Professional Documents
Culture Documents
EXTRAS
Run n Gun Action Planning to Win A Perfect Score
BASS
Dirty Water Bassin Topwater Action Deep Crankin Tips
BARRA
Lightline Tactics Topwaters Exposed 2012 BARRA Tour
BREAM
Shallow Water Secrets Kayak Grand Final One Box Special
GROUP
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editorial
BT events have always been about providing anglers with the ultimate tournament experience. The best
So lets look at whats in store for competitors in 2012 and the rewards that are on offer for anglers keen to do battle and come out on top.
BREAM
The Daiwa BREAM Series follows the less is more approach for the new season with eight qualifying events plus a Grand Final. Each event will receive the live stream treatment, with live scoreboard, audio and video delivering unrivaled event exposure. The BREAM Grand Final Week returns to Queensland in 2012, with Bribie Island (BREAM Grand Final), and the Gold Coast (BREAM Classic Championship) playing host to the week-long bream feast. The Daiwa-Hobie BREAM Kayak Series returns and now includes ABT-run qualifier and state title events as well as a select number of rounds integrated into many of the BREAM Classic events run throughout the country. Victorias Bemm River is the venue for the Grand Final, with east Victoria bream host spot playing host to Hobie road show in November.
WITH THANKS
As we head into a new tournament season, I would like to thank those who have helped us get to where we are today and who are continuing to help us provide the best tournament experience possible. To the ABT staff Chris and Elliot and to all our casuals, thank-you for your professionalism and focus on what we do. To the crew at lureandfly.com, thank-you for you efforts in 2011 and also for what we have planned for 2012. To our sponsors, your input is never taken for
BASS
With competitors holding their heads high following a red-hot Grand Final at Boondooma, anglers will be keen to hit the water at Boondooma in February for the opening round of the Smak Lures BASS Pro Series. Four qualifying rounds, a Grand Final (St Clair), and Megabass BASS Megabucks (Glenbawn) make up the season for BASS Pro anglers. Blue Fin Boats will once again headline the BASS Electric Series.
BARRA
After a quiet tour last year the BMA BARRA Tour is returning with a vengeance in 2012, with the series streamlined to four events and split into a northern and southern tour. Scheduled three months apart and hitting the lakes on the full moon, it will mean more manageable time away from home and work to fish the events, and will see anglers fishing the dams at their peak bite times. With another year of recovery after the floods of 2011, the dams and the BARRA Tour should be ready to fire in 2012.
granted. Without it ABT and tournament fishing in Australia wouldnt be at the level that it is today. So there you have it, the plan for 2012. So sit back enjoy the latest issue of the ABT Tournament Angler Guide, and remember if youre looking for the ultimate tournament experience, ABT is the place for you.
contents
12 18 24 32 44 50 55 62 70 78 84 92 100 110 116 126 132 138 153 Busting Down the Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Simon Goldsmith How Shallow Art Thou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elliot Fooks Drop and Give Me Five . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chris Seeto Master Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mike Sutcliffe Run n Gun or Stay n Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Josh Carpenter Show us Your Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steve Morgan BREAM Records, Earnings & Rankings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ABT Macquarie Madness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Grayson Fong A Perfect Score . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Josh Carpenter Talking Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chris Byrnes Time to Rise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dean Silvester Dirty Water Bassin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tri Vi Ton Digging Deeper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Simon Goldsmith Head to Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Elliot Fooks BASS Records, Earnings & Rankings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ABT Exploding the Myth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Steve Booth The Lighter Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Daniel Grech BARRA Records, Earnings & Rankings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ABT ABT Entry and Membership Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ABT
3. available. They do more than just look cool on the back of the boat in the right hands they can be a deadly tool. The idea behind the Power-Pole and the Minn Kota Talon is quiet, shallow water angling. Stopping mid-drift with these shallow water anchors can give you the time to unhook fish or pepper areas that may have a school of fish holding in a particular zone. But what if you cant afford a shallow water anchor? Steve Morgan has the answer. I know it sounds odd but before we had shallow water anchoring systems we simply trimmed down our outboard, he said. Just dont do it on the rocks!
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EXTRAS
Run n Gun Action Planning to Win A Perfect Score
BASS
Dirty Water Bassin Topwater Action Deep Crankin Tips
BARRA
Lightline Tactics Topwaters Exposed 2012 BARRA Tour
BREAM
Shallow Water Secrets Kayak Grand Final One Box Special
GROUP
Contents 1-9.indd 1
COVER: 2011 Daiwa - Hobie BREAM Kayak Grand Final Winner Daniel Brown
Glass boats have the edge over non-glass boats in the shallows, with their shallow draft and quieter presence producing more fish.
$9.95
Master Plan
with HD Side & Down Imaging
TexT: Mike SuTcliffe PhoTograPhy: Jeff clelland and SiMon goldSMiTh
St Helens is shallow water heaven for breamers, Jordan Trustys big smile is proof of that.
that next rod and take a look at the rest of your bream fishing arsenal? Think wider than just your standard tackle, because it may just prove to be the final piece of the puzzle. As ABT anglers we are lucky to be able to
benefit from the lessons learnt in all three sides (BREAM, BASS, BARRA) of our sport, and sometimes one of these other branches may have tips or tricks that could improve your next tournament result.
FOOKS_Shallow.indd 22
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eve all seen it someone giving Derwent River in Tasmania. He loves his a short speech, thanking their black bream, as you can tell. sponsors, perhaps giving credit Szarn Tink A resident of WA, Szarn to a long-suffering spouse for putting up has been known to pop up (and earn top with all the weekends away from home 10 places) at tournaments all over the and the strong smell of Gulp in the garage; country both as a boater and non-boater. then grinning as they hold up an oversized However, its in WA where hes enjoyed the novelty cheque. most success, and has been the states And all the while, as we smile and AOY several times. applaud their efforts (so what if they beat Wayne Reed Wayne has become us by 3kg?), were thinking, Why cant I something of a fixture on the BREAM circuit, do that? fishing in as many competitions as he can Well, heres some good news for the both individually and as part of a team. He terminally and partner Adrian Neoh shook up the field SIDE IMAGING SONAR: Amazingly envious: you can do it. It just takes time and a bit of work. Because, as at the 2007 Bing Lee BREAM Australian BREAM GRAND FINAL 2010 BARRA CLASSIC 2011 clear, picture-like images of fish, the successful anglers will all tell AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2011 what CLASSIC BARRA these five you, HICKSON with TEAM is still a record bag for KRIS Open SHAUN CLANCY BASS GRAND FINAL 2011 bottom and structure. With massive for that speech can start days, preparing Sydney Harbour a massive 6.18kg. As an MATTHEW MOTT weeks, before they individual, he finished 5th in the 2010 Daiwa coverage of 146 metres from side to side, or even months NATIONAL TEAMS ever BREAM make a BREAM Grand Final. GRAND FINAL you can scan in mere minutes what use cast in a tournament. 2011 KRIS HICKSON, DANIEL BROWN Kris Hickson Still ridiculously young to to take hours. THE CREW have had as much success as he has, Kris Here are the fishermen who will be sharing is an angler to be reckoned with in just their secrets for the perfect tournament day: about any competition he enters, and has Cameron Whittam The 2011 Lowrance gradually risen up the BREAM rankings in Victoria BREAM AOY, Cam has been the past couple of years. He also finished fishing for years (hes a former casting a very close 2nd in the 2011 BREAM AOY CHRIS WRIGHT - Tournament Angler Distributed exclusively by champion, too), and has recently started rankings and won the 2011 Daiwa BREAM Since using Humminbird I have found more fish and to enjoy regular success in ABT BREAM Australian Open. structure than ever before. To see fish out the side of tournaments, winning the 2011 Gippsland Tristan Taylor Tristan is a dentist and the boat on Side Imaging, cast to them and land them boatinglifestyleadventure round and also in recent years, his smile has looked like is something I have never seen before. For the first timefinishing third on the
HUMMINBIRD WINS
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bassin
TexT: Tri vi Ton PhoTograPhy: Simon goldSmiTh and jeff Clelland
dirty water
Its the first morning of an event, and youve arrived at a lake that looks like Mother Nature has built a Starbucks at its headwaters.
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Queenslands lake Boondooma rose significantly in the early part of 2011 with dirty water and tough fishing challenging anglers during the Skeeter BaSS Pro Series.
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1.
2.
Head to Head
TexT: ellioT Fooks PhoTograPhy: simon goldsmiTh
4.
The race for the 2011 Blue Fin Boats BASS Electric Angler of the Year title was always going to be a marathon. Twenty-five events scattered throughout NSW and Queensland, reduced down to an anglers best five results meant it was always going to be close.
5.
6.
THE L WORD Here are my go-to lures when deep cranking. 1. Rapala DT10 2. HideUp HU-300 3. Megabass DD Griffon 6CC 4. Lucky Craft Flat Mini DR 5. Imakatsu IK-250 6. Evergreen Combat Crank Flatside 7. OSP Blitz Max DR
7.
out in the deep and cast as far as you could towards the island, then engage the reel and slowly crank the lure back. The hits came anywhere during the retrieve, but more often than not came as the lure swam over the edge into the deeper water. If the fish moved a little deeper simply immersing the rod half way into the water gave the lure a couple more feet in running depth, and was often enough to reach the fish that you had been missing.
Stalling the lure cloSe to Structure, Speeding the retrieve up to elicit a reaction from a fiSh, and twitching the lure to replicated an injured bait fiSh all payS dividendS
will deliver longer casts and allow you to cover more water. How you use the rod, both on the cast, the retrieve and during the fight is important. For close quarters work I prefer to use flat, side and underhand casts to deliver greater line control, particularly when fishing tight to timber, while for longer work Im more incline to use overhead and casts to get more distance. The rod position largely remains the same regardless, with a rod tip down and rod to the side holding position delivering optimum contact and feel of the lure. The positioning of the rod also allows the slow taper of the rod to do its thing when a fish bites. Namely not sling shot the lure out of the fishs mouth when it hits the lure. The taper also allows the rod to progressively through the blank, cushioning the fight of hooked fish. The outcome is more bass landed and less dropped fish.
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2011 was a watershed year for shane anderson. The Bundaberg basser claimed the inaugural Bass electric aoy crown by the narrowest of margins (1 point) over dave Trinder.
16/12/11 3:01 PM
Managing Editor: Steve Morgan Editor: Simon Goldsmith Assistant Editor: Nicole Penfold Publishers: Fishing Monthly Group Steve Morgan, Robyn Lawrie and Matthew Drinkall
Sponsorship: Steve Morgan, Travis Davies Art Director: Matthew Roberts Production: Matthew Roberts, Melissa Carroll, Jeff Clelland, Amy McGowan, Karen Millward Printing and Prepress: Fergies Image to Press
Distribution: Gordon and Gotch 201 Tournament Angler Guide is a Fishing Monthly Group publication . ABN 72 010 542 195 PO Box 3172, Loganholme, QLD 4129 Phone: (07) 3387 0800 Fax: (07) 3387 0801 Business Office: Unit 3, 11 Knobel Court, Shailer Park, QLD 4128
ABT P .O . Box 7196 Loganholme, QLD, 4129 Phone: ((07) 3387 0888 Fax: (07) 3387 0889
All material is copyright and cannot be reproduced in part or full, by any means, without written permission of the Managing Editor. The view expressed in this publication editorially or in advertisement are not necessarily those of the Publisher.
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Daiwa BREAM SERIES
calendar
The Daiwa BREAM Series is the premier bream circuit in the country, and the only pathway to AFC and the title of Australias best breamer. Eight qualifying events throughout the country allow you to fish as a boater (with a boat) or as a non boater (randomly paired with a boating angler) and qualify for the biggest event of season the Daiwa BREAM Grand Final, where you can win a Basscat / Mercury boat. All events in 2012 will be live-streamed on www.bream.com.au, with a live, scoreboard, vision and audio delivering anglers unprecedented exposure, a bonus for both anglers and sponsors alike. From the competitive elite to tournament fishing new comers the Daiwa BREAM Series is the ultimate series to test your skills or develop your skills. So dont sit on the sidelines in 2012 get breaming and get competing. BREAM Qualifiers Boater $200, Non Boater $100.
tournament
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BReAM sERIEs
DATE 11-13 Jan 21-22 Jan 11-12 Feb 10-11 Mar 23-25 Mar 31 Mar - 1 Apr 5-6 May 19-20 May 16-17 Jun 14-15 Jul 11-12 Aug 17 Aug 19-21 Oct 3-4 Nov 9-11 Nov STATE NSW SA VIC NSW QLD TAS WA NSW QLD NSW QLD QLD QLD QLD QLD LOCATION Sydney Harbour Glenelg River Mallacoota Forster Moreton Bay Derwent River Albany St Georges Basin Tweed River Lake Macquarie Bribie Island Gold Coast Moreton Bay Gold Coast Sth Bribie Island EvENT BREAM Australian Open BREAM Qualifier #1 BREAM Qualifier #2 BREAM Megabucks TTS BREAM Invitational BREAM Qualifier #3 BREAM Qualifier #4 BREAM Qualifier #5 BREAM Qualifier #6 BREAM Qualifier #7 BREAM Qualifier #8 BREAM Pro-Am (Conference) BREAM Queensland Open BREAM Classic Championship BREAM Grand Final Shimano Strike Pro Hobie Atomic FINS Braid Ecogear ABT Humminbird Evinrude Daiwa SPONSOR Daiwa Mercury Rapala Minn Kota
STATE LOCATION NSW SA NSW WA Forster Glenelg River Georges River Swan River St Georges Basin Marlo Forster Swan River Clarence River Albany Mandurah Mallacoota Tweed River Gold Coast Bribie Island Ballina Mallacoota Narrabeen Lake Bemm River
18-19 Feb NSW 25-26 Feb VIC 10-11 Mar NSW 28-29 Mar TAS 29 Apr 5-6 May 20 May NSW WA WA
VIC State Titles + WQ3 2 NSW State Titles Tas State Titles Qualifier Wa State Titles Qualifier Qualifier Qualifier Qualifier 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 1
11-12 Aug QLD 30 Sep 13-14 Oct 27-28 Oct NSW VIC NSW
31 Mar-1 Apr Toonumba Dam 31 Mar-1 Apr Danjeera Dam 15 Apr 6 May 13 May 20 May 27 May 10 Jun 17 Jun
Isis Balancing Storage BASS Electric Series #10 Maroon Dam Moogerah Dam Lake St Clair Cressbrook Dam Wivenhoe Dam Maroon Dam Clarrie Hall Dam Wivenhoe Dam Cania Dam Lake St Clair Wivenhoe Dam Lake McDonald Moogerah Dam BASS Electric Series #11 BASS Electric Series #12 BASS Electric Series #13 BASS Electric Series #14 BASS Electric Series #15 BASS Electric Series #16 BASS Electric Series #17 BASS Electric Series #18 BASS Electric Series #19 BASS Electric Series #20 BASS Electric Series #21 BASS Electric Series #22 BASS Electric Series #23
1 Jul 8 Jul 15 Jul 22 Jul 5 Aug 19 Aug 2 Sep 9 Sep 30 Sep 13/14 Oct
Isis Balancing Storage BASS Electric Series #24 Cressbrook Dam Hinze Dam BASS Electric Series #25 BASS Electric Series Convention
BM A
12 BARRA 20 T
R OU
R OU
BM A
DATE 25-26 Feb 21-22 Apr 23-24 Jun 25-26 Aug 18-19 Sep 15-16 Sep
EvENT Qualifier #1 Qualifier #2 Qualifier #3 Qualifier #4 BASS Megabucks BASS Pro Grand Final
AffilliAteD EvEnts
DATE 8 Jan 15 Jan 29 Jan 4-5 Feb 5 Feb 5 Feb 18-19 Feb 19 Feb 18-19 Feb 11 Mar 17-18 Mar 18 Mar 24-25 Mar 25 Mar 6 Apr 14-15 Apr 21-22 Apr 21-22 Apr 29 Apr 5-6 May 6 May 20 May 20 May 26-27 May 3 Jun 16-17 Jun 24 Jun 8 Jul 29 Jul 4-5 Aug 12 Aug 26 Aug 9 Sep 9 Sep 16 Sep 28-29 Sep 13-14 Oct 3-4 Nov 24-25 Nov 1-2 Dec STATE NSW NSW NSW VIC NSW WA TAS QLD NSW NSW VIC NSW TAS SA QLD WA NSW TAS NSW VIC NSW SA WA VIC NSW VIC QLD QLD NSW NSW WA NSW NSW NSW WA NSW VIC QLD VIC SA LOCATION Forster Lake Macquarie Georges River Yarra River Hawkesbury R Swan R Swan R Bribie Island St Georges Basin Forster Metung Urunga St Helens Port River Gold Coast Sth Albany Port Macquarie Derwent River Clarence River Glenelg River St Georges Basin Port River Mandurah Mallacoota Port Stephens Hopkins River Gold Coast Gold Coast Sth Port Macquarie Sydney Harbour Mandurah Forster Tweed River Sydney Harbour Swan R Richmond River Mallacoota Gold Coast Sth Metung Port River EvENT GTS - Sth BETS #2 SSBS Atomic BIA VIC Bream Classic #1 BETS #3 WA BREAM Classic #1 TAS Classics #1 GTS - Nth SSBS BETS #4 Club Marine East Gippsland VIC Bream Classic #2 GTS - Sth TAS Classics #2 SABT Classic #1 Easter BREAM Classic WA BREAM Classic #2 PMBC TAS Classics #3 GTS - Nth Alsta Angling Glenelg Shire VIC Bream Classic #3 BETS #5 SABT Classic #2 WA BREAM Classic #3 SSBS GTS - Sth Hooked On Rods N Reels VIC Bream Classic #4 Dash 4 Cash GTS - Nth GTS - Sth BETS Grand Final WA BREAM Classic #4 GTS Semi Final Sth GTS Semi Final Nth NSW BREAM Classic WA BREAM Classic GF GTS Grand Final Alsta Angling East Gippsland VIC Bream Classic #5 BREAM Classic Championship Humminbird VIC Bream Classic Grand Final SABT Classic #3 DIRECTOR Australian Fishing Tournaments BETS Jim Barrie Bill Hartshorne BETS Craig Leatt-Hayter Alistair Creed Australian Fishing Tournaments Jim Barrie BETS Bill Hartshorne Australian Fishing Tournaments Alistair Creed Tom Deer Stephen Wilson Craig Leatt-Hayter David Poulton Alistair Creed Australian Fishing Tournaments Bill Hartshorne BETS Tom Deer Craig Leatt-Hayter Jim Barrie Australian Fishing Tournaments Bill Hartshorne Christine Hunt Australian Fishing Tournaments Australian Fishing Tournaments BETS Craig Leatt-Hayter Australian Fishing Tournaments Australian Fishing Tournaments Alan Loftus Craig Leatt-Hayter Australian Fishing Tournaments Bill Hartshorne ABT Bill Hartshorne Tom Deer 0412 249 647 0459 401 612 0459 401 612 0419 629 932 0412 249 647 0459 401 612 0409 823 070 (07) 3387 0888 0409 823 070 0414 901 550 www.wabreamclassics.com.au www.gamakatsu.com.au/gts www.vicbreamclassics.com.au www.bream.com.au www.vicbreamclassics.com.au www.bream.com.au 0414 901 550 0412 249 647 0409 275 434 0459 401 612 0409 823 070 0433 150 985 0459 401 612 0459 401 612 www.gamakatsu.com.au/gts www.gamakatsu.com.au/gts www.betsbream.com.au www.wabreamclassics.com.au www.gamakatsu.com.au/gts www.gamakatsu.com.au/gts 0409 823 070 0459 401 612 0408 109 204 0414 901 550 0403 694 178 0412 249 647 0401 191 554 0408 109 204 0459 401 612 0409 823 070 www.wabreamclassics.com.au www.portbreamclassic.com.au www.bream.com.au www.gamakatsu.com.au/gts www.vicbreamclassics.com.au www.betsbream.com.au www.bream.com.au www.wabreamclassics.com.au www.ssbs.basinlureandfly.org.au/ www.gamakatsu.com.au/gts www.vicbreamclassics.com.au 0412 249 647 0408 109 204 0459 401 612 0409 275 434 0409 275 434 0409 823 070 CONTACT 0459 401 612 WEB www.gamakatsu.com.au/gts www.betsbream.com.au www.ssbs.basinlureandfly.org.au/ www.vicbreamclassics.com.au www.betsbream.com.au www.wabreamclassics.com.au www.bream.com.au www.gamakatsu.com.au/gts www.ssbs.basinlureandfly.org.au/ www.betsbream.com.au www.vicbreamclassics.com.au www.gamakatsu.com.au/gts www.bream.com.au www.bream.com.au
12 BARRA 20 T
BM A
12 BARRA 20 T
R OU
R OU
12 BARRA 20 T
BM A
This is the fish that did it, Russ day three kicker fish, the Forster special that anchored his 3.38kg day-three limit.
12
Tournament fishing, like any competitive sport, is at its most compelling when the competition is close fought. Anglers going head-to-head all the way to the finishing line is the stuff that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck and it gets the competitive senses tingling.
hat played out at the 2011 Daiwa BREAM Grand Final blew this scenario out of the water, with Berkley BREAM Pro Russell Babekuhl busting down the door to charge through from 11th place to claim the event win at Forster. Timing his final run perfectly Babekuhl held his cards close to his chest until the final day when he pulled out his aces to smash his opposition, weighing in his biggest bag for the tournament, and in doing so claim the biggest prize in tournament bream fishing.
It BegIns now
Babekuhls long road to victory started with the first bream he ever caught. It happened almost 11 years ago in the racks at Forster. Thats where the addiction started, he said. One fish from an oyster rack while I was fishing out of my canoe. From then on Ive been hooked on them and Forster. With the Wallis Lake system littered with oyster racks, finding the big bream needle in the haystack can be difficult. Babekuhl had a decade to hunt for that needle, and he found it: Jurassic Park. He decided to save it for a special occasion, and that special occasion turned out to be the 2011 Daiwa BREAM Grand Final.
tone for the event. It was just too clear and still so I cut my losses pretty quickly and headed upriver, he explained. Not content to bide his time and wait for the fish to come on, Russ quickly stowed his electric motor, strapped down his rods to the deck and hightailed it up the Wallamba River in search of tidal movement and active fish. It didnt take long to get stuck into them, he said. The tide was pumping, the prawns were on the move and the bream were straight onto our lures. Focusing his attention on rock walls, fallen trees and mangroves edges, Russ go-to
technique involved skipping a Berkley Pop Dog in tight to structure then working it back out with a walk-pause retrieve. You didnt have to be super tight with how you worked the lure, he said. You just needed to make sure you got the lure in close where the prawns and the bream were. While his first stop at the racks may have given him an unwanted slow start to the day, his prawn-fuelled flurry of topwater action made amends and had Babekuhl sitting pretty with a limit in the well by mid-morning.
Winning the nSW lowrance angler of the year title, daiwa Bream grand Final crown, plus the mercury Cup, Babekukl added a trio of trophies to his mantelpiece in 2011.
Up A RIveR
Heading off 7th on an overcast and windy opening morning, Babekuhl headed straight to a selection of oyster racks on the northern side of Wallis Island, hoping that hed put some fish in the well early and set a positive
TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12 13
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his limit in the well by lunchtime. The peak bite was late in the session as the incoming tide started to flood through the lake. While his bag (2.46kg) was down on the day before, Babekuhl reminded himself of the daily goal he set himself before the tournament: Just catch 2.5kg and youll be in with a chance.
