# Forster Fishing Carnival/ABT Rd 4



## kiwipea

Looks a magic morning out on the water, but I don't see any fish :? 
Or is every one playing it pretty close to their chest ;-)

kp


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## Shorty

You never see any fish in a fishing comp Kiwipea,,

The week before and the day after can be great but not on comp days , sometimes i wonder if the fish know theres a comp on :lol:

I think i have lost count of folks that have a great pre fish then nothing on comp day,lol


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## Junglefisher

Shorty said:


> You never see any fish in a fishing comp Kiwipea,,
> 
> The week before and the day after can be great but not on comp days , sometimes i wonder if the fish know theres a comp on :lol:
> 
> I think i have lost count of folks that have a great pre fish then nothing on comp day,lol


Maybe the day before pre-fish is spooking the fish? I know if I hit the same river two days in a row, day two I get bugger all.


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## bazzoo

Matt , nice photos mate , thats a nice touch to the whole Forster Comp to have an official photographer record the event from his uberski :lol: :lol:


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## Revo

Great to see the pics DafWullie and to have a progress report RP. Roberta, what was stopping you from jumping in and wrestling the flattie by hand to get it into the boat? ;-)


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## Bart70

Nice Pics DaftWullie - looks great.

Roberta - Did you manage to photograph the cormorant with your tag? You never know...... :lol:

You can add that one to your PB's alongside the guy on the bridge and the seagull ;-)

Bart70


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## grinner

can i just ask what the object is at the front of the yak in pic 4 . is that the net
cheers pete


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## polylureosis

grinner said:


> can i just ask what the object is at the front of the yak in pic 4 . is that the net
> cheers pete


My Guess is a post sticking out of the water.


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## Shorty

Yeah i reckon its a post,,looks like he nearly had a head on with it while the photographer distracted him :lol:


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## dunebuggy

I only have 3 comments to make;

1/ Great pics........thanks for sharing.

2/ Sooo jealous I can't be there, and

3/ Man that water looks sooooo clean. At least you can see the fish.

Good luck to everyone who made it down there.


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## mattyp

Please please please, someone put up a report on todays events!
Who won?


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## kiwipea

Yes please we are waiting with bated breath( should that be baited  )
Checked site before dinner, nothing, gulped down me dinner and raced back to computer, still nothing  
please someone enlighten us, who won what, who goes on to next level
Realise a lot of tired yakkers but please someone.
Many of us couldn't be there but have been following thread with great interest

kp


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## mattyp

Thanks Roberta
Look forward to more reports tomorrow.


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## paffoh

Nice won ( Pun intended ) Stu!!!!!

Best perfomance from you yet and well deserved mate, good to see the place getters come through and props to Jon from Canberra getting through and outfishing many, many locals and visitors. My days were hard and slogging it through before a 7hr drive home almost killed me today, luckily not on the road during the trip home. Caught many fish including some decent Bream which busted me off today, found it hard to complete the measuring process and like many sucumbed to the fatal 'Photo without a tag' ( Missing out on entering a 33cm Breambo ).

Cookie crumbles, but it was still sweet washed down with milk. No crying over the spillage, was good to see such a great turnout compared to last year. The grand final will be a very compettive affair, some good fisho's making up the numbers. My money is on Stu, Steve or Greg but Forster has shown me on any given day it can be anyones affair, was great to get up to a nice town ( Aint been to Forster since 2000 ) and good to catch up with the crew...

GO FFC, GO HOBIE, GO AKFF!

Report soonish...


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## worleybird

well done stu. great to see you come away with the win. I didn't see the pres as we were told it was at 5pm and when we showed up it had already been done and dusted. oh well. I should have left for home in the arvo instead waiting around to miss it anyway. lucky we actually talked to steve fields cause we found out that dad (yes the old worleybird ) had made it into the final. it was a good weekend. good luck to those in the grand final. i'll post pics later!

Stephen


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## Rebel 1

WELL DONE STEWART! I have been fishing with stewart for about 7 years. He is a top angler and a formidable opponent. He is the guy you go fishing with and 9 out of ten times he teaches you a lesson and gives you an ass whooping! Then on the tenth time you might just srape i with a win because you have a new trick or have some luck,.... he watches your trick and the beats you at your own game! my money is on stewart, over two days he will be hard to beat.
I am also told Russell Babekuhl is an awesome bream fisherman, so good luck to him too.And also a big go hard to cid who is also capable of bringing it home!
Good luck to all of the competitors on tue and wed, 
Andrew


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## justcrusin

Gday all, 
It was a very tough couple of days fishing for what forster has been like for me in the past. Saturday it felt like i was playing in the nursery, i caught lots of fish but they were all small, luckily I managed to get three fish a couple of centemeters over legal each. I peddled a long way each day I think I rounded up around 32k's for the whole comp.










This whiting was my first legal and the only whiting I caught over the two days, I got him on a squidgy top dog in the back of a bay.










The little bream were everywhere but i managed this little 27cm out of the packs.










The little flatties were on the chew as well, I pulled in half a dozen on squidgy lobby's before managing a legal.

A great day on the water plenty of action from small fish and a plan was being formed for the GF

Sunday to follow.

Cheers Dave


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## justcrusin

Sunday Morning an after winning a rod a reel in the lucky draw the night before and running in fifth spot, I was in good spirits for day two. Things were soon about to change. 
The reverse order start saw me near the tail of the field, so i put the peddle to the metal and was hightailing round the corner with mangox and Keggy when tragedy struck an my mirage drive snapped, after borrowing Mango's alan keys the problem was soon unfixable on the water. Keggy very kindly peddled back to start an swapped my mirage drive for Hobiesports ( Kevin), who was holding down the fort at the show.

Back in business we headed for the top end of the channel. We found a nice patch of bream were I proceeded to drop a huge bream beside the yak, the net was going under him as he spat the hooks, bugger.
Couple of minutes later I had a 27cm legal in the yak, followed quickly by a 28cm upgrade. But these weren't to last as I headed across the bay. I pulled a nice 30cm from under the racks. With a resonable bream on board the flatty hunt began.










