EP227 – First Ever 14kg Bag! | 2026 Vic Bream East Gippsland Bream Classic

The Gippsland Lakes have produced something special.

In this episode of The Lure Fishing Project, we head back to the 2026 Club Marine East Gippsland Bream Classic, where some enormous black bream and extraordinary bags hit the scales.

At the top of the leaderboard, father-and-son team Brad and Cooper Hodges from Team Berkley produced a tournament for the record books.

They opened with five bream for 7.095kg on Saturday and backed it up with 6.935kg on Sunday, finishing with 10 fish for a massive 14.030kg — believed to be the first 14kg two-day bag ever weighed at a Vic Bream Classic.

And they did it fishing incredibly light around some seriously nasty structure.

Brad breaks down why he trusts 4lb leader around jetties, how he uses free-spooling to get big bream around pylons and ropes, why casting accuracy is so important, and how Berkley Grubs in camo rigged on 1/16oz jigheads played a major role in their win.

We also hear from second-placed Team Zero Technique — Josh Jeffrey and Kez Coleman — after an incredible Sunday charge.

After sitting sixth overnight with 5.290kg, the pair produced a monster 7.460kg Sunday bag, including the 1.710kg Ecogear Big Bream, to finish with 12.750kg.

They talk through fishing the Hollands area and the Straits, changing locations and presentations, fishing hard structure and flats, and the confidence it takes to keep searching for those bigger bites.

Then Jarred Healey from Team Hummingbird takes us through another remarkable Sunday turnaround.

After weighing 4.970kg on Saturday with his wife Michelle — fishing her first competition — Jarred teamed back up with Shaun and made the gamble to head to the opposite end of the lake.

Using Hummingbird side imaging, 360 and live sonar, they found huge schools of bream and spent hours watching fish react to their lures in real time.