Pause Pause
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clear water so the fish are super spooky, he explained. You need the wind to blow otherwise its a waste of time. By 10am the wind had picked up enough so Russ packed away his topwaters, left the protective comfort of the Wallamba and headed downriver to spot hop his way between racks. He focused on fixed racks in the shallows that had both wind and current. With his surface lures tucked away in his rod locker, Babekuhl went finesse, rigging a 2 Berkley Gulp Shrimp on an unweighted worm hook and fishing it over and under the racks. The technique was straightforward I worked my way along the edge of the rack, made a long cast parallel with the rack so it landed up on the tray, pointed the rod out to the side away from the rack and just swam the Shrimp back across the tray, Russ explained. I then paused it just as it came off the edge and sank it down into the shade. It was just what the fish wanted on the opening day of competition. Babekuhl upgraded his whole limit and finished the day with a healthy 3kg bag. Heading into the event I thought if you got 2.5kg each day youd do alright, so when it went 3kg I was over the moon, he said.
Carbon Copy
Day two was repeat performance of Russ day one itinerary: a pit-stop at the racks early followed by a quick session up the Wallamba to catch a few legals before heading back down to the racks. The current, the prawns and the bream that were up the Wallamba on the first day were gone, Russ explained. I only managed to get two legals so I called it quits after two hours and headed down to the racks. Making the move despite the lack of wind, Babekuhl was happy to plug away, content that the wind would come and that the bream would bite. It didnt take long for his faith to be rewarded; things turned around and he got THE DOG AND THE PRAWN SHOW Babekuhl fished the Grand Final with the following products: Berkley 3B Crank Pop Dog (snoop colour, 65mm, 3.2g) Berkley Gulp 2 Shrimp (pepper prawn) Berkley 2 Bulky Hawg Owner worm hook (size 1) Nitro Bream Pro jighead (1/32oz, size 1)
Babekuhl had no more chances. Having slipped to 11th place at the end of day two he was getting further off pace and he needed one place to fire Jurassic Park. He didnt hit it straight up though. Instead, he waited and bided his time until it was ready to fire. The Wallamba was out due a lack of current and the racks were unlikely to produce anything because it was too still so I went and fished the oyster sheds and poles at The Paddock, he explained. The sheds and poles had been largely overlooked by most of the field on the first two days. With the water gin clear and glassed out, Babekuhl fished 3lb Trilene straight through, skipping Berkley Shrimps and Hawgs rigged on a worm hook into the shade pockets, and then dead sticking them. The hits, as expected, came when the bait was doing its least, just replicating bream fodder sinking to the bottom. The less is more approach produced three legals, one of which came from a lone boat moored in the area.
niCe raCk
By 8.30am the wind had arrived so Russ made his move. No more B-grade locations, just a beeline to his number one spot: Jurassic Park. This area of crystal clear water is littered with rows and rows of oyster fattening trays, loaded with fish, and it had remained untouched for the tournament. Fishing up and down each row, Russ approach was straightforward except for one small twist. I fished down one side of the rack, then
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Stradic 3000FJ 6.0:1 89 7 3/210 10/215 5+1 260 Stradic 4000FJ 5.8:1 99 9 4/219 15/240 5+1 304
E PE A
BAC
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Using your smart phone, download a QR Code reader application from the Apple App store, Android Market, or Blackberry Appworld. Once installed, simply point your phones camera at the QR Code to scan, and watch the product video.
TM
GRA24308
Consistency over the first two days, followed by a bag of big fish on the final day was Russ path to victory.
GETTING CHANGED Russ adapted to conquer at the Grand Final, adjusting both his technique and tackle to catch his fish. Here are some of changes he made throughout the event. Rigged his Shrimps on a 1/32oz jighead rather than a worm hook on days two and three, due to the strong wind. Replaced the rear hook of his topwater with a size 8 Owner treble so the lure would sit lower in the water. Downsized to 6lb leader to catch his limit on day three, and then (after he had his limit) upped his leader to 8lb and 10lb to give himself a better chance of landing fish. Increased the thickness of his mainline (12lb) as thinner line was getting blown around in the wind and was difficult to fish around the racks. Swapped to straight-through 3lb fluorocarbon when fishing the oyster sheds and poles on the last day because the water was clear and still.
fished my way back up not on the other side of the same rack, but on one rack over, he explained. This up and back approach allowed Russ to fish clean water on each pass rather than waste his time fishing water muddied by his electric motor. This thinking anglers approach paid off, with Russ filling his limit within half an hour.
Russ slowly pegged back his opposition. As he placed his key tag on the check-in board Russ finished the session as one of only six anglers out of the final day top 20 to have caught their limit. Hitting the stage midway through the weigh-in, Babekuhl set the mark to beat. A 3.38kg bag on the final day and combined bag of 8.84kg were the two numbers that were on the tip of everyones tongue at the weigh-in. Occupying the hot-seat, Russ saw off challenger after challenger until, in the end, there was no-one left to stand in his way. There was just him and the Daiwa BREAM Grand Final trophy that he was holding aloft on front deck of his $40,000 Bass Cat/Mercury prize boat. To claim the win Babekuhl had turned a 760g deficit into a 270g winning margin. To place his final day heroics into some sort of perspective, Russ had run down the leader from 11th while Darren Dizzy Borg, who was equal in 11th place, slid to 19th. When someone outshines Dizzy to this degree on the final day, they have definitely done something to go into the annuls of tournament fishing!
BREAM tour. Russ achievements include his maiden Lowrance Angler of the Year Title (NSW), victory at the Strike Pro St Georges Basin BREAM Qualifier, 3rd at the Daiwa BREAM Australia Open, and multiple top tens. Combine these with his honour of being the only angler to win two Super Series events (both of which, incidentally, were Berkley naming sponsored events), and Babekuhl is steadily ascending the ranks of Australias premier BREAM anglers. Now ranked 3rd in Australia, Babekuhl is sure to have his eyes set on Steve Morgan (1st) and Kris Hickson (2nd) in 2012.
Charging through from 11th place on the final day Russ did it, claiming the ultimate win in bream fishing, the Daiwa BREAM Grand Final.
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So you have your favourite shallow water technique and a rod and reel combo that always does the job but are you really getting the most out of your favourite shallow water bream haunt?
18
he first thing people think about when fishing shallow is the lure, rod and line, but what about all the other gear and preparation you need before you get near those shallow water bream? Getting all of these complicated pieces together can mean the difference between success on the shallows and coming up empty-handed. And interestingly, useful shallow water tricks and tips dont just come from the realms of bream fishing.
guesswork out of your fishing. With the fish pinpointed in the shallows, the next step is approaching them.
This isnt a deserted island in the tropics, this is Walpole. Beautiful and home to plenty of bream.
19
getting that kicker fish, or being stuck until the next high tide.
DONT SLAM IT
Sometimes the wind just doesnt work for the location youre fishing, forcing you rely on your electric. As far as Steve Morgan is concerned, when it comes to using an electric, less is more. When fishing the shallows he aims to use no more than 30% power, and likes to have his motor running on a constant low humming sound rather than in bursts. Why? Imagine youve just walked into a bar, Steve said. After only a few minutes, the sound of the music and the crowd turns into background noise. Compare that to when the kid next door practices his trumpet skills you definitely hear that, and it never turns into background noise! Its the same with fish. Loud, irregular sounds quickly spook them. So, while maintaining a low speed, how can you get the most out of your electric motor? Aaron Martens has the answer. Aaron is one of the best anglers on the BASS Elite series in the US, and knows his gear intimately and how to get the best out of it. As many of you may know, there is a interesting clip of his boat set-up on YouTube, where Aaron takes you through his meticulous set and speaks briefly about sharpening his electric motor blades (go to
youtube.com and type in Aaron Martens boat). He explains that sharpening your blades can make your motor run at up to 5% higher efficiency, and says these sharper blades also cut through the weed that can chew the precious battery life.
Power Poles are benifical tools to have in the shallows, allowing greater boat control and more thorough fishing time.
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Glass boats have the edge over non-glass boats in the shallows, with their shallow draft and quieter presence producing more fish.
available. They do more than just look cool on the back of the boat in the right hands they can be a deadly tool. The idea behind the Power-Pole and the Minn Kota Talon is quiet, shallow water angling. Stopping mid-drift with these shallow water anchors can give you the time to unhook fish or pepper areas that may have a school of fish holding in a particular zone. But what if you cant afford a shallow water anchor? Steve Morgan has the answer. I know it sounds odd but before we had shallow water anchoring systems we simply trimmed down our outboard, he said. Just dont do it on the rocks!
St Helens is shallow water heaven for breamers, Jordan Trustys big smile is proof of that.
that next rod and take a look at the rest of your bream fishing arsenal? Think wider than just your standard tackle, because it may just prove to be the final piece of the puzzle. As ABT anglers we are lucky to be able to
benefit from the lessons learnt in all three sides (BREAM, BASS, BARRA) of our sport, and sometimes one of these other branches may have tips or tricks that could improve your next tournament result.
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Filling your limit is the goal of every BREAM tournament angler. Finding the technique thatll do it can be the hard part. In this feature we dissect one of the more popular techniques for largemouth bass, drop shotting, and find out how it works for bream. Its time to drop and get your five!
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Drop shotting is used as a finesse approach to fishing a soft plastic. It requires a weight to be hung under a small nose-hooked soft plastic, delivering an unweighted presentation that wafts enticingly in the current. The drop shot weight anchors the line to the bottom, while the small hook and plastic are left to float freely. This technique is perfect for those times youve wanted to use an unweighted plastic but the wind, weather or structure has made it difficult or the fish are suspending at a particular depth where other techniques cant hold the lure in the zone.
fishing is the amount of weight to fish. Unlike standard jigheads, fishing drop shot weights requires more weight than usual. Its not unusual to fish around a 1/4oz weight, as youll need to maintain contact with the bottom as you work the rod tip.
hooks
This technique requires tiny hooks with a specific shape. When tied, they sit perpendicular to the leader and only need to nose-hook the soft plastic. The Gamakatsu drop shot hook is a good hook, being small enough for the mouth of our bream but with a unique shank exposing more hook point for a better hook-up.
Plastics
Your choice of soft plastic is important. The best choice is a hand poured style soft lure that has plenty of action. Plastics such as Keitech Live Impacts, Tacklecraft Flat Back worms and Flat Back minnows all work well. If you want something smaller, try little creature baits (I like the Keitech Little Spider with long feelers to get the attention of the fish). If your soft plastic floats or suspends, thats even better. Some plastics are much better suited than others but with a bit of practice, youll find out what suits your style.
Drop shot fished soft plastics are new to most anglers and bream, throwing them in a tournament may just be the ticket to quality fish like this one.
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Banks and points buffeted by wind and waves produce fish but can be hard to fish with lightly weighted plastics. Drop shotting allows you to fish light weighted plastics without the short comings of using a jighead.
Rod
Like all types of fishing, particular styles of fishing rods will work best. A fast-actioned braid set-up will provide good contact and feel with the lure. Remember, the hook is suspending mid-way up your leader and the takes may be subtle, so a rod like the Daiwa Steez Feral Cat or the New Black Labels will do the trick. Use a good quality STANDARD DROPSHOT RIG
The TeRRain
Youd think that fishing a 1/4oz weight would mean you end up fishing in 10m of water, right? Not necessarily. Ive had the most success fishing the edges in less than 1m, flicking
the lure out and violently shaking the rod tip but only slowly moving the lure away from the bank. Thats why you need a lot of weight the drop shot weight acts as an anchor, holding the line in one spot, while you can shake the slack line and make the lure vibrate like an injured fish. A great starting point is to find baitfish. When you see the bait around, match the hatch and get your drop shot set-up into the water. Whether youre fishing weedy edges, rocky terrain or sandy bottom, the drop shot set-up will usually keep the hook point out of harms way. If you do snag up, you can often pull the weight free because it doesnt have a hook point to get caught on. If it does get wedged between a rock and a hard place, youll be able to pull the line through the end of the weight without busting off the hook.
Sinker options
This technique works in any water depth, whether it be fished high up in the shallows or suspended off the bottom in deep water. Wind-blown banks are a fish magnet but can be restrictive if youre fishing lightly weighted or even unweighted baits. The wind blows all manner of fish attractants which are a magnet for baitfish. It creates chop that can dislodge morsels from rocks or snags not usually exposed to water, and also makes fish less wary. Casting unweighted baits in this scenario can result in limited casting distance and accuracy and bait being blown out of the strike zone. With a drop shot set-up, the extra weight can aid casting accuracy but importantly leave the bait to float freely in the strike zone.
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unweighted plastics are required but wind, terrain or casting distance limit opportunities. Times when long casts, but unweighted plastics are required suit drop shotting, regardless of wind, current or anything else that can influence a soft plastic, the drop shot weight can hold the lure in the zone for longer. When the situation calls for it, having the drop shot rig in your fishing arsenal may be the difference between plugging away and catching fish. The ability to suspend a soft plastic in any situation provides options to the angler.
distinct bite, a small bite or just a territorial bump. Having a feel for the bite versus just seeing the bite when there is belly in the line, provides a better understanding of how the fish are biting and what will work. Unlike the flick and hope approach with an unweighted plastic, drop shotting can shift the odds in the anglers favour.
Wash areas hold plenty of bream and are well suited to fishing with a drop shot approach.
face of bream for longer. Being able to shake the slack in the line results in the lure shaking in the same spot. Being able to do this multiple times means more time attracting wary fish and less time recasting, potentially scaring fish.
its loGical
Drop shotting may seem like a bit of an experimental approach, but when you consider the added advantages of this technique, it makes sense. Casting unweighted presentations a common finesse technique used when the bream are finicky requires any number of factors to align before it can be successful. Drop shotting, on the other hand, gives you the ability to make long casts, get down deep in the water column and stay down there, while still presenting an essentially unweighted soft plastic. It can be the key to turning a long, tough tournament day into a successful day on the water.
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A winning day on the water starts a long time before the day itself, but just how long varies from angler to angler. Here, five of the most successful fisherman on the ABT BREAM tour share their plans.
eve all seen it someone giving a short speech, thanking their sponsors, perhaps giving credit to a long-suffering spouse for putting up with all the weekends away from home and the strong smell of Gulp in the garage; then grinning as they hold up an oversized novelty cheque. And all the while, as we smile and applaud their efforts (so what if they beat us by 3kg?), were thinking, Why cant I do that? Well, heres some good news for the terminally envious: you can do it. It just takes time and a bit of work. Because, as these five successful anglers will all tell you, preparing for that speech can start days, weeks, or even months before they ever make a cast in a tournament.
THE CREW
Here are the fishermen who will be sharing their secrets for the perfect tournament day: Cameron Whittam The 2011 Lowrance Victoria BREAM AOY, Cam has been fishing for years (hes a former casting champion, too), and has recently started to enjoy regular success in ABT BREAM tournaments, winning the 2011 Gippsland round and also finishing third on the
32 TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12
Derwent River in Tasmania. He loves his black bream, as you can tell. Szarn Tink A resident of WA, Szarn has been known to pop up (and earn top 10 places) at tournaments all over the country both as a boater and non-boater. However, its in WA where hes enjoyed the most success, and has been the states AOY several times. Wayne Reed Wayne has become something of a fixture on the BREAM circuit, fishing in as many competitions as he can both individually and as part of a team. He and partner Adrian Neoh shook up the field at the 2007 Bing Lee BREAM Australian Open with what is still a record bag for Sydney Harbour a massive 6.18kg. As an individual, he finished 5th in the 2010 Daiwa BREAM Grand Final. Kris Hickson Still ridiculously young to have had as much success as he has, Kris is an angler to be reckoned with in just about any competition he enters, and has gradually risen up the BREAM rankings in the past couple of years. He also finished a very close 2nd in the 2011 BREAM AOY rankings and won the 2011 Daiwa BREAM Australian Open. Tristan Taylor Tristan is a dentist and in recent years, his smile has looked like
an even more winning one. In fact, his rise in the world of competitive breaming has been nothing short of meteoric, resulting in a string of top 10 finishes around the country and his first Lowrance BREAM AOY Queensland, 2011 title. Five different competitors, one common factor: success. But what, we asked them, goes into planning for that success?
Get it toGether
Lets start at the very beginning. What intelligence-gathering methods do they all use well ahead of comp day? Whittam goes old and new school to get the inside running. If Im not familiar with the system, I use Google Earth to get an overall feel of the place, he says. Sometimes I even ask local tackle shops to send me maps of the area. I also contact my sponsor and see if theres another pro team member whos not fishing the competition but has some knowledge of the arena. I just get general areas from them, as I like to make up my own mind what to do come day one. Both Szarn Tink and Wayne Reed take forward planning very seriously, starting their preparation from the moment the previous years tournament ends! Szarn says he always takes note of where the top guys fished, what tackle they used and the amount of rainfall there was. Reedy likes to get a few tips straight from the horses mouth. I speak to the winner from the previous year, Wayne says. You wont always get the whole truth, but when someones won, theyre more inclined to be generous with their information. Sometimes its just useful to rule out something you know wont work for you.
Kris Hicksons is one of the most consistent anglers on the BREAM tour due to his thorough preparation .
We have history
Given the number of tournaments Kris Hickson he fishes (lucky lad), he knows many of the countrys major competition arenas better than most. However, even Kris has a few long-range plans. For big tournaments or arenas I havent fished before, I get in at least one pre-fish before the ban, just to get a feel for the waterway, he explains. However, if its somewhere Ive fished many times before, I normally rely on the official pre-fish day to get a feel for whats happening there, but I also check tides, weather and recent fishing reports to get a more complete picture. Tristan Taylor also does his fair share
of research. I start thinking about a tournament at least four weeks out, he says. I start by trying to get any information I can on the waterway including personal experience and anything people might have told me about it. I really consider the time of year. Between November and March Im thinking summer patterns (shallow water patterns with hardbodies or topwater lures), and between June and early September Im thinking spawn/post spawn patterns, and the deeper water towards the mouth of the system with blades or plastics.
LoGGinG in
One thing all these successful fishermen agreed on was that there was one piece of
equipment that was pretty much essential to their planning: a mouse. All five of these competitors use the internet extensively to get new ideas and information. Many of them use Google Earth. Kris Hickson says photo maps like Google Earth are definitely a handy tool for finding visible structure, and Tristan Taylor agrees. Google Earth is a fantastic way to scout for areas that are likely to hold bream, Taylor says. You can check the shape of the river and mark down areas of deep water (such as the outside bends of a river) or find areas of shallow weed flats! Another site Ive recently found is nearmap.com.au it has very detailed images. Another thing these competitors agree
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on is that one of their favourite ways to start planning for an ABT win is to visit the ABT website, reading up on previous results and tournament coverage to give them a few pointers. I research previous results and BASS X techniques, not so much to find spots, but to get a general idea of what sort of terrain the local fish inhabit and the baits they regularly take, Hickson explains. Although, generally speaking, bream are bream wherever they are. GALAXIA MINNOW Taylor follows a similar path and thought process. I certainly read all the results on the BREAM website and pinpoint what was working at what time of year in previous tournaments, he says. As the ABTs motto says: Who shares Wins! Combining the tournament write-ups with Google Earth is a very handy way to see what types of locations are popular and then scouting for SPINNERBAIT 1/4 OZ similar looking areas in the system. You only have to read two or three Forster results to see that Green Point and Pacific Palms are likely areas to find big bream!
competition venues, pre-fishing before the official ban is a luxury not everyone can afford. However, it can be a great time to do a little experimenting, safe in the knowledge that it doesnt really matter and theres no one to laugh at you but the fish. I pre-fished Mallacoota before the 2010 Daiwa BREAM Grand Final as I felt Id been fishing badly there for a couple of years, Cam Whittam recalls. I wound back the clock and spent my time throwing lures that were buried in the bottom of my box. I also NEW forced myself to fish fluoro straight through, PRODUCT as I felt it could be a definite advantage come day three if I was lucky enough to make the shootout.
Were here
Pulling up at the boat ramp ready to launch for the official pre-fish day can be a daunting experience particularly if all youve seen of it is from Googles handy little Spy in the Sky. So, now that youre actually seeing the water first-hand, what are the first steps? Once you get to the waterway, find out PROUDLY DISTRIBUTED are having BY where the hazards and shallow water IN AUSTRALIA a Look around FOR YOUR run aground, Reedy advises. NEAREST DEALER CALL Tristan9555 believes simply getting (03) Taylor 5433 so you dont OR VISIT www.jurofishing.com doing it is often the out there and I once spent six hours of a pre-fish day on
a sandbank waiting for the tide to change so I could re-float my boat! I was late to the briefing so I had to start last, and the next morning I lost my best spot to someone else who got there first. Once youre on the water, your VIBE 50 CYBER eyes and your sounders are your best tools. Kris Hickson finds the need for need for on-water nagivation just as important as Reed. Make sure you have something like a maritime chart or map with navigation aids marked on it, Kris says. Itll help you BOB N SPOON get around safely and might also show some structures that are not visible just by driving around. I tend to start by fishing the type of structure Im most comfortable fishing, then do a lot of driving around, looking at banks and the sounder, to try and find some fish and go from there. Possibly the most frustrating thing to find out when you arrive REDFIN JIG at a venue is that the areas you plan to fish are too shallow to hold fish and look nothing like you had planned!
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best approach. At the end of the day, the best approach is often to go searching for fish using the techniques you prefer on your home waters, he says. If youre a gun with the plastics, why try to fit into how someone else fishes the system with topwater? Cam Whittam backs his judgement and follows traditional fish patterns to help get a handle on whats happening. When I arrive at a venue, like most anglers, I have a fair idea what the fish would normally be doing at any given time of year, he says. This helps point me in a direction to start my pre-fish day. I always look for features that would hold fish if it were my home water and use that as a starting point. Old adages like no run, no fun spring to mind if I dont know the area and I always bear in mind that Im not there to revolutionize breaming by coming up with the next big thing when it comes to catching them. Its a pre-fish after all you dont need to catch a million fish to establish some sort of pattern. Tristan has evolved his pre-fish
on your experience on similar waterways to give you a feel for what to do, what to look for and what to throw. Always go with your gut instincts. Your gut feeling is your subconscious telling you to need to move or change your lure, jighead and so forth. If I say to myself more than once in a five-minute period, I need to move, I have no hesitation in leaving a spot. Cam also relies on his senses to help him on pre-fish day. My preference is to fish shallow, and my eyes are the most important part of my tournament arsenal in this situation, he says. I would describe my pre-fish approach as calm but calculated and organized. If I have a bad pre-fish, I dont worry too much, as I console myself by thinking Ive eliminated some methods and areas that I might have gone to if I was struggling on day one. Of course, these days, the smarts arent just in an anglers head. They can be attached to the boat as well, as onboard electronics have a huge role to play
I expected too much of myself. I would have had a bad nights sleep, worrying about the day ahead and whether my plan would work. I would find myself looking at the field thinking about what other guys would do, rather than about my own day. The biggest improvement in my fishing came after I made the decision to channel my energy into just going fishing, rather than being so concerned with things outside of my control. Once youre underway and on the water, and the actual business of trying to fill the livewell has started, it seems that a common factor with some of our top anglers is the need for on-water discipline and even an internal clock.
