A 16-year-old angler from the Lake Macquarie region has made a catch that local experts are calling exceptional, potentially landing one of the largest bream ever seen in the lake's waters.
A Christmas Day Catch to Remember
Will Ashcroft, a 16-year-old concreter from Fassifern, was enjoying a Christmas evening fishing trip with his family on a houseboat near Pulbah Island when his line was savagely struck. Using a yakka fillet as bait, Will felt a powerful tug that immediately signalled this was no ordinary fish.
"I got absolutely stonked and I thought, 'I need to catch this thing,'" Will recounted. "My dad was like, 'that's a big jewie [jewfish].'" The fight was intense, with the reel streaming line against the powerful fish. It was only when they finally netted the creature and brought it to the surface that they realised it wasn't a jewfish at all, but a gigantic yellowfin bream.
An Exceptional and Ancient Fish
The bream measured a staggering 55 centimetres in length. To put that into perspective, the legal size limit for yellowfin bream in New South Wales is just 25cm, with most large specimens reaching only 40cm to 50cm. Will's catch surpassed that upper range by a significant margin.
Geoff Allen, manager of Hot Tackle in Warners Bay, confirmed the rarity of the catch. "It's a really old fish, and they take a long time to grow to that size," Mr Allen said. "It's probably 20-plus years old, that bream, as they have a slow growth rate. A good one is 40cm; that's a massive bream. So an extra 15cm on top of that is enormous."
Will is confident in the significance of his catch, noting that while older fishermen might claim to have caught bigger, he has never seen photographic proof. "It's the biggest bream I can actually find a photo of," he stated.
A Thriving Lake Macquarie Fishery
Mr Allen also commented on the current state of fishing in Lake Macquarie, noting his shop has been "flat out" over the summer period. He attributed the healthy fishery partly to the absence of commercial nets in the lake.
"There are record numbers of large flathead coming out there. It's trophy flathead water," he added, suggesting that Will's remarkable bream is a sign of a vibrant ecosystem.
Back on the water just days after his historic catch, Will admitted he doesn't expect to top his Christmas Day achievement anytime soon. The prized fish is currently in his freezer, and he hopes to have it preserved by a taxidermist, though he acknowledges there is high demand for such services.
"I definitely need to look into it, as it's a once-in-a-lifetime fish," Will said, cementing the memory of a holiday fishing trip he will never forget.