Keggy and I found a nice looking spot tucked away, inaccesable to the stinkers. Hmmm we both started dropping lobby's around the place, second cast on the rod I won the night before and i'm on. Even with the ten pound line an heavy drag he was putting up a good fight, definatley well above his weight grade I was thinking a 70-80cm monster the way he was going but still a very nice 55cm flatty and the fish I needed to push me up the rankings a few places.










No photographng a largish flaty in the yak while holding a fisheries sticker underhim with a key tag proved to be difficult to say the least so I ended up getting out on the shore for the photo before he was released safe an sound.

From here I searched and searched for a whiting, knowing without one a first place wasn't going to happen, I had schools of them around me, under me all over the place. But alas I couldn't catch a damn whiting, any other time you catch them all over the place but not when you want one.

I had a great couple of days and scored a nice sounder for my troubles.

Big thanks to Hobie and Barclays for organising the event.

Cheers Dave


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## RedPhoenix

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.

----

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## pescado

Dave that id photo of yours is a cracker!

Well done to all who made it up for the comp, conditions look epic out there on the first day


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## Shorty

Another successful fishing comp, well done to all that were able to participate ,,i look forward to reading of folks adventures .


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## dunebuggy

Great report kraley, Wish I could have been there too.
Thanks for a good read.


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## dunebuggy

Well done Arpie, and congrats on getting a spot in the grand final.
Best of luck.


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## grant ashwell

Good as being there reading your reports. All the best for the final Roberta. Perhaps some of Paulos marlin mojo might have rubbed off onto the plastics he has loaned you..

Grant


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## keza

grant ashwell said:


> Good as being there reading your reports. All the best for the final Roberta. Perhaps some of Paulos marlin mojo might have rubbed off onto the plastics he has loaned you..
> 
> Grant


i hope he didn't leave you that big blue squidgy thing :lol: 
good luck


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## Physhopath

Well done Roberta,  Good Luck


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## kiwipea

Good onya Roberta, Thinks you have earned your wild card entry with all the hard work you have done promoting 
this event. Hoping you have saved the best for next few days grand final. 
Sure a lot of AKFF's are right behind you and will be following your efforts with fingers, toes, everything crossed.
Won't say good luck because fishing is about 90% skill and 10% luck, so good skill (and luck for that extra 10%) :lol:

kp


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## Rstanek

What a great weekend!

On the first day, I got a few bream, several flatties and a whiting, but all were painfully short of being legal (as in less than 1 cm :? ), and therefore counting in the comp. Highlights for the first day - meeting a few new people, drifting over about 3 foot plus flatties that refused to move, even when I dropped plastics on their heads and discovering the best topwater luring spot I think I'll ever find!

Low points - losing an environet, a legal flattie and a $25 lure all on the same cast...  
Fishing atsaid topwater paradise and watching packs of legal bream smash my topwater lure 5 or more times each retrieve (even out of the water) but never hooking up.

Second day saw me land the elusive whiting just 15 minutes into the comp, and already I was doing better than day 1. Game plan was to stick down the lower part of the system and fish the Breckenridge Channel and the Paddock while everyone else headed up river. Found out the hard way that there was a reason everyone went as far up as they could - that's where most of the fish were! After my whiting, all I had to show for the rest of the day was a legal bream dropped yakside while trying to use my hat as a net, as my old net was still rolling around on the bottom somewhere. I also briefly hooked a mullet in some super shallow water that ripped some drag off, then took to the air and shook the hooks...

Also, after the presso on Sunday, I managed to convince Dad (after an hour of nagging) to take up the brilliant offer he got from Kevin from Hobie Gosford, and he'll be the new owner of one of the kitted up Outbacks that will be used for the final!

Anyway, well done to everyone who turned up and a big big thankyou to Roberta! You deserve your spot in the final, without you I don't reckon half the people would've shown up; Hobie owes you! Also, the effort you put into the social side of things was incredible, and should be commended!

I'll definately be back next year, if not before, hopefully to spend a week next time.

Good luck to all the guys fishing in the final!


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## crazyratwoman

good luck tmrw RP! show the guys how the girls do it!!!!


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## worleybird

Well done and all the best to all akffers in the GF. I hope the weather's as good as the weekend! I had a great weekend. learnt heaps (including that i cannot reliably catch bream!! :x )http://akff.net/forum/posting.php?mode=smilies&f=17#

I headed down on thursday arvo so we could get a prefish in on fri! Got all my gear sorted and tried to work out a system for a different yak. I didn't bring my yak down as i was able to use mums revo which i thought would be easier as i didn't have to cart it down as well as fight the formidable forster currents with my tub yak! In the end it threw me for the first two days getting used to it and where to put stuff!

On the fri me and dad set out at 6am figuring it would be the same tide as the comp on sat! by the time I was ready it was later though and we got on the water 6:30ish. We traveled up through the "paddock" to "hells gate" with the tide most of the way! Casting a lobby around as well as a popper! it was real quiet. the water was super clear, no wind and the fish were very shy! I had one hit and bust off which i think was pike or long tom as the leader was clean cut! other than that i had nothing all the way up and then half way back down breck' channel i got a small flounder and a little flatty and we headed home. dad had got 5 flattys but all small. The idea of the prefish was to get an idea of how our plan would go. Dad lives in forster but fishes mainly over at tuncurry! We learnt several things from the prefish!
1-If we stuck to that plan we would almost definitely have a not very fishy comp!
2-my camera had flat batteries (must get new ones before comp).
3-it was going to be tough with that super clear water!

With that result we scrapped the plan and decided we would just high tail it to tuncurry and fish where dad is used to. also figured the water would be a bit dirtier at the mouth of the walamba river!

