Fishing around Geelong - Bream

The bream is the most sought after recreational and commercial fish species in most of Victoria's estuaries. Bream are abundant in all our local estuaries, but are nevertheless prized by anglers because of the eating quantities of the white, delicately flavoured flesh. 

Bream have a stout appearance, with a deep and moderately compressed body covered by large scales, and a small to moderate sized mouth. The upper body is generally silver, but can have a golden brown, bronze, greenish or blackish hue depending on habitat.

The head can also have a purple or bluish tinge. The belly and chin are white. Black bream have been reported to reach up to 60cm in length
and 3.5kg in weight, but most fish caught are 25 - 35cm and 0.3 -1.5kg.

 

Bream are usually found in a  a brackish water but can tolerate a wide range of salinities from virtually freshwater to full seawater. 

Juvenile black bream feed on a wide range of small invertebrate species, and are dependant on sea grass beds.  Adult bream feed on a variety of bottom-dwelling shellfish, worms, shrimps, prawns, crabs, other small crustaceans and small fish. 

A minimum legal total length of 26cm applies to recreational catches of bream in Victoria, but the maintenance of suitable estuarine habitats and water salinity are still considered to be the most important factors determining the abundance of black bream in Victorian waters. The bag limit is 10 fish per person per day, of which only 2 fish may each measure or exceed 36cm. 

The most popular baits used by anglers for black bream are sand worms, prawns, Bass yabbies, crabs, shellfish, whitebait, shrimp and mullet gut.