# Mooloolaba ABT Comp 22 Feb 09 - Tough Day of Breaming



## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

Team,

Hit the ABT kayak bream round 2 at Mooloolaba this morning with 38 other competitors. We had rain, wind, dirty water and some periods of bright sunshine to contend with in what turned out to be a tough days fishing.

From the 39 anglers only 10 fish between 7 anglers were weighed in at the end of the day.

I went with a plan to fish the trawlers and tuna boats early during the tide change (along with a half dozen other guys) only to find trevally smashing bait on the surface (sometimes only a rod's length away from the yak) and not a bream in sight, it got pretty hard to concentrate on the task at hand with all the other surface activity. T

Moses perch made themselves available for a few games but when your fishing for silver things and you see brown thigs pop up it gets a little dissapointing. I tried to persevere around the trawlers but the MP's and the dirty water that was now starting to run through a bit harder saw me shift out towards the mouth looking for cleaner water. I spent about an hour flicking gulp shrimps and worms around, under and through every obstruction to the water flow that I could find without any luck. I fished under the coastguard jetty and was smoked by something that took my 4pd gear and laughed all the way around the first oyster encrusted pilon it could find.

I then tried the canals after that for another hour without luck and was starting to resign myself to the fact that I was going to have a breamless day. I wasn't to concerned by this as, every other angler that I had spoken to during the day told the same story - Moses Perch or Cod but NO BREAM.

With an hour left till weigh-in I decided to head back to a spot where I'd caught the bulk of the Moses Perch during the morning, if for nothing else, a bit of entertainment. I fished a location near some dry docks by tying off to the pontoons behind me and casting tight up against a pontoon down current. It was then a simple waiting game as I free spooled the gulps on 1/32 heads back to the fish and watched the line intently for any signs of movement.

First cast in this spot ended up in the perfect spot (a rarity for me and I was very impressed with myself), I let it drift back with the current whilst gently feeding line out and saw one of the bends in the floating braid on top of the water straighten just a fraction, I flipped over the bail arm took a turn of the handle and struck sharply and to my amazment had a good fish on taking a nice run out and away from cover into open water. When I got it up next to the yak and realised that this was infact a bream and not a moses, I scrambled behind me for the net and managed to get him in first attempt. Woo hoo high fives all round, whoops fishing in a comp now ... ssshhh! Well now I had a bream and he was well legal so I didn't even bother to measure him, I filled my livewell which I was not expecting to use and turned on the aerator and dropped him in. I knew after talking to others during the day that getting at least one fish was going to put me some where on the leader board. I still had another 30 minutes to fish before heading back to the weigh in and I thought that I might be able to get a few more but my next cast was wayward and snagged on some rope, so I had to retreive this and set up again and then the next cast also went AWOL and snagged up. Rerigged, and this continued with another couple of moses and snags using up the rest of my time.

Got back to the weigh in and saw most competitiors coming back in empty handed and felt a bit out of place to be weighing a fish, as these guys fish for bream a hell of a lot more than I ever do, and they could be justified in feeling cheated by this hack with a dodgy livewell and a bream in his bag.

My fish ended up weighing in at 550 grams and left me taking out 5th spot which earned me $90 and a new Berkley Diablo 6-10kg flick stick. To say that I was stoked was an understatement as I never expected catch a fish in this comp let alone win a prize.

I would really like to have another go at the next round on the Gold Coast but we have already got a few things happening on that weekend, so I may or may not be able to make it (could be a bit of juggling around of other commitments - just don't tell the wife). But I will definately be keeping an eye out for events such as this in the future and head along. I couldn't recommend it highly enough for anybody else that is thinking of doing one of these events, no matter what you're experience level with this style of fishing, as my performance today shows that you just need to be in the right place at the right time.

Every body was freindly and open to conversation even during the heat of battle in the competition and it was all round just an excellent experience. I learnt more today by fishing for Bream for six hours straight than I have by reading countless books and watching hours of video, even if I did only catch the one fish.

Sorry for the long winded garble but I am still on a bit of a high.










Kev


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## rob316 (Oct 2, 2007)

Pity the fish didn't want to play much...but trhats the excitement of it all hey - hearing on the grapevine that nobody is getting any fish , but knowing you have one in the bag [ well ] .. ;-) ...would have liked to have been there but no livewell , or anything similiar to assure the fish is alive at weigh in - means that it is a no goer for me  
I was looking at getting to the other comp - kft - down the coast today - as its a pic and release comp - but weather reports put me off - me thinks i should have gone , the weather at home was ok until mid morning!!....i'll know better next time....i really want to have a crack at either of these for the fun ;-)


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## BubbleBass (Oct 6, 2008)

Well done Kev on your placing, nothing wrong with being on a high, enjoyed the read,
Next time for you Scott . would have been good being away and meeting up with other bods anyway.