So on to the first day of the comp. woke up to realise that the rechargeable batteries i'd bought had not charged so no camera!! we worked out the plan to just stick together and use my dad's camera. if it came to it i could take my batteries out of the sounder to take a pic! my fishing buddies/team for the weekend was dennis(ned), Me, and dad (oldworleybird). We were also kayak 1,2 & 3 respectively which meant we were first off. We left the marina and headed straight across to tuncurry and were pleased to notice that nearly no-one else followed. This could be a sneaky plan that pays off? we headed up a channel we figured we could get through on the high tide but it got very shallow and covered in oysters we almost had to go back and go the long way but found a way and headed towards the racks dad normally fishes. already our "stay together plan" failed as dad and dennis went ahead while i fished along the way! luckily we had radio's and i was pleased to here the call over the radio "just got a 56cm flathead" and it was only 7:30am. Dad caught it on a sand flat with a popper hoping for whiting, a great start!!!!   . mins after i hooked a 41cm flatty and headed over to dad to get the camera. It was then that dad realised that he forgot to put his tag in the pic!!  :?  :shock: . Damn!!! 56cm start back to nothing!! we continued to fish around the racks hoping to recover something. dad caught some little flatty's but best of all caught a 55cm flatty and mad sure he put the tag in it this time!!! dad got onto something huge that took him under 3 or 4 racks around pylons and eventually broke him off! A short time later i landed a 48cm flatty (upgrade  ). Not long after I also hooked something big. peeled line straight off for a few seconds some big head shakes then nothing  . wound in the weightless line and discovered the loop knot was still intact! :shock: (lesson: always check jig head eyes are closed properly). after that it was quiet and we started heading for home. we got the poppers out and had a go at the whiting in the channel flats! I was getting hits but no hook ups. Dad went down to the bridge to try. I stayed further up and eventually caught a whiting only small but before i could measure or pic him he flipped out the boat. Then I see dad peddling towards me and he's got a whiting and needs the camera i now had! it went 27cm and was caught in the last 5mins of comp!! stewart (blueyak) had bumped into dad at the bridge and gave some quick whiting tips and bang he had a 2/3 full bag. at the end we had a more successful day than fri and were happy. especially to find dad caught the biggest flathead and was 6th overall!

sat camera batteries charged, we decided same plan just a bit more refined! with a reverse order start it meant we had time to take pics and relax as we would be last to leave!
















Adrian (t-curve) was first cab off the rank on sun!








headed to tuncurry with quite a few more kayak friends than sat! My plan was to try real hard to get bream then hope i can get a flatty and whiting at some stage! got a flatty straight up at 36cm so it was a start! 








There was a fair bit of rain and wind so i headed for the far side oyster leases just so that I could peddle for a few mins and warm up as i was feezing! The memory of the conversation at the car about how it was definitely 'gonna be sunny' and 'don't need raincoats' was becoming a bitter memory fast! Finally after a couple of hours it fined up and i warmed up! On my way across the flat I hooked a large flatty on a 5" gulp in about 1' of water. I got him in near the yak to realise he was big (65cm+) from there he had nowhere to go but away and fast! I took off with the drag not really responding quick enough and he snapped my 12lb leader. (lesson: always check and adjust drag after leaving oyster racks :shock: ) I radioed dad to say i lost a good fish and the reply came "I know! I heard!". From there I put a squidgy bug on with the resin head, fishing it on the surface where i could see fish feeding in 1-2' of water. 1st cast =one flatty (30cm). 2nd cast =40cm flatty ( my biggest for the day). afterwards i really just focused on bream with the bug over submerged racks! that got really boring and frustrating as I only had one take but no hook up. as it got towards 12 we headed down to try for the whiting again! this time I was getting harassed by packs of whiting all the way to the boat but no hook ups! headed back to base and ended with 880mm for the weekend!








dad ended with 1200ish which got him 7th and a place in the GFinal!!

It was a great weekend and the atmosphere was great. things like stewart (eventual winner) giving tips while the comp is still running is great. most shared there knowledge and experiences and we all learnt heaps! the sport has grown so much and the turn out is a testament to that and roberta's ruthless plugging ;-) ! especially considering there were 45 yaks this year and only 3 last year!!! I look forward to next year except that i'll ensure that i have the whole week free as I really felt i was missing out by leaving after the weekend!

once again i hope an akff'er takes out the GF! see everyone next year!

Stephen


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## Revo

It's been great to read the reports and see the pics ... all the best to the AKFF finalists (and a special congrats to you Roberta for the wildcard entry - you so deserve it!).


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## kayakity-yak

I missed the whole comp this weekend which is probably a good thing because I SUCK at fishing in Forster! :lol: I turned up on sunday arvo and had a quick fish, only to turn up a pike. First fish ever on HB tho  This morning I went out and gave up after a couple of hours due to to extremely sore wrists, which I would have ignored if I could have caught something. So I went exploring instead and had an odd flick here and there to no avail. I must say it is a stunning place, I still had a blast just looking around. I saw dolphins and an eagle ray with its fins flapping up out of the water. I though it was a couple of sharks at first glance :shock: And I saw a discustingly large proportion of bream, blackfish and whiting, compared to the amount I boated 

Anyways it was good to meet a few of you - Arpie, GregL and Blueyak - Good luck in the final, and cheers for the advice. Also met one other AKFF'r (I think) I met briefly, I never caught your name, and a few fellas from AKFDU. great to see a good bunch of people enjoying their passion.


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## Orange

Congratulations Roberta... Go get 'em girl :lol: :lol:


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## forbs

Well done Roberta and good luck in the final. Thanks for the great report worleybird. The best thing about your report is the thought that me and my son (he's only 8 at the moment) are still fishing and mucking around together when he gets to your age, that is indeed something to look forward to.


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## ELM

Well done to all that have taken part in the comp and congrats to those that have made the Grand Final. 1, 2, 3 AKFF I can feel it in my bones.
Great reports from all as well, thanks.


