# NSW Sydney/Narrabeen ABT



## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

Quck report from my phone... Very tough days fishing. 40 starters and Only 6 guys caught legal fish. Only 1 full bag(3 fish) weighed in. Big bream went to Justcrusin.

Highlight of the day was the Sailing Scene catering 

Back into it tomorrow....


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## Darwin (Jul 25, 2008)

Hi Dave

I told you so! It is Waterloo for many anglers. I am coming to joy the fun tomorrow. No battle for me but enjoy seeing your guys struggle to fight off little Nimo! haha!


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## Southerly (Apr 20, 2007)

I joined the masses today for my first ABT and the only day this weekend I could fish.









Headed off to sneaky bream spot number 1, fist cast came up tight and landed a nice flattie about 40cm.









Moved to sneaky bream spot #2 and got another 3 flathead in 30 minutes. Headed to sneakey bream spot #3 up on top of the weed banks and managed one 10cm bream along with a whiting and a few more small flathead. 









Moved to spot #4 for another small flattie and no bream, then did a big drift picking up a 60cm flattie then a 69cm flattie. 









Did a big move to try and get away from the flatties and moved to my pre-planned destination #5. Got a nice whiting first up and a small lizard. was about to pee when I came up tight on a better fish and up came a 26cm bream, whoohoo I am on the board. 









Filled the fish well and popped the bream in, reset the drift and got to it, decided to stay in the general area till comp end now 2 hours away. For the next hour had some good hits landing a 24cm bream that was as deep as it was long and probably weighed more than my legal one. Also dropped a good bream that hit as the leader knot came through the tip runner.

Had a 35 min pedal back to the weigh in, very happy not to be locally embaressed and donut. The fish went 400gm and tied for 4th on the day with Rowan. Justcrusin picked up the big bream prize for the day with a ripper 900gm bream which is huge for the lake. As SBD quipped it is a pity flathead does not start with a 'b', I kept thinking of names I could give it that would qualify them , 'brown bream' perhaps.   

The weather was ok, bright and sunny with a strong eaterly, looks like it will be better tomorrow for the crew who can get out, good luck everyone.

David


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## Darwin (Jul 25, 2008)

Southerly said:


> I joined the masses today for my first ABT and the only day this weekend I could fish.
> 
> Headed off to sneaky bream spot number 1, fist cast came up tight and landed a nice flattie about 40cm. Moved to sneaky bream spot #2 and got another 3 flathead in 30 minutes. Headed to sneakey bream spot #3 up on top of the weed banks and managed one 10cm bream along with a whiting and a few more small flathead. Moved to spot #4 for anoth small flattie and no bream, then did a big drift picking up a 60cm flattie then a 69cm flattie. Did a big move to try and get away from the flatties and moved to my pre-planned destination #5. Got a nice whiting first up and a small lizard. was about to pee when I came up tight on a better fish and up came a 26cm bream, whoohoo I am on the board. Filled the fish well and popped the bream in, reset the drift and got to it, decided to stay in the general area till comp end now 2 hours away. For the next hour had some good hits landing a 24cm bream that was as deep as it was long and probably weighed more than my legal one. Also dropped a good bream that hit as the leader knot came through the tip runner.
> 
> ...


Hi David

I want to say you are lucky man but seems it is incorrect description. You are Northern Beach local has great advantage on secret locations. No wonder why you are so out standing. Please keeping the momentum! It is the game of states of origin. You must defence NSW fishing communitee reputation. I am comming down to pick up some flatties tomorrow. Hopefully, you have more chance to land more breams!


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## LesSimmo (Jul 26, 2009)

Had a great day, but only managed a 20 cm bream. Not going second day.

I am looking forward to Sydney Harbour in January.


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## Southerly (Apr 20, 2007)

Hi Darwin,
I have never really targeted bream in narra of anywhere else really. I was working on local knowledge the hard core guys like Justcruin and GregL now they can bream!
David


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

Gday Guys, Had a great time at this ABT round, it felt a bit more like the akff trips of old. Everyone was walking around sharing stories and a few beers, lots of the guys an girls turned up to hogies for the saturday night dinner.

Friday and the prefish, I went out with the intention of finding some of the spots the bream would be holding up, since prefishing it a month earlier the weather has changed a lot. I went out without any trebles on my lures so I wouldn't sting any fish in any good spots I found. Hard to tell the size but well worth it. Lots of choppers around and a few flatties but only a couple of small bream. At this points things were looking grim. I had worked a plan out earlier on an decided to stick to it. Back in around lunch time an the beers started to flow, having a chat and beer here a chat an a beer there and I ended up pretty stung 8) :lol:

Saturday morning, hangover in check and yak all loaded we headed down to enjoy Paulies bacon an cheese rolls  and nervously await the start. A good field with 40 yaks there, I was expecting more to turn up an fish the comp. A few guys were out on the lake just fishing they should have joined in it was a blast.
The field took off an all the hobies crammed into the ten foot wide channel :lol: It looked more like the first corner of a bathurst.
I made a beeline for my spot at the back of the lake and wasn't disappointed when i got there. The first drift I had boated around 12 legal but not comp legal bream, this was going according to plan the prefish had the bigger ones hold up in between the smaller fish I knew it was just a matter of being patient an pulling the legals out.

I didn't expect the fish I got next, I watched a boss hog come out of the weeds an chomp my lure, the heart was racing I was frantically winding my drag off telling myself to stay calm and play it in gentle. The fish was only just lip hooked so I was a gentle as i could be an after a brief interlude of playing him in he slide into the net nicely. Then i let go, the guys across the bay could here my joy what a first legal.










A short time later a 26cm joined my on the yak an the rest of the day continued as it started with lots of little bream.

Sunday an I made the cardinal sin, I broke from my plan and this cost me, I wandered around changing lures an locations to spots i thought might work. I should have stuck with my plan for good or bad. The guys that stuck with there plan pulled out some good bags on day two Matt's bag was awsome and Jason put in a good sized bag for the second day in a row.

All in all I was stoked to get third an qualify for the grand final so early in the season, the rest of the rounds I can fish without any pressure and just enjoy them.

An well done team AKFF getting a couple of people up in the winners circle.

Cheers Dave and I'll see you at the gold coast next week.


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## zipper (Feb 27, 2008)

sensational bream mate, what a bruiser!
i can't wait until i start fishing these events they sound great. good job and congrats to the blokes who managed to bag some legals.


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## mtfisho (May 30, 2009)

Well done Matty.
Day 1 didn't have a fish to weigh in. Shows how much it can change.
Good stuff dude!


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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.

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QlpoOTFBWSZTWSBWa9gAAAlXgAAQYAEEgBAAJ+ffICAASIpvU1B5JoZkNQpiaAAA0ElElxSwnMoA6JEs/wHPFbvfdnhcMUJ21M+mZkZGCyUAIKC1kvi7kinChIECs17A


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

I fished both days and found the going very very tough. A real mixed bag on Saturday with lots of little fish, and small snapper, flatties, tailor and even a longtom whereas on Sunday I caught less fish but only bream and the ones I did catch were bigger with a 24.5cm and a couple of 23cm models coming onboard. It was a wierd experience in that areas that LOOKED like they should hold lots of fish were barren but I guess that's fishing. No matter how many swear words i conjured up I couldn't convince anything bigger and headed back in on Sunday arvo with my tail between my legs and certain of the fact that I SUCK at bream fishing....

A huge well done to those guys that caught good fish, for me angler of the comp was Jason Meech who got 3/3 each day with a few upgrades as well. Spending some time talking with guys like him show me just how switched on you need to be to be a good breamer, so well done Jase. And the fact that Greg L donutted both days proves just how tough the fishing was. Mattys bag on Sunday was huge a well, so a big well done and top effort to Cid for being the only PRO to catch a fish all weekend (and walk away with the cash!)...

Good to catch up with familiar faces and meet a few new ones. Big thanks to Justcruisin, Kev/Hobie Sports and Jason for letting me crash in their cabin - and thanks also to Pauly and Sailing Scene for feeding the masses, it was really appreciated.
Top marks also to the ABT guys for running a shmicko operation - it really is a professionally run event.

Big thumbs down for those bloody racing kayaks and outriggers on Saturday morning who thought they owned the lake and kept paddling over peoples lines and right next to guys that were obviously fishing......asssssssssssssssssssssssholes :twisted:

Not sure if the comp scene is for me, but it really is a fun experience even if you only try it once...


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## ScottLovig (Aug 7, 2006)

da da da DA DA DA TEQUILA!!!!!!!!!!!

EL SUPREMO MATTY

hasta lavista senior cockroaches and banana benders

Cheers

Scott


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## SteveFields (Mar 21, 2006)

a few happy snaps (heaps on our on line gallery)


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

For those that don't know it check out the photos at hobies ABT home page. Theres lots of AKFFers shown!

http://www.hobiefishing.com.au/

Cheers Dave


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

What a great weekend. Big thanks to Hobie and ABT, Hogs Breath, and Sailing Scene for delicious breakfasts and lunches on both of the comp days. I also want to give props to the Canberra massive who I stayed with (Craig450, Paffoh and Patwah), and who ensured the whole weekend was full of awesomeness and laughs  . It was really good to catch up with some old AKFF mates, and meet some new faces as well.

No doubt about it, Narrabeen is a really tough place to pull a legal bream from. I don't think I've ever caught more bream in a session than I did on Saturday (about 40), and the best I could manage was 23cm to the fork. Paffoh and I found a patch where the bream where hitting surface offerings really well, and enjoyed a couple of hours of champagne surface luring - I think Paff had the best fish of the session at almost 24cm to the fork. The lake is a great mixed fishery though with flatties, whiting, snapper, tailor and others coming in, I got an almost PB 40cm whiting on a surface lure on the Saturday.


















Sunday dawned grey and wet, and the tough fishing continued. I headed straight for the spot where we'd got all our fish on surface the previous day, but they weren't 'on' early, so I concentrated on deep finesse plastics for a lot of small fish of various types, but no bream approaching legal. Returning to the surface hot spot at around 10, the fish started to hit our PX45s, and this culminated in a really hot 30 or so minutes of action, during which time I managed two legal bream a 27cm, and a 25.5cm. Paff also got a few bream that were very close, as well as two great flatties on surface lures, the biggest of which was 63cm, and was a great effort to land on 4lb fluoro leader.

My two legals were good enough for 6th place. Congrats on the guys who weighed in large bags, on a lake like Narrabeen that was an amazing effort.


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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.

----

QlpoOTFBWSZTWXC8+jsAAA/fgAAQUCWAGqwCEAo/6/+AIABgip+mIo9T1PCn6o8oA9DU9QwaaNNMJiZMBA0yhsCsF0sfgaQQ6Ua6sQLblJULqrli3N7dnBq1MXJAztaChox/26C9/vCME3HHVuBm6KMjkK+sQlzZQv05AKBxKA5Ca/xdyRThQkHC8+js


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## ohagas (Dec 4, 2006)

Well done lads. Sounds like a great weekend with some great results.
Is there a short summary of the results available?


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Final results can be found here:

http://www.bream.com.au/modules.php?nam ... le&sid=550


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## ohagas (Dec 4, 2006)

Thanks for that link Squidder.
Now I'm a bit thick when it comes to interpreting scoreboards. Can you tell me what those letters stand for? i.e. K/PRO F1 W1 F2 W2 Boss Hog TF TW.
Also what is Matt's username here?


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

K = kayak
PRO designates anglers who entered as pro anglers - they contributed $50 each, which went into a pool, which was won by the pro angler who had the best bag of fish (well done Cid)
F1 = number of fish weighed in on day 1
W1 = weight of day 1 bag
F2 = number of fish weighed in on day 2
W2 = weight of day 2 bag
Boss hog is the biggest bream weighed in on each day, which won $100 from Hog's breath, and a giant novelty cheque  
TF = total fish in each angler's best bag (each angler's best bag - from either Sat or Sun - counted towards their final placing)
TW = total weight of each angler's best bag

Not sure of Matt's user name


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## Rhino (Dec 17, 2007)

ohagas said:


> Also what is Matt's username here?


*matty*  

memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=3222


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## mtfisho (May 30, 2009)

See A Victorian Smashed it huh!


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## craig51063 (May 30, 2008)

Big thanks to every body for organising the weekend . and a speacial thanks to sailing scene for the breakfast - coffee - and snag sandwiches at the end of the event . it was VERY WELL apreciated by everybody .

i camped at Narrabeen the hole week with my family so we could have a bit of a holiday and suss out the lake . it was very hard to fish all week [ for bream ] heaps of flathead - whiting - trumpeter and longtoms around BUT the bream were scarces.

And finally after 3 abt,s i finaly landed a legal bream    .29 cm 440 grams - on a small sand flat BUT for some reason as i was landing this fish a fellow competitor saw me pull in a fish and so dicided to pedleing over and start fishing right in the midle of the flat . [ not from this forum or kfdu ]

:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

as the flat was only very very small [ i was anchored ] i was NOT impressesd and so this person became a target for my soft plastics .

so much for the 30mtr clear zone .

anyway

great weekend and looking forward to the next Sydney event .

thanks again to the organizers.

craig


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## madfishman (Dec 10, 2007)

Well done MATTY, hombre' Viva la mexico.....

Great effort from Justcruisin on the Big Bream on the Sat, you couldnt find a happier bloke... apart from the pissed ones on sat night...
was a good weekend and was great to again to put some more faces to names.

I also struggled to get a fish over legal, also caught my first luderick on lure, but i gotta say that lake must be covered with bloody flathead, with every 10 casts i would get at least 2-3 flatties or a tailor.

Thanks to the guys at Sailing Scene for the Brekky, snags and drinks and a big thanks to Steve from Hobie along with the ABT guys for another great event well run.



kraley said:


> Do we all have a good idea of what is and is not trolling?


Trolling is having your line in the water while pedalling and having the line trolled behind you for a period of time over a distance , as it would be hard to troll and hold a rod while paddling.

Great to see you all up there.

PS . always take sunsceen to Sydney on 22C day, my legs are red roasted from the sat.


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## CatfishKeith (Apr 17, 2009)

It was a lot of fun. I thought I would cut my losses and not fish Sunday and will try again in the Harbour.

with the results what do the F1 W1 F2 W2 TF TW mean?

I assume:

TF= Total Fish
TW= Total weight

but what are the F1 f2 w1 w2?


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## CatfishKeith (Apr 17, 2009)

patwah

the link goes to information about accomodation in thredbo


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## GregL (Jul 27, 2008)

Once again, the guys from Hobie and ABT can pat themselves on the back for putting on another great event. Really the amount of work that goes into putting on these events for us is way more than many of us can imagine - thanks guys, and I am looking forward very much to the next round....
Top work by Matty, Jase and Dave - good on you guys - congratulations!!!

As for 'my' event, well, yes, the Smeg had a shocker!!
Going into the event 'brimmin' (scuse the pun) with confidence after the last round, and my subsequent exploits with the fish down my way since then - I was really hoping to get on the board again.
But nay, it was not to be.
As was the case with pretty much everyone else, my weekend consisted primarily of lots of just unders, flatties, whiting and of course tailor.
Day one saw me lose two very decent fish within the first couple of hours, which I didn't really mind until it became apparent that finding more models of the same size was going to be a bit more of a hard task than I'd hoped - and so I tucked into my first donut of the season on Saturday arvo, whilst seeing Dave and Jase battle it out for top spot.

The rest of Saturday was spent in the park with the boys, re-rigging (glad I did....read on...there is a Tale of Woe coming right up!), sinking ales and having a great time catching up with everyone.
Dinner at Hoggies was very enjoyable, as it always is - a big thankyou again to Hobie and the guys from Sailing Scene for their generous contribution to the evening - and then it was back to the cabins for a few night caps, and also ripping in to Neil, who, with his incredibly sunburnt legs, was doing his best impression of the roughest looking hooker in bright red knee high boots you've ever seen.... :twisted: :lol: 
I have to say, that the social side of these ABT events has become infectious - I've made some really good friends on the circuit over the last year, and is certainly one of the things that really makes me look forward to each event.