At the end of the dAy, the best ApproAch is often to go seArching for fish using the techniques you prefer on your home wAters.
technique over the years, and now is more methodical in how he goes about it. In the early days I relied on gut instinct, haphazardly running from one area/habitat type to another in the hope of cracking a pattern, he explains. Sometimes it worked and I got lucky, but you wouldnt believe the number of times Id travel far and wide and miss the fact that fish were less than 100m from the start line! Nowadays, I generally begin my search at the tournament start area and fish every likely area I see on my way further from this point. Having said this, it always pays dividends to remember the tides. No run, no fun so a rock wall that looks the goods but has no fish at high tide is worth a second look when the tide starts to run out. in planning your competition day. Cam Whittam says his Humminbirds play a big part in his day if hes planning to fish deep. I use them to find and mark fish and also mark likely structures that may hold fish at some stage during the day, he says. Kris Hickson similarly relies on his sounders heavily. Im definitely one for punching in GPS marks be it in deep or shallow water just as a reminder for the next day or the next trip that there was either a stand-out structure or a school of fish in a certain position, he says.
LetS Get it On
So here it is: Day One has finally arrived your first chance to put all that planning and those pre-fish strategies to the test. This is where the difference between fishing and tournament fishing becomes most evident. Cam Whittam admits he used to suffer from nerves in his early days. I recall sitting at the start of a few tournaments shaking with nerves, he says.
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he adds. Youll never win a comp without some help from other anglers. Someone else might just have a better idea that will improve what youre doing.
when its 11am and were struggling! Szarn has a slightly different perspective, having won competitions from both ends of the boat. As a non-boater, my only rule is never ever discuss Day One with your Day Two boater, he says. You might say that you had a fun day and itll be common knowledge whether you caught a bag or not, but if Im asked where we caught them, I just politely say that, out of respect to my Day One boater, Id like to keep that information to myself. I wont even discuss it after the comp, as that Day One boater may wish to fish his same spots the following year. Show respect to your boater and word will get around, ensuring youre welcome on any boat. Tristan has also learned the valuable lesson of keeping an eye on his nonboaters. At the 2010 Bribie Island Qualifier I was using my 5lb and 6lb leaders that are mandatory for Redcliffes brawling bream and getting beaten all ends up by my non-boater, Nathan Tuskes, Tristan recalls. Nathan was using 2lb fluoro, and it was making all the difference. It was a huge mindset shift in the unforgiving terrain, but as soon as I changed to the 2lb I filled my bag and even won the event. Im certain that without Nathan, Id never have won that day! Nowadays I generally run my gameplans past my nonboater to check that they dont have any additional information or experience on the waterways. If theyre local, it can certainly be worthwhile including them in the plan.
Bigger is Better
The last part of the victory plan involves catching heavier fish than any of your rivals. Amazing how easy that looks when its in black and white on a piece of paper, isnt it? But out on the water, with time ticking down and with no idea how everyone else is doing, what should you do? Cam Whittam says he doesnt have a hard and fast rule regarding upgrading. I take every tournament on its merit, he says. Sometimes fishing can be tough and I make the call to continue with my bag method and try to upgrade in small increments. Reed follows the get your fish first approach before looking for the big ones. Once Ive secured a limit I have a decision to make: do I chase big fish and hit as many big fish looking areas as I can, or do I stay and keep fishing the same
Kris Hicksons pre-start check-list includes making sure all his rods are rigged and ready to use before he makes his first cast for the day.
38
Szarn Tink is one of the standout anglers on the WA BREAM scene thanks to thorough pre-event preparation and a calculated game plan.
spot? If its Day One, I leave. If its Day Two, I stay 15 minutes longer and catch everything I can. Always have confidence in what youre doing; if it doesnt feel right, it probably isnt. Never make excuses or second-guess yourself your gut instinct is usually right. Szarn adopts a more simple approach. I dont think about getting a bag and then upgrading, he says. I just go out to get my bag straight up and hope that its heavier than anyone elses! Kris Hickson plays it by ear, based on the waterway and how its fishing. Some waterways seem to have specific areas for big fish, while others just need to be fished hard and the bigger fish will come, he says. Its always handy to find areas with numbers of fish that are easy to catch to fill a bag, be they large or small. If I have plenty of spots in mind and the fish are relatively easy to catch, I fish each spot hard until I have gotten the most out of it. If Im only just getting enough to catch a limit out of the spots I have, I settle for my five with maybe a couple of upgrades if possible and go searching. Im a big fan of resting spots if possible; fish are hard enough to come by in tournaments to burn them all in one day.
Fish management
Cam Whittam explains his approach on the water when it comes to managing his fish. I try to manage my spots in every tournament. Usually my tournament plan evolves, rather than being rigidly adhered to. Being too regimented can mean putting too much pressure on an area, and this can be detrimental to the rest of your tournament. If I have a good limit, I quite often leave to look for other likely areas that exhibit similar characteristics to my productive banks. Not only does this rest your go-tos, but you may just find your next kicker fish. Tristan Taylor agrees. I certainly rest spots if Ive got five fish that will see me sitting in a good position, he says. At the Gold Coast Super Series I fished a single bank of an entire island that I love for 3.74kg in 2.5 hours. I looked at the bag and decided not to touch any another spot on the island. Instead, I headed off to somewhere Id never been before, looking to find another pattern that I could employ in the coming days. In effect, I was pre-fishing during comp hours, safe in the knowledge that I had my fish and had a fully rested spot for tomorrow.
I often think that bigger lure equals bigger fish, especially when Im fishing plastics in a deep water situation, he says. If youve got your fivez fish and you need to distinguish yourself from the chasing pack, trying something a little different is often the key, and going to a bigger lure is my first choice.
catch your five, Id have sat in the corner and cried. Kris Hickson goes with the flow and sees every cast the same. Every cast is as important as the next in my books. So be it first or last if I catch a fish Im happy. Cam details his experience in Tassie last year to illustrate the importance of persisting. At the Derwent in 2011, I was in the Day Three shootout. I had my bag and had been roasted three or four times during the session on heavy rock structure. Id left an area because there were only 34-35cm fish there and I needed bigger ones to upgrade. It was getting late and after fishing a couple of other locations for around 40 minutes, I went back to the same bank to finish the day. On my third last cast I caught a 39.5cm fork fish and on my last cast a 38.5cm to the
fork! Never give up. Reedy perhaps sums it up the best and gets the last say on the last cast. Last casts of the day win comps what else can I say? Never think that youre just going to go to a comp without having put in any effort and walk away with a win. It has been done, but thats good luck, not good management. Theres a great quote on the AFC DVD from Steve Killer Kanowski: Hopefully luck wont be a factor. Thats why you pre-plan and pre fish. So there you have it: concrete proof from some of the countrys most successful BREAM anglers that a lot of thought goes into enjoying that short walk and a handshake to pick up your winners prize. And how you finish very much depends on how you start. Now, where did I put that 3-D topographic map of the Derwent?
Cam Whittam backs his instincts and regularly catches fish like this Derwent River blue-nose.
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MINNOW
These are a soft, sinking stickbait that wobbles seductively on the drop. The small model is ideal for bream while the larger model has caught everything from bass through to snapper during prototype testing. Theres eight colours in the range.
BREAM SHAD
The 40mm bream shad has been included to t in between the tight-actioned Shads and the wider actioned Cranks. Available in 12 sh catching colours, tournament anglers will be crankin these lures across the country in both the mid and deep versions.
JERK MINNOW
These staple bream and bass jerk minnows feature a unique ribbed tail adding more movement to your presentations. Coming in 2 3/4, 3 1/4, 6 and 7 inch they are effective on a range of species up to barra. Available in 12 colours
SEEKERZ
Based on industry-leading Gamakatsu hooks, Seekerz jigheads are available in 65 models between Hidden Weight, Standard Wire and Heavy Wire. From bream through to barra and snapper, Seekerz ideally suit the Ripperz and Guzzlerz range.
Frogleys Offshore PO Box 5177, Ballina NSW 2478 T: (02) 6681 3988 www.atomiclures.com.au www.facebook.com/atomiclures
Mick Horn loves covering water and hitting the Gold Coast pontoons with an aggressive rip bait approach.
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Run n gun
oR stay n play
TexT, phoTography: josh carpenTer
Tournament fishing in Australia has evolved since its early inception. One of the biggest changes has been the boats, the speed they can achieve and the distance anglers can now cover in a very short space of time. This opens up a realm of possibilities that werent there in the early days, giving competitors a run list of angling choices.
TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12 45
f course, having a big fast boat isnt an instant recipe for success. Some of the smallest boats have taken out large events, and one of the key choices that contributed to those wins was sticking to one area and fishing it to its maximum potential. On the flipside there have also been plenty of tournament success from anglers who have covered lots of water and fished fast.
Cam Whittam and the fruits of a calculated game plan in the 2011 Rapala Derwent BREAM Super Series.
WhY Am i running?
Put simply, a run and gun approach means moving quite quickly through a fishing area. This can apply on a smaller scale, such as fishing from pontoon to pontoon in canal systems, or it can be on a larger scale, such as chasing a certain stage of tide from one end of a river to another. Stay and play refers to keying in on a certain area and staying there, be it a small chicane in a river that fish move through and you can entice to feed, or larger areas like Browns Rocks on the Clarence River that hold large numbers of fish at almost any time of year.
consideration is personal preference, i.e. which style you are more confident with. If you were given both choices on an even playing field, which would you choose? Are you a power style angler who generally fishes much faster or would you consider yourself more a finesse style angler willing to pick an
area apart? Most of the time you should play to your strengths as a tournament angler, as this will give you a great advantage in many tournaments. However, in some circumstances you should be prepared to alter your approach.
Middle Wall on the Clarence is an ideal place for those who want to stay n play, especially during winter when the schools of fish move in.
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Hitting the beacons is a run n gun pattern that has paid dividends for many anglers on the BREAM tour.
If you tRIEd to stAnd In onE spot And slug It out wItH MIkE tyson BAck In HIs HEydAy youd pRoBABly go HoME on A stREtcHER, And tHE sAME cAn BE sAId foR touRnAMEnt fIsHIng If you pIck tHE wRong AppRoAcH!
Still, you dont have to fish by the book 100% of the time. If one style isnt working you can easily switch to the other. as the spawn is over and we move into spring and summer. If bream are schooling, this will favour the stay and play method much better. The Middle Wall on the Clarence and the Southport Seaway on the Gold Coast are two
places where the fish congregate in this way. You can spend a whole tournament catching your fish there. However, while both of these locations hold fish all year round, when the fish are more spread out in the warmer months youll want a fast moving approach. This will allow you to hit five or 10 spots throughout a system, which should see you catch more fish.
Working it out
Now its time to get down to the nitty-gritty. How did your pre-fish go? Did you have one at all? If you found fish in one spot or on certain types of structure throughout the system, the answer is easy. If it was tough fishing or you didnt get a pre-fish at all, its a different story. Sometimes it can be about listening to the word around the campfire, so to speak. You should get a bit of banter at the briefing, and if everybody found it tough it may be reason enough to stick to that spot where you got a couple of bites. However, if everybody else had a good day you should consider moving around looking for fish again, and try to crack a pattern on the fly. A large factor is the season. At its most basic, bream will congregate to spawn leading up to and into the winter months and will then spread out through the system more
Hitting the flats and fishing fast with surface lures is an effective way to cross paths with big bream.
47
Once you hit the throttle at the start of the session youve got two choices, run n gun, or stay and play. Only time on the water will tell which is the right one.
he set out to out-think the rest of the field. Instead of fishing the banks that looked fishy, he chose to run around looking for the worst looking banks. The obvious and good looking spots did hold fish, but angling pressure quickly made them tough. The substandard edges Steve fished didnt have as many fish on them, but he had them pretty much to himself, unpressured for the entire tournament. It shows there can be some merit in doing what other competitors arent prepared to do.
keep On paddling
Kayak tournaments are one of the fastest growing areas of our sport, and Jordan Trusty went to great lengths literally to win on the Bemm River. He peddled 9.5km each way to have the winning fish all to himself. Similarly, there are a few powerboats out there that can go where the rest of the field cant or wont. Hydraulic jack plates and Powerpoles open up some amazing spots that most boats simply cant get to. Finding something like this is a recipe for a stay and play approach. If you have the opportunity to stay and play with these kind of fish, just make sure you manage them and dont burn all your fish in one day but thats a whole other article!
Morgan, spent much of his time fishing a single bridge. Under normal circumstances that bridge may not have been able to withstand the pressure of being fished continuously during a tournament. However, Steve knew that the rain leading up to tournament day would push the fish out of Homebush Bay and create a stream of fish coming past the bridge, reloading it with fresh fish that hadnt seen his lures. Spots can also reload under normal circumstances, like the section of the Lane Cove River that Scott and Vicki Lear fished to win the BETS Grand Final last year. Their key area was a bottleneck that congregated fish. Being an obvious spot in an otherwise barren area, fish that came through with the tide posted up to feed or came across an easy meal on their way through.
Kayak BREAM Series win came from this tactic. The normally very clean Mooloolah River was running particularly dirty, so I concentrated my fishing time in a canal system near the ocean that remained clear and held active fish.
a CalCulated deCisiOn
Of course, these are just part of a complex web of factors and indicators to take into account when making your decisions. The point of this article isnt to cover everything, but to get you thinking about some of these factors, and how you should base your strategy on them. Just being conscious of which side of the fence you are fishing on will make you better equipped to fish well.
Running WateR
Another tantalising idea that is possible now is chasing a certain stage of tide up an entire system. Imagine you know that your best fishing will come from the first 20 minutes of run-out tide and that this starts at the mouth of the Clarence at 8am. Making yourself a milk run of spots and fishing those 20 minutes at 10 different locations is possible (with the use of a fast boat of course!) because the same stage of the tide is later the further upriver you go. Prevailing conditions play a big part as well. If you are faced with a set of very challenging conditions, such as a flood or an algal bloom, finding a pocket of clean water or an area where you know there are fish is a perfect time or location to hold up and grind out your fish. If most of the field are going to struggle, just a few fish could win it. My first
48 TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12
BASS anglers arent immune to fishing fast or slow, Steve Eldred ice jigs the Queen Street flats and reaps the rewards of a stay and play plan.
CX 35HS - 35mm 3.4g Depth: 1.8m Coming early 2012 - CX 40HS also available
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One BOX.
TexT: STeve Morgan PhoTograPhy: MaTThew Drinkall
Fishing Monthly magazines Steve Morgan has finished the tournament year ranked No. 1 BREAMer for three years straight. We threw him a 4700 Plano box and told him to fill it up with what lures hed need to pack to cover every ABT BREAM arena in Australia in 2012.
ou want to see what hes got packed? Read on, along with some of Steves thoughts about the 2012 ABT BREAM calendar.
STEVES ESSENTIALS
Im sure that most breamers will know exactly what I mean when I coin the term tackle creep. Its the phenomenon where you start breamin with a pocket-sized, six-slot Plano. Next thing, you catch a few and youre into some 3700s. Start tournament fishing and this blows out to half a dozen, then, finally, youre surrounded by walls of boxes that fill garages
50 TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12
and weigh your boat down! Each year I spend a few days at Christmas time wading the creek at New Brighton on the Brunswick Rivers north arm. For this exercise, I limit myself to a pocket-sized box with one lure in each of the six trays. It usually takes an hour to wade the stretch where youre still allowed to fish right next to the road and its usually good for a 2kg limit. Nothing comes from water deeper than 2ft. So when I was set the task of compiling an Australia-wide selection into a relatively huge 4700 Plano, I thought it would be simple. However, when you have to add the Albany
and Tassie black bream baits to the Bribie Island yellowfin foolers, the box starts to fill up pretty fast! Im always a sucker for wanting to know what tackle everyone else has packed. I love looking through other anglers lure boxes and trying to ID all of the baits, so its only fair that I share this selection with you. Its accidental that these proportions virtually mirror the BREAM Tour stops in 2012. Including the Australian Open, Megabucks and Grand Finals, there are around two thirds of the events that are yellowfin bream based with the balance targeting blacks. Mallacoota features both. Remember that I like to buy all of my baits and have only one sponsor Fishing Monthly magazines so I have the freedom to use whatever lure brands I like. Because Im not bound to brands, you can be sure that if a bait is in my box, its because it works for me.
THE BOX
Broadly, Ive divided the 4700 into three sections yellowfin baits in the top level, black bream baits down below and some packs of plastics in the section that accommodates them. Ive numbered the sections, so, slot-byslot, let me explain why these baits are here.
on the baits without hooking up. Use the ZipBait and the Nories when its clear water and windy and you need to get the attention of the fish. Still use plenty of pauses, though.
4. Miscellaneous topwaters.
PML Popper Tiemco Red Pepper Micro Strike Pro Rack Popper Daiwa Gekkabijin Tiemco Trick Trout F The white topwaters are great for a canal bread hatch, when you come across an area where bream are regularly fed. The Daiwa and the tiny Tiemco are for those days where theres not a breath of breeze and the bream are ultra-spooky. I throw
3. Cicada imitations
Megabass Siglett Tiemco Tiny Cicadas. Tiemco Soft Shell Cicadas. Daiwa Presso Cicada. When you hear the cicadas buzzing in the trees over summer and youre sweating just tying a lure on, its time to grab a cicada.
1. Bent minnows
OSP Bent Minnow 76 These baits from the OSP stable are addictive. They float and create a commotion when you twitch them rapidly. I fish these a lot in canals and they have the habit of getting the bigger fish in the pack to attack, which theyll usually do on the pause. If the bream are biting timidly, Ill swap out the middle hook for a set of Ecogear ZX assist hooks. Fish these baits on braid and leader to keep the bait shallow and to set the hooks on bigger bream.
I have only one sponsor FIshIng Monthly so I have the FreedoM to use whatever lure brands I lIke.
I use the Siglett when I need to attract a bream from a distance, or when the water is a little dirty. I go smaller and quieter as the water gets clearer and calmer. If its sunny, I fish them in the shade. Dont be in a hurry to move a cicada out of the strike zone you can dead stick these baits until you run out of patience and theyll still get eaten. Dont believe people who tell you that bream topwaters are only good in low light. Thats rubbish. Fish them in the shade under the trees. these on 4lb nylon mono to eliminate any lineshadow.
2. Shrimp-imitating topwaters
Ecogear PX 45 and 55 ZipBaits Skinny Pop Nories Treju popper When there are jelly prawns flicking and being chased by bream, these baits come out. Ecogears PX 45 will be for when its calm and clear and the 55 for when theres more of a ripple and when more casting distance is required. Walk the dog with these and pause frequently. Swap the middle hook out for ZX hooks if the fish are boiling
5. Bay topwaters
Megabass Dog X Megabass Dog X Jr Austackle Skippy 85 Big Moreton Bay bream love big topwaters. These baits are big enough to cast a mile and big enough to get seen when the water is rough and the bream bite best. Definitely fish these on heavy braid and oversized leaders in shallow, rocky water.
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6. Miscellaneous cranks
Ecogear SX43 Rapala Ultra Light Shad Its rare that Ill use an SX43 over an SX40, but there are times in the wind when you need the control when youre casting. The Rapala is in there for the black bream. In my experience, they love the chromed baits much more than the yellowfin do.
7. Deep shads
Cranka Shad 42 (pimped) Atomic Bream Shad Jackall Chubby Minnow 35 Deep Overall, I believe that shad-shaped cranks hook up better than fat-bodied cranks. Therefore, whenever I think that theres no difference between the bites Ill get on either, Ill opt for the skinnier lure. All of these baits can be fished with the supplied hooks, no problems. The shad styles also seem to have better stability on a faster retrieve, so if Im in a high-current situation, these baits get tied on. Generally, the closer to structure Im fishing, the darker the crankbait is, hence the range of colours.
mainstream. SX40s catch fish all over Australia. The best thing is, hardly anyone throws them anymore. They have a very subtle rattle underwater and are a real finesse crankbait. I nearly always throw these on 2lb fluorocarbon, because if Im cranking with these, the waters usually clear. The LC models do cast better, however, Ive noticed no difference in fish catching ability between the two models. Bream eat em both. The orange belly/brown is dynamite in stained water.
or running too fast for the VX35s. Like most blades, I get plenty of fish on them dead-sticking them a foot up off the bottom just suspended. This is a great trick next to bridge pylons. The bream cant help themselves. The rockier the country, the darker the blade Ill try.
9. Ecogear VX35
Ecogear VX35 in black Theres a pile of these in my box for a reason I think the VX35 is the most effective vibe on the market. It has a tight action and is small enough for the bream to get it in its mouth in one bite. When these metal vibes hit the bottom, they disappear in a puff of silt sometimes nearly totally! Thats why bream eat the lures while theyre just lying there on the bottom; theyre after the food thats trying to burrow away into the sediment. Fish these vibes on straight through fluorocarbon 3 or 4lb and set the hooks.
8. Ecogear SX40s
Ecogear SX40 Ecogear SX40 Long Cast These are the small hard baits that brought crankbaits into tournament
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the GGB colour. Its uses are endless cranking rocky banks, pontoons, bridge pylons, docks and washes, its consistently brought home the goods. I also use it in the shallows, if its rocky. The big bib and positive buoyancy crawl it over the nastiest stuff. They also pimp-up a treat and Dan Stead has painted me some great colour versions. Dont leave home without them!
Cranka Crank 35mm shallow Now this is getting to a pretty specialised sort of bait, but if youre fishing the shallows and want a crankbait to grub along the bottom and hang there when youve stopped twitching it, these are the baits Id use. Mark Healey educated me on how to use these at St Helens in Tassie and theyve been useful ever since.
TT fine wire in various sizes I rarely fish heavy wire hooks on my jigheads. Fine wire versions go in easier, and youll lose more fish to a poor hook set than to bent hooks. The collared design isnt optimal for Aqua (Skip-in-the-Shade heads do it better), but as an all-round jighead, the TTs are hard to beat.
16. Ecogear CX
Ecogear CX40 Ecogear CX35 Some more of Takayoshi Orimotos superb designs, the CX40 is a tad too big for a lot of my breaming, but its my go-to lure for cranking deep in heavy structure, like in Sydney Harbours docks. It runs deep. I got to fish with prototypes of the CX35 in 2011 and its a killer. It casts well and is right in the size range that will catch you a lot of fish wherever you throw it. It has a skinny enough tail to let you fish with the factory hooks if you like and not lose too many fish.
28
22. Ultra small jerkbaits (2)
Rapala X-Rap 4cm The smallest of the Rapala X-Rap stable is the deepest diving of the finesse jerkbaits. Im not really a fan of the feather tied to the rear treble so I dont bother replacing it when the hook wears out. I cut it off if I want the smallest profile possible. shady depths of no return in no time. Skip one in and hang on.
