Black Bream
Where and when to catch Black Bream in Victoria: the VIC season, the spots in our guide that hold them, and where to find VIC's current size and bag limits.
- Size
- Up to 4kg, commonly 500g–1.5kg
- VIC season
- Year-round (best Jun–Dec)
- VIC spots
- 47
VIC Size & Bag Limits
VIC limits for Black Bream are set by VFA and change from time to time, so we link them rather than copy them. Check VFA's limits before you fish.
Western Australian limits don't apply in Victoria.
Where to Catch Black Bream in VIC
Melbourne & Hobsons Bay
Bayside & Frankston
Mornington Peninsula
Geelong & Bellarine
Western Port & Phillip Island
Surf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Shipwreck Coast & South West
South Gippsland
Gippsland Lakes & East
How to Catch
Best Baits
Peeled or live prawn, sandworms and bloodworms, tube worms, mussels, crab, small fish strips, chicken or cheese for the traditionalists
Lures
Small soft plastics (2–3 inch grubs and minnows), small crankbaits and hard-bodies, blades and vibes, small surface lures over flats in summer
Rigs
A running sinker rig with the smallest ball sinker that reaches the bottom, or unweighted, and a size 4–1 hook on a 2–4 kg fluorocarbon leader. Bream are line-shy and drop baits that feel heavy. For lures, a 1/16–1/8 oz jig head and a light 1–3 kg spin outfit.
Technique
Fish tight to the structure, because a cast a metre off the snag is a cast wasted. Let the bait sink naturally and wait; bream mouth a bait and move off, so feel the weight before lifting. On lures, cast hard against pylons, pontoons and snags and work a slow hop-and-drop, or crawl a small crankbait so it bumps the timber. Fish the moving tide, and in clear water fine down the leader. When a bream hits, turn it out of the snag immediately or it's gone.
Best Time
Early morning, late afternoon and into the night are most consistent. Moving water around structure is key, especially the run-in tide as fish push onto the flats to feed. They're caught year-round, and cooler months often produce bigger fish lower in the system.
Identification
Also known as Bream, southern black bream, blackie
Deep and slab-sided, golden-brown to bronze or olive-black over the back fading to a white belly, with dusky fins, a darker margin on the tail and a small mouth full of hard nipping and crushing teeth. Fish from the upper reaches and tannin-stained water are darker; fish near the sea are more silvery. Dusky rather than yellow lower fins help separate them from yellowfin bream where the two overlap, but juveniles can be yellowish and the two hybridise, so it isn't always clear-cut. Tarwhine are silver with thin gold stripes along the flanks, and small snapper carry blue spots.
Size & Growth
Most black bream caught are 25–35 cm and 300 g to a kilo. A 40 cm fish is a very good one, anything over 45 cm is a trophy, and the 4 kg headline size is exceptional. They're slow- growing and long-lived, with big fish often 20 years old or more, so a 40 cm bream is an old fish and worth a thought before it's kept. They mature at two to three years and around 15–20 cm, and growth is slower again in the fresher upper reaches.
Diet & Habitat
Bream eat worms, crabs, shrimp, molluscs, insect larvae, small fish and even weed, and they prise mussels and barnacles straight off pylons and rocks. They live their whole lives in estuaries and coastal lakes, from near-fresh river reaches to water saltier than the sea, and hold tight to structure such as snags, fallen timber, undercut banks, bridge pylons, jetty piles, moored boats, pontoons and rock walls. They move upstream when it's dry and drop back toward the mouth when floods push fresh water down, and they spawn in spring and summer where the fresh water meets the salt.
Eating Quality
Good eating, but where it came from matters more than how big it is. Bream from clean, salty water near the mouth eat mild, white and slightly sweet, while fish from muddy upper reaches can carry a weedy, earthy taste. Bleed and ice on capture. Smaller fish are best scaled, gutted and pan-fried or baked whole; bigger ones give two fillets, though the yield is modest for the depth of body. Skin-on and crisped is the way to go. Given how old a big one is, keep a couple of plate-sized fish and let the old breeders go.
Guides Featuring Black Bream
Black Bream elsewhere: Western Australia · South Australia