Cheers BB (Jake)


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## Orange (Aug 31, 2008)

Congratulations to Kev and everyone else at the comp. and all the organisers.

We went along as spectators and I took a couple of photos of the start - thought you may like a look.

Cheers, 
Gary & Georgia.


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## dunebuggy (Dec 21, 2008)

Tough days fishing? You ain't kidding. I spent a few days over two weeks fishing the area trying to find the good spots and got bugger all. I made me fell a little better that better fishermen than me also had trouble catching fish. What really made my day though......... I managed to break a $250 rod. Grrrr. Shufoy and I are going for a fish at Bells creek in the morning. Brett has some time to kill before his flight home. Hopefully we will fare better tommorow, although there are no prizes up for grabs. I took some video and a few photos too but the camera, and all the other gear, is still in the car. I spent most of the afternnon passed out in a recliner in front of the telly. I'm not used to early morning starts, I am a night owl.

On the plus side, this was my 1st comp and I was glad to be part of it. It was great to meet so many fellow yakkers in one spot although, My memory for names is terrible.
I decided today that I would indeed go to the gold coast, round 3 comp, as I had to join the abt anyway, so, the next one will be $50 cheaper. lol. I hope to see a lot of you again down on the Gold Coast.
By for now.


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## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

Too much journey, lack of sleep, arghh...

Tommorow peeps.


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## craig450 (May 11, 2007)

Looking forward to more reports guys and how everyone placed, with only 10 fish weighed in it sounds very tough!!


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## pcsolutionman (Apr 9, 2007)

wow u guys did it tough :shock: :shock: Would it hurt if I said I got 18 bream from the trawlers last night land based biggest going 38cm. It can be a hard place to fish during daylight hours even when theres no fresh in the system, but they really seem to fire up at night.

PS also got mine on Gulp Shrimp


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## DrJed (Sep 13, 2007)

Well done BigKev -Great result. 
I was thinking of having a go at a comp, but no livewell :? Sounds like a really tough day fishing all round so you did really well.

Steve


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## dunebuggy (Dec 21, 2008)

pcsolutionman said:


> wow u guys did it tough :shock: :shock: Would it hurt if I said I got 18 bream from the trawlers last night land based biggest going 38cm. It can be a hard place to fish during daylight hours even when theres no fresh in the system, but they really seem to fire up at night.
> 
> PS also got mine on Gulp Shrimp


You are a cruel cruel man Lee.


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## Slim (Mar 4, 2008)

The 42cm grunter i got up the first canal made me think for just 2 seconds i had a winning bream. Total for me was a 3kg cod, 3 flathead, a million moses perch, a long tom, a pike, a grunter, a whiting and a pufferfish. everything but a bream.


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

DrJed said:


> Well done BigKev -Great result.
> I was thinking of having a go at a comp, but no livewell :? Sounds like a really tough day fishing all round so you did really well.
> 
> Steve


Hey Steve, my livewell consisted of a 28 litre clear plastic container with a $15 rapala aerator from BCF with a wet towel over the top and sides to provide a bit of insulation. I just made sure that I topped it up with some fresh water in regularly which just overflowed out and down the scuppers in my rear well. I didn't really expect to catch a fish so I didn't put a huge amount of effort into building a complicated livewell for this first event. If they become a bit more regular I may look at building something more substantial.

Did any body know any results from the KFT on the Gold Coast? Any AKFFers attend?

Kev


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

kraley said:


> About 10:20, I finally hooked what really felt like a keeper bream on a little TT blade. Got it to the boat, proud as punch - but the ABT ruler didn't lie. 22.75cm! :


Now referred to as Kraley size :twisted: 8)

Damn...sounds like another tough day breaming! That's 2 out of 2 events that have had bad weather/conditions...

Keep the reports a coming folks! Who were the lucky/skilled anglers who took out the placings??


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

Glad that I could be of assistance... 8)

Results (copied over from Hobie Steve's post in other thread)

Round 2 - Sunshine Coast

Results are in, 39 kayaks and tough fishing. Report soon.

