Coorong Bream Classic 2026

By Joshua Davey

The Coorong estuary in South Australia is one of the most unique and impressive systems in Australia. Situated roughly 100 km from Adelaide, the mighty Murray-Darling basin finally makes its way to the ocean, and as such provides a thriving ecosystem and haven for a multitude of birds, wildlife and of course some of the largest southern black bream that Australia has to offer. Having missed last year's event, I made sure to get the dates into the calendar early and move mountains to attend the 2026 round, and boy it was worth it. Being absent from the bream tournament scene for a while, with tournament rounds being few and far between in South Australia, this this was my first opportunity to enter as a boater round in my own vessel. Armed with a quiver of Infeet rods, lures and some BaitJunkies, I gave it my all and had one of the most memorable tournament sessions I have had.

Gear and Tackle

 I went into this round with three main combos, the first being my go-to staple all-rounder for bream fishing. The rod is an Infeet Z 712LFS, paired with a 2000D Exceler, spooled with 8lb J-Braid Expedition and a rod length of 7lb J-Thread X-Link FC leader. This rod was reserved for soft plastics, of which I threw the same one all competition – being a Bait Junkie 3” Risky Critter in the GP chartreuse colour, matched with a Bait Junkie 1/12 - #1 Heavy Wire jighead. The next combo was the Infeet S 6101LFS, paired with another 2000D Exceler with the same braid and leader combination mentioned earlier. This combo was reserved for throwing Infeet Metal Blades, with the slightly softer rod faring well for keeping those small trebled pinned in the blubbery blue lips of a big bream. Finally, I brought along a “heavy hitter” combo, something with the muscle to pull an angry XXL bream from the gnarly Coorong structure if we needed it. This was one of the new Black Label rods, specifically the 742 LXS, paired with a 2500 Saltist MQ spooled with 12lb J-Braid with a 10 lb J-Thread X-Link FC leader. On this combo I was throwing a larger plastic in the 3.2” Bait Junkie Minnow, matched with a 1/8 1/0 heavy wire Bait Junkie jighead. 

Prefish Day 

I will be honest; I am not very much of a pre fisher particularly on local waterways. Instead, I like to use them as an opportunity to use my sounders to locate where fish may be holding and validate any likely theories that I have.  We hit the water late in the day, and the weather was horrendous. Think 20 – 30 knot winds and the odd torrential downpour, the worst part is the forecast for comp day was looking much the same. Still, we persisted and with the help of marine electronics managed to locate a few likely looking areas, including a few new ones I hadn't fished before.  My teammate and I had a handful of casts in these new areas and managed to land a very respectable mid 40 cm tip fish each, with mine absolutely demolishing a 3.5 g Infeet Metal Vibe in the ‘crab claw’ colour. With this, we had a game plan going into comp day and decided to leave them alone.  

Tournament Day

It was an early start, with teams making their way to launch by 5 am. After a key tag draw, we were to launch in 6^thplace. We raced my little boat to our first spot, to be greeted by an enormous school of bream. First cast with a Bait Junkie and I was on, the perfect start to a comp day. Only to get it to the boat and pull hooks, shattered! We ground it out on these fish for roughly half an hour before we started to get more bites, when suddenly somebody flicked the switch, and we had fish coming over the side thick and fast. The Risky Critter and Infeet Vibe both contributing equally, to scrape together a full 5 fish bag of 32 – 35cm tip fish by around 8 am. From here we decided to roll the dice and make a move to try one of the new areas we discovered yesterday in hopes of making a few upgrades. Within a few casts of the Risky Critter, I felt one of those telltale ‘clunks’ of a big bream inhaling the lure, before all hell broke loose and the drag of the little Exceller started screaming. This was seriously tight country, in just over a meter of water, littered with sharp coral bommies made by a species of tube worm. After a spirited fight, I managed to boat a very solid low – mid 40 cm Bream, our first upgrade. Next cast, ‘clunk’ on again and a very similar size. A few casts later, ‘clunk’ again and in the space of five minutes the Risky Critter had managed to give us 3 solid 40 + cm tip upgrades. We kept working this area for a few hours and managed to completely upgrade our bag to the point we were releasing 40 – 42 cm tip fish – unbelievable! We made another move in hope of finding even more upgrades and somehow it paid off, with more upgrades flowing through for the rest of the day. Heading back to the ramp, we felt good after one of the best tournament days bream fishing we have ever had. But, if an venue was going to throw a curve ball it would have to be the Coorong. 

Results

Back at weigh in, people were buzzing with a good number of boats recounting a very similar day to what we had. It sounded like it was going to be a close one, which is all you can ask for in a good tournament! We weighed in a 5/5 fish bag for a total of 6.23 kg, with a big bream of 1.43kg which we were very happy with. However, this is where things get interesting! That bag managed to get us fifth place, with the winning team weighing a mammoth 7.35 kg featuring a big bream of 1.93 kg! Some huge bags and definitely a tournament to remember.