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## worleybird

I didn't wanna know that! I'm in coffs :?  . If I was in forster i'd be there every night. 
It really hurts to spend $100 (which is huge money for me) and then miss out on a prize cause i can't be there!!

Stephen


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## onemorecast

What a great time. Met up with Pauly, JT, Kraley & Gary on friday night and spent the last 4 days with those reprobates doing our bit to keep the economy going. I am particulaily convinced that we helped provide some longer term job security for Australian alcohol industry workers duing these difficult times.

My first ever fishing comp was really enjoyable. Never really fished oyster racks or a lot of top water bream fishing so my goals were more along avoiding embassassment & injury. I did manage to get nice 30 cm bream the first day, and scored some valuable advice that helped see another (just legal) one on Sunday along with a flattie, saw lots of whiting, but just couldn't get them to take anything I offered. Wonder if I placed a couple of trebles on small stick of dynamite I could pass that off as a hard body? ;-)

A big thanks to Roberta for organising the Pizza night where I met a few good AKFF & KFDU members. It's also good to see people who I only know by User names.

Also I would like to say that I thought the Hobie support crew were top notch. On the 2nd day one of my mirage drive masts (metal rod) cam lose just as I was launching. John Hooper, from Hobie, saw me and helped me over to shore. The problem was realtively easy to fix if you have the right allen key on you. But instead of helping me fix it, he loaned me his mirage drive so I wouldn't lose any time. Had mine repaired when I got back that afternoon.


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## Shorty

LMAO, thats funny :lol: Can't you read minds ;-)

Now go and get that beer i am thinking of buying


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## onemorecast

Just got off the phone with Pauly. Seems Kraley had another good day finishing 3rd overall and Gary moved up to finish 8th. HobieVic won, and I think WayneR got the biggest Bream. I'm suspect more details will start filtering in soon as I am sure other members who had been fishing well also will have finished prominently.

Well done all!


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## hawk

A big thankyou Roberta for all you have done keeping everyone informed with the reports you put up so quickly . They where great .   . See you tomorrow. Tightlines Stephen .


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## butts

Congratulation Scott on taking out the very first ABT Kayak Comp. Well done mate.

A congratulation also goes out to all of the other competitors as well especially those that made it to the Grand Final. Well done to you all. Bring on the next one I say.

Congrats to yourself as well Steve and to Hobie and ABT for organising another great competition. I think next year will be even bigger.

Well done to everyone involved.

Butts...


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## paffoh

arpie said:


> Some, like Paff & Rstanek were already home


Dont worry Rowan, I will shout you a beer ( Then you can shout me one! )

Big props to Scott Lovig for taking out the title, having fished with Scott during round one I knew he was going to get up there. The man has some serious nouse when it comes to fishing structure, a worthy recipient considering the quality of the field. Congratulations to Vince from the U.S Hobie Fishing Team for taking out fifth, our own Kraley for taking out third ( Those harbour Bream will seem easy now ), Micheal Mass for holding his QLD head high and Russ Babekuhl for getting off the big boats and doing Berkley proud ( Enjoy using a Hobie mate? ).

Wayne, Wayne, Wayne... Not only did he catch the biggest Bream for the GF he also took the biggest fish of the series and came runner up in the Angler of the Year title ( Not bad for someone who drives trucks man! ). Everyone who made the GF needs a big pat on the back, a truely deft feild that deserved to be there. Hobie and ABT did a stirling job and were truely professional throughout the series, anglers can only dream of what plans they have in the works.

My how our sport has grown...


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## Shorty

Well done to Scott and good going to Vince for beating most of the Aussies at there own game 

Hopefully my sponsors will fly me over to the next series (i will have to check my book to see if i have any 8) )

If i come i am assuming Daftee"s getting the beer and pizzas :twisted: *leans back on chair and gives shyte stirring grin*

What happened to Gregl did his watch break,,equiptment failure ?


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## Shorty

Its a done deal :lol:


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## Guest

Pipped at the post by 40 damned grams for the biggest bream... Wayne, you lucky bugger! Well done mate. Congrats to Scott to, top effort in the final stretch. Congrats to everyone who weighed in fish really... it wasn't as easy as it usually sounds, especially those of us a bit more bream-challenged like myself. Great to meet everyone I had a chance to, as well as to catch up with everyone else again. It was a great weekend.

Big thanks to the ABT admin and especially Hobie for this event. It was a very professionally run event from start to finish and a hell of a lot of work has gone into it. If this is the benchmark standard for which future future ABT/Hobie kayak fishing events is going judged by, the future for the sport and those of us who love it looks very bright indeed. Kayak fishing as a sport got a hell of a lot of exposure in recent months (thanks to both tournaments) and now with the final event for the ABT hobie event being so successful, the ball is really rolling. 2009 is going to be that year some of us have discussed in the past - the year that the sport really takes off.

I got some good footage and photos of the event, but I just got home, its late and I'm too tired to d the whole publish and upload thing, but will do some time tomorrow.


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## Game fisher

Arpie, Thanks for the updates & photos. We will have to be there next year. The pitza, do make me hungry.

Did anyone catch something off-shore to show?? I thought the Bluefin have arived?


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## sbd

Congratulations to Scott, Michael & Ken, as well as all the other competitors over the heats & finals. Next year I'll see you there...


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## blueyak

Just popping on to say thanks to a few people. I will put up a trip report soon.

Big thanks to Steve and Sue Fields from Hobie. Without the hard work they have put in these events would not have been the fun or the success that they are.

Chris Maconachie from Forster Beach Caravan Park. The official accomadation for the event and provides one **** and span caravan park.

Max Frost from Barclay Marine and his crew of volunteers who were up at some horrible hour in the morning getting things ready and helping all to unload thier kayaks and gear.

Lloyd from Great Lakes Tackle. Lloyd stocks all the good gear.