25. Jigheads
erkley BREAM Pro Russell Babekuhl finished 2011 on a high, claiming the Daiwa BREAM Grand Final win, the NSW Lowrance AOY crown, and 3rd in the BREAM rankings. AFC angler Tristan Taylor had a similar end to the season, with a podium finish at the final, the QLD Lowrance AOY trophy and $10,000 in winnings for the season. Other anglers to cash in big time for 2011 included Steve Morgan ($8,300), Darren Borg ($7,600) and Kris Hickson ($7,500). Morgan and Hickson fished hard against each other in the rankings battle; they were dead even with 411 points each after the completion of the Forster final. Season bragging rights ultimately went to Morgan, who claimed the number one
rank due to his higher finish at the Grand Final. 2011 unleashed a host of first-time winners. Kevin Attard (Lake Macquarie), Steve Eldred (Gold Coast), Simon Szcepaniak (Hawkesbury), Drew McGrath (Bribie Island), and Hugh Wirth (Port River), Jarrod Healey (Mallacoota) and Jack Dawson (Albany) all broke through for their maiden win. Kayak anglers really made their mark in 2011, with Greg Lewis doing the unthinkable and claiming the AOY title with a 500/500 points tally. Daniel Brown went back-to-back to claim his second GF win at the DaiwaHobie BREAM Kayak Grand Final at Port Macquarie, while Queenslanders Nicholas Meredith and Tristan Taylor joined Brown on the 2007 Darren Borg (196/200pts) 2008 Robert Kwiatkowski (196/200pts) 2009 Steve Morgan (285/300pts) 2010 Steve Morgan (293/300pts) 2011- Tristan Taylor (195/200pts)
winners podium. The Skeeter BREAM Classic Championship hit Taree, NSW, to crown the champion BREAM Team for the year, with local guns Kris Hickson and Daniel Brown claiming the win for Team Manning River Marine. The pair picked up 70 points each in the National BREAM Classic Rankings system, a healthy boost to their tally that saw Hickson finish the year as the number one ranked BREAM Classic angler. For full records and rankings visit www.bream.com.au. ABT would like to acknowledge and thank Mick Torley and Gary Beazley for their contribution to the collation of the BREAM statistics for 2011. 2006 - Dave Welfare (193/200pts) 2007 Cameron Whittam (199/200pts) 2008 Shaun Clancy (198/200pts) 2009 Brad Hodges (198/200pts) 2010 Chris Wright (196/200pts) 2011- Cameron Whittam (197/200pts)
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
2003 - Geoff Spadaccini (198/200pts) 2004 - Ian Sewell (198/200pts) 2005 - John-Paul Cronin (196/200pts) 2006 - Dror Pietsch (199/200pts) 2007 Szarn Tink (200/200pts) 2008 Szarn Tink (196/200pts) 2009 Dror Pietsch (198/200pts) 2010 Szarn Tink (199/200pts) 2011- Alex Griesdorf (198/200pts)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
2005 - Mick Pressnell (200/200pts) 2006 - Scott Towner (100/100pts) 2007 Shaun Ossitt (100/100pts) 2008 Wayne Friebe (193/200pts)
VICTORIA
2003 - Kevin Gleed (190/200pts) 2004 - Chris Wright (195/200pts) 2005 - Chris Wright (198/200pts)
2009 Dean Truman (100/100pts) 2010 Warren Carter (100/100pts) 2011- Hugh Wirth (100/100pts)
TASMANIA
2006 - Steve Morgan (100/100pts) 2007 Scott Towner (197/200pts) 2008 Scott Towner (196/200pts) 2009 Steve Morgan (196/200pts) 2010 Shaun Clancy (198/200pts) 2011- Steve Morgan (197/200pts)
Super Series: 848 bream between 103 anglers For 388.55kg at Gold Coast, August 2007.
Qualifier: 522 bream between 114 anglers for 1.88kg - Nigel Webster, Gippsland Lakes, 2004. 255.12kg at Clarence, 2004. QUeeNSLAND Super Series: 800 bream between 123 anglers 1.54kg - Steve Chenoweth, Sanctuary Cove, for 401.34kg at Clarence, May 2008. VICTOrIA June 2002. NeW SOUTH WALeS Qualifier: 583 bream between 76 anglers for 1.78kg - Jack Olmos, Clarence River, 2005. 429.27kg at Mallacoota, March 2010. VICTOrIA Super Series: 108 bream between 50 anglers 1.88kg - Nigel Webster, for 78.6kg at Gippsland Lakes, April 2008. WeSTerN AUSTrALIA Gippsland Lakes, 2004. WeSTerN AUSTrALIA 476 bream between 78 anglers for 253.03kg at 1.71kg - Miriam Melis, Perth, June 2004. Walpole, 2004.
TASMANIA
1.84kg Steve Steer, St Helens, February 2009.
TASMANIA
Qualifier: 300 bream between 57 anglers for 311.53kg at Derwent River, March 2008. Super Series: 375 bream between 58 anglers for 369.25kg at Derwent River, March 2010.
SOUTH AUSTrALIA
1.55kg - Craig Seignor, Port River, Sept 2006.
QUeeNSLAND
Qualifier: 10/10, 7.77kg - Jay Morgan, Gold Coast, July 2005. Super Series: 15/15, 9.52kg, Ben Godfrey, Gold Coast, August 2007.
SOUTH AUSTrALIA
150 bream between 37 anglers for 78.46kg at Port River, February 2009.
QUeeNSLAND
5/5, 4.47kg - Tim Morgan, Gold Coast, 2004.
VICTOrIA
5/5, 6.34kg - Michael Rantall, Gippsland, March 2006.
VICTOrIA
10/10, 11.30kg - Chris Wright, Gippsland Lakes, March 2006. Super Series: 11/15, 8.75kg Mark Mangold, Gippsland Lakes, April 2008.
WeSTerN AUSTrALIA
5/5, 4.35kg - John-Paul Cronin, Albany, April 2005.
WeSTerN AUSTrALIA
10/10, 7.32kg - Dror Pietsch, Walpole, 2004.
TASMANIA
5/5, 7.055kg Chris Wright, Derwent River, March 2008.
TASMANIA
10/10, 12.89kg Leigh McKenzie, Derwent River, March 2007. Super Series: 15/15, 18.05kg Spiro Spyropolous, Derwent River, March 2011.
SOUTH AUSTrALIA
5/5, 4.75kg Warren Carter, Nathan Alsop, Port River, September 2005.
SOUTH AUSTrALIA
10/10, 6.45kg - Scott Towner, Port River, September 2006.
QUeeNSLAND
Qualifier: 926 bream between 106 anglers for 399.70kg at Tweed River, July, 2007.
Kristoffer Hickson Russell Babekuhl Trent Fahey Darren Borg Mark Healey Adrian Neoh Daniel Brown Cameron Whittam Warren Carter Tracey Mammen Scott Butler Steve Morgan Peter Macor Troy Vankampen Greg Byrne Ben Cronk Anthony Thorpe Rodney Thorpe Dean Hammond David McKenzie (TNB)
265 263 263 257 252 249 246 244 241 233 210 201 189 189 188 188 184 184 179 179
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
Tristan Taylor Wayne Reed Jeff Brundson Wayne Bale Steve Eldred Tim Morgan Aaron Horne Chris Britton Will Lee Alan Loftus Anthony Duff Matt Finney Aaron Sharp Michael Hodges Daniel Mackrell Stephen Parker Greg Wirth Hugh Wirth Mark Hayes Brian Everingham
179 177 174 174 172 168 167 167 166 164 163 163 161 160 160 160 158 158 157 156
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
Paul Tippett Rob Kwiatkowski Mark Holman Anthony Wishey Warwick Cregan Ian Ison James Ison Ross Cannizzaro Scott Lear Beau Startin John Startin Michael Corbett Brad Biddleston Mick Smith Shane Barling Nathan McInnes John Balcomb Bill Karaynnis Peter Jarvis Tony Thorley
156 154 152 150 149 148 148 148 147 144 144 142 141 141 141 141 140 140 139 137
nOn-bOaTer
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Geoffrey Borg Nathan Tuskes Philip Nix Mark Hayes Tracey Mammen Andrew Wallace Bernard Kong James Smith Peter Godfrey Tom Slater Jonathon Thompson Colin Gunning Nabeel Issa Andrew Williams Nathan McInnes Andrew Dibley Tim Olsen Tony Moore Matt Williams Mark Healey Heath Blaikie Tyler White Allan Wilson Isaac Harris Vaughan Lewis NSW QLD NSW Vic QLD NSW NSW NSW NSW QLD NSW WA QLD NSW NSW Vic AcT QLD QLD NSW NSW QLD Vic TAS NSW 296 295 273 268 213 210 195 186 184 173 164 162 162 161 158 156 149 142 139 139 136 135 135 132 129 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Lex Court Jim Xyga Ross Beinke Nick Georgiadis Suzanne Sironovic Chris Maas Oliver Seear Warwick Lyndon Richard Linossi Ben Kingaby Mike Hodges Darren Evans Chris Horne Daniel Stead Alex Franchuck David Walmsley Tony Neal Peter Mazey Jeffrey Esperitu Zig Domagala Rodney Thorpe Mick Brooks Dion Bull Luke Novak Nick Lototzky NSW Vic QLD NSW WA QLD WA QLD Vic QLD Vic NSW QLD QLD Vic NSW NSW Vic NSW Vic NSW NSW NSW NSW NSW 129 127 127 127 127 125 125 124 120 117 116 115 111 109 109 109 108 107 106 103 102 102 101 99 99 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 Steven Cefai Peter Jarvis Kyle Branch Gordon Yeatman Grayson Fong Simon McAlpin Mark Lennox Justin Conn Michael Milburn Jordan Trusty Jayden Riggs Gary Middleton Karen Berry Lee Younan-Wise Liam Court Michael Burman Angus Collins Ian Smith Max Line David Packham Geoff Spadaccini Mace Boyer Andrew Hamilton Greg Cooper Luke Cunningham NSW NSW NSW AcT QLD NSW NSW Vic NSW Vic QLD QLD NSW NSW QLD WA QLD WA WA NSW WA Vic Vic WA QLD 97 97 96 93 92 92 92 91 91 91 90 89 89 89 88 87 85 85 84 82 82 81 81 80 80
$9,870 $4,355 $2,260 $2,040 $1,775 $1,725 $1,600 $1,580 $1,500 $1,425 $1,400
Joel Crosbie Luke Kay Peter Woods Wayne Robinson Tristan Taylor Gary Cooke Shane Owens Rhett Gill Andrew Death Martin Fellows Brad Turner
$1,300 $1,250 $1,150 $1,150 $1,100 $1,025 $975 $920 $910 $850 $800
Kevin Winchester Steve Fields Scott Lovig Jonathon Chen Nigel Webster Tony Pettie Andrew Krushka Richard Somerton Neil Cartairs Carl Dubois Wayne Bone
$730 $725 $710 $700 $650 $650 $610 $600 $585 $550 $520
ToTal Earnings
Shuan CHAPMAN Aaron SHARP Jesse LOMAS Darren GEORGESTON Don JOHNSTON Anthony THORPE Roderick WALMSLEY Nick CUCCOVIA Adrian NEOH Adam TODD Matthew KELLY Steve KANOWSKI Tyson DETHERIDGE Robert DAWSON Adam OCONNOR Richard POTTER Steve GILL Kevin ATTARD Daniel MACKRELL Wade STENHOUSE Dean TRUMAN Grayson FONG Alex GRIESDORF Dean HAMMOND Peter MACOR Peter MORGAN Shaun OSSITT Mark DUNPHY Matthew FINNEY Phil JAGGER Murray JEFFERY Tom DEER Michael PASSAU NSW Qld QLD NSW WA NSW QLD WA NSW SA NSW QLD NSW WA NSW NSW NSW NSW VIC WA SA QLD WA NSW NSW QLD SA NSW NSW WA WA SA NSW $3,325 $3,300 $3,300 $3,250 $3,250 $3,225 $3,200 $3,150 $3,075 $3,070 $3,000 $3,000 $3,000 $2,950 $2,900 $2,900 $2,865 $2,850 $2,800 $2,750 $2,650 $2,625 $2,400 $2,400 $2,400 $2,350 $2,320 $2,300 $2,300 $2,300 $2,280 $2,250 $2,200 Rudy HOLZFIEND Joe CRUST Andrew KRUSHKA Drew MCGRATH Jack DAWSON Ross CANNIZZARO Shayne GILLETT Chris CLEAVER Ben SANDMAN Matt TAYLOR Ricky COOPER Mark WARD John SCHOFIELD Mick PRESSNELL Miriam MELIS Dave ROBINSON Josh BATTERSON Ron ASHMAN Jorg VAN HUSEN Nathan SEWELL Arthur HATZIPETROW David TOSLAND Ian SEETO Lance SULKOWSKI Micheal RANTALL Norm KEMP Grant MANUSU Peter HERBST James GRAHAM Ben SCULLIN Darryl DIMMICK David OREILLY Gary NEWELL VIC NSW TAS QLD WA NSW NSW NSW QLD NSW NSW QLD QLD VIC ACT QLD NSW NSW NSW QLD QLD NSW NSW NSW VIC NSW NSW QLD WA VIC QLD WA NSW $2,200 $2,175 $2,100 $2,100 $2,100 $2,100 $2,100 $2,050 $2,000 $2,000 $2,000 $1,900 $1,850 $1,850 $1,800 $1,750 $1,750 $1,750 $1,700 $1,600 $1,575 $1,500 $1,500 $1,500 $1,500 $1,500 $1,375 $1,350 $1,320 $1,300 $1,300 $1,300 $1,300
$1,418,866
Stephen TRACEY Grant KIME Charlie SAYKAO Max FROST Peter JARVIS Warren DREW Andrew HYSLOP Chris LeMESSURIER Graham GREEN Graham TAYLOR Nathan GILDERS Rodney THORPE Craig SEIGINOR Paul OSULLIVAN Robert HARVEY Stuart GORDON Chris DELAND Ian CLIFT Bill MAGUIRE Craig ELLIS David FLETCHER Dino TAGLIERI Hugh WIRTH Ira FEHLBERG Jason DUNNE John TIMBRELL Jordan TRUSTY Karl CATHCART Kurt BLANKSBY Mark HOLMAN Neil FOLEY Rodney METZELAAR Steve MORAN Qld NSW WA NSW NSW WA NSW WA WA VIC WA NSW VIC QLD VIC WA NSW SA NSW SA QLD NSW SA WA NSW NSW VIC WA WA NSW NSW NSW QLD $1,300 $1,275 $1,250 $1,250 $1,250 $1,250 $1,200 $1,200 $1,200 $1,200 $1,200 $1,125 $1,100 $1,100 $1,100 $1,100 $1,088 $1,050 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000
ToTal Earnings
Raymond Stork Tim Moszekiari Jason Reid Chris Lacey Robert Greetham Stephen Maas Scott Sandilands Bob Boss Grayson Fong Derek Steele $420 $420 $400 $400 $400 $400 $390 $380 $380 $370 Josh Carpenter Mark Thompson Brian Rutledge Bryan Lazzaro Darren Borg David Varney Nick Mace Scott Marcinkowski Ben Harrison Jayson Clarke $350 $350 $320 $300 $300 $300 $300 $300 $280 $280 Ian Seeto
$59,955
$275 $260 $250 $250 $230 $200 $200 $200 $200
Money earners over $200 published.
Gary Beazley Daniel Holder Jason Price Brett Ozanne Jason Lambert Josh de Groot Keeton Eoff Ryan Dixon
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Macquarie
TexT: Grayson FonG PhoToGraPhy: GreG seeTo
Madness
Kayak fishing is gathering phenomenal momentum. Combine this with the fishing knowledge of the competitors and the friendships they have forged throughout the events and you got the true spirit of tournament fishing: having fun.
Daniel Brown loads up on another fish on his way to victory in the 2011 Daiwahobie BreaM Kayak Grand Final.
he 2011 Daiwa-Hobie BREAM Kayak season was nothing less that a year of kayak-fueled breaming madness. 15 rounds, nine arena champions, six states and to top it off an Angler of the Year with an unprecedented six victories. What more could you ask for? A red-hot Grand Final, thats what. And thats exactly what anglers got at Port Macquarie on the last weekend in October. The final had an added international flavour, with the Daiwa-Hobie Kayak Fishing World Championships, bringing an extra tier of competition to the pinnacle event of the year. The competition was fierce, the fishing was challenging and the final five took it to the wire. Lets see how the top five faired in the end of season title fight.
TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12
The PaceseTTer
5th ryan Dixon, 3/6, 1.68kg
Kayak fishing was a new experience for Queensland angler Ryan Dixon. After borrowing a Hobie for his debut at this years Round 13 event at Redcliffe, Ryan used his local knowledge and prowess to secure a top 10 finish and book himself a seat at the Grand Final. Ryans quiet demeanour, huge fishing ability, and a burgeoning knowledge and ability to catch bream (largely thanks to kayak breaming guru Will Lee), make him a future force to be reckoned with. After locating fish in the canals on prefish day, Ryans game plan was simply to grind it out. Will and I found good fish in the canals
during prefish but we left them alone in hope they would fire on Day 1, Dixon said. The bream did not disappoint. Armed with a cutdown 3 Z-Man ShrimpZ in natural, rigged on a 1/16oz TT jighead and liberally coated with S-Factor, Ryan hit the canals using parallel casting across the front of pontoons to bag his first solid legal in just under half an hour. After a cracker start, Ryan spent the next few hours sifting through some smaller fish as conditions glassed out and the fish became timid. When the wind finally picked up, so did the bites. Dixon noticed bream chasing a small school of prawns on nearby pontoons, and he targeted them using a pitch and sink technique on his Z-Man. He soon had
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It was kayak gridlock when 50 plus kayakers converged on the Port Macquarie Grand Final.
I couldnt have asked for a better experience, he said. I am thankful to Hobie Australia, ABT and my new Aussie mates!
THe MagICIan
3rd Place - Tristan Taylor, 4/6, 1.84kg
If you have heard of bream tournaments, you have heard of Tristan Taylor. Hailing from the Gamakatsu Team stables, this young Queenslander has the magic touch. Tristan has a list of top-five finishes a mile long, and tough fishing conditions bring out the best in him. After qualifying with a second place finish in round 13 at his home waters of Redcliffe in Queensland, Tristan continued his stellar 2011 year with victories in both individual and team events. Everybody knew he was one to watch going into the Grand Final.
a second legal fish in his well still with 2.5 hours of fishing time to go. After the bite slowed Dixon resorted to using a stinger in the tail of his cutdown ShrimpZ which increased his catch rate and snagged his second legal.
learning To Win
Armed with his newfound knowledge, Keeton studied maps of the area with the help of others to forge a game plan for each day of the tournament. After sourcing good fish during prefish, Eoff found he needed to upgrade his leaders to 6lb fluorocarbon as he was getting blown away in the oyster racks and losing more fish than he could boat. This upgrade paid
Daniel Brown fished the oyster racks in Limeburners Creek each day to catch his fish.
off, allowing him to fish the areas more aggressively and get more fish into the livewell. Keeton also praised the Hobie Kayaks, saying they allowed him to fish more to his style. I love these Hobie Pro Anglers, he said. They allow me to stand up and fish more aggressively. Keetons fishing prowess and versatility certainly shone through as he finished the tournament with consistent bag weights each day, leaving him in fourth place ahead of some well-respected anglers. Keeton enjoyed every second of his time on and off our waters and certainly earned the respect of his fellow peers.
poles and big bream, Tristan knew he was in for a good fight, upgrading his leaders to 14lb to combat any nasties. You cant afford to give these fish an inch, he laughed. If you do, youre history! Day one saw Tristan head to the infamous Limeburners Creek along with Tarees Daniel Brown and Hobie AOY Champ Greg Lewis, so he knew he was in the right area. After a frustrating first part of the session, including losing a good fish and seeing big fish swimming throughout the racks, Taylor left Limeburners with eventual winner Daniel Brown. Tristan then searched for fish in the deep waters outside Edgewater Holiday Park, but this proved to be unrewarding so he returned
TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12 63
The livewells in the factory supplied Hobie kayaks kept the fish in tip-top shape with all fish swimming away to fight another day.
to Limeburners. There he bagged one legal to leave him in 22nd place after day one with a mere 0.34kg.
Hobie gun angler Greg Lewis, Tristan found hungry bream amongst the racks and caught his first legal early in the session.
Keep On Truckin
Not satisfied with just one fish, Taylor trucked up to the back of Limeburners, stopping at floating racks along the way. Lady luck was certainly looking after him that day; his next legal came soon after while pitching his Atomic Crank 38 past the floating structure and retrieving the lure parallel to the racks. To finish off the session, Tristan caught his last legal in about a foot of water while fishing the mangrove edges up the back of the creek. I pitched my Dog X Jr up into the mangroves and saw this bow wave head straight for it, he said. Then boom I was on! Taylors bag turned out to be the second biggest for day two, shooting him up the leader board and onto the podium. I knew I could do it, he said. I just needed to convert my hook-ups. It just goes to show that a little faith can go a long way.
devised a plan that worked to his strengths of crankbaiting over flats and structure. I found fish by slow rolling cranks over oyster rack rails and on nearby flats, but it was important to dredge the lure along the bottom, he said. It was a lot like the fishing we do at home [Redcliffe and the Sunshine Coast]. Armed with that knowledge, Nick hit the back of Big Bay on day one which saw him bag out over the day but his success came with a price. I lost a lot of lures fishing along the bottom and over racks, he admitted. Fish would smash the lure and dive straight into the racks. To his credit, Nick gathered a respectable bag of 1.00kg, leaving him within shooting distance of the leaders going into day two.
stick With it
On day two Nicks plan deviated little from the previous day, but he had to bide his time to allow the tide to flood the majority of his spots in Big Bay. To fill in some time he fished a deep diving hardbody, casting it parallel to some floating racks nearby. This technique proved to be fruitful, netting his first legal of the morning at 31cm to the fork. Then, with the wind in his sails, Nick paddled to his honey hole to fill his bag before conditions got tough. I knew if I had my fish before the wind dropped and the water glassed out, I would be in with a chance, he said. He paid particular attention not to stand up in his Hobie as he was certain it would spook the fish from biting as he stealthily snuck around Big Bay. Meredith continued cranking around racks
Mr COnsisTenCy
2nd Place - nick Meredith, 6/6, 2.23kg
Former ABT boater Nick Meredith made a smooth transition to kayak breaming and performed consistently throughout the 2011 Daiwa Hobie Bream Series. Until the Grand Final, Nick had never fished at Port Macquarie. However, under the expert advice of NSW waters specialist Craig Simmo Simmons and a little help from Google Earth, Nick used his strengths to nut out two good bags that earned him 2nd place. After splitting the prefish duties with fellow Queenslander Stephen Maas, Meredith
Tristan Taylor was always one of the anglers to watch in the final, and rightly so with the QLD breamer finishing 3rd.
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and flats during the rest of the session but no upgrades were to be seen. I lost no fish over the Grand Final and neither in any of the Hobie rounds during the year, said the self-confessed kayak fanatic. I really think it contributed to my consistent results. Nicks fishing ability put him in the Top 5 in the six Hobie Bream events he entered in 2011, even taking top honours in Round 11 on the Clarence River.
Mr Cool
1st place - Daniel Brown, 6/6, 2.44kg
Some say hes quiet, others say hes overconfident. However, the best word to describe the defending Daiwa-Hobie Bream champion Daniel Brown on day one of this years finale was cool. Brown saw no need to prefish as he knew where he needed to go the only issue for him was getting the fish out. When asked about his day one decision to attack the racks of Big Bay near Limeburners Creek, Brown said he fished for big bites. All I wanted was my three fish each day and I knew Id be up there, he said. However, the dream start that Brown had wanted was not to be; the windless low tide showed him no love, forcing him upstream to Edgewater Holiday Park to chase fish in deeper water. With only undersize fish as reward for his journey, Brown returned to his beloved Big
Bay to source out good bream feeding amongst weeds in 3-4ft of water. Once I locked into them, I had my limit within half an hour, he said. As day one of his title defence drew to a close leaving him in sixth spot and only an earshot from the leaders with a bag of 1.11kg. Browns legals fell to a combination of a cutdown Houdini coloured 3 Z-Man ShrimpZ soft plastic rigged on a 1/40th TT HWS jighead and a Pontoon 21 Crackerjack 48 hardbody lure in bleeding prawn colour. He liberally coated both lures with Squidgy S-Factor. For Daniel, success of his Z-Man ShrimpZ came from fishing it with a slow sink, hop and pause technique which was complemented by a slow roll, pause and twitch retrieve used on his hardbody lure.
