Brisbane showed its hand as one of the premier east coast breaming destinations, with six 4kg plus bags gracing the scales at the Daiwa 50th Anniversary BREAM Invitational, held in conjunction with Brisbane International Boat Show.

Leading the charge with a go-to-woe victory was the talented breaming pair of Tim and Steve Morgan from Team Humminbird, who showed a clean pair of heals to compile a, 15/15, 13.53kg bag.

Weighing in three of the top five bags presented to the weighmaster for the event, the Morgan brothers extended their winning margin to over 2kg by the end of the event and exceeded the 2007 winning weight by nearly 3kg.

Traveling to Redcliffe each of the three days, the Morgans mostly targeted fish in less than four feet of water on flats, points and rocky reefs.

“Over the years QFM’s Mick Lee has run me through most of his productive peninsula spots, so we used these as the basis to refine a pattern,” Steve said, “And Scott Towner put us onto the new Gulp 2.

Peppered prawn coloured Shrimp. It’s translucent below and grey on top – I reckon that it looks just like the hardiheads that school around the bay.”

Using a tandem approach, Steve used the Shrimps on a 1/12 oz TT jighead while Tim threw them on a 1/12oz Hidden Weight System. Both used 6lb Yamatoyo leader in the rocky country to minimise bust-offs and they only broke off one key fish all three days.

Tim’s Millerod Bream Buster was paired with a Shimano Fireblood and 2lb Fireline Crystal while Steve’s Angler Stealth S840 held a Daiwa Airity 2500 and 4lb braided line.

“Most of the bigger bream came in the first few seconds after the lure landed on a long cast,” Tim said, “And the bream seemed to relate closer to structure the brighter the day was, so accurate casting was reasonably important. There’s nothing more exciting than hooking a kilo-plus-class bream in evil country, you keep the drag screwed up, hold the rod high and wind like mad!

“It would have been nice to crack the first 5kg bag in a Queensland event, but that just leaves something to chase next year,” Tim said when asked if weighing 4.99kg on day two was disappointing.

Living up to their breaming reputation Team Berkley anglers Scott Towner and Mark ‘Mango’ Mangold secured the runners up position showing no handicap for their limited experience on the tournament arena.

“I fished the area for the first time two weeks ago when we up in Queensland doing an AFC shoot,” explained Towner.

The brief insight into the location and some salient points and tips from Steve Morgan saw the pair head to Scarborough to fill their bag each day. Following a similar pattern to Team Humminbird, Towner and Mangold focused their attention on the reef and rock that dominant the peninsula coastline.

“We fished the 1-5 feet depth range and targeted the reefy outcrops and the deeper channels that ran through the rocky substrate,” said Mangold.

Targeting both locations with soft plastics the pair used a quick double hop-n-drop retrieve, free falling the plastic deeper into the channels and focusing on the shaded side of the outcrops when fishing the shallower structure.

Their money bait came in two forms, a 2” Berkley Gulp Shrimp, and a 3” Berkley Gulp Minnow, both in pepper prawn colour, and both rigged on 1/16 oz Nitro jigheads. The tackle used to present their offerings included a Berkley Pro Tactic 6901 rod, Abu Garcia Cardinal 802 reel, spooled with 4lb Berkley Crystal Fireline and either 4 or 6lb Berkley Trilene fluorocarbon leader.

After the event both Towner and Mangold had glowing praise of their most recently fished tournament venue.

“We were blown away by the shear number of big fish and how aggressive they are in taking a lure,” explained Towner.

“This is without a doubt the best bream fishery Queensland has to offer,” the AFC champ added.

The quality of fish on offer during the event is illustrated perfectly in Team Berkley’s day two on the water.

“We had our limit within two hours of the start, hooked fish that could have given us a five kilo plus bag, and of course came in contact with fish that we never stood a chance against,” Towner said.

This pattern was typical for many teams with the quality and quantity of fish improving with each day of the tournament, with many teams experiencing a 30 plus fish final day when the wind and waves were at their strongest.

Daiwa celebrated their 50th Anniversary in grand style headlining the tournament as event sponsor and displaying their newest wares for competitors and Brisbane Boat Show patrons. A showcase of Daiwa’s latest and greatest tackle, fans were able to get hands-on and experience some of the best rod, reels and lures the tackle industry has to offer.

The race for the title of 2008 champion wasn’t the only battle on line for the weekend, with the ten invited teams split into two camps (Daiwa and Evinrude E-tec), and the largest collation of weight at the end of the weekend crowning one team the winner. The final tally of weights saw Evinrude E-Tec crowned the champion for 2008. Next year is sure to see resurgence by Daiwa as they strive to regain their number one spot.

The sensational fishing, live weigh-ins, and huge crowds on offer at the Brisbane International Boat Show is destined to make the Daiwa BREAM Invitational one of the show-piece events of the tournament calendar.

For more information on ABT BREAM Tournaments phone ABT (07) 3387 0888 or visit www.bream.com.au .

Daiwa 50th Anniversary BREAM Invitational Team Results