Place Angler Fish Weight Payout 
1 Josh Carpenter 2 0.98 $350 
2 Steve Fields 2 0.78 $220 
3 Greg Lewis 2 0.655 $130 + Berkley Diablo rod 
4 Chris Martin 1 0.61 $90 + Berkley Diablo rod, BB$100 
5 Kevin Crawford 1 0.555 $90 + Berkley Diablo rod 
6 Wayne Robinson 1 0.42 Hobie Sunglasses 
7 Richard Creighton 1 0.26 Berkley soft plastic 6 pack + Hobie Spray Jacket 
8 Barry Trapp 
8 Brett Green 
8 Brett Ozanne 
8 Brian Rutledge 
8 Carey Smith 
8 David Doherty 
8 Derek Steele 
8 Duke Gary Hoffman 
8 Garrett Hilton 
8 Gary Bateman 
8 Gary Cooke 
8 Greg Cowie 
8 Josh De Groot 
8 Josh Holmes 
8 Ken Rahy 
8 Kevin Winchester 
8 Mal Gray 
8 Matt Petrie 
8 Paul O'Leary 
8 Pete Bostock 
8 Peter Woolgar 
8 Rob Cooke 
8 Scott Lovig 
8 Scott McIntosh 
8 Scott Sandilands 
8 Stephanie Shaw 
8 Stephen Maas 
8 Stuart Whitehouse 
8 Trevor Martin 
8 Wendy Sandilands 
9 Scott Baker -0.1 
9 Neil Carstairs -0.6


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

people caught minus fish?


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

koich said:


> people caught minus fish?


Maybe late back to the weigh in?? :?


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

a-ha That makes sense.


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

From the Bream/ABT website

"39 Kayak enthusiasts attended the second round of the 2009 Hobie BREAM Kayak Series at Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast. A massive arena with everything from trawlers and moored boats, to docks, pontoons, mangrove edges and flats. However, recent rain had made the water quite discoloured and the fishing tough. In total, 10 fish were weighed in between 7 smiling anglers.

Event winner, Josh Carpenter, a 32 year old from Brisbane borrowed his mum's kayak to compete. An avid BASS Electric competitor, Josh made the switch for the weekend scoring 2/2, 0.98kg.

His arsenal comprised of a Tica Duffman long cast rod matched to a Daiwa Certate 2000 reel spooled with 4lb Fireline and 6lb Hard Rock fluorocarbon. The winning bait for Josh was the Berkley 2" Shrimp in new penny colour rigged on a 1/28 TT jighead.

After trying his luck at the trawlers early, Josh moved to the backend of a canal system where the water looked cleaner. Hearing bream slurping and crunching a nearby pontoon he flicked his Berkley shrimp under a t-section of the floating pontoon letting the current drift the bait further under and pulled up tight on his first keeper. Paddling around the canal systems, he again heard the familiar sounds of bream feeding and soon scored his limit.

Second place went to a popular Steve Fields, Managing Director of Hobie Cat Australasia. Proving he can mix it with the best, Steve armed himself with a new Daiwa Advantage 3 rod and reel combo spooled with 4lb Nitlon fluorocarbon straight through. His winning bait proved to be the Berkley 2" Banana Prawn rigged on a 1/40 TT jighead.

Steve felt it was important not to chase the pack and stick to the basics fishing points in the canal systems. Scoring plenty of fish including moses perch and a mangrove jack, Steve was plagued by undersize bream before scoring a keeper.

With the tide change, his bite pattern shut down and Steve moved to a pilon that had wind pushing up against it and some amount of stirred up water. With only an hour to go in the tournament his second cast landed him his limit and enough for second place.

"I really encourage people to come and try these events, have a great time and learn some tips from the sharing of information," said Steve.

The event's big bream went to Chris Martin with a 610 gram specimen caught on a Berkley 2" Shrimp in banana prawn colour. Rigged on a 1/16 jighead he found anchoring up and drifting his bait under pontoons was a successful technique.

The next qualifying event is on the Gold Coast, March 15, at Budds Beach. With the Nerang River a popular choice with BREAMers, lets see if we can crack the 50 mark in attendees."


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

----

QlpoOTFBWSZTWRi1m8MAABhfgAAQYGUAGIIgEIA37d2gIACVREyammR6j1PUAGRoQaahIGn6ptqRoaHqFn4QbcdpbaX3NSrs87ubhgg+RybHnq9m1kJOo6DV2hMrIc/YSoJyyPxEnZX7iIbXgrKBQcKRZ75EBvj3pFb3TMoaUJZgEwKc7RbNkySFpUWU6BcsBFjb+LuSKcKEgMWs3hg=


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## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

pcsolutionman said:


> Would it hurt if I said I got 18 bream from the trawlers last night land based biggest going 38cm.


Nope not really, on the day counts, not the night before! :twisted:

You should have entered, won back your entry fee and put as all to shame then! 8)


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## grinner (May 15, 2008)

congrats big kev, did u used to run a cleaning product superchain.

also kraley , the story about the gaurd dog was a bewdy, never heard of a dog attack on a yak fisho before, sort of like a great brown , dangers both in and out of the water.

cheers pete


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

well done guys comps get like that.

cheers dave


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## Mustang (Jun 6, 2008)

Hi All, Well might as well put my two bobs in.
Must admit, i was in the class that didn't catch a bream and only a Cod, couple bust offs and small hits.
But having said that i did have one of the best days on the water to date.
Was great to meet so many people that have the same passion and enjoyment that i have.
Not to sound a spiteful but felt a little better in my self when i saw that i wasn't the only one not catching Bream LOL.
Like every one i spoke to said that i also learnt more in six hours of fishing about bream than i have one in a long time, only i had more time to talk to the other Yakkers and pick their brain.
I will definately be going to the next comp and look forward to catching up with all again, am totally hooked unlike the Bream i tried for.