Kevin, John and the rest of the Hobie crew. Kevin cooked breakie and supplied drinks for all competitors in the grand final. John and the crew got all the yaks ready each morning and put them away each night.

Paul from Sailing Scene.

Steve Morgan and the crew from ABT.

Roberta for all the hard work she put into making this event so noticed on the forums.

It was a great week in Forster and it was good to meet and fish with every one.
I can't wait to put a big Kingy on my new Kayak.


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## SteveFields

The Hobie BREAM Kayak Grand Final was held over two days in conjunction with the Forster Fishing Carnival on March 24-25. It was the culmination of qualifying anglers from the east coast events held in Sydney, Mooloolaba, Gold Coast and Forster. With 26 ready to fish Hobie Kayaks supplied, all the anglers had to do was bring their rods, reels and tackle and battle it out to be the first recorded Grand Final winner.

At the end of two days in the fish rich waters of Forster and the Wallis Lakes system, the champion angler was Victorian Hobie rep Scott Lovig, with a 4/4, 2.19kg limit over the two sessions. Scott used a Nitro 6 piece travel rod matched to a Daiwa Certate 2500 spooled with 4lb braid and 6lb Sunline V Hard fluorocarbon.

Lovig used a Berkley 2" shrimp in pepper prawn colour rigged on a size 4, 1/50th Nitro jighead to lure all his fish. Working the floating racks, Lovig positioned his Hobie kayak carefully with the wind and tide before making a precision casts.

"I would cast tight to the racks and let the lure sink for 5 seconds before retrieving and casting again," explained the champ.

Looking for the actively feeding bream close to the surface when Lovig hooked up he would drop the rod tip in the water and wind with a tight drag to extract the bream from the racks.

A supporter of the newly introduced 2009 Hobie BREAM Kayak Series, Lovig attended all 4 qualifying rounds and deservedly has his name written in the records books as the 2009 champ.

Runner up and day one leader was Michael Maas from Queensland with a 4/4, 2.15kg limit. He used a G.Loomis Dropshot rod and Daiwa SOL 1500 spooled 4lb Berkley Fireline and 3lb Sunline Rock FC.

Working the Lucky Craft Sammy 65 and NW Pencil top water lures in yellow colours, Maas used wind assisted long casts into the shallows. With a walk the dog retrieve for 3-4 metres he would then pause the lure hoping for a hungry bream boil.

"If I could see a swirl following the lure I would tweak it to entice a strike," he explain.

With no top water action on day two, Maas switched to throwing a Jackall Chubby in the racks. Casting close to the shaded side, he would keep the rod tip high and installed a jerky retrieve with pauses to capture the attention of the bream lurking in the racks.

Not having paddled in a Hobie kayak before the event, Maas was not only able to master the manoeuvring of the craft but this was also his first time fishing the Forster system.

Big Bream for the event had a $500 cheque attached to the prize and after the mark was set by Josh Holmes on day one at 780 grams, it was the Sydney victor Wayne Robinson that walked away with the oversized cheque for his 820 gram specimen.

Fishing 2ft of water near the boat shed, Robinson flicked his Berkley 2" banana shrimp into the shade where he was clunked straight away. Once secured in his livewell the enthusiastic angler knew he was paddling around with a $500 bream onboard.

A successful inaugural series, Steve Fields and Steve Morgan thanked the gathered crowd and promised bigger and better things in 2010.

For further information visit http://www.bream.com.au or ph ABT on 07 3387 0888.


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## madfishman

Well done Scotty, not bad for a VIc hey, numero uno eh hombre' , you wanna sell that yak mate..... :lol:

Great comp report Steve, pity i couldnt get there for round 4, but look forward to next season with bells on.

I had a great time in the other 2 events and met some great guys, and got plenty of tips- thanks steve i never got use the halco mate, you know, the little 6inch..but truely enjoyed the time away at both those locations.

Next season is already booked in my calendar, just need the dates, heheh.

And i gotta say Steve, you did a great job getting this going, well done.


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## Guest

I managed to get offshore for a fish during the rest day. I caught a few shovelnose sharks. Here's the vid:


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## worleybird

That's what I love about kayak fishing! everyone seems a bit more open to sharing techniques and ideas! fishing's normally a "cards held close to your chest" type of sport but most seem quite willing to share in kayak fishing. Thanks for the report steve! i'm sure there will be an increase in sales of a few lures and plastics around the place. 
Well done on a great comp to everyone involved. looking forward to being bigger and better next year!

does anyone know what the snapper on plastics top fish were? just interested!

Stephen


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## Dodge

Good to read all the akffers had a good time at Forster


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## dunebuggy

I am getting sooooooooo jealous of all the fishing you guys are getting in there. lol.
Roberta, re; fish caught after the comp...........sounds about normal from what I've heard.
When do you head home to the normal life?


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## dunebuggy

OK, I can't really claim to be jealous. I do get to fish quite a lot myself. More than most I think. I would dearly love to have a fish down there again some time. It would easily be 10 years or more since I was there.
Best of luck with honing your bream skills. I am doing the same. They don't call them the wiley bream for nothing. I am going after bass and/or Saratoga in a nearby dam this weekend. I'll post a report if I am lucky enough to boat anything.


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## dunebuggy

Hey Roberta, well done on those prizes.
If you were feeling generous, you could always donate the accomodation to someone or, auction it off here and have the proceeds used for a prize on the forum or something. I did something similar on another forum I am on. The money raised from the auction became a prize in an end of year comp. I had the honour (a difficult task) of choosing the winner. Or as you said, just us it yourself next year. I am certainly planning on having funds to go there next year. Being lazy, I will want something as close to the launch point as possible. lol. Perhaps next year you can give me some hints on accomodation. lol.
Congrats again on your winnings.


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## dunebuggy

Holy Crap ....... the bream in the 2nd last pic looks like a real thumper. That's a fish that anyone would be proud to claim as their own catch. lol. Well done.