Brown fished for big bites each day, and this was the biggest one he got, his day two kicker.
Fairytale Finish
With the first part of his fairytale complete, Browns day two plan was to search for feeding fish in the mid-depth waters of Big Bay to mimic his day one success. The reward came earlier on day two for Brown as his first legal came a hour and a half into the session from an oyster-laden rack, with the fish falling victim to a Z-Man ShrimpZ. Landing his second legal proved to be more of a heart-pumping experience for Brown, after pitching his soft plastic deep under an oyster shed. My ShrimpZ got smashed on the drop, Daniel said. I loaded the rod, wound as fast
as I could and hoped for the best! With luck on his side, avoiding all the nasties of the oyster shed, his kicker fish was soon gasping for air in the livewell. Browns heavy leader (12lb-15lb) choice had paid dividends, keeping the defending champ in the hunt. Browns third fish soon followed while slow rolling his Pontoon 21 lure across oyster rails, completing his three fish limit. Brown continued to upgrade two more times to have him paddling back to the finish feeling quietly confident. I knew the place was fishing tough and if some guys in front of me stumbled, I knew I might have a chance to finish in the top three, he said. When Nick [Meredith] and I got held back until the end of the weigh-in, I had a sneaking suspicion I might have enough.
A DreAM Finish
The true winner at this years Daiwa Hobie Bream Grand Final was the sport of kayak fishing. Steve Fields, Hobie Australasia and ABT joined forces to deliver anglers one of the best seasons the tournament scene as seen, and it is not hard to see why kayak fishing is gathering phenomenal momentum. Combine this with the fishing knowledge of the competitors and the friendships they have forged throughout the events and you got the true spirit of tournament fishing: having fun.
Brown has reason to smile, claiming back-to-back Daiwa-Hobie BREAM Kayak Grand Final wins.
66
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Lewis didnt win three events in 2011 he won five to claim the AOY crown, a feat that more than likely will never be beat.
70
a perfeCt
sCore
Perfection in tournament fishing, as in most parts of life, is just about impossible to achieve. For kayak bream fishing supremo Greg Lewis, the 2010/2011 Daiwa-Hobie BREAM Kayak Series was the season when he achieved perfection and lived the impossible dream.
71
n his hunt for the Angler of the Year Title, Lewis achievement what was the stuff of legends: a perfect 500 out of a possible 500 points to finish the year at the top of the kayak fishing tree.
tHe dominator
While his dominance throughout the season was Bradman-esque (or, from an angling point of view, akin to Kevin Van Dams dominance in the bass events stateside), what makes his achievements even more remarkable is that he won in four different states and with five different techniques. Mowing down the field on the last day became Lewis modus operandi for the season. Four out of the five events were twoday events, and not once did he go into the final day on top of the leader board. Redcliffe was the standout, with Greg storming from sixth to first. Won on largely unfamiliar water and surrounded by a string of gun Redcliffe locals, Lewis win cemented his reputation as the angler to fear on the final day. The only event that Lewis rated more highly was Marlo, where a big field and big fish combined to etch the round in his memory as the standout event of the season.
PimP my Bite
R9 - Albany, WA, 26/27th Albany, 2011 Going to unfamiliar waters can be daunting for any angler, and even more so for a tournament angler. So, even though the field of anglers at Albany was smaller, it is a testament to Lewis angling ability to have caught his limit there over the two days. Greg has a good relationship with Dan Stead of PML and is a fan of having that extra edge over competitors when it comes to lures. He achieved that with a custom painted Ecogear MX48F that had been retro-fitted with Owner ST11 hooks. Not being familiar with the waterway, Greg kept it simple and used a tried-andtrue school of thought to fill his bag with smaller legals by fishing the flats. The key areas were weedy dropoffs between 2-10ft deep, he explains. A rip and pause retrieve was the most effective technique.
Lewis then moved to the King River in search of larger, more solitary fish, and this paid dividends on day one in the form of eight upgrades. While this plan didnt pay off with any upgrades on day two, Lewis keep it simple approach saw him through. Sticking to the basics meant that the flats fish that filled his bag were enough to secure the win.
Blades of glory
R10 - Marlo, VIC 2/3rd April, 2011 In the lead-up to the Marlo round, youd be forgiven for thinking the fishing would be slow. The Snowy River had just had a large flood event; the smouldering fires of timber that had been washed into the system had been picked out of the water by heavy machinery just days before. They could still be seen scattered about, still smoking. Fortunately, nobody told Marlos bruising black bream. If a small field made for an easy win at Albany, nobody could doubt Lewis skill in taking out a tournament of 54 anglers where catching a full limit of kilo-plus fish would only get you fourth place. Once again, a PML lure by Dan Stead did the damage. Lewis favourite blade for
Greg was the master of diversity, catching, and winning tournaments with a host of different techniques.
72
nearly everywhere is the Impact Bladez in black with a red belly. However, a key point that made the difference was changing the hooks to a ZX style swinging singles that he tied himself. Lewis found during the prefish that trebles were picking up too much of the small debris left on the bottom after the flood, so he switched to single hooks to keep the lure free of obstructions for long enough to interest the fish. Lewis has also revealed that one of the keys to his success this year was to be relaxed, and that couldnt be more apparent than at Marlo. Due to a mix up with daylight savings, Greg woke up an hour late. It wasnt until he stuck his head out the door and saw there was nobody else around that he realised his mistake. I had already sent the field off without him but a 10-minute head delay to his start wasnt enough to slow him down. When he brought his bag to the scales, I looked at the weight and shook my head in disbelief. I thought it had to be wrong, so I took the bag off the scale and re-tared it, but the same 4.045kg for his three fish came up. The Holy Grail next year will be to see if someone can crack six fish for over 8kg, which Lewis only missed by 125g.
The Redcliffe round was one of the highlights for Lewis, with the AOY champ coming behind from sixth place to claim the win.
Wriggle Up a Storm
R12 - Narrabeen Lakes, NSW 11/12th June, 2011 Lewis says his win at Narrabeen put to bed the demons of the previous year. In last years comp I hooked a jewie in the 50-70lb range on 3lb line, and stuffed around with it for six and a half hours, he laments.
Mother Nature had a sense of the comedic that weekend as well, with grey skies turning into teeming rain and howling wind at the exact moment the tournament director sent the field off in the morning. This year, after holding down 5th place after day one, Lewis went out and caught the biggest bag of the tournament on day two to
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73
The cockpit on Lewis Hobie Pro Angler was set up with almost everything within arms reach. Just the way it should be.
take the win. He fished the back of the lake in a small area known as Pipe Clay Point, and it was here that he keyed in on a 1-1.2m deep patch of water that held fish. Using the wind to drift him through the zone, Lewis stalled his drift using a Hobie Drift Chute and made long searching casts to find the fish active in the area. It was important to cover water but not cover it too quickly, he explains. If you did youd miss fish. Lewis go-to lure was the same both days a 100mm Squidgy Wriggler in bloodworm but the retrieve varied. Day one was an aggressive rip and pause, but day two was a lot tougher with Lewis having to slow things down to a slower-paced hop, pause retrieve. Even though the retrieve was a lot slower on the second day, the hits were super aggressive with the fish nailing the lure on the pause, he says. This varied two-day approach delivered him six fish on day one and 20 on day two. Day two was the defining day when the pattern all came together, Lewis says. Id gathered a good collection of marks in my GPS from all the fish Id caught and the hits I had, so I just kept working the cluster of marks over and over. The approach was spot-on, with Lewis first keeper measuring 30cm, the second 35cm and the last one 33cm. Sitting half a kilo behind first place after day one, Lewis needed a big bag on the last day to run down the leader. With all 30 pluses in his limit, it was more than enough to give him his fifth win for the season and a perfect 500/500 AOY points.
on to win six rounds for the season, this time against seasoned local tournament anglers including Tristan Taylor, Grayson Fong and Will Lee. Greg fished North Reef at Scarborough on both days to catch his fish. Day one was an all hardbody affair, with Lewis fishing a slow-rolled deep Atomic Hardz Crank 38 in ghost gill brown. The approach delivered him his limit by 10:30am and eight fish in total for the session. It was classic crankbait rock fishing, he says. I just bounced and worked the lure through the structure and waited for the rod to load up. This approach produced a 1.535kg bag on day one which had him sitting in sixth place heading into the second day, 650g behind leader Taylor. The fishing got harder on day two. With the calming conditions and increased fishing pressure, Lewis knew it was going to take an amazing effort to peg back the lead, especially considering Taylors Redcliffe reputation. As he expected, the day didnt start well; he was fishless until 10:30am. At that point I was beginning to worry, he says. I had nothing and I was starting to question whether I should stay or go. The thing that made me stay was the advice I had received from Steve Morgan the day before. He had told me that more big fish come from the North Reef area than any where else on the peninsula. So Lewis stayed and patiently waited for the bites to come and he didnt have to wait too long. The wind swung around to the north, the conditions changed and the fish started biting.
Instead of using the hardbody approach of day one, Lewis swapped to something a bit more finesse a 1/20oz Nitro jighead-rigged new penny coloured Berkley Gulp Shrimp fished close to the bottom with a slow lift and jiggle. I just wanted to keep the lure on the bottom and work it through all the gaps and cracks that were littered throughout the reef, he explains. The approach delivered Lewis his first fish just after 10.30am, and an hour and half later he had filled his bag and upgraded all three fish at least once. The only setback was when he dropped a fish overboard while he was upgrading. It was the first time Ive ever done it, he says. Im not sure if it cost me any weight in my bag, but Ill make sure from now on in that Im a lot more careful. Seeing as Lewis weighed in the biggest bag for day two by nearly 400g, any downgrading he may have done never came close to jeopardizing his win!
the Future
What Greg Lewis achieved for 2011 is the stuff of dreams. For Lewis himself it will be the benchmark that will drive him forward in the future. Will it happen again in 2012? Its possible but, as we all know, perfection doesnt come along too often! Still, that doesnt mean Lewis will stop striving to achieve it, and thats a lesson we can all learn from. Aiming high will help you to improve and catch more fish, and thats something every tournament angler should strive for.
The fish that started it all, Gregs kicker fish from the Tweed.
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Josh Batterson from skeeter Boats australia details to 2011 skeeter Bass Pro grand Final winner matthew mott whats in-store for him when he heads stateside for his skeeter Trip of a lifetime.
Talking Heads
Matthew Mott had a stellar 2011, taking out both the BASS Pro Angler of the Year and the Grand Final titles. ABT took a moment to talk with Mott to record his thoughts on a variety of topics including his angling achievements, tournaments, personal challenges, and his watershed year on the BASS Pro tour. TexT: Chris Byrnes PhoTograPhy: simon goldsmiTh
ead on to see inside the mind of this determined competitor. Opinionated, passionate, abrasive, driven to succeed well let you be the judge!
follow through with my initial strategy. Stick to the plan! In the end its always a learning experience. The highs for me include seeing where the sport has progressed to today. In the last six years the growth has been phenomenal. As the dams continue to improve, more people are getting out on the water enjoying themselves. People attending tournaments and having a positive experience is a great thing, and so is seeing older anglers getting involved in the sport.
in the business, but also challenging myself personally. Cracking patterns, making a fish take a lure that doesnt want to these are the reasons I compete. Its an adrenaline rush that keeps me going. To this day I dont ever sleep well on a Friday night before a tournament, such is the nervous energy rush. I just love it!
the winning boaters pointed to my hand and said, Money cant buy you that badge. I didnt realise it at the time, but that statement stuck with me. Over time I realised how important those words were.
Matthew Mott claimed his 3rd BASS Pro Grand Final title with his Boondooma victory in 2011.
What does it mean, personally and professionally, to achieve what you have during your tournament career?
Interestingly, I dont think I enjoy the wins enough! Its in my nature to move on quickly to the next challenge. Unfortunately I tend to dwell on the not so good results for too long. My mindset is such that immediately focusing on the next challenge stops me from becoming complacent. Someday Ill stop and reflect on what I have achieved, but until then I will keep enjoying myself and competing.
This year you captured the big two (AOY and Grand Final). Where does Angler of the Year rank against a Grand Final win?
Winning both is a thrill. To take out an AOY after a number of close finishes is satisfying, but I would probably say the Grand Final shades AOY. First you have to qualify and then beat the best 30 anglers from around the country. One mistake and anybody can beat you. In terms of prestige I would say the Grand Final. had become my job and I was burnt out. I gave up tournaments for a year and reevaluated my position. Once I re-focused on my priorities I was able to find the balance necessary to a healthy work/angling coexistence. will always bring their best. Certain anglers have their areas of speciality, whether that may be fishing edges or a deepwater bite pattern. If a bite pattern presents to their strengths, then those anglers will perform. In the end the best advice I can give is stick to what you do. If you need help by all means ask questions, but first try to adapt and work it out for yourself. Trust in your own ability and knowledge base.
What is the most important lesson that tournament angling has taught you?
Dont think you know everything. You need to be always learning, always evolving as an angler. And also patience. Learning patience flows through all aspects of angling.
Do you perform better when you feel you are competing against anglers who are capable of beating you?
I put pressure on myself regardless of the situation. It doesnt matter to me, the drive is there to perform regardless of the tournament.
Having set the record for Grand Final wins (2005, 2009, 2011) are you thinking Lets see how far I can take this?
I want to win as many as possible. One of the many driving factors was to equal the record of a very talented angler, John Schofield. As long as I am still enjoying it, as long as the drive is there, I will continue to compete.
TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12 79
What was the lowest point in career and how did you deal with that situation?
About five years ago I was doing tournaments as well as chartering around 300 days a year. Unfortunately, my passion
I know fellow anglers talk about you come tournament time. Do you think about them as well?
Without a doubt I think about other anglers. There are consistent anglers competing that
Mott is always one for banter when sitting in the line up at the event start.
Matthew receives the congratulations of weigh master Chris Byrnes at his BASS Grand Final win.
Always the angler to beat on his home water, Mott won both the BASS Pro Qualifying round and Grand Final on Lake Boondooma.
Many of the bass anglers see the guys they compete with as a second family. How important is the support of your fellow anglers?
Basically my main support network is my family. The anglers I travel with to tournaments are part of a larger support network. They make it fun. At the end of the day it is still serious competition, but its not life and death. We keep the focus on having fun, which balances everything else. Travelling in a group is also cost-effective for all parties. We have a saying one in, all in. At the end of the day its about camaraderie and support of each other. We have fun but the days of drinking and carrying on until 3am are long gone! It has progressed to a level that is beyond that mentality.
I am fishing in the area, and they may even leave the area. But I dont want to perpetuate a negative image, as it could compromise my end goal.
industry. If anglers buy fewer lures online and start buying more lures locally, well see more research and development into Australian lures and well keep the dollars in Australia.
Whats your impression of lures coming out of Japan and/or the USA? Do they have a place in the tacklebox of Australian anglers?
Yes, they have their place. As more money is injected into the business, more and varied lures will appear. However, when it comes to spending your hard-earned, you need to remember that not all lures are created equal when it comes to their effectiveness on Australian species. Many Japanese and American lures are developed to respond best to specific techniques being used in those countries, not in Australia. You may think two different lure models look the same, but they often have subtle differences that can affect your catch rate. If you want to see more lures designed for Australian species and conditions, you need to give some support to the local tackle
Australian anglers are increasingly heading to the USA to test themselves in Bass tournaments. Having been there, what is your take on the level of competition, and how does the experience rank personally in your angling achievements? Have you considered taking the plunge and competing part time/full time in the USA?
The opportunity to meet new people and to experience tournament fishing in the USA was awesome. I can honestly say the level of fishing here in Australia is just as competitive, but the type of fishing is not the same. Youre targeting different fish using different techniques. The pressure to perform in these events is massive, and for the top guys it really is
Ice Jig H
Blitz Baga H
Brolga H
Golden Child H
Tournament H
Mini Coop H
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mott fished out deep while most anglers hit the edges at the grand final. a point of difference that proved the difference on the scoreboard.
their job. Having seen it first-hand, I would encourage people to think very carefully about taking that step. Its a cutthroat world and you can become yesterdays hero in a blink of an eye. If I was 25 years younger and not involved in running my own business, I might think about fishing the Bass Pro circuit more thoroughly. As it is, Im happy to settle for just another quick visit. Im over the moon about winning the Skeeter Trip of a Lifetime, as its giving me the chance to have another crack and experience the challenge of tournament fishing in the USA.
Rivalry is important in many sports. You have been vocal in trying to get NSW anglers to travel to QLD to compete. Do you think that there is a traditional state vs state rivalry brewing or just a number of personal battles being fought out?
CraCking patterns, making a fish take a lure that it doesnt want to, these are the reasons i Compete. its an adrenaline rush
Its not always about winning tournaments; its about communication and working to achieve clear communication between all parties. Finally, be honest with yourself. If you feel the urge to bad-mouth the product, dont take the sponsorship! The state rivalry is steadily growing. There are opportunities to harness this rivalry, whether it be a teams event mid-season or something similar. Like the State of Origin, it would be a prestige event that would incite much passion and competition. I think it would be a great platform to promote the sport of tournament angling. Anglers increasingly want to compete in both states. The challenge is winning on an unfamiliar waterway. Respect to those anglers who take up the challenge.
Is it right for tournament anglers to expect sponsorship on the back of a single result? How, in your words, is the best way to obtain sponsorship and to
82 TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12
MPETIT PHOTO CO
ION
www.gloomis.com.au
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Poppers, stickbaits and soft plastics are all on the menu when topwater bassin.
time to rise
TexT: DeAN SilveSTer PhoTogrAPhy: SimoN golDSmiTh AND jeff clellAND
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When dawn breaks on your local bass lake its time to rise and hit the surface.
The old saying you cant beat a surface bite may be clich, but anyone whos had a bass blows up on their lure in the pre-dawn gloom knows the saying is spot-on. Just the anticipation of a strike as you retrieve the lure is enough to keep you casting all morning.
fter chatting with four successful bass anglers and sharing their insight, I am still convinced it is the most exciting way to catch Australian bass. Lets find how and where our fab four get their surface fix.
Drop me a line
The choice of line and leader is important with all lures, and perhaps more so when fishing surface, as Charles explains. If you use fluoro it makes the lure sink slightly when at rest, and you dont want this, he explains. I use 12lb mono to keep the lure clear of the water and give myself the best chance of catching fish.
Charles In Charge
In 2010 Charles West popped his way to the top in the Maroon Dam BASS Electric round, and in 2011 was pipped at the line to finish a close second. Charles top finishes and Big Bass in 2011 are attributed to a combination of topwater presentations, making Maroon Dam Charles favourite location for a topwater session. Charles says the prime time to fish surface at Maroon is just after sunrise and just before sunset, adding that an increase in temperature also gets the fish moving.
The warmer months from spring through to autumn are the red hot months to fish, Charles says. Throw in some overcast conditions and youve got a recipe for bass action. With the time of day and year locked in, the next decision is the lure and for Charles its high-end Japanese models all the way. The Megabass Pop Max is the gun bait, he says. Its a versatile lure that can be fished as a popper and also with a walk-thedog retrieve. With the wide action and larger profile of the Pop Max, Charles is able to get the lure to slide deeper into the snags than with smaller lures, getting closer to fish. This is crucial, he says. The closer you can get your lure to the fish, the better your chance is to get a bite and a good hook up.
his topwaters. I use a baitcaster for the Pop Max because its heavy and the baitcaster is accurate, he explains. You can cast the lure in a way that has a subtle landing. A delicate touchdown can be the difference between success and failure when
but he also rates Lenthalls as one of the best impoundments for this technique. Maroon and Lenthalls both have plenty of weed beds, and bass that love to hang near them and ambush lures, Barry says. Low light periods are the standout, with Barry finding the most successful months are
charles west has two top two finishes at maroon thanks to a topwater tournament approach.
This fish launched iTself Through a gap, inhaled The baiT and powered away, Towing me and The canoe wiTh iT
fishing the surface, and Charles tournament results show that hes on the mark with his thinking. October through to May. Of course, there have been years when Ive caught fish in all months, he says. My PB session with surface lures was at Cressbrook with 27 fish in early July with some good fish amongst them. Early morning and late afternoon are Barrys preferred times, although he has been able to get fish on topwater all day in overcast conditions.
broken lilies and flooded vegetation are bass magnets and features that you should focus your attention on when throwing surface lures.
In a spin
While Charles prefers his baitcaster for his topwater work, Barry leans towards a spin gear approach. He also favours a fast rip style of retrieve. Im trying to press the bass buttons with this retrieve, he explains. If it doesnt draw a response I slow it down and give the lure longer pauses. Barry finds no two days are the same so he likes to experiment with the retrieve style until he homes in on what the fish are after. If the fish are short striking I leave the lure in the zone with a longer pause and even switch bait using a different surface lure with bigger hooks, he explains. Barrys favourite lure is the Lucky Craft Sammy 65 in aurora black. This lure is versatile in how it can be retrieved, he says. This makes it a lot more useful than a lot of the other topwater lures available. With eight BASS Electric wins to his name, who could disagree?
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GEAR BOX Charles West Charles West Rod: Major Craft Days Mo-mi-Ji fibreglass rod Reel: Daiwa Alpha R Edition Mainline: Sunline 16lb Castaway Leader: 12lb Sunline monofilament Lures: Megabass Pop Max in tamamushi Simon Goldsmith Rod: 68 Daiwa Steez Kingbolt MLFS Reel: Daiwa Steez Mainline: 6lb Daiwa TD Hyper PE Leader: 10lb Daiwa TDR Competition fluorocarbon Lures: 3 Ecogear Power Shad in colour 117 Hooks: Owner 2/0 Down Shot Worm Barry Oxford Rod: St Croix Legend Elite LES66MF Reel: Daiwa Certate 2000 Mainline: 4lb Fireline pink braid Leader: 10lb Fireline fluoro leader Lures: Lucky Craft Sammy 65 in aurora black Tim Morgan Rod: Ian Miller Bass Buster Reel: Shimano Stella Mainline: 10lb Unitika braid Leader: 6lb Unitika mono as leader Lures: Megabass Pop X in cracked lime
Charles upsizes his Megabass poppers to the larger Pop Max to catch his surface bass, believing the larger lure is more versatile than the smaller Pop X.
