Bremer Bay in Western Australia has delivered some extraordinary bream fishing, with an average fish weight of 778 grams across the Hobie Qualifier. Big bags, aggressive fish and a nail-biting finish made this one a tournament to remember.

In this episode of The Lure Fishing Project, Andrew Death catches up with the top three finishers to break down exactly how they caught their fish, the lures that worked and the decisions that made the difference.

🥇 Paul Burton — 1st Place | 5.735 kg

Paul arrived having never fished Bremer Bay before. After a challenging start, he discovered quality bream holding around windblown banks and rocky bombies. Using Sprats and S36 Pro hardbodies, he adapted to the changing conditions and produced a three-kilo bag on the final day to take the win.

🥈 Ben Oakes — 2nd Place | 5.645 kg

Ben used Baby Vibes to establish his bags before targeting bigger fish along shallow, hard-bottomed areas. He explains how smaller hooks improved his hookup rate, why the fish were holding around changes in depth and how Slim Swims helped him find those important upgrades.

🥉 Alex Griesdorf — 3rd Place | 5.600 kg

Alex targeted quality bream around the timber upriver using grubs, Sprats and Streaks. He also found an incredible shallow-water Chubby bite, catching a bag in just a few casts. Alex claimed Big Bream honours with a 1.18 kg fish.

In this episode:

• Why Bremer Bay produced such impressive average fish weights

• Fishing windblown banks, rocky bombies and submerged timber

• Baby Vibes, Slim Swims, Sprats, Chubbies and S36 Pro hardbodies

• How lure weight, leader strength and hook selection influenced the results

• Finding bigger fish among large numbers of quality bream

• Adjusting techniques as wind, water clarity and fishing pressure change

Three anglers, three different approaches and plenty of lessons you can take into your next bream session.

🎣 Join The Lure Fishing Project Collective

Get access to bonus episodes, extended fishing discussions, our private Discord community, member Zoom sessions and more.

https://lurefishingproject.supercast.com

Enjoy the episode, and thanks for supporting The Lure Fishing Project

In this episode of The Lure Fishing Project, we head back to the Action Fishing Tournaments round from 1 February 2026 and speak with the top three anglers from the event.

Third-placed Joshua Richards worked rocky edges with a two-inch Slim Swim before switching to crabs — and once he made the change, the bites came thick and fast. One of the big lessons from Joshua’s session was just how shallow the fish were sitting on the high tide, including multiple bream coming from the top of individual rocks. Pasted text Pasted text

Second-placed James Scott started with a Sprat 75 on a light hidden-weight presentation before changing to a Pro Lure Hybrid Shrimp as the bite changed. He also found an important difference in where the better fish were positioned — smaller fish tight to the mangroves, with the bigger bream sitting further off the edge. Pasted text Pasted text

Then we talk to winner James Tran, who put together a 115 cm bag topped by a 41.5 cm bream. James takes us through fishing mussel-style lures around bridge pylons, jetties and heavy structure, losing fish and lures early, changing tackle to cope with the structure, and using line movement on the drop to recognise bites. Pasted text Pasted text

There are some excellent practical lessons in this one around:

• Fishing rocky edges on high water • Matching lure weight to shallow water • Crabs, prawns, plastics and mussel-style lures • Reading line movement on the drop • Finding better-quality fish away from the obvious edge • Fishing heavy structure with heavier leader and locked drag • Changing presentations when a bite starts to fade • Why sometimes the best tournament decision is simply fishing away from the crowd

Final podium: 🥇 James Tran — 115 cm 🥈 James Scott — 112.5 cm 🥉 Joshua Richards — 106.5 cm Pasted text Pasted text Pasted text

A quick note: these interviews were originally recorded when the show was still called The Bream Fishing Project, so you’ll hear the old name during the interviews. We’ve since become The Lure Fishing Project.

🎣 Join The Lure Fishing Project: https://lurefishingproject.supercast.com

Members get access to bonus content, the Vault and, for Collective members, our Discord community, Zoom sessions, challenges and more.

If you enjoy the episode, follow the show and share it with another lure angler.

Welcome to EP232 of The Lure Fishing Project — and our first dedicated Australian bass episode.

There probably couldn’t be a better guest to kick it off.

Steve Morgan joins me fresh from an incredible run, winning back-to-back ABT Bass qualifiers at Somerset and Wivenhoe — around 20 years after his first ABT Bass qualifier victory.

This conversation goes well beyond those two tournaments.

Steve takes us right back through the evolution of Australian tournament bass fishing, from the early days of spinnerbaits, Sliders, ice jigs, Fireline and basic sounders through to the modern era of forward-facing sonar, strolling and targeting individual fish.

We dig into what Steve learned at Somerset and Wivenhoe and why two neighbouring fisheries required very different approaches.

Steve explains how he finds roaming bass with live sonar, how he positions the lure above the fish, what he watches for when a fish reacts and why sometimes the best thing you can do is actually move the lure away from the fish rather than toward it.

We also cover Steve’s incredible Wivenhoe pre-fish session, matching lure size to the available bait, hook positioning in soft plastics, winter bass behaviour, finding fish without forward-facing sonar and the importance of being prepared to fail while learning something new.

There are plenty of numbers in this one too — including a Somerset winning bag of around 23.8 kg for ten bass, a 3.35 kg fish, and Steve’s remarkable turnaround at Wivenhoe from one small fish the previous year to 19.4 kg for ten fish this time around.

Perhaps the biggest lesson is that buying the technology isn't the same as learning how to use it. Steve has spent a huge amount of time watching fish, experimenting and understanding how bass respond to a lure.

STEVE MORGAN’S LIVE-SONAR COURSE

If you want to take the forward-facing sonar side of this episode further, Steve’s Live-Sonar Masterclass is available through My Fishing Coach:

https://www.myfishingcoach.com/courses/live-sonar-masterclass/

Use the code LFP10 for 10% off.

Using the code also helps support The Lure Fishing Project.

JOIN THE LURE FISHING PROJECT COLLECTIVE

Join the Collective for member content, Zoom catch-ups, fishing challenges, access to the Vault and the LFP community:

https://lurefishingproject.supercast.com

Thanks for listening to our first Australian bass episode.

Andrew The Lure Fishing Project