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## Jon

[Pictures to be added]
Hey all

Just got back from a great week or two in Forster for the FFC and the ABT Kayak Grand final.
The View









The campsite









I arrived in Forster a couple of days before the FFC and discovered what a beautiful place it. I stayed at the Forster beach caravan park and all I had to do was wheel the kayak down to the boat ramp at the marina every morning. I had a couple of mixed days leading up to the FFC and managed a few whiting on plastic and found a couple of small bream around the paddocks. 









The next day I met up with Keggy who I had met at the first ABT qualifiers and a big thanks to him for showing me around some of the racks which I was a bit preconscious about the oyster farms getting angry that we were in and about there oyster racks. Anyways I had a ball catching and busting off on big bream over and over again all day. But one thing about the racks are they leave a few good battle scars on the kayak, mirage drive and rudder from all the submerge racks that you don't notice until its to late or when the wind is pushing you around. It was a really good day and managed to get a couple of bream and a few quick snaps with the camera. 








lots of leather jackets eating your plastics and thisone was caught on a SX40

The day before the FFC kayak comp went out and had a kayak around to see if I could find any good spots but couldn't find anything that standard out. I found Arpie on the water as she said she would be on the water and Arpie is such a lovely lady and she pointed out a few spots to look in to and where she had caught a few.

The first day for the FFC 
I had a difficult day on the water decided to hit the racks early only the water was higher then I had expected and the wind had picked up. I had pulled the hooks out of to many fish in the racks it must have been the nerves. I then managed to get a legal bream into the kayak and a few big bust off. Decided to look for some flatties but couldn't find one to save my life that day on the way just as I was heading in before the bridge I decided to put on a popper and try for a whiting as I had heard that that's where they like to hang out on my second cast into the deeper water not sure why I was casting into the deeper water I managed to catch a legal size whiting and headed in for the weigh in. A big thank you to Arpie for organising the gathering and the pizza night it was good to meet some new faces and put names to faces and meet a bunch of great blokes and lady fishos.

















On the Second day of the FFC 
I decided to do the something different and paddle around looking for flatties but still couldn't find any I couldn't believe it and only managed to lose a lot of plastics to leatherjackets but then moved back to the racks I was on the day before and managed a lot of bust off and fish raping around poles for an hour and then managed to get one to the kayak and heading to find a flathead finally found a muddy sandy spot where the tide was washing water into deeper water and managed to get a flathead at last and by then looked at the clock and had to paddle as fast as I could to make weigh in but still had one cast for a whiting before the bridge but was unable to find any takers. I managed to get 5th place and received a Hobie gear bag and as others higher up had already qualified into the ABT grand final I was boosted up and qualified woohoo.








flatty to win the comp............. NOT!!!!


















The Monday I had a sleep in and went out into graham Barclays marine and got a number of different lures, jigheads and plastic and spent way to much money. In the afternoon went to the water to try out a number of hard bodies around the shoreline and flats with a number of small bream and leather jacks then just had fun in front of the Forster/Tuncurry Bridge casting poppers and getting heaps and heaps of whiting kept the biggest one to weigh in at the FFC and found out that the weigh in stops at 4 and I missed out by only a couple of minutes and then just released the whiting to swim another day.

The big day of the ABT Kayak Grand Final getting up early around 4:30am and getting pretty nervous eying out the competitor and finding out how the livewell works and the procedures and everything. When we all got onto the water it was a bit weird siting in a Hobie outback as I'm so use to using my revo. Had the shot gun start and I got pushed onto the wrong side to where I wanted to go but just headed straight and got a different way to the rack where I had got my bream for the FFC the tides where very different to the when I was there last and it was high tide and the racks where all covered and it was really windy couldn't keep the kayak straight and cast straight a the same time. I only managed a few fish only 24cm to the fork and got a donut for the first day. So I decided to go for a quick drive to graham Barclays for more lures and decided to get for a shallow diver and two walk the dog pencil type lures.

On the second day decided to change my tactic and work the edges of the river and head up to a spot that I local had spoke about in a bay that was really shallow and had a big deep hole in the middle on the way up to that spot I caught my first bream on a pencil type lure and it was my first keeper for the day. I then had a couple of 24cm to the fork. Arrived at the bay and fished it for a solid hour or two and only managed a hand full of small bream and a load of longtom which are a pain in the bum for surface lures. I was getting longtoms everywhere and decided to get out of the bay and start heading back casting a shallow diver towards the shore on the way. I found a weedy spot that had a sandy circle around between a couple of broken racks and cast a meter after the circle working the lure back with a few jerks and pauses of the lure. I first felt this almighty bump and then nothing and then I decided to give it a slow wind with a twitch and then I was on to a nice bream and then I had two bream in the tank and started to head towards the marina for the weigh in but didn't get that much action on the way in missed a few fish getting to egger and winding to fast and pulling a few hooks. Got to the weigh in and managed around a .840 bag of two bream that got me 14th place and a tackle pack which I think everyone got.

The day after the comp when out to the Tuncurry side of the lake with Arpie, Paulo and Crushie and managed to get a couple of bream and a flathead. It was really good to meet you both Paulo and Crushie and had a great time fishing with you would have love to go out into the ocean with you if the weather wasn't that bad hope you had or have a good trip back up the Brisbane. I then decided to try to get a whiting for the FFC and had lots of hit and misses finally got one and weighed it in and got the second prize for the second biggest whiting for the day for the Forster lake section which was a aqua tip rod.

The next day the weather wasn't to flash with rain, lots of wind and lighting and thunder but Arpie and i decided to bring raincoats and hit the water anyways. We decided to hit the flats and try our luck at some poppering and managed to find a few good spots for next years comp. I managed to get a couple of good bream around 30 to the fork and Arpie got a couple that was 34 to the fork or bigger and then I got a whiting that was 33 to the fork. That night at the FFC I managed to get the second biggest whiting prize again for the day and won a reel to go with the rod I'd won which was good.