P.S. Thanks to Mal and family from Sunstate Hobie and Steve and also Brett from W.A. for the free Mag

Cheers Brett :lol:


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## craig450 (May 11, 2007)

pcsolutionman said:


> Would it hurt if I said I got 18 bream from the trawlers last night land based biggest going 38cm.


Any photo evidence of this "hot session" Lee? :lol: :lol: Just kidding.

Bad luck with the conditions guys.
I was really hoping to hear Paff do really well, but theres always next time mate.
Well done to everyone that entered and had a go, fish or no fish.

Kraley, 90cm Flatty!!! nice work, if only it was a Flatty comp!!!


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## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

Thanks Craig, maybe next time...

This QLD Bream fishing caper has me stumped, the techniques we use in the southern estuaries just dont seem to gel in other areas ( Probably due to the distinct lack of pontoons ). It was great fun and I was unlucky a few times, the bream would hit the surface on the flats for a few minutes before switching off again. They didnt like the PX but struck short of the Hopper Popper ( Both proven Bream lures ), let your plastic sink too much and the Grunter would commence noise.

Met a few angry Jacks ( And like Lazy says, will keep telling myself that ) in a sticky section of the Mangroves, man those fish can pull line and quite easily bricked me. Never been so happy to lose a couple of SX40's, especially to a fish that I just couldnt stop or break leader on 4lb ( Props to Sunline for that ). Working on a full report now, should only be a couple of days before its up... Really looking forward to the Gold Coast and Forster rounds and catching up with everyone again.

Was good to meet new faces and put names to them too ( Shufoy, Lazybugger, Yakass, Dunebuggy etc etc ) lots of people I didnt get to meet so hoping to get round to everyone at the next Tournament. Bad luck to the Mexicans ( State of origin a draw? ), the Western Australian flag bearer and anyone else who traveled further than me for such tasty fun donuts. The rivers up that way have really copped a flogging from the rain, resembling bad cups of filtered coffee...

Props to Claire for the leave pass, Steve for outfishing all but one and Ken for the reflected, shared anguish!


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## Shorty (May 11, 2008)

Well theres a few good trip reports there but it would be nice if more people took a camera along,,i would like to see the guys at dinner,,the weigh ins the awards, put a few names to faces etc

Hopefully Shufoys back in the West and has a few more piccys to share soon,,8)


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## Elmo (Jan 11, 2008)

What a day from the high of the fist fish in the first hour to the low of it measuring 22.5cm (I even measured it twice to make sure I didn't make a mistake). I then spent the next 4 hours getting exercise, my legs got a workout peddling all over the place, my arm got a work out throwing lures every which way and comming up with nothing to put in the livewell. Then as the last hour approached I toss a wriggler into the shallows between two jetties and bang I'm on. My initial thought was it's not a bream but I was hopping as the drag was getting a workout. All I could think of was please be a bream (if I think it's a bream then maybe it will transform into a bream), as I saw colour I was still thinking please be a bream but bream aren't brown, still thinking please be a bream as I pulled the 33cm cod into the yak. So I ended up with 2 bream, 2 cod and 1 grunter.

Bring on the Gold Coast round (I think I have a new addiction).

Trevor


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## dunebuggy (Dec 21, 2008)

I just thought I would throw this pic in. I took some video too but it doesn't really show anything that other peoples pics don't already show so, I won't bother with the vids.
Here's the only still shot I took. lol.


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## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

Shorty said:


> Well theres a few good trip reports there but it would be nice if more people took a camera along


Patience impatient one, plenty to share... SOON! ( Mega report on its way w/ images ).


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## Shorty (May 11, 2008)

Thats more like it,,,,i thought the photos might be under wraps for the ABT mag or Yak fisher mag later,,, 8)

Patience is not a strong point of mine,,see i even call in to home between mowing lawns to catch the latest ABT reports,,, :lol:


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## SteveFields (Mar 21, 2006)

a few snaps, more photos later on event web site hobiefishing.com.au


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## SteveFields (Mar 21, 2006)

a few more.....


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## Shufoy (May 28, 2008)

What a weekend, to say that i'm well and truly stuffed would be an understatement. Certainly was hard going, but the amount on knowledge i picked up, and inspiration was truly worth it!