Day two dawned with an overcast sky and rain lingering as predicted. After a histerical shotgun start (even if you're not competing, I reckon its worth coming down to the events just to watch the Yak Dodge'ums at the start :lol: ), I made a beeline back to the main weedbed for half an hour, before scurrying right up the back of the lake to hopefully rustle out a couple of keepers.
Well, the keepers weren't to be found anywhere near my hooks - and as it turned out, Matty got his fish from where I began my drift! (must have dropped my mojo over the side when I got there ;-) .
I worked around the far end of the lake for a few hours, messing around with a few little ones, before I decided to go to the next stage of my plan and head back up to the islands.
On my way past the north end of the main weed bed, I spyed Stewie, and as I passed he waved me over 'Hey Greg! Come and look at this!!'
When I got to him he showed me his sounder - we were over a deep hole of about 5m, and it was loaded with bait and some monsterous fish arches.
'Hmmmmm......they look promising'. 
Stu had just been bust off by something big right before I got there, and being the insatiable Jewy addict, I agreed that he should try and extract one for a laugh. I was still focused on getting over to the islands asap, and asked him if there was an easier way of getting there, rather than poling my way across the weedbed. He told me that the channel ran 'over there and around the corner' so I left him to his work, and set off, although now my eyes were well and truely focused on my sounder, which continued to show the deep water loaded with fish. I got about 100m from him, and did the one thing that I now question the sanity in doing. 
'Bugger it, lets have a crack and see if I can pull a bream from here'.
After having done no good the day before with my blades, _and_ having sworn that I would not tie another one on for the rest of the weekend, an unknown force drew my hand to the blade section of my lure box and before I knew it, I'd tied it to the 3lb leader, the rod was cocked and I fired off a long cast up the channel.
I shall never forget the rest of that day.....
'Splash......hop.....hop......hop......hop-WHACK!!!'
The rod loaded up for a couple of seconds, then went slack.....mmmm.....probably a flattie.....
'Hop.....hop....h-WHACK-ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ'
Oh shit, its a biiiiiiiiigggg flattie!
No worry's Smeg, back the drag off a bit and lets get the lure back......
Now, I'm proud to say that I've got over a dozen flatties over the 80cm mark, and so have a pretty good idea of what they feel like, and how to get them up on light gear. But it soon became apparent that slowly easing them up with the rod and fighting them in mid water to knacker them out a bit was not working in the slightest. In fact, lifting the rod did nothing other than increase the bend!
I was on a jewie - and it felt insane.
Now, I've also knocked over a few school jew on bream gear - nothing massive, but the biggest was 69cm, so still a reasonable fish - but I had control of that fish - this one however was in another league. It was a monster....and the only way I was going to even attempt to get this fish was with patience - and as it turned out....lots of patience.
The fish fought like no other fish I've caught - I honestly can say I've never experienced so much uncontrolable weight on the end of a rod (other than my marlin gear ;-) ). 
As the fish kept passing under me, it showed up clearly on the sounder, and I can comfortably tell you that it was easily 1.4m long!!!! 
This was more than likely a 70 pounder!!! :shock: :shock: 
My mind instantly flashed back to Glenelg, when another mate of mine, Jordan Trusty, spent 4 hours on a 50lb Jew on similar gear - only to loose it at the boat when it made a final dash for freedom....

The time began ticking by....one hour....two hours..... Steve took my key tag back with him, as I decided that I wanted to see this one out to the end. This was nuts. There was nothing I could do to make an impression on it, and I honestly reckon I never got an inch of line back from it. The first 3 hours were spent following it up and down the channel, dodging sail boats and marker buoys, and a few hectic periods when it charged around on the edge of the weedbed in very shallow water. I did every thing I could to keep up with it so I could at least get a look at it, but with heavy rain (or was it sweat?) on my sunnies, I never got to see it.
He then cruised up to where the houses are and just sulked - very slowly plodding around, and returning my feeble attempts at lifting him up with a couple of good head shakes and then drifting back to the bottom. 
There was a guy fishing in a canoe nearby who'd been watching me for a few hours, and he came over for a chat. Nice bloke, who kindly lent me his net (as all I had was my tournament bream net) - although I doubt it would have been much use. Some other guys in a boat also came over, and answered my prayers - they had a decent gaff, and soon I had that with me too.
I then got a call from Stu, who said that my yak needed to be back at the caravan park as it was going to be loaded onto the truck and taken up to Queensland for next weekend's round.
Aaaargh!!! 
Stewie put my mind at ease though - he would come around in the van and paddle out in his Outback, then we would swap yaks and he'd take the PA back to the park - too easy.
I then set about organising my yak with what I wanted to leave in it (like the sounder, battery, wet weather gear - all the stuff that was going to be a hassle to take on the plane) and waited for him to turn up. 
The mid water change over was very well co-ordinated - and fortuantly the fish continued sulking whilst the potential chaos went on some 4m above his head.
Stu left me, but promised to return - he wanted to see this fish as much as I did - and the residents of the houses who'd also seen what was going on and were giving me plenty of moral support (whilst drinking icey cold beers and enjoying their barby's!)
An hour or so later, Stu returned - this time on a surfboard, and with a set of goggles. He's a mad prick, and said that he was going to dive down and gaff it for me if I didn't get it up soon!
Another welcome addition to the spectators gallery were Kev and Jase, who'd tracked me down and, like angels sent from the heavens above, had brought me a couple of beers! 8) 
The guy in the canoe was nominated as 'beer delivery dude' - but it was at this point, as the fight with the beast just entered the sixth hour - yes my friends - the SIXTH hour - the fish suddenly woke up and seemed to have sensed that I may have dropped my guard.
Without warning, and after almost 3 hours of total stalemate, he burst into action and began to swim in a big circle - almost as if he was winding up for the ensuing bolt for freedom back upstream towards the mouth of the lagoon.
I calmly followed him around, thinking he was just going for another little cruise, but the rate of line peeling off the little 1000 Stella, got quicker, and quicker and quicker. I immediatley began chasing him as fast as I could, but the drag just screamed louder and louder as he got further away from me and then, without any warning, there was complete silence. My Bream Buster Classic straightend out for the first time in 6 hours and my braid hung limp from the tip. It was all over.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! - and yes, that is exactly what I said, but trust me, had I not have had such a big crowd of friendly strangers watching me, there quite possibly would have been another choice of word - or words - screamed at an insane number of decibels that would have undoubtedly woken the dead, and promptly shocked them back into their graves.

