BLF Southern Bream Series - Sydney Harbour - 28th June 2015

41 kayakers were lined up to spread out from Hen and Chicken Bay with 7 hours (actually 6 hours 45 minutes) up their sleeves to attempt to catch at least 3 of Sydney's winter blue nosed bream. A couple of weeks ago there were numerous reports of great captures but things can change pretty quickly in the big city. To ward off the cold, the Sydney Latte Brigade downed a nice warm latte before the kick off...

I shot straight over to the boats from the launch site and started casting a Gladiator Shiver Vibe (SV4003) under the hulls. The water was a bit too still for my liking but it wasn't too long before I landed my first. 25.5cms though and he's agonizingly half a centimeter short of legal size for the comp. Back he goes and I continue on. I'm alternating between the vibe and the Bait Breat SL Remix soft plastic and it's the SL that gets me my first legal for the day, a 29 tip specimen that sees me throw the donut monkey off my back.

It's very quiet though and I decide to move down towards the main river. I start by working the front of the marina and land two undersize bream in successive casts and on the 3rd cast my lure gets whacked and screams off. My hopes are soon shattered when I feel the pulsations through my line and a cracker trevally eventually is landed and set free.

I make a move to some moored boats and Eric Wood is working the same area as me. I flick my vibe way up in between two boats and it gets nailed half way back to the yak. This feels really good and I stop his first run and gain some line. But then he decides he's not done yet and races hard for the next boat. I have no choice but to lock up the spinning spool and PING, I pop a knot. Bugga, that was a good fish.

On with another vibe (my last brown one) and I keep flicking between the boats. The wind is pushing my nose into the boats so I grab my short paddle to turn me back out when my rod bucks and I'm onto another good fish. Eric is yelling out behind me, "Oh, that's a good one, get him. That's it, he's out. NO! Stop him, yes, that's it. Ha ha, oh he's good! Get him, no!" And with that last shout, he does me on the rudder of the yacht. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That's two bruisers within the space of a few minutes. Soon after Eric hooks up to a biggie as well and also gets done over. Shizer.

Tail between my legs, I head up river. I try everything in my arsenal and eventually manage another 29 tip bream but that's it for me. My two fish weigh 870g and lock me into 14th. Top honours went to good mate and top fisho Terry Grima who smashed us all with 2.5kgs (see, I said in the last report it'd take 2.5kgs to win it!). 2nd went to Matthew Hooper with 2kgs and 3rd went to Mr Consistent, Luke Kay with 1.64kgs. Well done lads.

So there's a bit of a break now with the next comp for me not scheduled until 9th August at St Georges Basin. This will be the last comp before the Grand Final and with a close points table, I'm sure there will be a few yakkers turning up to secure vital points to ensure they make it into the top 15. I better get my hands on a few more of those brown Shiver Vibes from Gladiator Tackle, me thinks. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid