The southern black bream is an extremely smart species of fish, desirable not for their eating quality, but their fighting ability.
In South Australia they are often spotted in the shade of pontoons in our marinas or in shallow estuaries. Being able to see the fish makes it more frustrating when they will not take a bait off the trusty paternoster rig. They frustrated me for years, always fishing the Port Lincoln Marina on windy days when there is nowhere else offering protection.
A bream would always turn away from my plain rig with two hooks, a sinker, and some sloppy squid tentacle. The reason that southern black bream are remarkably skilled in distinguishing the safe from the sorry is their achievable age. At the legal length of 30cm it is believed they are upward of 10 years old, and fish of 40cm or more are north of 20 years old. This challenge is what draws many anglers into targeting bream and attempting to outsmart them by thinking outside the norm. There are many minor details that need to be considered before dropping a line.