# SSBS Grand Final - WINNER



## Southerly (Apr 20, 2007)

2.5kg bream, thats over the old 5lb, that is one old monster bream. Bet the lucky angler is chuffed.

David


----------



## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

Go lads go


----------



## onemorecast (Apr 17, 2006)

Well done all - If the weather down there is anything like it is in Sydney today (Sunday) I don't envy them.

BTW is that Davey G in 4th place after the 1st day? :shock:


----------



## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

Smash it brother. 

How'd the other legends go?


----------



## blueyak (Jan 20, 2009)

You are on the money with the results paddy.

A very solid performance from Jase (squidder), a good bag at the basin backed up with a few fish at the infamous shoalhaven river led him to a way overdue victory. 
Well done Jase you owned it mate.

Well done to Andrew (rebel1) as well, consistancy certainly paid off guys.

Oh and i might be a little happy with 3rd ;-)


----------



## Rebel 1 (Mar 27, 2007)

Well done Jason , I saw him catch his second and winning bream around 1.20pm. Jason is always a chance at any comp, It is good to see him get up at a big gf!
Well done stewy, thanks for teaching me all the tricks! I would not have done as well with out your help.

Good to see paff up there, I think he got a sounder for his effort.

It is also great to see big Daveyg right up there. Well done mate.

As far as the fishing goes..... It was horrible. It must have rained for at least 5 hours during the comp. Everything got wrinkly, fingers were numb. The only good thing was that I had 2 good casts out of about 4563.


----------



## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

Tough conditions, both days took a lot of effort.

Congratz to J Bone, the surface was unfishable! (pure magic).

If you ain't seen him work a hopper popper it's definately a sight worth seeing. Well done Andrew, Stu and Davey for the top five appearance. Thanks also to cid and the boys for the acco, pm's on the way. Some of the hardest fishing the ssbs, and now ssbs, GF has ever seen (apparently).

Horrible south coast weather made it a pleasant experience, NOT!

Walks of shame, donuts, lost fish, huge bream... This comp had it all.


----------



## CatfishKeith (Apr 17, 2009)

Oh well 400gram off the mark. Have to work harder next season. Congrats to the winner and the top five. See you guys next season.


----------



## .329 (Apr 17, 2006)

Congratulations to Jason for a well deserved win, and the other guys for great results. I didn't pull a legal bream all weekend, although I'll admit i wasn't really motivated Sunday morning and pulled the pin early when the rain got to me. Truthfully, I was hanging out for a pie from Ully pie shop ;-)

Oh, and has anyone else mentioned that *massive 2.5kg bream* yet???


----------



## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

Well done to all that entered and big congrates to Jase well fished mate. Dont really now what else to comment on, the fishing sucked hard for me and I never want to see another blackfish again. Oh yeah that bream was MASSIVE wonder if it was from canberra.

Cheers Dave


----------



## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

Well done guys, a sterling effort.
That weather was crap, I'm so glad it wasn't me out there


----------



## 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.

----

QlpoOTFBWSZTWSJqNkMAABJfgAAQYCWACACREIA/b98gIAB1DVB6jTQzSYmIaaeoNU2p7UTI0xAABWwrgmodvlTfMdds+UlrXUcFPlAJ3oNuEjpX2TUCbdxX1/hiyUSNTuo281EkMyKHGmQwDlvIBbgqNkTKEL3yGNxa0MikdUWUzgjyv4u5IpwoSBE1GyGA


----------



## onemorecast (Apr 17, 2006)

Great work all, some admirable perseverance by the sounds of the conditions. Especially when I see a few known bream masters struggled.

BTW when I was checking out one of Grinners post links I found a photo of that 2.5 kilo bream. I'm sure better ones will come about but here it is: 
http://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/record-bream-at-south-coast-comp


----------



## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

Well what a weekend!

Arrived mid Friday to have a look at St Georges Basin, having never been there before. Cid was just coming back in telling me that he had 'left the bream alone' in his pre-fish (ie he hadn't caught any..). Spent the next 3 hours getting blown around the lake and finding all the spots NOT to go...not a good confidence booster, for a spot that was supposed to be 'easy'..

