Tuesday 6 March 2012

Squidgy Southern Bream Series - St. Georges Basin - 18-19 Feb

Ooh, we nearly cracked the fifty! Forty seven kayaks set off and I had my game plan ready to go. No travelling a bazillion miles for me, I was staying fairly close and from the launch I turned left and started at the first point you come to, drifting down with the breeze, working SP's on a HWS over the weedbeds.

Jason Reid was only 30m away from me and it wasn't long before he hooked up on his surface lure. A few seconds later, I snared one (woohoo, a double hook-up) and it was only 7:23am! The very next cast I land another but it's only 24.5cms to the tip, so it goes back into the drink.

I'm swapping between Squidy 100mm wrigglers and the Atomic 2" paddle tails and at 8:25am, the paddle tail pins me number two for the day. Jason already has two and soon after he gets his third. All off the surface, too. Bloody show-off! A flattie of about 55 cms gets my hopes up briefly and eventually I decided to move out into deeper water and try blading.

Another couple of flatties and then a 35cm snapper keep me on my toes and at 9:34am, I land number 3. Hallelujah! My first 3 bag down here at St. Georges Basin. I nearly faint and fall in the water but I keep my composure and proceed to catch more flatties, snapper and whiting and eventually have to come in with just those three that I landed.

After the weigh-in, it's even more of a shock to just be outside the top 10 in 11th place with 1.19 kgs. Andrew is just in front of me and Stewart has had a cracker of a day and sits in 2nd place. That night there's lie upon lie told about what, where and what with and we hit the sack early in anticipation of another good day tomorrow.

It was the same game plan for Jason and I and he has two in the well before I get my first hook-up. This guy hit the paddle tail on the run and zipped the line off the reel before coming to a sudden halt. I kept the pressure on the fish but somehow it just didn't feel right. I kept the rod bent but there was no movement so I figured he'd done me in the weeds. I approached where my line entered the water and I could see my line disappearing into a big weed clump. 'Bugger,' I thought and I grabbed the line to pull the lure free. But then the weed kicked and I could see a silver shape underneath it. 'What the..?' He was still there! I eased him out and into the net and I'm on the board for day 2!

But that was it. I landed one more undersize bream and picked up three flathead in the last 45 minutes but as far as legal bream go, nada. Andrew has only picked up two today and Stewart has donuted. I drop back to 19th place with a total of 1.725 kgs. Andrew takes out 15th with 2.03 kgs and Stewart ends up in 13th with 2.11 kgs. Jason ended up in 4th with 3.46 kgs.

Top spot went to Matty Petrie with a cracker bag of 6 fish for 3.93 kgs and second place went to Josh Carpenter with 6 fish for 3.855 kgs. Josh also took out big bream with a massive beast of 1.37 kgs. Both these guys have qualified for the World Championships in the US of A later this year so congratulations to both of them.

This weekend (10th-11th March) see's us all up at Forster for the NSW State titles. Forster has everything you could want in a fishery: lots and lots of racks, weedbeds, sand flats, etc and also some really, really big bream. All the details are on the usual websites: http://www.hobiefishing.com.au/ and http://bream.com.au/index.php
And we should get the fifty yaks this weekend, weather permitting. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,
Cid

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