5-6ft followed by a pause. If there is structure he extends the pause time. Tim runs varying breaking strains of braid depending on the terrain, but always chooses monofilament leader over fluorocarbon for its buoyant properties. He connects the lure with a loop knot to get the best performance. I have found that if I use fluorocarbon leader and I need to pause the lure for extended periods the fluorocarbon will sink and drag the lure down when I go to move it again, he explains.
lets spilt
If Tim gets short strikes he adds an extra split ring to allow the hook to sit deeper, and also adds some scent to the feather. If the short strikes continue he switches to a lightly weighted plastic, shallow running crankbait or small light spinnerbait to tempt the pressured fish. Tim finds it more comfortable to use a spin reel for his walk-the-dog style retrieve and he favours a quick retrieve of
Having thrown throwing surface plastics for bream for many years, rolling the technique over into his bass fishing was a logical move for Simon. One fish in particular confirmed the technique as a winner, and still sits in his memory many years later. I was fishing a small private pond with Danny Robinson one day and was bowwaving a worm hooked Ecogear Power Shad through some broken lilies, Simon recalls. Suddenly this fish launched itself through a gap, inhaled the bait and powered away, towing me and the canoe with it. It was the start of love affair that he rekindles every chance he gets.
Tim Morgan favours a spin rod outfit when working his surface lures.
Get CastInG
So there you have it a handful of topwater options from hard through to soft. The next time youre out bassing and you fill the need for an adrenaline rush, tie on a topwater and get casting!
88 TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12
Tims brace of topwater loving bass from the 2008 BASS Pro Grand Final helped him claim 2nd in a field of talented anglers.
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92
bassin
TexT: Tri vi Ton PhoTograPhy: Simon goldSmiTh and jeff Clelland
dirty water
Its the first morning of an event, and youve arrived at a lake that looks like Mother Nature has built a Starbucks at its headwaters.
Queenslands lake Boondooma rose significantly in the early part of 2011 with dirty water and tough fishing challenging anglers during the Skeeter BaSS Pro Series.
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ou know the fishing will be exceptionally hard, so you stir your morning brew, figuring thered be more bass in your cup than this mass of silty sludge! You might kid yourself into thinking if you head up far enough there may be chocolate chip cookies too! Thats when you wake up to yourself, and the reality of tournament fishing really sinks in. Somewhere out there today some anglers will weigh a fish in maybe more if they are good enough.
However, when the vegetation starts to rot, thats when it really starts to foul the water and make life hard for bass. It may take anywhere from six to 12 months for the lake to rejuvenate and find an equilibrium within which the ecosystem and fishing becomes stable again.
in the weeks leading up to the event. To locate the fish he looked carefully for slight changes in water colour, preferably where there were also some visible signs of activity like bait flicking on the surface. He noted that the backwaters generally settled faster due to smaller rates of water flow. Similarly, Chang has vast experience with water change from frequenting his home lake, Lostock in NSW. He has clocked up the miles chasing riverine bass in his younger years, fishing rivers which flooded regularly. Back then during floods you always looked for protected areas where there was little current or flow, he explained. This approach generally proves successful on Lostock Dam during times of dirty water. I used this knowledge in the Boondooma round to locate and hook several fish, although I only landed a couple.
Matthew Mott was hot property fishing dirty water last year with two victories on a muddied Lake Boondooma headlining his red-hot season.
to vastly alter their fishing patterns when compared to previous events. If you were one of these anglers, let some moneyearners fill your cup and hopefully your livewell with some tips that you can implement on any arena.
a few bass in the tough conditions. The state of the lake was so bad that, according to Mott, if you judged on colour alone, you wouldnt even put your boat in it.
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THE DIRTY DOZEN Twelve of the best lures for dirty water bassin. 1. Megabass V3 Bullet Shad Spinnerbait, 1/2oz- ayu, #102 2. Megabass Smatra- GG gill 3. Berkley Big Eye Blade, 46mm- nugget 4. Sebile Flatt Shad SK 54- blood red amber 5. Jackall TN60- HL gold 6. Megabass Griffon SRX- GG small mouth bass 7. Ecogear VX40- #406 8. Smak Pro-Select Spinnerbait, 1/2oz- IB (Ian Black) 9. Lucky Craft Flat Mini DR- craw 10. Evergreen Little Max, 3/8th oz- crown, #125 11. Bassman Spinnerbait, 1/2oz- black/ blue 12. Jackall TN50- black
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Lures with plenty of vibration is what Matthew Mott uses to catch his dirty water bass.
brown tackle
Tackle choices for both anglers were fairly typical for the lures they threw. Chang chose 10 or 12lb leaders, while Mott went up to 14-16lb leaders, because he knew a thicker leader would not make the fish shy away in the dirty water. I knew the bites would be hard to come by that weekend, he said, so I upsized my tackle to reduce the chance of losing any fish in the timber.
lessons learnt
Here we have a great example of a tough event where smart, committed anglers found a few well-earned fish. They found a system that worked to their strengths and fished hard. While there were a few differences in the approaches, a few things were clearly keystones to bagging chocolate-coated bass. Lures that vibrate have a strong advantage on both active and less active fish. Fished slowly, either high or deep, it suggests that as long as the fish are present you can catch them if you fish systematically enough. However, the most important skill is finding the right brew of coffee a bit fresher or sweeter as thats where a few of the more livelier bass are likely to be located. And, as demonstrated by our measured New South Welshman, skills that can be replicated from lake to lake, be it on Lostock, Bushells Boondooma or Moccona Maroon, will be sure to bag you a bass worthy of the scales.
fished them near the bottom. In this way, he chased those less active fish that Chang decided were too hard to tempt. Spinnerbaiting timber is a classic dirty water technique, and it proved to be the tournament winner when Mott bagged Boondooma Big Bass. Mott deployed the Little Max vibes when conditions didnt suit his honey hole. He moved and fished slightly deeper amongst the timber-laden Stuart arm of the lake. The retrieve was simple lift, hop and roll, and keep the lure in close contact with the bottom, he explained. This approach caught him the fish he needed to protect his lead.
I listened to my gut feelings, Mott says. I didnt write the event off because of the conditions. He stuck to the places he knew there were some fish and slowed right down, making sure he bumped every inch of ground and cover on his retrieve. Chang didnt have a home lake advantage so his prefish was not as extensive. His pattern pushed him to find active fish quickly by fishing shallower and faster, and not working an area for very long. If the fish dont bite in a few casts they are probably going to be very hard to tempt, he said. You should also retrieve the shallower lures more slowly than usual to let the fish find the bait, as sight is replaced by the fish feeling it through the lateral line. I recommend a slow, constant retrieve, sometimes high sticking the rod so as to be careful to keep the lure up in the water
Wi t h l a k e le vels high, 2012 look s like being a great ye a r f o r casting bas sman spi nnerbaits. heres a guide to t h e b e st o f the best f or bass from c ar l Jocumsen a n d t h e f is h-n- b it s team!
Size 3/4 oz
TW oz Double Willow
This is a high speed, fast retrieve reaction bait used to cover water quickly. A great lure that works well with the burn-and-kill technique. Wivenhoe is a great place to try this type of spinnerbait and it helps avoid those undesirable catfish. Colour 25 is the gun colour for those monster Wivenhoe bass.
Size 1/2oz
TW oz Double Willow
Boondooma is a great place to do some timber fishing. Casting spinnerbaits like the TW series is ideal for this situation whether it be targeting all the standing trees in open water or the timber lined banks. The TW oz is a sure thing on those aggressive Boondooma bass. Colour 28 is hard to beat.
Size 1/2oz
Size 1/2oz
Compact series oz
oz Compacts are one of my favourites and are a very versatile lure. They really come into their own when fishing weed edges and timber lined banks. Using a slow roll retrieve, make sure your lure covers the contour of the bottom. Casting your lure as close to the structure as possible and rolling it past, its just a matter of time before you get slammed by an angry Somerset bass. Skirt 36 is brilliant bony bream imitation, so hang on - they hit hard.
Size 5/8oz
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Having the right tools for the job is important when deep cranking, the correctly chosen, rod, reel, line and lures greatly increases your chances of catching fish.
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digging
deeper
TexT: simon goldsmiTh PhoTograPhy: simon goldsmiTh and jeff Clelland
In last years Tournament Angler Guide we lifted the lid on the forgotten bass catcher, the crankbait. This year we take it one step further and dig a little deeper and hit the mid to deep water depth range.
at varying depths and locations throughout the dams. Some held fish initially while others were transitional spots that fish moved to as the dams evolved, while others are still yet to shine.
atching bass in the shallows is a tonne of fun, we all know that. But the reality is that the fish are in the shallows for only a small period of time that were on the water. For most part theyre holding in deeper water and as result we need to fish a little wider to consistently catch fish. For crankbait anglers the five to fifteen feet depth range is perhaps the happiest hunting ground when throwing a crankbait, with a host of lures, locations and presentations on offer to catch fish at that depth.
The increase in inundated timber has been in both the shallows and the deep, and has ranged from spindly new vegetation to the original trees that were flooded when the lakes first filled. The outcome has been an increase in prime fish holding cover, both initially while the vegetation was still green and on the trees and also post-mortem when only the skeleton of the trees and shrubs remained. This has resulted in a diversity of cover for fish
sWimming lessons
With this scenario in mind lets look a 5-10 feet deep example of what weve presented above and run through how we might
1. Daiwa Steez Machine Gun Type 1 (661MRB-XTQ), Daiwa Steez 103 (6.3:1), 12lb Daiwa Hyper PE. Note- Suited to close quarter work, especially around timber, with 6.3:1 reel delivering faster line control. 2. Daiwa Steez Lightning (681MLFS), Daiwa Alphas R-Edition (5.8:1), 12lb Daiwa Hyper PE. Note- 5.8:1 ration reel suited to
slower retrieves, while 68 low modulus rods allows for longer casts and a better hook-up rate. 3. Daiwa Steez Thunderstorm (701LFS), Daiwa Certate 2500R (4.8:1), 2508 RCS spool, 10lb Daiwa Hyper PE. Note- 7 rod allows for longer casts, especially in strong winds and with lighter lures.
fish it. Queenslands Lake Moogerah is a quintessential example of a lake filled with flooded timber courtesy of last summers rain and in the second half of last year fished very well with crankbaits. One area of a bay in particular featured a line of dead bottle brush and casuarinas trees that sat in about three feet of water then dropped off steadily for about 50 metres into approximately 25-30 feet of water. On the downward slope from the bottle brushes and casuarinas (5-10 feet) sat the occasional sapling and in between lay horizontal timber piles and the odd cut-off tree stump. The approach to fish it was text book, target, line and strike zone fishing. The target to hit with the lure was five feet past the bottle brushes, the line to work the lure was through the gaps
102 TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12
between the saplings and the strike zone is having the lure as its maximum depth just as it reached the laydown timber and cut off stumps that the fish were holding. Too short of a cast and you had your lure buzzing over the fishs heads, not too much of problem when you get an eager fish charge up from depths to hit the lure on the first cast, but on the second, third or fourth casts to the same place you needed to make sure you had your cast and lure in the slot to get a bite. Variations to the retrieve speed and action more often than not spiced things up. Stalling the lure close to structure, speeding the retrieve up to elicit a reaction from a fish, and twitching the lure to replicated an injured bait fish all paid dividends, especially when a standard retrieve such as slow roll is starting
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THE L WORD Here are my go-to lures when deep cranking. 1. Rapala DT10 2. HideUp HU-300 3. Megabass DD Griffon 6CC 4. Lucky Craft Flat Mini DR 5. Imakatsu IK-250 6. Evergreen Combat Crank Flatside 7. OSP Blitz Max DR
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out in the deep and cast as far as you could towards the island, then engage the reel and slowly crank the lure back. The hits came anywhere during the retrieve, but more often than not came as the lure swam over the edge into the deeper water. If the fish moved a little deeper simply immersing the rod half way into the water gave the lure a couple more feet in running depth, and was often enough to reach the fish that you had been missing.
Stalling the lure cloSe to Structure, Speeding the retrieve up to elicit a reaction from a fiSh, and twitching the lure to replicated an injured bait fiSh all payS dividendS
will deliver longer casts and allow you to cover more water. How you use the rod, both on the cast, the retrieve and during the fight is important. For close quarters work I prefer to use flat, side and underhand casts to deliver greater line control, particularly when fishing tight to timber, while for longer work Im more incline to use overhead and casts to get more distance. The rod position largely remains the same regardless, with a rod tip down and rod to the side holding position delivering optimum contact and feel of the lure. The positioning of the rod also allows the slow taper of the rod to do its thing when a fish bites. Namely not sling shot the lure out of the fishs mouth when it hits the lure. The taper also allows the rod to progressively through the blank, cushioning the fight of hooked fish. The outcome is more bass landed and less dropped fish.
NEW
Beat Eat
NEW
Fx6.6
Style: Floating Minnow Length: 66mm Weight: 1/2oz Depth: 2 feet Colours: Six
The Beat Eat is a unique lure which swims up from the bottom attracting sh throughout the entire water column. It can also be worked just under the surface with a steady retrieve.
Beat Eat
The FX6.6 features a folding bib which folds up under the tow point allowing it to cast further. It has an erratic action when shed with a twitch & pause technique as the lure dives & rises.
Frogleys O shore PO Box 5177, Ballina NSW 2478 Ph: (02) 6681 3988 www.bassday.com.au www.facebook.com/bassday
Frogleys Offshore PO Box 5177, Ballina NSW 2478 Ph: (02) 6681 3988 www.megabass.com.au www.facebook.com/megabass
Ian Black
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fluorocarbon leader finishing of the selection. Flurocarbon fished straight through does feature at times when Im deep cranking but more often than not is reserved for shallow work and when Im fishing more finesse styled baits. It does have its innate advantages though and integrating these more into my deep work is something that I want to work on.
Not all fish will be pinned tightly in the mouth, sometimes theyll hook-up on the outside of mouth, hence the need for super sharp hooks.
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10/12/10
12:58 PM
BLADES
GOLD.......... Clear water SILVER ....... Dirty water COPPER ..... Tanin water BLACK ....... Muddy water and spooky fish
CM
MY
CY
CMY
Champion 2011. Runner up AOY. All the best for the 2012 series.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
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ravelling tournament anglers need to keep their food and drinks cold. And when you travel and fish, theres nothing that does it better than an Engel. A long time sponsr of ABT and AFC, youll see a swag of Engels in the back of anglers rigs and in the prize pool.
If you havent got one, you know you want one! If you dont catch the fish needed to win an Engel at the next ABT event, call 1300 302 653 or visit www.engelaustralia.com.au for your nearest stockist.
PROUD SPONSOR OF
Blue Fin Boats and bass fishing go together like fish and water and ABT is proud to have them onboard again as the series sponsor of the 2012 Blue Fin Boats BASS Electric Series. Built with pride and featuring the quality and attention to detail that weve come to know and love from Blue Fin Boats anglers need look no further then www.bluefinboats.com.au when it comes to choosing their BASS Electric tournament boat. Blue Fin Boats are leading the way with quality and design and manufacture a comprehensive range of Sportsfishing boats, factory set up for competition fishing.
Class of 2011
www.bluefinboats.com.au
Head to Head
TexT: ellioT Fooks PhoTograPhy: simon goldsmiTh
The race for the 2011 Blue Fin Boats BASS Electric Angler of the Year title was always going to be a marathon. Twenty-five events scattered throughout NSW and Queensland, reduced down to an anglers best five results meant it was always going to be close.
2011 was a watershed year for shane anderson. The Bundaberg basser claimed the inaugural Bass electric aoy crown by the narrowest of margins (1 point) over dave Trinder.
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n true tournament fishing style, the race for the AOY could not have been scripted any better; the title came down to the final event, with Shane Anderson winning both the final qualifying round and the AOY title on his home water of Isis Balancing Storage. In doing so, Anderson relegated the number one ranked BASS Electric angler Dave Trinder to second place on the day, and in the AOY race. Shane and Dave both took very different paths to reach their showdown on Isis. Shane fished events in the northern part of the tour while Dave took his points from early season rounds in NSW.
one ranked BASS Electric angler out of the Angler of the Year Title.
especially true in Andersons case. He had an exceptionally good year fishing Isis, Cania and Lake Mc Donald, picking up wins at both Cania and in the final round at Isis. Another testament to Andersons skill was his consistency; he never finished outside the top five in any of the qualifying rounds during the season.
In the end It was shane who stepped up to the plate and took the wIn on hIs home water, relegatIng dave to second place at the event, and ultImately to second place In the aoy race as well
hour drive from his home in Bundaberg. It was a calculated risk to fish only six events, and Shane knew he would need five cracking results to top the increasingly competitive field. As they say in fishing, its about the quality and not the quantity and that was
DRIVING FORCES
In spite of Shanes past successes, he doesnt go into a tournament thinking about how high he will place in the top 10. The first thing on my mind is what will get fish in my well, he said. Im fortunate to work at Tackle World Bundaberg and live
dave was ever consistent throughout the season, with multiple top five finishes on a host of different waterways.
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With his name on the shield in 2011 Anderson will be keen for another solid year on the BASS Electric tournament trail.
near Isis Dam, so I can regularly test the latest and greatest tackle before taking it on the tournament trail. Shane revealed that one of his biggest motivators to keep fishing tournaments is being able to share his passion and fishing successes with his family. Keeping that fishing radius of only three hours over the past season has enabled him to travel with his family, bringing more joy to each trip. I feel very lucky to have a wife and young family that enjoy travelling and camping at different dams, he said. My five-year-old son fishes with me socially and I get a real buzz having him there when I finish on top. Shane added that hes looking forward to one day fishing bass events with his son. I would love to be on the boat to see him win an event, Shane said.
THE SCORE CARD Heres their Angler of the Year scoreboard over season 2011.
TIME TO LEARN
Tournament angling is the pinnacle of learning for Anderson. For him a single tournament gives more information about how to be a good angler than several average Sundays on the water. As anglers you can learn from both an event win and a dreaded donut, he explained. Its all about reflecting on what worked and at times looking to the results of other anglers. Their success can help you to understand why your choice of tactic didnt work on the day. Shane also believes that bass fishing is a true test of an angler. One day you can brain them [the bass] on any lure you want, then the next day they will hardly hit a lure, he said. I get a real kick out of cracking a pattern and getting those fish to bite, and its all the sweeter on a tournament day. Being an educated angler is important for Shane. He believes that, because the sport is always changing and evolving, competitors should look outside their immediate fishing world if they want to keep at the top of the tournament tree. I read up on other anglers all the time from both Australia and overseas, he explained. It helps me understand changes in gear and what new products could help me in my personal fishing and also what my customers will be asking for the weekend after the tournament. It is one thing to understand and apply this knowledge to your own fishing, and quite another thing to help others to do the same. Anderson takes great pride in being able to pass on this knowledge, and he
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With event wins and the number one BASS Electric angler ranking under his belt for 2011, Dave Trinder will be fishing hard in 2012 to claim the only title he hasnt got, the AOY.
ANDERSONS SHIP
SJ Nomad 3.5 54lb Minn Kota I Pilot (bow) 6hp Torquedo (transom)
TRINDERS TUB
345 Blue Fin Trekker 70lb Motor Guide cable steer (bow) 6hp Torquedo (transom)
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ClARRIE HAll
MCDONAlD
DANjEERA
lOSTOCk
POINTS
CANIA
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enjoys teaching other anglers some of the valuable lessons hes learned over the years. It goes to show that the motto of who shares, wins still lives on in all levels of tournament fishing.
Family is very important to Shane Anderson, and they were there at Isis to see him claim the event and AOY win.
Anderson fished close to home during the season, fishing only Isis, Cania and Lake McDonald to win the title
A NEW YEAR
With the 2012 Blue Fin BASS Electric season just about to get underway, Shane is still working to grow as an angler, to concentrate on his fishing and just let the results work themselves out. With seven wins on the board and the number one ranking within his grasp, hes in with a good chance to become the most successful BASS Electric angler. Still, the field is becoming more and more competitive every year, and a very motivated Dave Trinder is keen to claim the only BASS Electric title that has eluded him so far: the Angler of the Year crown. If Shane wants to repeat his 2011 success, hell have to work hard for it!
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There are ordinary trolling motors and then there are MotorGuide electric trolling motors. MotorGuide has been the electric trolling technology leader for over 40 years. We were first with foot-controlled motors, fully wireless, retractable bow mounts and more. A MotorGuide motor will give you whisper-quiet running, plus energy-efficient operation to maximise your fishing time. With full range of Competition, Saltwater and Freshwater models available Australia-wide. MotorGuide is backed by the service and support of Mercury Marine www.mercurymarine.com.au
2008, 2009 & 2010 AFC winners relied on MotorGuide
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WEIGHT (10 fish): Gavin Dunne (9/10,16.10kg) Round 1 2002, Somerset Dam WEIGHT (6 fish): Tim Morgan (6/6,12.24kg) Round 1 2003, Glenbawn Dam.
Grand Final, Cania Dam 6 Fish: 148 between 29 anglers. 2004 Grand Final, Lake Boondooma 6 Fish (boater & non-boater): 237 between 58 anglers. 2011 Grand Final, Lake Boondooma.
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nOn-BOaTers
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Karen Fontaine Luke Novak Hilton Smith David Mcdonald Walter Scifleet Kris George John Picton Matthew Mcdonald Arthur Allen Matt Hawkless Ashley Sims Greg Eslick Gary Mccabe Dylan Mott Stephen Noble Jayson De Forrest-Haddleton
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Dion Walker Ron Jones Anthony Thorpe Gavin Sticklen Steve Bechly John Cooper Jayson Deforrest-Haddleton Peter Fogarty Chris Gipps Dexte Granada Eric Grell Gavin Mckay Warren Morgenstern Bruce Moss James Poolman Craig Robertson Glen Stewart Steve Timperley Andrew Galloway Steve Davies Kim Bain Errol Hardke Jamie Hardman Gary Percival Steve Chang Wayne Gordon Drew Griffiths Andrew Pullbrook Mark Lennox Scott Dakin Shawn Ryan Bruce Anderson Chris Eldred John Fooks Tony Robinson Will Schloss Trent Butler Darryl Douglas Tony Evans Gary Prerost Jorg Vanhusen Greg Beattie Joel Norman Steve Todeschini Joe Allan Ian Wratten Peter Phelps Peter Morgan Ken Murray $1,300 $1,275 $1,250 $1,250 $1,250 $1,200 $1,100 $1,100 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $900 $900 $900 $900 $900 $870 $870 $850 $825 $800 $800 $750 $700 Garry Sturdy Kris Hickson Graham Sabine Ian Miller Steve Moran Ray Sargent Jade Cornish Joshua Evans Paul Fleming Dave Hislop Tracy Johnson Mark Mate Mick Mee Miles Morgan Murray Morgan David Mudd Dale Mullins Greg Munro Damien Norris Ian Pfingst Peter Robinson Phil Roebuck Dave Trinder $700 $650 $600 $550 $550 $550 $525 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500 $500 David Hine Michael Lanagan Steven Mcdonald Rod Studdert Lance Sulkowski Tony Thorley Richard Robson Steve Starling Eddy Studman Darren Borg Mark Bowman Mick Clarke Ward Ellwood Gordon Macdonald Bruce Morgenstern Kevin Jones Aaron Mogg Ron Sattler Freddie Sawyer John Brider Michael Fraser Billy Gibson Shaun Taylor
$500 $450 $425 $400 $400 $400 $400 $400 $400 $400 $400 $400 $400 $400 $400 $400 $400 $400 $375 $350 $300 $300 $300 $300 $300 $300 $300 $300 $300 $290 $252 $252 $250 $250 $250 $250 $250 $250 $200 $200 $200 $200 $150 $150 $150 $150
ToTal Earnings
$676,367
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AUSTRALIA
the
2012barra tour
BMA
round
round
Classic 160
Classic 120
w w w . b a s s e r m i l lya r d . c o m . a u
2012
November 30/December 1 2 Day Event Awoonga Dam
the
BMA
round
d o n t l e av e h o m e w i t h o u t t h e m !
collection
round
Magnum Long A
Bomber 16A
2 Deep 2 Deadly
All lures pictured are available in various sizes, depths & colours. See website for more details
BASSEr MiLLyArd Pty. Ltd. PO Box 652, Botany NSW 1455 P +61 2 9695 7799 F +61 2 9695 1365 E sales@bassermillyard.com.au
BM A
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minded fish on last years Monduran leg of the tour and he found the action red-hot. It was a valuable insight into what lay ahead for the future. We found a patch of fish during the tournament where it was a fish every half an hour for the whole session. They werent big (sub 80cm) but they were hungry and eager to eat our lures. If this is a sign of what were in for this year I cant wait, explained Price. A similar influx of new life and enthusiasm is being welcomed to the BARRA Tour in 2012 with BMA taking the reins from Daiwa and steering the series towards an exciting
The BMA BARRA Tour is all about having fun and catching barra. Whats not to like.
