 AKA: eastern black bream,
Gippsland bream, golden bream, blue-nosed bream.
MINIMUM LEGAL SIZE: 26cm.
BAG/POSSESSION LIMIT: 10. Landed whole or as a carcass.
Note: a total bag/possession limit of 40 fish applies to all scale fish species.
The most commonly found member of the bream family in Victorian waters,
the black bream, is closely related to the yellow-fin or silver bream
and the snapper. Apart from limited movement between estuaries, black
bream are rarely found at sea and favour estuaries and inland waters
where it survives on marine worms, crustacea, shellfish, small molluscs
and juvenile fish.
While abundant in most of Victoria’s estuaries,
the black bream is nevertheless keenly sought for its table qualities
and is the most targetted commercial fish in our estuaries with most of
the commercial catch sold locally as fresh fish. More than 85% of the
total Victorian commercial catch comes from the Gippsland Lakes.
SIZE: Can reach 60cm and 3.5kg however most fish caught are 26-35cm and 0.4-1.5kg.
WHERE:
Sheltered waters such as rivers and estuaries and around piers, weed
beds and reef areas. Most abundant in the Gippsland Lakes, bream can be
found in most locations where freshwaters flow into marine waters. Also
try the flats around the mouths of rivers, particularly after the
entrance sandbar has been disturbed by storm or flood water.
TACKLE:
2-6kg line with No. 2 or No. 4 long shank hook or baitholder hook in
sizes 1-4. Most common rig involves a small running sinker, stopped
with either a swivel or a split shot about a metre above the hook.
BAIT: Worms, nippers, crabs, shellfish, whitebait, shrimp, mullet gut, even raw chicken, and small lures.
BITE:
Wary and fickle feeders, bream approach bait with caution so it is wise
to let the fish truly take the bait before attempting to set the hook.
They appear less suspicious on dull days and at night.
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DID YOU KNOW:
It can take up to NINE YEARS* for black bream to reach the minimum
legal size of 26cm, another very good reason to return all undersize or
unwanted bream safely to the water. See more information on handling and releasing fish here . Bream may live as long as 20 years and approximate growth rates* are:
1 year - 9cm
2 years - 14cm
3 years - 18cm
4 years - 21cm
5 years - 22cm
6 years - 23cm
7 years - 24cm
8 years - 25cm
26cm - Minimum Legal Size
9 years - 26cm
10 years - 30.5cm
12 years - 33cm
16 years - 36.5cm
20 years - 38.75cm
*Data from studies carried out by the Central Ageing Facility at the Marine and Freshwater Resources Institute, Queenscliff.
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EATING:
A popular table fish, the black bream is perhaps the tastiest of
Australian bream and has more flesh than its northern relatives.
FURTHER INFO:
(From Fisheries Victoria Fish-Fax No.35, 5 April 2001)
Victoria's Fastest Growing Bream Are In The West
For many years dedicated anglers have been assisting MaFRI to monitor
the abundance and growth rates of black bream across Victoria,
including the Glenelg, Hopkins, Snowy and Betka Rivers, as well as in
Sydenham and Mallacoota Inlets and the Gippsland Lakes.
The anglers record their catch rates and the lengths of bream they
catch in a fishing diary and also remove otoliths (ear bones) from a
sample of the fish for ageing. The age estimates allow us to calculate
growth rates and show that bream grow at very different rates - both
between estuaries and between different year classes in the same
estuary.
To date the fastest growing bream have been
the 1994/1995 year class from the Glenelg River, where they have
reached an average length of 26cm (total length) within 3 years. The
slowest growing bream have been observed in the Gippsland Lakes, where
fish from the 1988/1989 year class have taken up to 8 years to reach a
similar length.
The fishing diaries have also
helped identify strong and weak year classes within bream populations
and can be used to predict likely changes to future bream catches in
each fishery. With the help of VRFish, a more general angler fishing
diary program is being developed for a variety of fisheries throughout
Victoria and currently has over 150 anglers participating.
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