Last day in Forster. Arpie, Hawke and I went out to the same area as the day before but the weather had changed. It was a very clear and beautiful day with only a light gust of wind. The fishing was tough compared to yesterday and it was frustrating watching the swirls and follows of the fish without much hook-up. We both had plenty of hit and follows on poppers but I managed one about 32 to the fork. Since the fish where not cooperating I decided to switch to a soft plastic and target a few flatties. Managed to get a few good size flatties around 45cm to 55cm and also got two stocker fat whiting 34cm and 36cm all on soft plastic. It was heaps of fun on light line with plenty of zzzzz as they first saw the kayaks. I'll have to remember that spot for next years FFC

Overall it was a very good trip up to Forster. It is such a beautiful place and I'll defiantly try my best to be up for the next FFC. Thanks to Arpie for organising the gathering and the lucky dip prizes I got a marlin tow bar cover. I would also like to thanks steve field for his efforts organising the ABT kayak event and all the Kayaks and hopefully next year will be bigger and better. I would recommend that people that enter in the FFC next year stay to week as each night of the FFC there is a lucky chance draw every night with 12 different prizes each night. This year there was a colour Lowrance sounder that was one of the prizes every night or $400 dollars in insurance for a boat and other prizes like rods and reels.

Jon


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## dunebuggy

OK, I have changed my mind. lol. I am going back to being jealous of all you folk down there having fun.
Got a donut at the local dam this morning. lol. (wouldn't mind if it had choc icing)


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## hawk

Hi everyone it was great to meet so many AKFFers that i could finally put faces to there names . I hadn.t done very well at all in the comp considering i fish there quiet alot with Roberta ;Arpie; . I will leave it at that . I am wondering who went outside while they where in Forster and what they caught out there; Thankyou if you could let us no . Tightlines Hawk


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## GregL

Hey guys,
Well I'm back, and ready to face the music after what can only be described as a pretty poor performance at Foster!
Without wanting to write a full on report of the 11 days I spent at Foster and an account of every fish I caught, I'll keep it fairly short.
Having only seen the venue via google, the first thing that struck me was the size of the place and the amount of very fishy looking spots.
And the size of some of the bream!!
My first prefish was with Steve and we were simply blown away by the size of some of the bream hiding in the racks - absolute monsters. Fortuantly I arrived well equipped for the job with a new quiver of Millerods built for extracting bream from impossible structure.
Anyway, the days spent pre-fishing were very enjoyable, with lots of spots worked out and many, many bream joining me for a few minutes in the yak, including a few crackers in the mid to high 30's, and I went into Round 4 feeling pretty good.
In hindsight, I should have spent a bit more time looking for flatties! It was my downfall for that round, as I failed to land a legal flattie on both days  it wasn't without trying though, and I was struck by some early bad luck when I lost a conservatively estimated mid 60cm at the net when it chewed through the 4lb leader I was using with a blade. Anyway, I ended up with a total length of 1.2m, and 7th place. With 2m being the winning length, 2 just legals would have seen me in 1st - but hey, I was absolutely stoked to see Stewie take the round out and the new Hobie!

Another very good day pre-fishing was had the next day, and then it was GF time!
Day one was going great - I had pulled a super fat 31+ out of a rack, followed by another one later on in the day. 
And this is where it got weird. To put it bluntly, I stuffed it up royally. For reasons still not really clear to me, or anyone else, I never checked my clock. It just didn't feel as late as it was, and I was so zoned in on upgrading it wasn't funny. My clock is usually in the side pocket of the Revo, but as we were in Outbacks, I left it in the front hatch. Out of sight and out of mind I guess. Anyway, despite being in the racks closest to the start/finish, I never saw anyone go past me, and when I eventually checked the time, it was 1:05pm :shock: :shock: 
An insane sprint back to the beach was in vain - by 30secs, and I was dsq'd (might have made it in time if I'd been in the Revo ;-)  ), and was now looking at going into day 2 with a 750gram penalty.
To say I was spewing is an understatment, and I was even more destroyed when I found out that my bag would have put me in the top 3 at least.

Going into day 2 was mentally very tough. Not only was I still beating myself up and trying to work out why 'Mr Consistency' (their/ABT words, not mine!) had made such a cock up, but I was also faced with the challenge of finding and extracting two 40 plus bream to have any chance of winning. To cut it short, I never found the 40's. I found about 20 undersize bream, and the one that did go legal, decided to make a dash for it when I turned around to open the lid of the livewell! I eventually pulled the pin and went in - at 11:50. 
Thats right. 11:50am - an hour and 10 minutes early! And yes, that was another stuff up. :?  :? 
I'm _kind_ of laughing about it now, but it definately hurt at the time, and there are still occasional knots in the old stomach!

I pulled myself together though, and it was Mega Bucks time with Steve. Again, I'll keep it short. It was a great experience, but also incredibly frustrating! We caught stacks of fish but just couldn't seem to find any fish that were size. I've simply never caught so many undersize bream in a row, and it wasn't until the middle of the session on Sunday that I finally pulled a just legal over the side - and that was our only weighed fish for the weekend! Still, it was rewarding to know that there were several of the very big names who also donutted!

So there you have it. My head is hanging and I'll take the TOW off the current dipstick please!

Thanks to Steve and all the Hobie crew for everything, to the ABT, and everyone who got involved in the series. My goal at the start was to finish in the top 10 of the rankings and the AOY.
Ranked 3rd, and AOY 2009 - so I am stoked  
Smeg


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## keza

11 days fishing, if you hang your head you wont be allowed to go again :lol: 
smile, you were fishing


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## GregL

keza said:


> 11 days fishing, if you hang your head you wont be allowed to go again :lol:
> smile, you were fishing


Don't worry I'm smiling     !!!
Cheers for the kind words dudes - especially you Ken. Make sure you get a leash for that new rod mate - I'd HATE for you to drop it over the side.... :twisted: lol.

