ABT/Hobie Forster Tournament - 13th-14th March 2010

So this report has taken a couple of weeks but better late than never, I suppose. Forster was the location for this years State Titles and reports from guys that had pre-fished were pretty promising. One of the guys landed a 1.47 kg horse on the friday, so fingers crossed for action like that over the weekend.

The weather was pretty gnarly and pouring rain saw us all huddled under the tent during the briefing. Luckily, by launch time it had finished and by 6:20am we were on our way.

I had contemplated moving over towards the Tuncurry side but chose to fish the waters that I knew from last year and headed straight to a set of flats which had been fairly productive. On the way, I stopped for a quick flick at a few moored boats while the other guys continued on.

'No way,' I think. First cast and I'm on. This feels like a good fish and I'm stoked...UNTIL it turns into a 50cm flathead! Bugga. Onto the next boat and I'm on again. This time it's silver AND a bream but on the measure it only goes 24.5 cm fork. Shizer! Next boat and hello Mr Pike! Crapola... Off to the flats for me.

I'm using one of Mick Munns surface lures and land a few smaller guys until I finally get a good take. This is better and he goes 28 cms fork but he's a skinny fish. Still, it's one on the board. I get a few more under size ones until my surface lure is monstered by a big (70 cm+) flattie who decides she wants to keep it as a souvenir. Swine...

Now I head into the racks where I got most of my fish last year and I'm quickly rewarded with about half a dozen undersize fish but no legals (how is that rewarded???). I now target some weedbeds but don't even get a touch but I do get absolutely soaked by some torrential rain which cooled me down a bit.

I move about trying to find some fish and eventually find an old rack with abgout a foot of water under it. I skip in a Gulp 2" shrimp and it's pounced on. 24 cm fork. Come on! Another cast and I'm on again. This ones number two for the well with a 26cm forker. One more to go and I'll have a full bag. Next cast I'm on again but it's the first guy again with 24 cms fork. Three fish in three casts is pretty good though.

I have an hour left to fish and decided on some risky tactics to get some fish. I'm moving up along the old posts and railings and putting in long casts with my shrimps, landing them on the exposed sand. The problem is, the fish only have to move two feet either way to find line shredding barnacles and oysters, so I'll have to be on my toes to get them up and out of the danger zone.

The first stretch I fish I get absolutely smoked by a big fish that didn't pull drag but pulled the kayak a good 10 feet before busting me up. A few casts later it happens again. The third fish I hook I crank up and get him 6 feet from the yak before he dives and shreds me on the rail. I lose two more before having to head for home with a two fish bag. Not good enough I'm afraid and I only manage 800 grams which leaves me in 14th place. The good news though is Stewie smacked 'em good and proper and is in the lead. Tomorrow is another day though and I'll hit some flats further upstream in hopes of finding some big fish.

I'll keep day 2 short and sweet because the upshot is I didn't land a legal bream all day. I did hook a nice one off the surface first thing in the morning but I pulled the hooks which saw me cursing a missed chance. And that was it for me. Nothing over the flats, nothing in the racks, nothing over the weedbeds.

Back at the weigh in, Stewie was already at the bump tubs and he had a massive bag and an absolute corker that went 39 cms fork and weighed in at 1.19 kgs. Stewie ended up the well deserved winner and the State Champion with a two day bag of 4.09 kgs, beating his closest rival by over a kilo. Sensational stuff and about bloody time he took one out, too. : )

So unfortunately, that's it for me for the ABT for the year. I couldn't get down to Marlo last weekend (where the fishing was simply superb from all reports) and Camden Haven is out as it's my sons 6th birthday that weekend. It's a bummer missing out on the GF which will be back in Forster in May but I'm hoping all who made it have a great time and get onto some massive bluenoses. Stewart has to be one of the favourites now and I'm sure he'll put in another sterling effort. Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,

Cid