To be frank, I was not surprised to have lost the fish - a 70 pounder on 3lb gear doesn't really happen, and I always had a feeling that something on my end would have to let go at some point. But, I am glad to say that my knots held. The leader came back at full length - minus the blade - and there was only a tiny section of rough line (less than 2cm) above where the lure knot was. The 6 hours of pressure on the flurocarbon had finally taken its toll, and that magnificent creature found its freedom - which, although I would most certainly have kept had I had the opportunity to land it, I do not regret having to have carried out that final task.

That fight was the best fishing experience I've ever had - 6 hours of my life I will never forget - BUT, I suppose I may as well underline it for posterity with nominating myself for the Tale of Woe? What do you reckon guys? Surely its worth a vote!

Regards,
Smeg


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

Greg, that's fucking heartbreaking.

:shock:

edit: Yes. TOW worthy, so to speak.


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## koich (Jul 25, 2007)

Greg, the current ANSA record for a jewy on 3lb line is 58.6lb.

You would have been close.


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## CatfishKeith (Apr 17, 2009)

dam I must have been hit with a time penalty


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## craig51063 (May 30, 2008)

ah s h i t mate thats heart breaking

craig


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## CatfishKeith (Apr 17, 2009)

my mistake was I went the to weighin area looking for the board to return my key and by the time I got back to the water they were removing the board. I thought I was safe but I'm down 100grams


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## mattyp (Mar 7, 2008)

My huge weekend started when we arrived at the tourist park at 11:30pm Friday night, chasing a security guard down to give us our cabin key to unload our gear from our hire car. After unpacking the PA's and assembling our bream sticks it was 2am. So off to bed only to wake up at 4am to prepare for day 1 on the water. Not knowing the Narrabeen Lakes system I was about to fish, day 1 was quiet tuff to find any Bream of size as I fished from the starting beach and meandered through to the back of the lakes, just past Pipeclay Point. The water here was just dirty enough that you couldn't see the bottom and it was only 4-5ft deep and with no sounder, I used my stake out pole to check for the depth. Started flicking some Gulp Prawns around to get some solid hits with one big hook up only to lose it due to my lazy knot tying. With only an hour left of day 1, and although no fish in the well, I knew where I was heading to Sunday morning and somehow feeling confident about pulling fish from this area. That night we walked to Hogs Breath and enjoyed a steak and shared thoughts on our day's fishing. Funnily enough, and jokingly after the odd drink, I did express my confidence to my fellow mexicans that my spot x will have me 3 Bream in the well by 10:30am! :lol: :lol: :shock: 
After 5 hours of sleep, day 2 started with the expectation that most competitors would be heading to the back of the lake since most of Saturdays fish came from there. Arrived at my spot only to see a handful of yakfishers made the trip out back. Immediately I was get good hits on the lure and at 7:30 I hooked onto my first keeper. This one turn out to be the Boss Hog for the day (36cm to the fork) and I was happy to get my first abt bream in the well. 8:30 came and so did No.2 keeper (29cm).
At 9:45 I was in the unfamiliar upgrade territory as I pulled in another at 35cm. 8)
At this stage I was trying to keeping my excitement to the bare minimum and giving myself the occasional pinch. Needing a 29+ to upgrade I managed to pull in 2 more just over legal before 11am and heading back towards weigh-in.
After 2 events last year and coming up with donuts, the monkey was off the back with great relief.

