Bream
Information
There are 5 types of Bream in Australia. The silver bream (Ancanthopagrus palmaris), Eastern Yellowfin bream (Ancanthopagrus australis), Southern black bream (Ancanthopagrus butcherii), pikey bream (Ancanthopagrus Berda) and Western Yellowfin bream (Ancanthopagrus latus).
The legal size for all these bream is 25cm. Despite the fact that bream are such a common species they are rated very high in eating quality. They have a firm moist white flesh but should be bled immediately after being caught.
The coloration of bream depends on the habitate that they live in. Bream coming from the open estuaries with regular tidal flushes or very saline waters tend to have a more silver colouration, while bream coming from brakish waters near the tidal limit have a darker colouration and are usauly not very good eating. Seperating the Eastern Yellowfin bream with its southern cousin; the black bream can be very difficult especially when they can interbreed in their crossover point (Gippsland Lakes). There are alot of myths about seperating them for instance the black spot near the base of the pectoral fin, the bluish tinge above the mouth, the black 'vee' on the trailing edge to the tail, all of the features metioned above occur in both species. The beast way of seperating these 2 closely related species is the fin colouration; the eastern yellowfin bream has golden, translucent fins while the black bream has black, opaque fins.
Southern black bream can be caught from Myall Lakes to Shark Bay. While most other species can be caught from Gippsland Lakes to Onslow. But the Western Yellowfin Bream can be caught from Brisbane, Darwin and Northern Perth.
Bream can be caught on Fly, Lure and Bait they aren't fussy on bait but do usually go for bright coloured lures and flys.
They can be caught from Ofshore reefs as deep as 20-30 fathoms to ocean beaches, rocks, creeks and estuaries.
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