Day 1; Saturday 21.2:

Woke up bright and early, about 4am for my 6am flight. Was sure i had every bit of gear i needed, so we hit the airport and after waving wifey goodbye, jumped on my flight to Sydney!









_The morning sunrise as i leave Perth._

On arrival at Sydney i was greeted by rain and thunderstorms, making the landing very interesting! The screams from some of the passengers were echoed with my yahoos as the bumpy ride in reminded me of some rough 4WD trips, the weather continued to worsen on my layover, shutting down the airport for at least 30mins, before i hopped on my connection to Maroochydore.

After adjusting my watch for the second time i landed at Sunshine Coast, where i was greeted by Dunebuggy (Stuart) from AKFF forums, holding up a sign with the AKFF symbol, funny stuff, made me feel like a celebrity. He whisked me of to my Motel in Mooloolabah where i dumped all my gear, and we cruised on down to the river for a scout around. Here we ran into a number of yakkers going for a pre-fish, also Wayner who took out the Sydney Round with his big yellow truck! All reports coming in at this stage were bleak, with few if any getting fish, the dark tanin stained river from weeks or heavy rain also looked fairly ominous, as a hard days fishing seemed to be ahead of us.









_The view from the al-fresco area at the Motel overlooking one of the Canals coming of the main river._

Back at the Motel, i met Wal from Tin Can Bay, who had come down for the comp with his Quest. We sat out on the canal for an hour and had a great chat about techniques, and Wal had some great stories of the old times. We had a beer, before i headed of to Hog's Breath Cafe for a meal with 24 other AKFF's and parteners. Here i met a bunch of familiar names from the AKFF forum, and had an awesome steak, with the bill covered by Steve from Hobie! Great stories were swapped over the tables, a bit of friendly jostling and last minute discussions on the plan for the day, lures and what to expect. The boys didn't hang around here long, and with an early start ahead of us, we were all in the sack by 10pm, anticipation high!

Day 2; Sunday 22.2:

D-Day had arrived, my alarm sang out it's wake up call just before 4am and i was awoken by the sound of torrential rain.... I grabbed a shower, my packs, raincoat and headed down the 1km walk to the comp site, via the servo for some nourishment. Here i was greeted by a few other early rises, and handed the keys to my Blue Outback, which i started to rig up, rain still coming down.









_My ride for the day, note the water from the rain still on the Yak._









_39 Kayaks ready to go in the pre-dawn light, 32 Hobies!!!_

Over the next hour or so, kayaks came from all corners, and by the time we were called for briefing at 5.45am, there were 39 yaks waterside ready to rumble. The rain had eased, as Marcel from ABT, and Steve Fields from Hobie gave us our pre-launch briefing, and then it was on! A shotgun start ensued and we all hit the water, scattering in all directions on the river! Awesome stuff!









_Steve from Hobie and Marcel from ABT at the morning briefing._









_The scattering of yaks at the shotgun start, IT'S ON!!!!_

My plan for the Day was to head up to the Mangrove areas, and try the bridges and structure round that area, and then move back toward the start area fishing the pontoons and man-made structure along the edges of the canals. This was hard yakka, i caught a multitude of Fingermark Bream during the course of the day, and many local Cod. These pulled fairly hard, but were no good for points.









_The bridges in the bottom end of the river, and the mangrove area beyond._

As the morning wore on i moved several times, asking fellow competitiors about there success as i went with no reports of any fish. I tried the mangroves, bridges, pontoons, and eventually moved up toward the mouth, where i fished the area's around the wharf and main marina, and the co-op areas for no result. The rain started to come down hard again by about 10ish, and wind picked up again. So i found some refuge under the wharf fishing close to the barnacle covered structure with my Gulp Shrimps. With 15mins to go, and no Bream in the well, i headed back to the launch area, getting my tag's on the board with 2 mins to go, and being the 3rd last yak to arrive.

The weigh in was in full swing by the time i arrived, and it turns out 10 fish were caught over 7 yakkers from a field of 39. The 2-fish bag that took it out went 0.98kg, and big bream just over half that. The weigh in was excellent to see, with the live bream being weighed on the scales by Marcel, and weights being posted up for all to see. The presentation followed, and it was excellent to hear the boys who won prizes telling there stories, especially first place giving out a few secrets on bream detection. Excellent prizes were won by those lucky enough, and also a few random prizes were given out too!!

Stories spread around of a tough day on the water, echoing my sentiments and whilst the result was a little dissapointing, this was far outweighed by what i got out of the day, and the new friends i made. Unfortunatly i left my camera on, and the battery died, meaning i took no more photo's from here on....