Once again thanks to Hobie and ABT for putting on a well run event and also Scott Lovig Hobie for his support.
Great to catch up again with a great bunch of blokes which makes a great weekend.


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

It wasnt a jewie at all. It was a monster 1.4metre long BREAM! 8) You are still da man Greg.  :lol: :lol:


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

GregL said:


> An hour or so later, Stu returned - this time on a surfboard, and with a set of goggles. He's a mad prick, and said that he was going to dive down and gaff it for me if I didn't get it up soon!


Stewie.....its all your fault! Too slow on the gaff. :lol:


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## GregL (Jul 27, 2008)

So, TOW or what?? 8) 
Smeg


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## craig450 (May 11, 2007)

How dissapointing Greg, but i reckon you did well to hold onto it for so long before the leader gave in.

It was a great weekend, im a little dissapointed with my result but still enjoyed the weekend. Thanks to Squidder, Squidette, Paffoh and Paddy for the good company.
Well done to the guys that weighed in fish, im very happy to see Squidder and Justcruisin do well, congrats guys. 

Unfortunately, thats it for me until the next Sydney round in January, but im looking forward to getting back up there for another shot at it. 8) 
Oh how i wish we had a South coast round!!!!!


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

theres some really great shots on the Hobie slideshow...well done Hooper!

Not sure how many competitors were AKFFers but I reckon at least 80-90%. There were about 40 competitos each day. The winners lineup was also full of AKFFers, so well done guys









I reckon this bloke wins the 'keenest fisho' award....one arm in a sling!


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

> I reckon this bloke wins the 'keenest fisho' award....one arm in a sling!


Thats Peter, he's also a pretty good breamer too. Not sure if he frequents the forums or not.

Cheers Dave


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

An incredible tale of woe Greg, well done for holding on so long, and well done Stu also for providing the support 

I didn't notice the bloke fishing with his arm in a sling, what a legend!


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## blueyak (Jan 20, 2009)

Davey G said:


> GregL said:
> 
> 
> > An hour or so later, Stu returned - this time on a surfboard, and with a set of goggles. He's a mad prick, and said that he was going to dive down and gaff it for me if I didn't get it up soon!
> ...


Granted it is my fault. And if I gaffed it and it boarded my kayak I would of claimed it as my fish :lol: .

I was absolutely devasted for Greg when the line parted.
At least I was silly enough to throw 1lb line at those beasts on the sounder and get destroyed on the first run.

For most that would be the fish of a lifetime but for you Greg I reckon you will get another chance.


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## grumpy (Oct 7, 2009)

Sounds like a good comp attended by a lot of yakkers, congrats to all who attended
Cheers Grumpy


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## Southerly (Apr 20, 2007)

GregL wrote: That fight was the best fishing experience I've ever had - 6 hours of my life I will never forget - BUT, I suppose I may as well underline it for posterity with nominating myself for the Tale of Woe? What do you reckon guys? Surely its worth a vote!

And I though all the ANSA crew had upgraded to 50lb braid years ago. Now I know what to do when I want to go for a fish and it is too lousy to launch at Longy.


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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.

----

QlpoOTFBWSZTWSkpdFAAACDfgEAQUSW88oCEnIov6/eAIABoRT1ANNDRoNA0aaaAANVN+lNTJ6epGNTE0ZHpA0MahbyxPA+JKCrUGHSLUGRwYCL+YxPjOU4qMcQEBnuSrs829OhL/mT9ndfTOaykh/0yAi2cXjLGPPa52d6il9lcSiGkHa2RVpQwJpbJ781HVQXSogqa2iAazg0p/F3JFOFCQKSl0UA=


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

GregL said:


> So, TOW or what?? 8)
> Smeg


you got a 6 hour TOW, surely that's enough


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## Ratdog (May 29, 2009)

Well Done Matty, i must say it made my weekend seeing those 3 big fish in your bag..