Day 1, Saturday arrived - no wind, sun shining and promises of a good day ahead. This was probably the best comp day I've ever had weather-wise. It was really nice out there - light wind, sun, and occasional cloudy/calm periods. I even had to reapply the sunscreen a few times. A great day to be kayak fishing, even if the fish weren't showing themselves too much. Like everyone else I must have made 7 thousand casts, with barely a follow however at around 11am I managed to coax a big bruiser around 33cm out of the weeds and got him in the net to get on the board and avert a dreaded donut. Ran into Squidder who already had his bag (champion!) and spent the next hour catching whiting and flathead on poppers before heading back to near spot x and catching an almost identical fish to fish #1. Unfortunately there were no more hiding in there and then the lightning and thunder started and I headed for home, throwing a few blades in deeper water along the way - this supposed 'never fail' local technique also failed to deliver. Having caught 2 reasonable fish I was happy with that and stoked with 4th spot after day 1. My 'more ass than class' approach paid off this time with a few favourites failing to submit any fish, proving that it was a tough arena. A few beers and rums were consumed on Saturday night and plans for Sunday were hatched.

Day 2 was miserable, cold windy and wet - the conditions I'm normally used to in comps! On cue the rain started falling, and the wind picked up for the start and it stayed with us all day. Waterproof jackets still didnt keep out the drenching with most of us freezing and shivering our way through 7 hours of sitting in a puddle wondering wtf we were doing out there.

However we pushed on, and most of us tucked into a few small creeks out of the wind and started casting, casting casting. We then noticed that the tide really rips through this system, and it was a battle to find any structure that would hold fish in the swift current. Combined with this was the 8 million strands of floating weed which would foul almost every cast - and as such conditions proved very difficult. The water was dirty after all the rain and the cloud cover made finding decent spots difficult, especially for those of us who hadn't fished there before.

I was lucky enough to start the day with a just legal 26cm fish at 7.45 which got me thinking I might be in with a chance. I then headed into the oyster racks and hooked another keeper which I skull dragged across the top of the oyster covered poles, only to have the hooks pull about 2 metres from the kayak. Arrrrrrrgggh. Lots of very tentative half hearted strikes and bow waves behind the popper, but I couldn't convince anything else to eat my offerings. And that GODDAMN WEED was driving me nuts. :twisted:

After 14 hours of chasing those bloody silver vermin fishI was happy to call it a day and get out of my wet gear and into some dry clothes. Was very happy with a podium finish amongst much better fishermen. Congrats to all of you who caught fish and commiserations to those who donutted - it was bloody tough out there.

Well done to the SSBS organizers, this was another fun and well run comp.


----------



## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm really stoked to have nailed that first tournament win after a really tough couple of days fishing, and the crazy weather which was lurking around on both days.

Day 1 at the basin I set out planning to fish the surface the whole day - although it's not really warm enough for the surface bite to be hot, it is my confidence technique, and I'd done pretty well at the Basin on surface lures in previous comps. I was hoping that if I popped the lure past enough fish, I'd find a couple that wanted to eat it, and was lucky enough that it worked out that way. I had so SO many half-hearted swirls and follows, but the fish I landed really wanted the lure and kept smashing it until they hooked up. I didn't get my first fish for a couple of hours, and then got about one an hour, plus half a dozen decent whiting. My three legal bream went 30, 30 and 32cm to the fork. I headed in early to the weigh in when the thunder started clapping close by and a few lightning forks were sighted, luckily the storm passed us by but at one stage there it looked like we were going to cop it. It was no surprise to see Stu and Andrew weigh in full bags, and it was very close after day one with less than 900 grams separating the top seven.

Day 1 bag:









So it all came down to the Shoalhaven on day 2. It is a heartbreakingly frustrating place to fish, and Sunday was no exception. I'd spent a few sleepless hours the previous night thinking about the smartest approach to take, and eventually decided to flog the surface again. The rain started pretty much as we left the start line at 7am, and didn't stop or ease up for more than 5 hours  . I got a 24.5cm fish next to a rack on my second cast, which kept the spirits up until I got my first legal on a massive shallow flat at about 8.30. This was followed by hours of frustration as the bite almost totally shut down after the change of tide. We were wet, cold and miserable, the tide was running hard, and I was having trouble with my fingers (as I'm sure most of the kayakers were) - they were pruned and shaking, trying to tie knots and remove weed from trebles was really hard. It was tough to stay motivated and keep casting. I ran into Stu at about 1pm (with an hour to go) and he had two fish. I'd just about had enough of fishing for the day and told him that I thought he probably had the comp in the bag, since the wind had sprung up. He said "No way, keep at it mate, it's not over yet!". It was typical of Stu's fantastic attitude, he is always so willing to help and encourage others at comps ;-) . So I kept at it, and headed over to a favorite flat, and picked up a second (barely) legal fish at about 1.30pm. Sorry to Andrew (rebel1) who I think had fished the flat just before I got there. Luckily that fish was enough to seal the win and I'm still smiling as I type this  . Congratulations to Andrew, Stu, Derek and Davey for rounding out the top five.

Day 2 bag:









Some other highlights for the weekend were Ron's (ronston's) huge squid from the Basin on a Camion, Rowan's (rstanek's) cracking bream from the Shoalhaven on Sunday, which narrowly missed on big bream for the day, DaveyG's top five finish  well done mate, and another impressive performance from Paff, some big flatties from the boaters, and of course 'that bream'  , none of us had ever seen anything like it. I had the dubious honour of weighing in directly after that fish had been presented - it was a hard act to follow.

Huge thanks to Basin Lure and Fly (Amy, Jim, Wes and the other organizers) for running the series so professionally all year, and for being supporters of tournament kayak fishing. Your hard work makes these comps happen and it is greatly appreciated. Thanks also to the competition sponsors, there were great prizes for the winners and also give-aways throughout the briefing and weigh in. I also have to thank Craig and Christine for letting me stay with them at the Bay, and Paff for convoying back with me to Canberra. With even more big name sponsors getting behind the Southern Bream Series next year, the coming season looks really exciting. Anyone who's interested in seeing what the bream kayak tournament scene is all about, pop down to one of the rounds and say gday.

Cheers,
Jason


----------



## Cid (Nov 14, 2005)

What a weekend! On sauturday, the fishing was fantastic. Unless you wanted bream, then it sucked big time! Well, for me anyway. I couldn't hook a bream all day. Not even an undersize one!  I managed 3 Blackfish, two Squire and 8 legal flatties and lost a ripper of a flattie between 70-80 cms. Conditions were great but the bream weren't where I was and kudos to the guys that got a few bream to the weighmaster.

I was fishing in the same area as Jason and DaveyG but hightailed it out of there about 10:30am to look for more productive water after I hadn't snared one. Naturally, DaveyG says they came on the bite at about 11... :?

Sunday bloody sunday! Wet, windy and cold. You know it must be bad when boaters are coming back in at 9:30am saying 'Bugga this...' I did however, manage to hook 3 bream in these atrocious conditions. The first was 23cms, the next was bang on 25cms (so I was doubtful he'd still be legal by weigh-in time) and the next one I pulled the hooks on (but he looked about 30-32cms, so he would've been a keeper for sure). By 1pm I'd had enough and headed in. And sure as eggs are eggs, the bream was now only 24.8 cms. :shock: I massaged him, turned him over, smashed him with a mallet (only joking!  ) but no matter what, he wouldn't relax back to his 25 cm length. Back he goes and with tail between my legs, I record a double-donut.

A big congrats to the top 3: Jason, Andrew and Stewart. The cream always rises to the top and in tough conditions, these guys proved what guns they are. Derek and DaveyG were also very close and Rowan landed an absolute cracker of over a kilo at 7:20am but just couldn't find the other two. And Just Crusin has apparently taken the mantle of the "Blackfish King' off me by landing 6 of 'em. So that's it for a fantastic series and next year will be bigger and better. Bring on the Georges River round, I say! ;-)

And here are some of the fish I landed...









cheers,
Cid


----------



## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

Squidder mentioned to me on Saturday morning that us paddlers were outnumbered by pedallers (25 yaks in total, only 3 paddlers)

Good to see the paddlers up there on the leaderboard.... ;-) It doesnt happen very often!

ps. Talking about squid, I saw the biggest freaking squid of my life in the basin. This thing came cruising out of the weedbeds, at first I thought it was a stingray as it was so wide then I saw its shape. It must have been over 50cm long (body) with another 30 cm tentacles - nearly a metre of squid. Holy crap!


----------



## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

The basin is a great fishery with endless breamin options. It can however take a few visits to develop confidence in a technique. Deep water blading in glassy conditions was my choice but after little immediate action I started looking for options. Having pulled fish off the surface here before I ventured into the shallows and found gin clear water and very skittish fish. While I could sneak up on the flathead the bream were having nothing of it.

'don't leave fish to find fish' kept echoing through my stubborn skull, who was I to fight these inner voices. Back to blading the 9m mark, it's definately a game of mind over matter (or in this case, patience over substance). Two fish in 7 hours with bugger all bycatch, I was really suprised to find others had struggled. It was strangely satisfying, not in a condescending way, more of a 'knowing that second guessing yourself would have sucked' way.