After the comp, Mal from Sunstate Hobie magically made some beers appear, and we sat around chatting after de-rigging all our gear, and the consolation prizes of some great conversation were had. I got all my gear together and headed back to my Motel about 2.30pm, where i cleaned up, and sat on the bed, where i woke 3 hours later..... That night i drank a few beers, and veged with a DVD and a pizza before getting my gear ready for an early check out.

_Day 3; Monday 23.2:_

Dunebuggy picked me up about 7.30am, and we shot back to his place where i dumped my gear, we loaded up his Hobie and a loaner Viking Profish for me, and headed down to Bell's Creek for an exploratory fish. Unfortunately we scored dohnuts again, but it is a lovely waterway, full of mangrove lined banks, shallow feeder creeks, large stingrays swimming in the shallows and huge Sea Eagles flying around chasing prey. We cruised around the main creek for a while, before sneaking down a side creek for a bit for zip, then cruised back to the ramp about 11ish, to grab some food before dumping me at the airport at 2pm.

I must say, after paddling the Pro-Fish around, i love my Hobie even more than i did already, if thats possible!

Stuart dropped me off at the airport, and i jumped a plane back home, arriving in Perth about 9pm Monday night, exhausted, but thoroughly enthused on my experience, and what it can bring for us here in Perth.

So all in all a great time was had. Didn't score a fish in the comp, but scored in knowledge. Gulp 2" Shrimps did the damage for everyone on the day, and these combined with light as possible jigheads, drifted under pontoons seemed to get most of the winning fish. Something a bit different to what we are used to over here.

HUGE thanks to Grant at Sailpower Marine for making it happen for me, and Steve at Hobie for the loaner rods and getting or yak to the comp. Also MASSIVE thanks to Dunebuggy (Stuart) for being my wheel man for the three days, and taking me out for a fish on Monday, you're a legend mate, much appreciated!

An awesome time was had, and i reccomend the trip if any of you guys are considering it.

Final Results can be found here http://www.bream.com.au/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=457


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## Shorty (May 11, 2008)

Awesome pictures and reports, seems like a very nice part of the country.

Looking forward to reading about the next one, well done to Hobie and ABT for putting it together and to all who attended,,it sounds like everybody wins in a tourny like this. 8)


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

excellent report Brett. its just not a report without photos!


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## dunebuggy (Dec 21, 2008)

Good to see you made it home safe Brett. Check your mobile for text messages. lol.
A great report and great pics. Thanks for the kind words too. It was a pleasure to meet you and fish together on Sunday 9even though I lost track of you. lol.
Hopefully we will see you again at the gold coast for round 3. I will be in a motel too. lol.
I went for a fish again today and faired much better but.........you will have to see the "trip reports" section for the report and phots I am about to post.
Thanks to everyone else who has posted pics in here too. I was a great weekend and I am looking forward to the next one.


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## GregL (Jul 27, 2008)

Hey dudes,
Well, what another great get together and comp!! Here's my report...
I left beautiful Burrill at about 8:30 on Friday morning and began the 3 hour trek in the Cruiser up to Sydney. I stopped briefly at the tackle shop in Nowra to pick up a particular Jackall for Wayner (where I'd assured him I'd be able to get one for him) - but unfortuantly they'd sold out of them! None the less, my impulsive nature saw me leave the shop with 3 others and another blade (even though I knew I'd probably not use them! :? ). On to Sydney where I stopped off at a dry cleaners in Sylvania where I got my 'flying clothes' pressed - that was going to take 15mins or so, so whilst that was being done, I nipped up the road to another tackle store where I managed to find one of the lures - the last one off the shelf - mission accomplished!

I got to Brisbane a couple of hours later, only to find that my bag and rod tube had obviously got chatting to some other baggage and missed the flight. Doh :? 
Anyway, I hung around for the next flight and they arrived, somewhat red faced. I gave them a good talking too, but forgave them and we were soon picked up by my best buddy Rob (who used to live down here - not seen him for 2 years). 
A miserable 3 hour drive to the SC followed (rain and traffic jams), but as soon as we got checked into the motel which was right at the event site, it was a quick shower, change, and off to the surf club, where, to put it bluntly, we got absofarkinglootly plastered.