Oh, and btw - a very big congrats to the ding-ding king for taking out the title - onya Scott.
Smeg


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## poida

Hi Everyone,

After attending the fishing carnival last week and meeting some great people from these forums, I felt a bit slack for not posting on here very often, if at all. So from now on I'm going to try and be a bit more active, especially in the trip report section  Being at work at the moment I thought now would be a good time to start lol. It will probably be a long read so my apologies.

I arrived from Sydney with my wife, my brother and another mate on the Friday evening. I've never been to Forster before, but I'll definitely be going back. It's such a nice little town, friendly people and a hell of a lot of places to fish!  After registering for the comp, we had a few drinks before heading off to bed in anticipation of the ABT/FFC Round 4 the next day. It would be myself in my Hobie Sport and my brother and other mate in my tandem yak I lent to them for the event. I think those clowns were the only tandem yak in the comp and it was quite funny to watch at times hehe

Anyway, Day 1 of the ABT comp and we set off to find our Bream, Flattie and Whiting. Having no idea where to go as I've never been here before and only looked on Google maps, we headed down the Breckenridge channel. The first thing I noticed was how clear the water is there, followed by the 100's of decent sized bream I could see swimming all around me. This will be too easy I thought to myself, but that wasn't the case. Couldn't even get a touch from the bream in that channel. I even went as far as dangling a plastic over the side while I watched to see if I could sight fish one of them, but they weren't interested at all. At one stage I dropped a plastic onto the top of a big bream and he didn't even flinch lol. My guess is that if I'd put a chip with chicken salt on the end of my hook I may have gone alright ;-)

Enough of this I thought, so I headed off to the racks in "the paddock" to try and get a decent bream. When I got there I found that there wasn't a lot of water around them although once again I could see lots of bream holding underneath them. I threw some lightly weighted plastics around and had a few touches but no hookups. After a few hours I decided to give up on the bream and go find a Flathead. This proved to be the hardest part of my weekend, as I couldn't find a legal Flathead anywhere. After trying as many likely spots as I could I decided to give up on the flathead and now try and find a whiting. Headed down near the bridge and started throwing a popper around the edges of some shallow weed beds. I managed a lot of follows from some decent sized whiting but they would follow the poppoer all the way to the kayak and then veer off! At one point I had 4 of them chasing the same lure! Anyway, time running out I decided to have another crack at a bream around the racks. I started just throwing a bannana prawn around in the deep sections between the racks and came up trumps with a 28cm bream. With about an hour to go I decided I would have another go at the whiting and spent the last hour with more follows and no hookups. Oh well, Day 1 with 1 bream I thought I'll have to find a monster Flathead tomorrow to have any chance of placing.

Day 1 Bream 28cm










That night I decided that we need to head further up towards the lake and hopefully find some fish that are not as shy/educated. At the same time we may be able to locate some decent flatties.

Day 2 and we used the in-tide to get us a fair way up to towards the lake. We found some more Oyster racks (they are everywhere) and I noticed a little stretch of stirred up water next to a weedbed that looked promising. First cast and up comes the same bream as yesterday, he'd followed me up there 

Day 2 28cm Bream










Well that's a great start I thought, but where are the flathead? I decided to concentrate on getting a good flattie now so I upped the weight of my jighead and started bouncing a plastic along the bottom wherever looked like a good ambush spot for a Flathead. After a few hours I had caught over 10 undersized flathead, the biggest going 30cm  Oh well, I decided to change spots and found some very fast running water a bit further back towards the town. I put a 1/8 jighead on hoping to get it to the bottom quicker and on the first cast I was on!! Woohoo finally a flathead I thought, but after a few runs I though hmmm maybe its another bream, but when it surface I saw it was a whiting! Well that's pretty cool I thought with heart racing and hands shaking while trying to net the bugger.

Day 2 31cm Whiting










I had no problem taking a photo of the bream as they seem to settle down pretty quickly, but whiting just go nuts as soon as you land it! I struggled to get the camera and everything ready, all the while drifting at a rate of knots towards some racks. Luckily I got it done in time and all was well. 2 down 1 to go, where are the flathead! Spent the rest of the day trying to find a decent flathead with no success. I caught lot's of fish, small flattie, flounder, smaller bream etc so I still had a lot of fun out there!

So I finished the comp with 870 points, not sure where I finished but I was happy with that and knowing that just an average flathead on either day or both days would probably put me in the top 10.

So a big congrats to all of the organisers for putting on a fantastic comp this year and especially to all of the competitors for supporting it. Such a great bunch of people turned out for this event and I can't wait for next year!

I actually ended up staying the whole week and fished the FCC competition. Weighed in a lot of fish, especially flathead suprise suprise, but didn't manage to win any prizes  But it was such a relaxed comp and I had a ball getting out and fishing some different locations each day, and getting on the cans of a night hehe

Here's some random snaps from the week:


















Pictures of Day 2 in the ABT comp

















Hmmm looks like a passing shower.....brrrrrr ;-)









My brother Dave









































Thanks for reading 

Cheers
Peter


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## poida

Hi Roberta, was great to meet you at the carnival  It'd be great to get back up there before next year so I'll definitely give you a holla if it's on the cards. Need to suss out some reliable flathead spots as I could only find them during the week fishing peoples backyards in the canals at the keys and another canal system on the tuncurry side (that one would be reachable during the comp) I got a 60cm flattie from under a pontoon while flicking for bream lol. Went to weigh it in but was told the weigh-ins close at 4:00pm each day and it was 4:20pm! I didn't read that part...oh well. The people who owned the houses in the canal systems were all really nice, having a chat and telling me its a good spot to fish because they feed the fish there each day 

Cheers
Peter


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## SteveFields

Back in the office and I have put up a few more photos from the FFC

http://www.hobiefishing.com.au/image_ga ... ament.html

Cheers


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