Managing to crack a great prefish pattern at greenwell point I immediately revisited the same location knowing time was of the essence. The tide was rising and they were present, for how long was the issue. Third cast and one down and in the well, fifth cast was something of an event. After high sticking a crankbait retrieve with variable pulses and supersonic twitches (courtesy of the wind chill) I lowered the rod tip to clear the remaining leader and lure of weed. A fiesty bream smashed up and out of the water a good 30cm, took me by complete suprise. I was trying to manage a firm drag from rack work with little leader and a stiff rod choice for power, needless to say I got owned under the yak. Having a hook pull on a bruiser, along with the terrible weather really set the mood for the rest of my tournament day.

As Craig arrived to share the spot I ripped another legal, followed by 450 bagging his first. By 9am the bite had totally shut down, this time I knew others would be struggling. I just couldn't leave this spot and waited for the tide to drop below the leases (The fish never returned). The wind direction and shallow water meant perserverance was futile so I headed in with 20 minutes to spare. On shore my guess was confirmed, no full bags were entered and very few quality break were weighed (except stanek's effort). Very different to prefish results but at least it was going to be close, too close to call initially.

I never thought of that lost fish throughout the remainder of the day, and it never really mattered anyway. I wasn't fishing against other anglers, nor was I fishing against myself. This was about the elements, man vs bream... Oh the humanity. Some great players got dusted, some underdogs triumphed and a mate took the win. I won't kiss jasons ass too much but it was a long time coming and worthy of any mcdonalds shout (mighty angus gives me gas). Props to the massive, blf, shimano, Hobie and other sponsors and ofcourse Jim and Amy.

South coast breaming is where it's at...


----------



## butts (Oct 7, 2007)

Gday All

Way to go fella's my hat goes off to all of you that caught fish. The conditions were very trying and the results varying. I myself am a proud (NOT) owner of two donuts. Plenty of other species caught on Saturday but nothing at all on Sunday. Congrats on the win boys very well deserved. Bring on next season (hopefully I will actually catch a Bream :lol: :lol: )

Butts...


----------



## pescado (May 17, 2007)

Onya fellas and congrats jase on the win


----------



## craig450 (May 11, 2007)

Very tough fishing on both days, and the conditions on Sunday were nothing short of CRAP!!
I came so close to winning, if the 6 people in front of me didnt catch fish i would have won :lol: :lol:

I am really happy with the end result though, 7th is better than last place, and im pleased to see the guys that finished in the top 5 winning some prizes.
Good to see DaveyG up there, a well deserved top 5 finish mate, congrats.
Ol mate Derek Durkin :lol: with a good result after winning the basin qualifier round and a good prefish at greenwell point it would have been dissapointing not to do well.
I think we all new Stewie would be up there somewhere, but its always good to see such a good angler rewarded.
Andrew was consistent all weekend and deserved 2nd place, well done champ.
And a big congrats to the J Bone for a very well deserved, overdue victory. To have my arse kicked by such a good fisho was a pleasure :lol:

Well done to everyone who participated and put up with the tough fishing and weather.
Thanks to BLF and all the sponsors for making it happen.


----------



## ReganJane (Oct 17, 2010)

Well done Jason, Dad and Stewart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Cheers Regan, hopefully we'll see you out there with us in a few years time!


----------



## Ado (Mar 31, 2008)

Geese Jason. Pulling a HOF Yellow one weekend, ending up with you mug all over Yak Fisher (again) and then pulling off the GF bream comp. 15 mins man, 15 mins, not 15 hours!! You're stealing fame from the rest of us.

Well done Squiddly. It's not as though you don't put in the hard yards. A well deserved congratulations to a true gentleman.


----------



## Rstanek (Nov 5, 2007)

Well done to all the top five, especially Jase who dominated with the hopper popper! Once again, consistency proved to be the key to getting the top positions. I was one of a few who struggled at the Basin, but it was good to see that a number of the guys weighed respectable bags with not much room to move between the top 5.

The anglers who weighed in a couple of fish at the Shoalhaven did really well - it was tough fishing and hard to stay motivated for the full 7 hours having to deal with that weather. I was lucky enough to get a good fish early on in the day, but spent the rest of it floating around trying to get a couple more, which never came. I also suffered at the hands of the blackfish; I thought I'd hooked a demon bream that screamed off into the racks, but after a few minutes of careful extraction the beast came up purple and stripy - it went 45cm to the fork and must've been 7-8cm across the belly!

Looking forward to fishing a few more rounds next year, the BLF guys have put a lot of work into setting up a great series that should be even better next season.


----------

