Sazanami jerkbaits

Fishing subtle flats close to deeper channels

Managing nerves while leading overnight

Picking apart shallow flats during tricky tide windows

The boys explain how they stayed calm under pressure on day two, worked through changing wind conditions, and slowly upgraded key fish to secure the victory.

This episode is packed with advanced tournament insights covering:

Shallow-water flats fishing

Rack fishing strategies

Crab presentations

Light-line tournament tactics

St Helens tide timing

Hardbody vs soft plastic approaches

Team strategy and communication during high-pressure events

If you love technical tournament fishing and hearing how Australia’s top anglers adapt on the fly, this is an episode you don’t want to miss.

🎣 Sponsors & Supporters
A huge thank you to:

DUO

Wilson Fishing

Force Lures

Bait Junkie

Daiwa

ABT Tournament Series

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Join here:
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In EP197 of The Bream Fishing Project, we head to Tasmania for part two of the ABT Tasmanian Tour, covering the Derwent River round, held on 18–19 April 2026.

This episode breaks down a cracking Derwent River event with big bags, quality BREAM, and plenty of detail from both the non-boater and boater divisions.

Andrew chats with the top non-boaters, including Simon Kraus, Leighton Beer, and Marty Evans, as they explain how they caught their fish, what they learned from their boaters, and how key lure choices like Hurricane Sprats, Gulp Smelt Minnows, Daiwa Double Clutches, ZipBaits, VX vibes, and Duo Bivvys played a role across the weekend.

The episode also covers the boater side of the event with Mario Vukic, Steve Morgan, and event winner Isaac Harris, including the importance of baitfish, long skinny hard bodies, plastics, current lines, rocky edges, Ralphs Bay, and making the right decisions when the bite window opens.

There is plenty in this one for anyone who loves tournament BREAM fishing, especially if you want to understand how anglers adapt between edges, flats, deeper rock walls, vibes, plastics, and jerkbaits on a tidal Tasmanian system.

The episode also includes tide and bite period information, lure details, leader choices, tackle setups, and the decision-making that shaped the final results.

A big thank you to Steve Morgan for allowing us to use audio from his YouTube clip featuring Isaac Harris.

If you’d like even more BREAM fishing content, including live streams, extra fishing discussions, challenge series, and access to The Collective community, check out The Bream Fishing Project Collective here:

The Bream Fishing Project Collective

Perfect for anyone wanting to learn more about catching BREAM on lures, tournament fishing strategy, and how some of Australia’s best anglers break down a waterway under pressure.