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## bigyakka (Mar 18, 2009)

Well done Matty  Well deserved


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## bigyakka (Mar 18, 2009)

Well done Matty  Well deserved


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## johnny (Aug 12, 2007)

wished i was there..congrats to all and great reading!


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## tugboat (Nov 15, 2006)

Great report, only wished I was in town to be part of the action.
Now I wished I had my kayak and fishing gear as I am in the Gold Coast and could have made the tournament this weekend :shock:


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## SteveFields (Mar 21, 2006)

report on the event

Narrabeen Lake in Sydney provided the venue for the second round of the 2009/10 Hobie BREAM Kayak Series. With 40 competitors on day one and 36 on day two, the prospect of hooking into some quality bream drew competitors from around Australia. With weather conditions constantly changing over the two days, would competitors overcome the elements and secure their 3 fish limit?

Victorian Matt Petrie secured victory, with over 700 grams separating him from his nearest competitor. Petrie's 3/3, 2.38kg limit on day 2 of the tournament secured the win, and his kicker fish of 1.10kg claimed the Boss Hogg big bream cheque for day two. In all Petrie secured over $900 worth and cash and sponsors prizes for his efforts.

"Late on Saturday I identified a location near Pipe Clay Point that I thought would produce some good fish. I arrived there first thing on Sunday, after about 45 minutes paddling, and began to work the area. It was about 4-5 feet deep with scattered weed on the bottom and around the size of a football field. I had my first fish by 7.30, which was the largest of my limit, and had the other two by around 9.45. I caught a further two fish in the session but neither were upgrades", explains Petrie.

Using a Berkley 2″ shrimp in Pepper Prawn rigged on a 1/12oz TT jighead, Petrie would cast in the area and slowly retrieve using small hops. Petrie describes his technique, "The key was small hops as opposed to big erratic lifts. And also keeping the lure moving, so the bream had to make a decision on the spot whether to react or not".

Petrie's tournament outfit consisted of a 7″ Nitro Bream Finesse rod teamed with a Daiwa Steez spin reel spooled with 6lb Sunline PE braid and 4lb Sunline V Hard leader.

Having previously competed at the Mooloolabah and Gold Coast rounds, Petrie was elated to secure his maiden victory. Asked to identify what was the key to his victory Petrie replied, "Persistence. Having identified an area, I went about covering it thoroughly. Knowing the fish were in the area made it easier to just concentrate on where the lure was going and what it was doing".

Jason Meech secured second place with a 3/3, 1.62kg first day limit. The only angler to catch 3/3 for each session, Meech targeted the mouths of small feeder creeks at the back of Narrabeen Lake. Using his Humminbird 798 with Side Image Technology, Meech would sound up areas of scattered weed in 2-3 foot of water. "Any deeper and the fish would not be receptive", explains Meech.

Using a Smith Camion shallow diver lure in black colour, Meech would slow roll the lure back to the kayak. Meech dissects his time on the water, "Most bites would come as soon as the lure hit the water. The bream were more active on day one when I boated around 30 legals. Day two however was tougher with no upgrades. Each day the bites came progressively with no specific window of opportunity".

Meech's outfit consisted of a Samaki 1-4lb 7″10′ rod teamed with a Daiwa Luvius 1000 reel spooled with 4lb Daiwa TD Sensor braid and 3lb Sunline FC Rock leader.

Apart from Petrie, who secured the day 2 Boss Hogg cheque, the other Boss Hogg winner from day 1 was Dave Hedge. Hedges .96kg bream easily accounted for all challenges on a tough overall first day, and helped secure him not only the $100 cheque, but also overall third place in the tournament.

Travelling to the back of the lake system, Hedge used a Smith Camion crank bait in shallow water to attract the bream. Casting tight to a weed bed on the bank, Hedge would slow roll the lure with lots of pauses.

"I had picked up a couple of fish that were undersize before this one got on. It was my first legal of the day, and by chance was the largest fish for the session. It was a good result."

Whilst a number of anglers decided to option-up, only one managed to produce fish. An elated Carl Dubois managed to secure the PRO category with a single fish on day 2. With $300 for his efforts, Dubois is certain to chance his arm again in a future event.

Twenty eight fish hit the scales for the two days of competition with ten fish on day one bettered by a more productive 18 fish on day two.


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