I was keen for a good result this tournament as I'd only just joined up with Gladiator Tackle (www.gladiatortackle.com.au) as one of their Pro Team Staff members. They have very generously kitted me out with a full assortment of gear from rods and reels to line and lures. The range is spectacular and some of their new gear is simply amazing. Their new minimalist Psyborg rods are out of this world and I'll give a report on this amazing piece of kit in a later report. I've been using some of their lures for a while now, such as the Smashbaits Minnow SP's and Hip Baby HB's but the lures that really caught my eye were the Bingo's and the Bait Breath 2" RushCraw's, which are very similar to the Hawgs that slayed them last year.
I started off with a RushCraw on a 1/20th jighead. I circled my marks and it wasn't long before I came up tight to something. This thing had some weight though and didn't feel like a bream. There were a few strong surges but my guess proved to be right and a beautiful 60cm flathead was led into my waiting net. A quick release and out goes the lure again where it is quickly engulfed as it hits the bottom. This feels flathead'ish again and another cracking flathead (this one was 55cms) says a brief hello. The wind was minimal and I would have preferred just a little more to bring the fish on the chew. Just to check if it was a colour thing the fish were fussy about, I rigged up one of the same hawgs from last year. After 15 minutes without a touch, I decided to move and try some deeper water blading. It seems I wasn't the only one catching flathead though and I passed Steve Fields from Hobie that was landing a beauty.
The Shiver Vibes are perfect for the depth I was fishing, which was between 1.7 and 1.9 meters. And Yay, a bream, but it's only 23 cms. And then another. And another! Finally I hook one that seems a bit more spirited and he's legal, too. Only 27 to the tip but it's a start.
I could've gone home then as it was the only legal I could manage. This massive beast weighed 320 grams and I prayed I'd find the fish tomorrow. It turns out that I wasn't the only one that couldn't find them though, as Meechy, who normally has fish coming out the wazoo, couldn't even get a legal. That shows that if you ain't where the fish are, you can't catch 'em!
The next day I decided to hit the weed edges early and my lure of choice was the Blue/Black Bingo. This is similar to a small Chubby or a Camion and it casts like a bullet and has a great wobbling action that works well at any retrieve speeds. I was getting it to dive to the bottom and would twitch it to stir up little puffs of sand and the first fish of the day was another 60 cm flathead. With great skill I'd hooked it perfectly in the corner of the mouth so with patience I knew it would only be a matter of time before I netted her. She was a nice fish but the wrong species.
The rest of the day I pulled in undersize bream with the biggest going 25 tip. So close yet so far. I managed legal Whiting and Flathead though, all to the Bingo but I just couldn't find the bream I needed. I even ventured up one of the creeks to see if I could find them but to no avail. That's fishing though, sometimes you nail them (like last year) and sometimes you don't (like this year).
Back at the weigh-in I bumped into Meechy. He'd managed 2 fish and it just emphasized my opinion of how frustrating it can be sometimes because if Jason can't find 'em, then it's tough fishing.
But of course some people did find them and kudos to them for searching them out. It looked like Kevin Winchester was going to take it out but he was pipped at the post by Bryce Beechey. Southern stalwart Craig Coughlan from Custom Lure Art rounded out the top three.
So it wasn't as great a tournament as I'd hoped but there's always next time. I think I'll try to take Lachlan out and test out some of the great lures on my local water ways. Happy yakkin', everyone!
cheers,
Cid
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