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Bite Compass
Estuary / Creek

Western Yellowfin Bream

Acanthopagrus morrisoni

The bream of WA's north — Shark Bay, Carnarvon, Exmouth Gulf and the Pilbara creeks, where black bream run out. A silvery bream with bright yellow belly fins and a black-edged yellow tail, caught around mangrove edges, rock bars, jetties and marinas on prawn, crab and small plastics. Legal at 30cm, not the 25cm southern bream carry.

Size
Up to 2kg (about 47cm), commonly 28–35cm
Peak season
Year-round
Minimum size (WA)
30 cm
Bag limit (WA)
6

Overview

Western yellowfin bream are the bream of WA's north. Black bream stop at about the Murchison River; from Shark Bay north it is this fish in the creeks, around the rocks and under the jetties, all the way through the Pilbara and into the Kimberley. They're a resident fish rather than a run, so Denham, Carnarvon, Exmouth, Onslow, Karratha, Port Hedland and Broome all hold them through the year. They are fished much like southern bream, with light line, small baits and patience around structure, but the tide does far more of the organising up here.

Identification

Also known as Yellowfin bream, northern yellowfin bream, western yellowfin seabream, bream; recorded as Acanthopagrus latus before 2013

A deep, silvery-grey bream with a faint golden-green sheen, and the fins give it away. The pelvic and anal fins are bright, almost see-through yellow, and the whole tail is yellow with a wide black trailing edge. Northwest black bream (Acanthopagrus palmaris) share the same water from Shark Bay north and are dark brown to blackish with grey to black fins, and no yellow. Pikey bream (A. pacificus) are the dark-finned bream of the Top End, with uniformly black pelvic and anal fins; WA records are few and mostly old museum specimens. Tarwhine have fine gold lines along a silver body. Black bream (A. butcheri) have dusky, not yellow, belly fins and don't reach Shark Bay. The east coast's yellowfin bream (A. australis) is a different species that doesn't occur in WA. Size limits differ within the bream group, so the ID matters: western yellowfin is 30cm, the rest 25cm.

How to Catch

Best Baits

Peeled prawn, crab pieces, squid strip, mussel or pipi flesh, and fresh mullet or herring strip

Lures

Small soft plastics (2–3 inch grubs, prawn and crab imitations), small hardbody divers, blades and small surface walkers over the flats in summer

Rigs

Running sinker rig with the lightest ball sinker that holds the bottom, straight to a size 1–2 hook on 6–8lb fluorocarbon. For lures, a 1/16–1/8oz jig head on 2–4lb braid and 6–8lb leader. Around oyster-covered rock, jetty piles and mangrove roots, go a size up in leader — the structure up here is sharper than a Swan River pylon.

Technique

Fish the edges the tide is about to cover. As the water floods over mangrove roots, rock bars and flats, bream move up onto them to feed on crabs and shellfish, and a lightly weighted prawn or small plastic cast tight to that edge is the classic presentation. On the run-out, drop back to the creek-mouth drains and the deeper holes where they gather. Around jetties, marinas and boat ramps, fish the shaded side of the piles the way you would for black bream. Takes are often a quick rattle, so let the fish load the rod before lifting.

Best Time

The rising tide into the top of the high is the most reliable window, when the edges are flooded and the crabs are out. Daylight is the base; in the clear, shallow water of Shark Bay and the gulf some anglers prefer the softer light early and late. They're caught all year; Shark Bay fish gather to spawn in late winter and early spring, but no angling source puts a better or worse season on them.

Size & Growth

Most legal fish are 30–35cm. A 40cm fish is a good one, and the recorded maximum is about 47cm and 2kg. They're slow growing and long lived — up to 25 years in Shark Bay. Like other bream in the latus group, they change sex: they mature as males at about 25cm, and half have turned into females by about 35cm and five years old. The 30cm minimum lets most fish breed as males before they can be kept, and the bigger fish you're holding are almost all females.

Diet & Habitat

Crabs are the main food — especially the sesarmid crabs of the mangroves — along with small snails, mussels and other shellfish, crushed with hard, blunt teeth. In Shark Bay the juveniles live in mangrove creeks and the adults move out to nearby rocky shores of sandstone boulders and limestone reef. In the Dampier region the fish tend to stay in the mangroves. They feed over tidal flats and around estuary mouths, and only occasionally push into the lower fresh reaches of rivers. Range runs from Shark Bay (a few records reach towards Geraldton) north along the Gascoyne and Pilbara coasts and into the Kimberley, with the species found across northern Australia to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

WA Size & Bag Limits

Minimum size 30 cm
Bag limit 6
Counts toward Counts within the statewide nearshore/estuarine finfish mixed daily bag of 16. The bag of 6 applies to each bream species on its own.

Western yellowfin bream are in DPIRD's bream group (black, tarwhine, northwest black, western yellowfin and other Acanthopagrus). Minimum size: 300mm — 50mm more than the 250mm for the other bream in the group. Individual daily bag limit: 6, counted within the statewide nearshore/estuarine finfish mixed daily bag of 16. The bag of 6 applies to each bream species separately. The Swan–Canning rule on black bream over 400mm doesn't apply. In Shark Bay's Freycinet Estuary management zone, a finfish possession limit applies: 5kg of fillets or one day's bag of whole fish. A Recreational Fishing from Boat Licence (RFBL) is required when fishing from a powered boat.

Last checked . Limits change — confirm with DPIRD before you fish.

Eating Quality

Good eating — white, mild, slightly sweet flesh, much like a black bream from clean water. Fish from the open rocks and the clear water of Shark Bay are the pick. Creek fish from muddy mangrove systems can carry a faint weedy taste, and bleeding and icing them straight away helps. Scale and gut the smaller legal fish and cook them whole on the barbecue or in the pan. Anything over about 33cm gives two decent skin-on fillets that crisp well. They freeze acceptably, but they're a fish to eat fresh, and big females do more good in the creek.

Where to Catch Western Yellowfin Bream

Broome (Town Beach / Gantheaume Point / Roebuck Bay) Bundegi (Boat Ramp / Beach / Bundegi Reef) Carnarvon (Town Beach / Babbage Island / Quobba) Denham (Shark Bay) Exmouth (North Ningaloo / North West Cape) Karratha (Nickol Bay / Hearson's Cove) Miaboolya Beach (Carnarvon) Onslow (Town Beach / Beadon Creek / Mackerel Islands) Port Hedland (Spoilbank Marina / Cooke Point / tidal creeks)
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