5:30am on Saturday did not exactly see me looking at my finest, but I peeled myself out of the room and wandered up to meet Steve and the rest of the Hobits, and I picked up the yak and the rest of my bits and bobs.
Due to not really feeling totally 'on my game', it was 7 when I finally hit the water. Having checked on the arena with a map, I knew that there was going to be an overwhelming number of good looking spots - mangroves, rock walls, pontoons, drop offs and marina's. But I had pretty well decided where I was going to fish several days before I even left, so I beelined straight to it. Word on the chat room leading up to the event was that things were tough - particularly in the spots where I had already decided not to fish, so despite the prospects of doom and gloom, I had my fingers crossed that my game plan might have a chance.
20 minutes into my prefish and I nailed a lovely fat 29cm to fork breambo from under a heavily fouled boat, and shortly after that I picked up another chunky one from the next pontoon that went 28cm TF. I had mixed emotions at that point - either "cool, the plan might work out" or "hmmm, maybe its just that the fish have come on the bite". Anyway, the spot looked very good and felt I had my 'money spot' worked out.
The rest of my prefish was fairly busy - I really concentrated on figuring out which pontoons were better than others - the construction of the majority of the pontoons meant that there was often very little growth on them, whereas others were constructed differently and had lots of growth and oysters on them - and held fish. I also spent a fair while down in a marina which was located way down the end of a canal, which I reckoned wouldn't get too much pressure. Sure enough, I had a ball down there, picking up several more good sized bream, plenty of small ones, and a few moses perch, cod and I got smashed by something that may have been a jack. On the way back I also hit a good drop-off right near the park with some blades and got a reward there too.
I got back at around 11:30 and hooked up with Gary Cooke and Paulo who was staying at the same motel - to my surprise he informed me that the majority of the pre-fishers had been really struggling during the morning, so even though things could change overnight, my game plan was looking good for the time being.

I had some lunch, left my phone in a shop (doh), got it back, (phew), and went and had an hours kip.
I hit the water again at about 3pm. I was now positive about where I would fish for the comp, so decided to rest that area and go and refine things elsewhere. From what Gary and Paul had said, it was clear that the fish weren't really on the chew, so I spent the afternoon trying out a fair few of other HB's, and then worked out some better sink rates for my sp's. I picked up a couple of nice bream, a belter of a pikey bream, and I also hooked up with wayne (gave him his lures) who had a quick go on the rod I won at H&C and showed me how to catch a 2kg cod (nb - as it was my rod, my lure and my net, I told him that I was claiming it!).
I also hooked up with Steve and Scott who were heading back after having a much better afternoon session.

Dinner at the Hogs Breath was a ball - a massive thanks to Steve for shouting us all a great meal. Mate, you sure know how to do things the right way - you are a legend! - it was awesome catching up with some old names and new faces, and a few of the guys who'd been at round 1.

The comp saw me pretty well do everything I'd hoped for. I went straight to the 'money boat' and the third cast saw me bag a skinny 27cm breambo. Perfect start. Half an hour later I bagged my second - this time 26cm and also pretty skinny - from way up under a heavily oystered pontoon that had failed to produce a fish early the day before, but which I was sure must have had something in residence. 
I was stoked - an hour in and I was already in upgrade territory, and feeling good! I'd only hit one canal, and still had more spots to go to and a whole marina!
The upgrades however never came. A couple of 24's and a 25 (which may have actually weighed more than the 26, but I wasn't game to risk it), and about half a dozen in the high teens/low 20's.
A bloody moses took a Jackall off me around some oyster rocks, and I also witnessed a couple of grommets do a completely nude 'orangutan run' down their pontoon and jump off a BMX ramp that was at the end into the water, for the benefit of some grumpy old yachties who were cruising past at the time. Very funny indeed   
As the morning wore on (a bit like this report - apologies, I'll wrap it up soon.... I like writing ;-) ) I began to head back, planning to hit the main marina for a quick one before getting back for the weigh in.
With 6 minutes to go, I was near the boat hire wharf, and looked over at the park and briefly marvelled at the flotilla of yaks on the beach - a wonderful site.
Then, to my horror, I saw that the weigh in had ALREADY BEGUN!!!! 
AARRGGHHH!!!!!! NO FxxxING WAY!    
I had two time pieces with me, and they both said that I had 6 minutes left, but I had a gut wrenching feeling that I was late and going to be penalised...
I think I nearly melted the ST's, and accompanied every push of the pedal with the F word :twisted: 
I sprinted back so fast that I thought I was going to make a name for myself by pedalling the Revo up the beach, across the grass and crashing into the motel on the other side of the road, but fortuantly Robbie was waiting for me. I think he could tell what was going on in my head and yelled out that they had just started the weigh in early! Pheeweee.....
Anyway, it was all cool, and I was stoked to take 3rd place, $130 bucks, a sick rod and the golden ticket to the GF! 
My game plan had come through for me, and this Hobie Series is going to be something I will never forget! I am having a lot of fun and enjoying the experience enormously.

I wish I'd been able to hang around for a few drinks after the presso, but I had a plane to catch in Brissie at 2:15, so I had to split sharpish - my apologies for taking off without saying good bye to you!

