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McKeown wins Second Samaki BREAM Open

Jamie McKeown proved yet again that he is a force to be reckoned with in BREAM Open events, winning the 2024 iteration of the ultimate Queensland BREAM event - The Samaki BREAM Queensland Open.

Fished over two days on a two part arena, anglers fished the Gold Coast waters on Day 1 followed by a day on Moreton Bay on Day 2. And like happens in so many ABT events, sponsor karma showed its hand, rewarding the Samaki-sponsored angler with a win.

McKeown has been taking it easy this year in his local weekend events and has been focussing on the larger targets. His 2nd in. The Australian Open this year and this Queensland Open win tends to validate his choices.

For the win, he took home $5,000 and “Geoff”, the perpetual bronze bream trophy that will hold pride of place on the mantelpiece for the next 12 months.

Here’s how he did it.

Over the years, McKeown has perfected a couple of techniques which tend to drag larger bream from the canals. He won his first Queensland Open on an OSP Bent Minnow nearly exclusively, but this time he employed a detuned ZipBait to catch the majority of his fish.

Jamie fished exclusively the ZipBait Khamsin Jr on day one in the far northern canals of the Gold Coast. He reported large numbers of fish, yet it was a final upgrade with seven minutes of fishing to go right near the start line that gave him an early lead.

Positioning the boat parallel to the front of the pontoons, Jamie would cast the bait past the structure and slow wind it back. The de-tuned bait would swim underneath the shade, which is when the bream would bite.

He fished the crankbaits on a Samaki C12 rod and X Braid upgrade line (PE 0.6, 14lb) and a 6lb fluorocarbon leader. He also upgraded the hooks on the ZipBait to stronger Decoys.

“The first day I caught so many fish, so I just went through the numbers to get the upgrades I needed,” Jamie said, but it was the strategy on Day two that ultimately got the job done.

On the Sunday, he noted the westerly winds and imagined that the direction would impede his plan to fish Amity Point channels with crabs. Instead he turned left at the channel junction and fished the Raby Bay canals within sight of the start line.

It was here that he eventually landed a string of 30cm+ fish and accrued the biggest limit of the event on a combination of topwater baits and the same cranking technique as Day 1.

His topwater was an OSP Bent Minnow that he fished on a 701 Samaki Zing Xtreme V3 rod and Daiwa Freams reel spooled with the same X Braid and leader that he fished the crankbait with.

“Each pontoon I’d throw the topwater first down behind the structure under the walkway and if that wasn’t successful, I’d follow it up with a crank along the front,” Jamie explained.

Ultimately, the one-two punch gave him more than enough quality fish to win the event by a kilogram and cemented the ‘sponsor karma’ folklore amongst the competing anglers.

SCHOFIELD SNARES SECOND PLACE

Harry Schofield (whose nickname is little ‘h’) posted his best ever ABT boater finish in his runner up placing at the Open. He weighed a couple of consistent, quality bags to top the rest of the anglers, who were all bunched up in a pack, a kilo behind McKeown.

And like McKeown, crankbaiting pontoons in canals with detuned crankbaits was Little h’s bread and butter.

“I use the Duo Realis 52MR in any of the shiny colours and I fish it pretty fast. Sometimes you think it’s too fast, but the bream come up in packs and just belt it. Sometimes they hit it to stun it and then come back to eat it - it’s a fun way of fishing,” he said.

On the first day Schofield fished canal systems at Hollywell and Shearwater, theorising that the pre-spawn fish would be aggregating there before the breeding months.

And on Day 2, Harry picked the Raby Bay canals to ply his trade. His limit was nothing earth-shattering until he landed a 35.5cm fork length fish on a plastic on the change of tide by soaking it on the bottom for an agonisingly long time.

Harry fished his cranks on a 13 Fishing OMEN 6’6” light rod paired with a 2500 Daiwa reel, PE 0.4 Sufix Egi braid and an 8lb Sufix leader.

“That rod is a great all rounder, I use it for the plastics fishing I do as well, he continued.

“When it comes to de-tuning the crankbait, it’s all about tweaking the eyelet in the direction you want the lure to swim, Harry explained, “and I like it to blow out of the water in about 30cm if I wind it quickly. That’s how detuned it is.”

Winning $2,500 for the placing, Harry had already decided that the winnings would be invested in a new lithium battery for his boat.

“Green Marine of course,” he concluded, trying to garner more ABT sponsor karma.

ROGAN CRANKS AND CRABS TO 3RD

Luke Rogan’s been having quite the run of strong finishes in local BREAM events of late. His third placing at the Queensland Open precluded a win at a Gold Coast Hobie qualifier and more success at local teams level events.

His method for success? Would you believe a combination of cranking pontoons, Cranka crabs and topwater bent minnows? South-east Queensland cool water patterns really showed out in this event.

Rogan fished Sovereign Island on the first day of the event with an Imakatsu Wasp bait and a Cranka crab - getting most bites on the jerkbait early and switching to the crab later in the session.

“It was an insane day where I landed around 40 fish,” Rogan explained, “they were biting everything.”

Day two was a little less productive, but a lot closer to home for the Brisbane Bayside resident. He was another of the boats dissecting the Raby Bay canal system with Bent Minnows and crankbaits - this time for a dozen legal fish and a sub-3kg limit.

Rogan fished a variety of Edge rods that suited the techniques. For the Wasp it was a LMX DSR 7’6” version while the crab rod was an LMX DSR 7’10”. His Bent Minnow rod was a shorter 7’1” model with a softer action.

He paired these with Daiwa reels and Toray braid/leader for the crabs and topwater while he fishes the Wasps on 6lb straight through Toray fluorocarbon.

“I don’t usually look at the scoreboard, but my observer let slip that Jamie had a great bag early and I knew I had a lot of work to do,” Luke explained, “unfortunately those big bites never came.”