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new season. Who is BMA you ask? While their name might be new, their products are well known and feature heavily in most barra anglers lure collection. BMA (Basser Millyard Australia) have been selling barra lures to anglers for years, and Im sure every barra angler has at least a couple of them (Killalure, Bomber, Classic, etc) in their tackle box. This year were (BMA and ABT) looking at getting anglers excited about barra fishing again and pumped up and keen to fish the BARRA Tour, explains ABT Sponsorship Manager Travis Davies With a fresh face to the BARRA Tour comes a revamp of the schedule with the series streamlined to four events, split into a northern and southern (2 x northern, 2 x southern) tours and slated to fall on the full moons in September and November. Time and money are a premium for anglers so we wanted to put together a BARRA Tour that meant less time on the road, more time on the water and hitting the lakes when the fishing is at its best, explained ABT Tournament Director Simon Goldsmith. It all begins on September 28-29 on the hottest barra lake going around at the moment, Peter Faust, with the Proserpine barra Mecca set to draw in anglers keen
to mess with its tree dwelling monsters. Teemburra is the destination two days later, with the final Northern Tour round deciding the winner of BARRA Tour Northern AOY. Two months later it all starts again with the opening southern round hitting Awoonga on November 29-30, before traveling south to Monduran to close out the series.The BARRA Tour this year is about using all the successful things weve done in the past and combining them to create a series that will
have anglers catching fish and that they will want to fish. Two day tournaments, afternoon and evening sessions, and events that have anglers fishing the lakes when the barra are at their most active is going to be great. Roll on September and the BMA BARRA Tour, enthused Simon Goldsmith. Entry forms and rules for the 2012 BMA BARRA Tour will be available from www. australianbarra.com.au in early 2012.
Anglers travel from across the country to fish the BARRA Tour, make sure youre one of them in 2012.
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Exploding
thE myth:
TexT: STephen BooTh wiTh JaSon wilhelm phoTography: Simon goldSmiTh, Cy & Kerrin Taylor
ts really quite hard to explain and not something those with a tendency towards a heart condition should contemplate putting on their bucket list. Without exception, all of the best topwater anglers I have spoken to indicate that finding the right habitat is the key to topwater success on impoundment barra. But just what is the right habitat you may ask? Good question as the habitat anglers now fish for their trophy barra is distinctly different from that habitat fished only five years ago. For the best chance at topwater success it is recommended anglers look for shallow areas in impoundments that have an
abundance of weed and the occasional piece of hard structure such as a stand of trees or, even better, the odd lay down snag. Jason Wilhelm just loves topwater fishing and, as a full time guide, has started to hone in on the best techniques for topwater barra. He is looking for the options that will give him a greater chance of adding to his barra bag in a tournament when topwater offerings are the required presentation method. Jason said: When hunting for barra, I pay close attention to long shallow flats with good sprinklings of weed, fallen timber, stumps, long flat points or even just long weed beds. Looking at the lay of the land surrounding
the area will help you to work out whats below. Weed towers always require thorough inspection as they provide great cover and hiding positions for impoundment barra. Steep valleys and cliff faces are obviously going to spear into deep water, whereas gradual slopes will generally continue on for some distance before they reach a drop-off point. These areas are also worth a look. Try to limit your hunt to water that is less than 5m deep; water as shallow as 30cm can still be great topwater territory. These areas are good places to start, but as you spend more time on the water, you will start to find other productive locations.
TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12 127
Barra love timber, with big trees and laydowns, prime locations to throw a surface lure .
But warm or cold winds are not the full story either. Other factors need to be considered together with wind, temperature and location. It really is a case of intuition sometimes, where youre on the water and every fibre in your body is saying chuck a frog or a fizzer here. Listen to this and do it, even if the fish are eating fast swim swimbaits, said Jason.
option Up
Consider you are now fishing a tournament; the celestial gods have delivered the perfect conditions for a topwater bite and your instinct is saying go for it. Which lure do you use first? A walker? A fizzer? Perhaps a frog? The best idea, said Jason, is to have one team mate go up top and have the other continue with a different presentation underneath. Most tournament anglers are confident in a soft plastic swimbait so to convince them to use a surface lure is like telling a toddler they cant have that chocolate. Be the one to experiment first and by your success convince your team mate that he or she needs to be on top too, said Jason.
Always look for areas with little traffic and minimal fishing pressure this will give you the upper hand, provided you are incredibly stealthy. Water quality and current are also major factors; you may be surprised by just how much the water moves around in impoundments. This water movement depends on the geographical features of the area and the prevailing winds. Barra love areas with increased water flow as they are able to use their ambushing skills to great effect. Therefore, areas such as points, where the water is moving quickly, are a great place to hunt for barra. While topwater fishing is about as good as it can get when social fishing, I firmly believe a tournament where topwater tactics add to a bag is not that far away, finished Jason.
other than light conditions play a far more significant role in achieving topwater success. A strong south westerly, in any impoundment, will reduce topwater options in a tournament, whereas a warmer south easterly, east or northerly may enhance your chances up top.
Weather or not
Before you decide that your next session will be a topwater one, you need to check the conditions. If its blowing 30 knots, topwater fishing is really not a great idea unless you really know your stuff. Fishing parallel to slop in a big blow can be highly effective, but technically speaking its quite advanced and requires excellent casting skills and sharp line control. If youre fairly new to topwater barra then stable, balmy and calm weather would be the conditions to start honing your skills. Many people believe that topwater barra fishing should only be a consideration in the low light conditions of early morning, late afternoon and night, said Jason. This is most certainly not the case: factors
128 TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12
Just like the X Rap before it, the Rapala X Rap Walk is gaining a reputation as a killer barra lure.
NEW MODELS COMING SOON!!! 2 DEEP & 2 EASY WATCH THIS SPACE
The Topwater Roll Call Cultiva Tango Dancer Zoom Horny Toad Halco Roosta Popper Stiffy Fizzer Evergreen Amazon Stiffy Boof Frog Rapala X Rap Walk Lucky Craft Sammy Rapala Skitter Pop Lucky Craft Gunfish
Of course there are many types of topwater lures, and they can all be effective in different situations and conditions. Lets look at each type separately with Jason, discussing their positives and negatives, as well as when and where you are likely to use them.
what the barra are interested in on the day is the key. Woodchoppers are proven barra catchers. They work amazingly well in still conditions and because they are loud they certainly can raise lots of interest. I caught my personal best barra (126cm) on this style of lure, as well as heaps of other metre plus specimens, said Jason. A downside of these lures is, at times and in certain locations, barra may be spooked by the loud noise and splash of a fizzer. Also, some of these lures tend to foul up a bit on the cast, and the blades and hooks can get fouled too. However, most are robust enough to handle big barra, provided you upgrade hooks and rings.
PoPPers
Poppers or bloopers are another style of topwater lure, and my personal favourites are Rapala Skitter Pops, River2Sea poppers and Halco Roosta Poppers. There are a heap of other generic cup-faced poppers on the
Fizzers
Fizzers (also known as woodchoppers) are floating surface lures that have blades on
times a continuous, fairly fast retrieve is the way to go. Poppers work wonders on barra. They are not as loud as woodchoppers and can be fished at whatever volume you like. Tiny rips of the rod tip will make the popper throw small amounts of water and create only a slight noise, whereas big rips will cause a loud bloop and big splash. Poppers are versatile and can be fished completely silently as well. Just wind in really slowly and the lure will swim left to right, displacing a nice vee in the water. The Skitter Pop is a personal favourite; it casts well and has accounted for many fish in all sizes. On the downside, these lures can have a heavy splash down, which can work for or against you depending on the mood and location of the fish. Poppers rarely foul up, but like woodchoppers they will collect any debris or weed that is floating, which limits quality soak time. Also, there are few cupfaced poppers on the market that are able to stand up to what barra dish out. Upgrading
There are few anglers, even seasoned TournamenT veTerans and guides, who donT reacT like a sTarTled caT when a big barra explodes all over Their surface lure only feeT from The rod Tip.
them; some common brands are Bills Bugs and the Stiffy Fizzer. These lures generally cast well, create a loud water noise and have accounted for lots of fish. They can be retrieved using either a slow, steady style or a strip-and-leave style. Burning them across the surface will also bring results at times, but as with any other style of fishing, finding out market, but most are not built with big bruising impoundment barra in mind, said Jason. Bloop-style retrieves work well with poppers; the length of time you pause the lure will depend on the day and the mood of the fish. Sometimes it pays to let the popper sit for a minute or longer, then give it one or two short bloops, then let it sit again. Other terminals is essential and quite often this change will knock the lure out of spec. Make sure you balance out the lure with differing hook sizes and try swimming it before you fish with it.
Walk-the-dog lures
Walk-the-dog lures are great for topwater techniques. As the nickname suggests, they are shaped like dog turds and most carry an internal rattle. There are quite a few walkthe-dog lures on the market; proven models include the Rapala X-Rap Walk, the Tango Dancer and the Lucky Craft Sammy. These lures work extremely well in the early morning or in glassed-off conditions at any time of the day, and can be retrieved many different ways. A slow walk-the-dog retrieve can be lethal at times, as can a fast zig-zag retrieve. As with all other lures, finding out what works best will come through trial and error on the day. These lures sit in the middle in regards to noise; most carry internal rattles but these rattles aside, they make a relatively small amount of water noise. However, this does vary depending on retrieve speed. Because this lure moves from side to
a walking stick bait is the more finesse topwater options making it ideal in glassed out conditions and when a less aggressive approach is needed.
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A tandem approach is the way to got to crack the pattern, with one angler fishing topwater and the other a subsurface presentation.
productive. Soft plastics wont cast as far as a woodchopper or popper, so lighter line will allow you to cast maximum distance. Wind assistance will also help you cover more ground.
Other lureS
There are other exciting topwater barra techniques to be discovered too. Using bibbed lures with good floatation can be a top fish taker at times, while Long A Bombers and shallow running Classics can also be used as surface lures. Use a slow retrieve, then let the lure float to the surface and twitch it around. This is a great way to cover both subsurface and topwater fishing. Its also no secret that fishing topwater lures and reaction baits together can bring great results. Finding the best pattern on the day will require lateral thinking, a strong work ethic and a willingness to change styles, lures and your attitude towards fishing. This is how good barra anglers become great barra anglers.
side, hook-up rates can suffer more than with fizzers or poppers. Fizzers and poppers track straight, while walk-the-dog lures zig zag. There are times when fish will strike the lure but miss completely. To minimise this, try double or even triple split ringing your hooks to keep them further away from the body. Or you could tie a stinger hook off the tail of the lure on a thin piece of wire. These lures also foul weed and surface debris, so they can be difficult to fish in these areas.
Surface plaSticS
Soft plastics such as frogs, shads and lizards can also be lethal topwater lures. Surface plastics such as topwater frogs have been around for an age; the only things that have changed recently are the way they are fished, the locations they are fished in and the tackle that is used. Theres no doubt the surface frog has gone through a meteroic rise the Zoom Horny Toad, Squidgy Boof Frog and Stanley Ribbit have now become best selling plastics for anglers with all levels of barra experience. My two favourites are without doubt the Squidgy Boof Frog and the Zoom Horny Toad. This style of lure is my favourite for topwater fishing, said Jason. They are extremely versatile: they can be silent and land softly when fishing in shallow water, but can also be loud enough to attract interest from great distances. And its really easy to vary the speed, sound and wobble of these lures, which makes it easier to target barra on any given day,. Topwater frogs can be used in very shallow, weed-choked water, where no other lures could possibly be fished. There is not much worse than dragging a weed-fouled lure through water you want to fish, and with
frogs you can avoid this. A frog rigged on a weedless worm hook with an integrated weight system is a lethal combination in the right area. The best areas are weedy banks, island weed towers and shallow flats. Another positive is that this style of fishing is best done with a threadline, so all anglers, including beginners, can have a go. I have found that the TT Lures Tournament Series jigheads with their snagless weight system suit the job best, and use quality Gamakatsu hooks. My favourite hook is the SWS 1/8 hook in size 6/0. These hooks are incredibly strong, and I have taken barra over 30kg on them. Most fish are hinge hooked which means less stress on the fish, your leader and hook. Another bonus is that a small singular hook like that does very little damage to a barras mouth and they are easy to remove so that you can release the fish, said Jason. Soft plastic topwater lures dont have many disadvantages. Their main drawback is that they dont last very long and you will need to replace them fairly often. This means they wont be the cheapest option, though they may be the most exciting and
finiSh On tOp
If you want to become more successful at catching barra using this or any other method, there is no better way to start than to do your homework. Understanding what makes barra tick, along with loads of practice, will lead to better catch rates and greater success on topwater lures. While these lures are in no way the best lure to use, they are certainly a viable tournament option. And with plenty of metre-plus fish nailing surface lures, for a serious tournament angler not to have working knowledge and high confidence in surface presentations is simply allowing your competition to be one step ahead of you. To add 110cm to your limit makes the effort to learn topwater tactics worth its while, not to mention the heart stopping fun you will have along the way. Dismiss surface lures for big barra at your peril. You have been warned!
Flooded vegetation and shallow backwaters are prime places to topwater up a barra bite.
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Anglers tackle and techniques have evolving along with our barra fisheries, with many tournament anglers now reaping the benefits of going light.
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The downsizing revolution has taken off across all styles of angling throughout Australia, and barra angling is no exception. Whether it is lighter line, softer rods or smaller lures, anglers are adapting to pressured fish, and reaping the benefits.
or many years anglers have been downsizing their lines for sportfishing clubs like ANSA (Australian National Sportfishing Association), and many more anglers have begun to downsize for recreational sportfishing as well. These anglers are experiencing a challenge like no other in our sport. Using light line doesnt sound like a smart tournament decision, especially when youre tackling a metre-plus barra charging through the sticks. However, by using correct fish fighting techniques and combined with lighter leaders, softer rods, smaller reels and smaller lures, you can increase your bites and boost your chances of landing fish.
In the BegInnIng
Most Australian anglers would remember the typical barra outfit 10 years ago: Abu 5600C4, 50lb braid, 100lb monofilament leader and a 10-12kg Ugly Stik. In practical terms, it was perfect for the barra fishing that we were doing 10 years ago. Youd throw a bunch of rods into the back of the ute, drive down the bush track to a barra hole, then cast out large hard bodies and twitch them around. This may sound a bit like a Malcolm Douglas episode, but back then this style of fishing wasnt far from the truth. These reels were simple and reliable, the braid was thick and tough, the leader was stiff and the rods were near indestructible. Put all this together and you have the perfect barra slaying tool. Nowadays, if you have a look in any barramundi tournament anglers rod locker I doubt youll find any Abu 5600C4s or even an Ugly Stik. These old faithfuls have been replaced with graphite rods, tiny reels and a whole lot of expense. It raises the question: why have we switched to this new gear? There is nothing wrong with the older products, so what has changed?
Well, for starters, the perception of a barra has changed. Ten years ago a metreplus barra was an eye-opener, and hardly anybody knew what to expect from these monster fish. As a result, these big barra were put on a pedestal and the rest of us went into a knife battle with a bazooka. Once a few more dams were stocked, the barra grew bigger and an industry formed where most people had a pretty good chance of catching a metre-plus barra. That was when the sports angler came into action again, believing that 50lb was too heavy for these fish so he fished lighter. This was followed by lighter leaders, then softer rods, then smaller reels. This evolved until we ended up where we are today, with the average barra outfit combining small spin or low-profile baitcasters with 6-10kg graphite rods and 30lb braid and 60lb leader. This average combo is perfectly suited to all sizes of fish, from 40 to 130cm, but it can still pose a few problems. First of all, these combos can get heavy after a long period of time. The thickness of leaders and main lines can affect a lures movement, the castability of lures is affected and stiffer rods can put excessive weight on hooks and cause them to pull or straighten. This is why smart anglers are exploring options of lightening up on all aspects of their tackle and putting the focus back on to the fight, not the weapon.
have a JellyBean
For those of you who havent heard about the jellybean theory, it is a pretty simple and effective way to catch all species of fish on a tough bite. It involves offering fish a small, nibble-size offering rather than a more traditional larger size meal. Why? Well, in human terms, most of us wouldnt be able to resist snacking on a jellybean (whether were hungry or not), but we might baulk at a three-course dinner. We know most fish feed at a certain time of the day, whether it be driven by tides,
moon or conditions. When these fish are not feeding it means theyre sulking, ether individually or in large schools, and are not interested in another big meal. With the current high-end fishfinders we can easily find these inactive fish, but getting them to bite is another story. The goal at this point is to find a fishs jellybean something he will eat just because it is there, not because hes hungry. Whether a lure can be classified as a jellybean depends on the size of the fish youre chasing. For big barra, a jellybean is anything that is under 100mm long. It may seem strange for an angler to throw a 100mm lure at a 1000mm fish, but that fish at feeding time would devour kilos of fish and other bait of that same size. One of the main problems with lures this size is the fact that their terminal tackle isnt built to handle big fish. This is where smart angling techniques and ingenuity come into play. By increasing a hooks size but not its weight, youll be able to put larger, slightly stronger hooks with better penetration onto the lures without having any effect on the lures action. If you buy a series of hook sizes and brands, you can then use a set of kitchen scales to compare the hooks and find the best option for the lure. More recently, lure technologies have caught onto the jellybean theory, and lures like the FLT Transams fit the bill perfectly. These lures may not look like much but their small baitfish profile is proving to be the ultimate jellybean lure. These lures come standard with about 3x strong hooks that compromise with weight and strength to allow even the biggest barra to be swindled.
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When the weather is bad more often than not the barra fishing is likewise. Adjusting your tackle, particularly when it comes to lure selection can deliver results when more traditional lures fail.
storage on reels and the increase in casting distance, but what some barra anglers dont look at is the advantages of lighter braids in certain habitats. Most impoundment fishers target weed beds on a regular basis and, as most anglers know, once a barra is hooked it will use that weed bed to its advantage. With heavy, thick braids this normally ends in weed-covered lure. This is mainly due to the drag of the thicker braid through the weed, increasing the pressure on the fish and either pulling or straightening the hooks from within the fishs mouth.
hooked, have it all: fast, charging runs; powerful, spectacular jumps and dirty tactics. Reading these actions before they happen is not easy and can only be learnt from experience. However, there are a few techniques that most experienced barra anglers do without even knowing it, and these basic techniques have to be followed if you want to land a big fish on lighter line.
jump, and once it leaves the water you lose tension on the fish because you physically cannot pull the rod angle any further back. If youre fishing lighter line and are trying to steer a fish away from the snags, the rod angle is really important. A huge mistake many anglers make in this situation is to pull against the fish, directly away from the snag. All this does is encourage the fish to continue its path into the snag. The best option is to turn the rod 90 to the fishs direction, allowing you to pull 90 across its face and guide it away from the snag. This is because when a barra is peeling drag off in a certain direction it will generally swim against the direction of the pressure. That means if you are pulling the fish directly away, it will want to swim in the opposite direction, i.e. straight into the snag. By pulling 90 to the fishs direction you can often steer it away from the snag and sometimes into the clear. This technique is vital for light line fishing, as lighter line does not stand up well to abrasion because of its thinner diameter.
stay caLm
If a fish does take you into a snag, whether it is thick, dense timber or thin, spindletype timber, the number one rule is not to panic. When you panic you will often make bad decisions, and using thinner line does not allow any mistakes. The best option for untangling a fish is to back your drag off until there is very little pressure, and let the fish run. Often while the fish is running it will head all the way through the snags into clear water. If you put too much pressure to try to slow the fish down it will start to arc, wrapping itself around the timber.
Under pressUre
Thinner, lighter braid in this same situation has the advantage of a reduced surface area, which puts less pressure on the fish. Lighter braid, when used along with lighter drag, allows the fish to run and while the fish is running the thinner braid acts as a razor and cuts the weed. In some cases it even releases all weed from the line, leaving the angler to fight the fish in the clear. Another advantage of lighter braids is that the smaller diameter allows for better feel when working lures. This feel allows the angler to feel every nick and tickle that touches the lure, which could soon enough turn into fish on the deck.
Lets fight
One of the important factors that allow even the largest barra to be landed on the lightest line is the fighting techniques. Rod angles, drag pressure and reading the fishs action allow the angler to predict its next move and counteract. For most barra anglers, landing a barra is all about the fight. These fish, once
134 TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12
Fighting barra around tight cover on light tackle is a skill, the higher you angling skill level the greater your chances for landing fish.
Inclu Attac
des ger
k Trig
2 NEW CHOICES
Once the fish is into the clear, you can gently follow the line until you reach the fish. If the fish is wrapped up around timber, you can use your rod to try to unwind the line. This is done by tightening the line until it is about a foot off the water, then moving the rod clockwise and then anticlockwise until ASSORTED JELLYBEANS Barra like humans love jellybeans, heres an assortment to tie on. Squidgy Slick Rig - 80mm
you see the rod tip move away from the water. This means you are gaining line and undoing the fish. Keep doing this until you pull up tight to the fish.
between too soft and too heavy is a difficult task, and often varies from angler to angler. Personally, for 20lb main line I prefer a 5-6kg quick action rod longer then 66. The length of this rod allows me to ease the pressure onto the fish to set the hook instead of short, sharp hits, and the weight of the rod allows me to really lay into the fish if required without the fear of straightening hooks. With lighter rods comes lighter reels. Small bass-sized spin and baitcaster reels hold more than enough 20lb braid to stop any charging barra. The advances in reel designs allow for large, smoother drags and lighter components, making casting all day a pleasure.
getting it together
Anglers these days often go out of their way to increase their chances of getting
Even elephants eat peanuts like this 111cm Faust barra which took a liking to a 77mm Megabass Vibration X.
Berkley Hollowbelly - 4
having it all
Not just any 20 or 40lb monofilament line can be used as leader successfully. The leader really needs to have it all shock resistance, strength and castability in knots. This is where fluorocarbon leaders come into their own. Fluorocarbon as a bare material is manufactured in the same processes as normal monofilament. The difference is that fluorocarbon has additives that increase its density, therefore increasing its abrasion resistance while having little effect on the thickness. Another great feature of fluorocarbon is its visibility underwater. Once in the water, fluorocarbon becomes virtually invisible and the thinner the leader, the less visible it becomes, allowing for better lure presentation. The problem with fluorocarbon is the knot strength. Its hardness means knots have to be perfect and tested for strength before use.
a bite, using everything from custom paint jobs to added scents. However, the benefits that lighter line provides are often overlooked. With lighter line you have the advantages of better lure action, longer casts, better hook sets, less visibility and better feel which all lead to more bites and more hook-ups. Im not saying that any barra can be landed in any situation on 20lb braid. However, if you focus on fighting techniques and learn from every fish you catch, there really is no limit to what you can land on lighter lines. In a tournament situation this could mean the difference between last and first.
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australia wide
signage needs
xfactorsigns@bigpond.com
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Jackalls barra jerkbaits concieved by hank himself. ready to win tournaments straight out of the box.
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Rob Wood secured the Northern AOY title on the back of his win at Teemburra, while Monduran victor Peter Price claimed the Southern AOY crown. Jon Millard was rewarded for his consistency over the tour, claiming the Overall AOY title with an impressive 297/300 points tally. Kerrin Taylor returned to the top of the Rankings table, with the barra gun finishing the season as the clear winner, 44 points of his nearest ranked competitor, Jon Millard. For further records visit www.australianbarra.com.au
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ToTal Earnings
$108,380
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super tough pin that looks like a collarbone and it slots home snugly across the shoulders of the lure right in front of the gill moulding. Try yanking on the bib - it's not coming off till you push that pin out again.
because we put the scales inside the lure. Internal scales mean the lure can't catch on the fish's teeth when setting the hook. The fish slides along the lure and ends up with a mouthful of super-sharp 5 extra-strong Mustad trebles like its supposed to.
Weight-shifting bearings
The HAMMA has a long internal chamber, housing three precision weighted ball bearings. Apart from adding a loud and enticing rattle, the bearings shift the lure's centre of gravity. The HAMMA is rear-weighted during casting, reducing mid-air tumbling and increasing your casting distance. When the retrieve starts, the bearings roll forward and lock in place above the front hook anchor point, restoring the HAMMA's perfect balance and downright sexy action - like a baitfish with a limp. (Visit youtube.com/user/ HalcoTackle?feature=mhum to see the action for yourself.)
Super-tough polymer
We also built the lure with a new super-tough polymer that's unique to the HAMMA and much tougher than acrylic. Multiple hookups (and multiple silly-grinning photos) later, the lure still looks and swims like it just left the box.
Changeable Bibs
Everything about the HAMMA is designed to have you smelling like a fishmonger. Firstly, it comes with two bibs that take less than 60 seconds to swap over. This gives it two swimming depths of 1 and 3 metres. You can quickly and repeatedly change your target depth without changing lures. The bib is held in place by a
Internal Scales
It's a slippery little bugger coming out of the packet, so watch out for the hooks. Run your fingers over its surface and it's smooth as glass
HAMMA
halcotackle.com
ree! F
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AVAI LA BL E ON LI NE
Congratulation
Steve Parker, vIC
to 2011 Bonus Bucks Win
$
4000!
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SKEETER
BONUS BUCK$
Skeeter makes the best bream, bass and barra boats for Australian tournament anglers and wants to give back to the hundreds of loyal Skeeter owners nationwide.
To do this, Skeeter is offering $2,000 in cash to the best performing Skeeter owner across all of the ABT tours! Join the points race by letting ABT officials know that youre a Skeeter owner at the event briefing all BREAM Qualifier, BASS Pro Qualifier and BARRA (individual) events count as well as the Australian Open BREAM event. The AOY points that you earn in that event also
count in the points race and your best four events across the year make up your final score. This way, anglers across all three major species can compete against each other. If youre a bream guy who fishes a bass event or two, they count. If youre a barra angler who dabbles in bass, then that counts too. The more events you fish, the better your chance of accumulating points.
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Evinrude and end up on top of the pack! With no scheduled dealer servicing for three years, Evinrude E-Tec keeps you on the water and fishing instead of spending your time and money dragging your boat back and forth to the dealer. And, theres an Evinrude E-Tec model perfectly suited to every Skeeter boat in the range
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Daiwa BREAM Grand Final winner Russell Babekuhl claim the cup again in 2012? Visit www.bream.com.au during the year to see how the battle is going. Ford also presents anglers with the chance to win cash during the Daiwa BREAM Series with $250 awarded to the highest placed Ford owner (boater and non-boater) at each event. The other points race that kept tournament fans enthralled throughout 2011, the Skeeter Bonus Bucks, returns for the New Year and once again caters to all three species: bream, bass and barra. How does it work? Simply own and use a Skeeter on the ABT tournament scene during the year, tally up your best four AOY points scores from the season, and if you have the highest score, then youre $2000 richer and the Skeeter Bonus Bucks winner for 2012. If youre running an Evinrude E-Tec on the back of your Skeeter than you can double it to $4000. If you dont have a Mercury or Skeeter
dont despair because ABT has a long list of tackle based Sponsor Bonuses to get you cashed up and loaded to the hilt with prizes. Ecogear, Yamatoyo, Duffrods, Damiki, Pontoon 21, Rapala, TT Lures, Strike Pro, Skagit Designs, Tica, Club Marine, Bassday and Sebile have all presented anglers with a challenge. Fish with their products, perform with their products, and theyll reward you for your performance. It just goes to show that it does pay to go fishing. For BREAM anglers the new tournament year gets underway at the Daiwa BREAM Australian Open on 11-13 January, while for BASS Pro anglers the season gets underway at Lake Boondooma on 25-26 February. If barra fishing is your thing then the BMA BARRA Tour in September is where it all kicks off. So whatever species youre into, get onboard the tournament trail, get onboard the Sponsor Bonus Program and get out there fishing and winning.
B B B
G/F
146
cuP
s Program 2012 Bonu
&
ry BREAM Qualifier, owning BREAMers. In eve is a big year for Mercury 2012 rcury owner in the event. ing the highest placed Me to win a $250 bonus for be eral seasons. you have the chance ners have enjoyed for sev Its a program Mercury ow
Continuing in 2012 is the Mercury Cup. Every Mercury owner in an event that receives BREAM Rankings points (in a Qualifier or the Grand Final) is added to the Mercury Cup points race, and the best five finishes through the season are tallied to crown a winner. Better still, theres additional cash payouts for the top three placegetters! As always, all you need to do is declare your ownership at the check-in before the briefing of any BREAM Qualifier and the ABT staff will look after the rest. Up to date Mercury Cup points tables will be found on the front page of www.bream.com.au throughout the year and the winner will be announced on the final day of the season the last day of the 2012 BREAM Grand Final. With the choice of OptiMax, OptiMax ProXS, Verado and Four Stroke, theres a Mercury outboard to suit any breamin hull you like you can check out the full range at www.mercurymarine.com.au.
1st $1000
2nd $750
3rd $500
SponSor
b Q
forD
The highest place Ford owner (boater and non-boater) at each round of the Daiwa BREAM Series will be rewarded with $250 from Ford. Anglers must register their ownership at the briefing. Vehicle must be registered in the anglers name.
b b b
g/f
Q
Club Marine logo_NEW.pdf 3/7/06 5:10:31 PM
raPala
b b b
g/f
Win a BREAM, BASS Pro, BARRA Qualifier or Grand Final event using a Rapala lure and Rapala will reward you with a $500 RRP gift pack if youre a boater and a $250 gift pack if youre a nonboater. *Lure needs to be nominated in ABT written report.
EcogEar
Win a BREAM, BASS Pro, BARRA or Grand Final event and Ecogear will reward you with a $500 RRP gift pack if youre a boater and a $250 gift pack if youre a nonboater. *Lures need to be nominated in ABT written report.
club marInE
The highest placed Club Marine insured boater at a BASS Pro Qualifier event will be rewarded with $500 from Club Marine.
b b b
YamatoYo
Win a BREAM, BASS Pro, BARRA or Grand Final event as a boater using a Yamatoyo product and they will reward you with a $250 Yamatoyo gift pack. *Line needs to be nominated in ABT written report.
bassDaY
If you win a BREAM Qualifier or catch the overall Big Bream on a Bassday lure youll win a $1,000 Bassday lure pack.
DuffroDs
Win a BREAM, Kayak Qualifier (ABT Run) or BASS Pro Qualifier as either a boater or a nonboater using a Duffrod and Kustom Fishing Tools will reward you with an identical Duffrod. * *Excludes Duffrod Pro Team members.
tt lurEs
Tackle Tactics will award a $500 RRP value gift pack to any boater and a $250 RRP value gift pack to any nonboater that wins a BASS Pro, BREAM or BARRA Pro Qualifier event on a TT product.
b b b
g/f
DamIKI
Damiki will award a $500 RRP value gift pack to any boater winning a BREAM Qualifier, BASS Pro Qualifier or Grand Final on Damiki lures. Also, a $250 RRP pack is available for a winning non-boater using Damiki in the same events. *Lures need to be nominated in ABT written report.
strIKE Pro
Win or come 2nd (as a Boater or non-Boater) in any ABT BREAM, BASS Pro or BARRA Qualifier event using Strike Pro lures (Hard Body or Reaction Baits) and receive a bonus Strike Pro lure pack to the value of $ $300 RRP. The particular lures must be nominated to the ABT reporter as the event report is written.
b b
g/f
Pontoon 21
Pontoon 21 will award a $250 RRP value gift pack to any boater winning a BREAM Qualifier, BASS Pro Qualifier or Grand Final on Pontoon 21 lures. Also, a $125 RRP pack is available for a winning non-boater using Pontoon 21 in the same events. *Lures need to be nominated in ABT written report.
148 TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12
strIKE Pro
Win overall Biggest Bream, Bass or Barra at any ABT BREAM, BASS Pro or BARRA Qualifier event caught on a Strike Pro lure (Hard Body or Reaction Baits) and receive a Strike Pro lure pack to the value of $300 RRP, plus $100 Cash. The particular lures must be nominated at the time of presentation of the Big Bream, Bass or Barra prize.
Bonus Program
B Barra B Bass B Bream
g/F Grand Final
Q Qualifier
Boater
Non-Boater
g/F
g/F
strike Pro
Win the ABT National BREAM, BASS Pro or BARRA Grand Final using Strike Pro lures Hard Bodies or Reaction Baits), and receive $500 CASH, plus a Strike Pro lure pack to the value of $250 RRP. The particular lures must be nominated to the ABT reporter as the event report is written.
skagit Designs
Win the ABT National BREAM, BASS Pro or BARRA Grand Final using Skagit Designs lures and receive $300 cash plus a Skagit lure pack to the value of $200 RRP. The particular lures must be nominated to the ABT reporter as the event report is written.
B Q
strike Pro
Win or come 2nd, (as a Boater or non- Boater) in any ABT BREAM, BASS Pro or BARRA Qualifier event using Strike Pro Armour Braid and receive a Strike Pro Braid and Lure Pack to the value of $300 RRP. The particular braid used must be nominated to the ABT reporter as the event report is written.
tiCa
Win or come 2nd, (as a Boater or non- Boater) in any ABT BREAM, BASS Pro or BARRA Qualifier event using a TiCA Reel and/or TiCA Rod and receive a TiCA Rod and Reel combination of your choice, to the value of $400 RRP. The particular TiCA reel and/or rod used must be nominated to the ABT reporter as the event report is written.
g/F
strike Pro
Win the ABT National BREAM, BASS Pro or BARRA Grand Final using Strike Pro Armour Braid and receive $300 CASH plus Strike Pro Braid and Lure pack to the value of $200 RRP. The particular braid used must be nominated to the ABT reporter as the event report is written.
tiCa
Win overall Biggest Bream, Bass or Barra at any ABT BREAM, BASS Pro or BARRA Qualifier event caught using a TiCA Reel, and receive your choice of any current TiCA Reel or Rod to the value of $400 RRP. The particular TiCA Reel must be nominated at the time of presentation of the Big Bream, Bass or Barra prize.
Q B B B
g/F
skagit Designs
Win or come 2nd, (as a Boater or non- Boater) in any ABT BREAM, BASS Pro or BARRA Qualifier event using Skagit Designs lures, and receive a Skagit Designs lure pack to the value of $300 RRP. The particular lures must be nominated to the ABT reporter as the event report is written.
tiCa
Win the ABT National BREAM, BASS Pro or BARRA Grand Final using a TiCA Reel, and receive $300 cash plus a TiCA Reel of your choice to the value of $200 RRP. The particular TiCA Reel used must be nominated to the ABT reporter as the event report is written.
Q B B B Q
g/F
skagit Designs
Win overall Biggest Bream, Bass or Barra at any ABT BREAM, BASS Pro or BARRA Qualifier event using Skagit Designs lures, and receive a Skagit lure pack to the value of $300 RRP plus $100 cash. The particular lures must be nominated at the time of presentation of the Big Bream, Bass or Barra prize.
seBile
Win a BREAM Qualifier, BASS Pro Qualifier, or BREAM or BASS Grand Final event as a boater or nonboater using a Sebile lure and they will reward you with $500 RRP Sebile gift pack.
TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12 149
member 12
Bring this card to all abt events
1
the tackle Warehouse 436 old Cleveland Rd, Camp Hill, QlD, 4152 Phone: 07 3398 6500 Email: info@tacklewarehouse.com.au Website: www.tacklewarehouse.com.au Discount: 10% (excludes rods and reels - by negotiation) Mail Order: Yes Store: Location:
2
charltons Fishing 18 Kerwich St, Redbank, QlD, 4301 07 3818 1677 Phone: Email: info@charltonsfishing.com.au Website: http://www.charltonsfishing.com.au Discount: 10% Mail Order: Yes Store: Location:
BT members can reap the benefits of membership in 2012 with the ABT Member Retailer Program delivering anglers access to Australias premier tournament fishing tackle stores. The program is now 11 stores strong with outlets scattered throughout the country including Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and Western Australia. To reap the benefits and support the stores that support ABT and tournament fishing simply find your local store in the listing below, grab your ABT membership card and get down there to check out their store and tackle range. Remember, support the stores that support you and your sport. * Condition- must present current ABT membership to receive discounts & offers.
3
Store: Location: Factory tackle outlet (Fto) 1/11 Knobel Crt, Shailer park, QlD, 4128 Phone: 0416 017 094 Email: orders@factorytackleoutlet.com Website: www.factorytackleoutlet.com Discount: 15% Mail Order: Yes
11
10
4
Battery traders Superstore 82 Moss St, Slacks Creek, QlD, 4127 Phone: 07 3209 3144 Email: steven@batterytraders.com.au Website: www.batterytraders.com.au 10% Discount: Mail Order: Yes (on selected products) Store: Location:
5
Fish n Bits Bait & tackle 340 alderley Street, toowoomba, QlD, 4350 Phone: 07 4636 6850 Email: fish.bits@hotmail.com Website: www.fishnbits.com.au 10% Discount: Mail Order: Yes Store: Location:
6
Big river Bait and tackle 16 River St, Maclean, nSW, 2463 Phone: 02 6645 1834 Email: bigriver@bigpond.net.au Website: http://www.shakeandbake.com.au 10% (excludes some items) Discount: Mail Order: Yes Store: Location:
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Who ShAReS
WinS
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Lake Glenbawn Kiosk Lake Glenbawn State Park, NSW 02 6543 8355 bakerods@hotkey.net.au n/a $25 Jackalls & $1 off all marked prices Mail Order: Yes Store: Location: Phone: Email: Website: Discount:
1 5 3
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Tamar Marine 6-8 West Tamar Rd, Launceston, TAS, 7250 Phone: 03 6331 6188 Email: sales@tamarmarine.com.au Website: www.tamarmarine.com.au Discount: 10% Mail Order: Yes Store: Location:
10
Albany Rods & Tackle 40 Stirling Tce, Albany, WA, 6330 Phone: 08 9841 1231 Email: albanyrt@bigpond.net.au Discount: 5% (excludes specials) Mail Order: Yes Store: Location:
7
Manning River Marine 13 Victoria St, Taree, NSW, 2430 Phone: 02 6552 2333 Email: jim@manningrivermarine.com.au Website: www.manningrivermarine.com.au 15% (excludes some items) Discount: Mail Order: Yes Store: Location:
11 9
Compleat Angler & Camping World 154 Stirling HWay, Nedlands, WA, 6009 Phone: 08 9389 1337 Email: comfish@iinet.net.au Website: www.compleatangler.com.au 10% Discount: Mail Order: N/A Store: Location:
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NEW
X55
Style: Suspending Finesse Minnow Length: 55mm Weight: 1/5oz Depth: 3 feet Colours: Two
The X55s slim prole is ideal across a range of retrieves from slow twitching to steadier retrieve patterns. It is effective in streams or saltwater estuaries where it can be worked around pylons or over the ats.
Frogleys Offshore PO Box 5177, Ballina NSW 2478 Ph: (02) 6681 3988 www.megabass.com.au www.facebook.com/megabass
Performance Propellers will optimize your stainless steel bass boat propeller wherever you are in Australia.
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My $50 joining fee gets me: 2 x sew-on patches An ABT membership card Daiwa cap
Sponsor pack Eligibility for ABT tournaments 2012 Tournament Angler Guide AFC Series VIII DVD (When Available)
My $50 renew fee ensures that: I continue to receive the benefits of ABT membership for the forthcoming year Eligibility for ABT tournaments An ABT membership card Daiwa cap Sponsor pack AFC Series VIII DVD (When Available)
New Member
Renewal
Name Street address Suburb Email address Phone Numbers Day Night Mobile Payment (tick one) Cheque Postal Order Credit Card State Postcode
Credit Card Details (Visa or Mastercard only) Name on card Expiry date Card No. / / / /
Post forms to: ABT PO Box 7196 Loganholme QLD 4129 or fax to... (07) 3387 0889 Membership enquiries to: ABT on (07) 3387 0888 (b/h)
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po box 7196 loganholme qld 4129 ph 07 3387 0888 fax 07 3387 0889
DATE 21-22 Jan 25-26 Feb 10-11 Mar 28-29 Mar 5-6 May 16-17 Jun 11-12 Aug 27-28 Oct
ARENA Glenelg River, SA Marlo, VIC Forster, NSW Swan River, TAS Albany, WA Tweed river, NSW Bribie Island, QLD Narrabeen Lake, NSW
EVENT SA State Titles VIC State Titles NSW State Titles TAS State Titles WA State Titles Qualifier QLD State Titles Qualifier
TICK ONE
KAYAKER ($100)
Name ___________________________________________________ State____________________________________________________ Day Phone _______________________________________________ Mobile __________________________________________________ Payment (tick one) cheque postal order credit card
Note: A $50 (cash only) Option Up is available and must be paid at the event briefing. A full set of 2012 rules are available online at www. bream.com.au or by calling ABT on (07) 3387 0888 during business hours. Entries close on the last mail on Friday the week before the tournament - late entries accepted at ABTs discretion. Entries are not accepted without payment and payment is not accepted without an entry form. ABT has the right to exercise discretion in accordance to the rules. Due to credit card charges an additional amount of 3% will be incurred for credit card payments. If you are a not an ABT member please include a completed membership form and payment with this entry form. Please ensure all relevant boat insurance and registration is up to date before the event.
Credit card details (Visa or Mastercard Only) Expiry Date ______/______ Card No___________/___________/___________/ _____________ Amount (+3% processing fee) $_______________________________ Sign ____________________________________________________
154
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series 2012
Tournament Entry Form
One form per event Guaranteed entries: Boater and Non-boater use the SAME FORM
ARENA Lake Boondooma Lake St Clair, NSW Lake Glenbawn, NSW Lake Somerset, QLD Samurai Reaction Sufix G Loomis TT Lures
TYPE BASS Pro Qualifier # 1 BASS Pro Qualifier # 2 BASS Pro Qualifier # 3 BASS Pro Qualifier # 4
Note: A $100 (cash only) Option Up (Boater & Non-Boater) is available and must be paid at the event briefing. A full set of 2012 rules are available online at www. bream.com.au or by calling ABT on (07) 3387 0888 during business hours.
Entries close on the last mail on Friday the week before the tournament - late entries accepted at ABTs discretion with a 20% surcharge. Entries are not accepted without payment and payment is not accepted without an entry form. ABT has the right to exercise discretion in accordance to
the rules. Due to credit card charges an additional amount of 3% will be incurred for credit card payments. If you are a not an ABT member please include a completed membership form and payment with this entry form. Please ensure all relevant boat insurance and registration is up to date before the event.
TICK ONE ThEN fIll OuT ThE sECTION BElOw. A BOATER ANd NON BOATER ENTERINg ON ThE sAmE fORm wITh pAymENT INCludEd wIll BE guARANTEEd A sTART.
Credit card details (Visa or Mastercard Only) Expiry Date ______/______ Card No___________/___________/___________/ _____________ Amount (+3% processing fee) $_______________________________ Sign ____________________________________________________
Credit card details (Visa or Mastercard Only) Expiry Date ______/______ Card No___________/___________/___________/ _____________ Amount (+3% processing fee) $_______________________________ Sign ____________________________________________________
TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12 155
series 2012
australian barra tournaments www.australianbarra.com.au po box 7196 loganholme qld 4129 ph 07 3387 0888 fax 07 3387 0889
One form per event Guaranteed entries: Boater and Non-boater use the SAME FORM
DATE 21-22 Jan 11-12 Feb Mar 31 - Apr 1 5-6 May 19-20 May 16-17 Jun 14-15 Jul 11-12 Aug ARENA Glenelg River Mallacoota Derwent River Albany St Georges Basin Tweed River Lake Macquarie Bribie Island EVENT BREAM Qualifier #1 BREAM Qualifier #2 BREAM Qualifier #3 BREAM Qualifier #4 BREAM Qualifier #5 BREAM Qualifier #6 BREAM Qualifier #7 BREAM Qualifier #8 SPONSOR Mercury Rapala Shimano Strike Pro Hobie Kayaks Atomics FINS Braid Ecogear
Note: A $100 (cash only) Option Up (Boater & Non-Boater) is available and must be paid at the event briefing. A full set of 2012 rules are available online at www. bream.com.au or by calling ABT on (07) 3387 0888 during business hours.
Entries close on the last mail on Friday the week before the tournament - late entries accepted at ABTs discretion with a 20% surcharge. Entries are not accepted without payment and payment is not accepted without an entry form. ABT has the right to exercise discretion in accordance to
the rules. Due to credit card charges an additional amount of 3% will be incurred for credit card payments. If you are a not an ABT member please include a completed membership form and payment with this entry form. Please ensure all relevant boat insurance and registration is up to date before the event.
TICK ONE ThEN fIll OuT ThE sECTION BElOw. A BOATER ANd NON BOATER ENTERINg ON ThE sAmE fORm wITh pAymENT INCludEd wIll BE guARANTEEd A sTART.
Credit card details (Visa or Mastercard Only) Expiry Date ______/______ Card No___________/___________/___________/ _____________ Amount (+3% processing fee) $_______________________________ Sign ____________________________________________________
156 TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE 12
Credit card details (Visa or Mastercard Only) Expiry Date ______/______ Card No___________/___________/___________/ _____________ Amount (+3% processing fee) $_______________________________ Sign ____________________________________________________
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Source: Mercury Marine Engineering Dept. May 2008. Test conducted on a 21 bass boat with a Mercury OptiMax 250 hp Pro XS and an Evinrude 250hp E-TEC HO. Visit mercurymarine.com for more test results. 2010 MERCURY MARINE. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. E-TEC is a registered trademark of BRP-Powertrain GmbH & Co. KG. Evinrude is a registered trademark of Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. All other trademarks belong to the Brunswick Corporation.