My day did however finish on an incredibly bad note. When I got to Port Stephens for the Interclub late that night, I managed to snap the tip off not one, but TWO of my rods!
I'd decided to take them out of the rod tube, and stash them down the side of the seats in the cruiser. I gently pushed them in from the rear door of the cruiser, then went and opened the rear side door to feed them along the side of passenger seat. As I opened the door all I heard was snap-snap - in the dark, and never imagining that it would possibly happen, the tip of my H&C rod, and my custom Millerod, had SOMEHOW gone behind the window winding handle - and that as they say, was farking that! Bummer dudes.
Fortuantly though, the H&C rod is a 4 piece, and I only lost a couple of inches off the Miller, so both are very salvageable - but still, I was gutted!

Anway guys, thanks for reading! I very much look forward to seeing you at the Goldie in a few weeks time. I can't wait!!
Regards,
Smeg


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## SteveFields (Mar 21, 2006)

I must say that I really enjoyed this round and those that attended had lots of smiles even after a tough day of fishing.....

The atmosphere was better than in round one as some from the first round guys made the journey to the Sunshine Coast and everyone had a better understanding of what to expect and what to do on the day. Everyone shared information, this is cool....

Plus, all the silly debate over live wells is over. You really don't need much to keep Bream alive. A $5.00 esky will work if you just keep changing the water or plumped one for under $50 works. AND the live weigh-ins are the only way to go.

While I'm at it, wasn't the start of round 2 just the best?
The rain had stopped, all of us (yakers) lined up on the beach waiting for the start gun while the sun was coming up&#8230;&#8230;. What I great day to just go fishing. This is what it's all about; fishing from a kayak with a few mates&#8230;&#8230;catching fish comes second.

For me, I can't wait for Round 3 to start.


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## SteveFields (Mar 21, 2006)

Lazybugger said:


> Steve,
> 
> Just for your info re the live wells. I used a small esky that would hold about 16litres. I didn't fill it to the brim but did use a $15 rapala aerator I bought on Friday. I caught a 30cm whiting about 6.20 and I put him in the esky to see how it travelled. He was fine when I released him around 10.30-11am. I didn't change the water either.
> 
> With an aerator I think you can really decrease the size requirements.


As I said, all the silly debate over live wells is over..........Round 3, bring it on.........


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## Slim (Mar 4, 2008)

Not a thing those of us mising $400 want to hear


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## SteveFields (Mar 21, 2006)

Slim said:


> Not a thing those of us mising $400 want to hear


Your missing the point.....

for me, the Hobie well, which I assume your talking about is the best, end of story, in my view "for" the fishing I do. It has has rod holders and attached very nice to some of the kayaks.

1/ Personally I really don't want to risk catching two nice Bream and have them die. If you are in a position to buy a better LW, then your odds are better than a Esky. Nothing more, nothing less.
2/ Some kayaks, all you can fit on is a small esky, so he or she may not have a choice.
3/ The HLW, runs for 13 hours so those fishing liveies, can do so. This you can't do with a esky for very long. It won't work.

So, lots of live wells offer different options and it's up to the fisho as what his or her's requirements are. I think it's money well spent.

The point of this thread was that there are a number of "knockers" that are hung up on live wells. The post was to let everyone know that several options work.

For me, to be able to catch fish, reduce the chance of fish not making it to the weigh in or at the chance of big bream and perhaps pick up some $$$, well, I choose what works for me.


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## SteveFields (Mar 21, 2006)

sorry for the delay, I have just posted a group of photos for R2.....on hobiefishing web under image gallery /abt....easier than doing 30 or so here....have a look....
cheers


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## GregL (Jul 27, 2008)

SteveFields said:


> This is what it's all about; fishing from a kayak with a few mates&#8230;&#8230;catching fish comes second.


I think you'll find that YOU actually came second  
Well done Steve, and thanks again for a fantastic weekend.


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## ScottLovig (Aug 7, 2006)

Damn hard fishing and a big fat zero on the score board for me but had a great weekend.

A big thanks to Steve for picking up the tab for the AKFF Hoggies dinner.

The Mexican Bream Bashers and Banana Benders are locked in a nill all struggle :lol: Bring on the next round!!!! :twisted:

Cheers

Scott


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## dunebuggy (Dec 21, 2008)

Man........you should have seen how clean the river was today. A nice high tide and clean water. Pity I didn't get to fish.


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## Sunhobie (Jun 22, 2006)

Hobie Vic said:


> Damn hard fishing and a big fat zero on the score board for me but had a great weekend.
> 
> A big thanks to Steve for picking up the tab for the AKFF Hoggies dinner.
> 
> ...


I believe that makes us the winners since it was a home game!!
Mal (Capt Banana Bender)


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## dunebuggy (Dec 21, 2008)

[/quote] I believe that makes us the winners since it was a home game!!
Mal (Capt Banana Bender)[/quote]

And round 3 will be a home game too, so...................

Nah, don't want to jinx it.


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## SYKEE (Apr 1, 2008)

There is always next time


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