Georges River - 25/11/07 & 9/12/07

Kayak fishing has taken a backseat the last couple of weeks due to a few bream tournaments that have been and gone. The first was the squidgy Bream challenge where I joined up with Gary Brown as Team Pflueger. These team-event tournaments have a 5 bag limit of bream with a minimum 25cm fork length and you have 7 hours to catch your bag.

Gary and I hit a lot of our favourite spots and we caught a heap of bream, the only problem was that they were JUST short of the min length! It was sooooooo frustrating, catching a 26-27cm fish and tossing it back because it is 24.5 cm's fork length. We managed a bag of 3 fish that went 1.268kg's and we knew that it wouldn't be good enough. Out of 33 boats we came in at 17th. The best fish of the day went to Gary with his 35cm whiting, pictured above.

Of course, some teams hit pay-dirt big time and the winning bag weighed 4.88kg's. These were caught on the flats around Towra Point, working the edges of weedbeds with SP's as the tide dropped. But the fish of the day went to Chopper (g'day Bill!) with a monster that pulled the scales down to 1.618kg's. It was a horse and is easily the biggest bream I have ever seen in the flesh!

To ease the pain, I had a quick flick mid-week down at Oyster Bay and figured it was about time I carried out the Banana Theory test number 3. No 1.5kg bream came over the side but I did get a few with a nice couple of flatties as well that went very well on the BBQ later that night. All fish were caught on SP's. Funnily enough, I haven't hooked up on a HB the last two times I've been out. Strange that, as the flathead normally pounce all over them.

Last weekend there was the Berkley Summer Series first round which was held on the Georges River as well. This time I was with Steve Sommerville and we were team MOJOMAN! This time we got off to a better start and by 10:30am we had three ok'ish fish in the live-well. Little did we know it but we could've packed up then and there. I'd say we landed a dozen bream that were 24cm fork length. Deja Vu, or what? Plus we must've landed about 20 flatties each, ranging from 15cm's to a nice one that Steve pinned that went 50cm's.

We each had our share of hard luck stories and I was absolutely smoked by a big bream amongst some jetty pylons. He picked up the Gulp camo sandworm ever so gently but when I set the hook he ripped line off the reel and wrapped me around the nearest pylon before I could lock the reel up. Ooh, he would've been a nice kicker for the bag. Our three fish weighed 1.3kg's and out of 33 boats we came....17th! If nothing else, we're consistent. : ) The winning bag this time was 4.67kg's which came from the groynes over near Kurnell, I hear.

It's all good fun though and as long as you're having a good time, it doesn't really matter where you come on the leader board, although the $1,920 for first place does sound kinda sweet. There's a few more to go yet, so we still stand a chance of getting on the podium, I guess. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid