Bloody Bream! Squidgy Grand Final - Oct 2010

Two days of breaming and all I caught were three of the buggas. This can be a heartbreaking sport sometimes. Day one was at St Georges Basin and the weather was fantastic. I had a great days fishing but a crap days tournament fishing.

In total I landed 3 Luderick, all caught on blades, 2 legal squire and eight flathead from 42 to 53 cms. Plus I lost a ripper of approximately 80cms right at the side of the yak. But I didn't land one single bream all day. I don't think I even hooked one!

Day two was held on The Shoalhaven river. Talk about chalk and cheese weather. The southerly was blowing at 20-25 knots and right on start time, it started to rain. What a miserable day. There were even boats coming back in by 9:30 am. But most of us crazy yakkers stuck it out in the cold rain and wind.

The breaming today was HEAPS better than yesterday as I hooked three of them. Two I landed but both were just undersize (one was 24.8 cm. They have to be 25 cm) and I dropped the only decent sized one that looked about 30 cms or so. So back on the beach I handed back my keytag and recorded a double donut. Shizer. Here's a collage of my fish from the weekend anyway.

The top three were deserved winners and the podium list was Squidder, Rebel1 & Blueyak. I hope next years grand final (if I make it) will be better for me.

The highlight of the weekend though was seeing the biggest bream ever caught in one of these catch and release style comps. It was landed by Adrian Van and pulled the scales down to 2.510 kgs. Man, this thing was MASSIVE! Apparently it was hooked on a blade in only 6 feet of water and it buried him in the weeds before he could manage to land it.

Photos never do them justice though but this guy was 46 cms fork length and at least 4 inches thick across the shoulders. If a kayaker had landed it, it wouldn't have fitted in any of our live wells. And it was fantastic to see it swim off at the end of the day, too.

But to more recent news, the ABT/Hobie series returns to Sydney this weekend and returns to where it all started three years ago, and that's good ol' Hen & Chicken Bay. Fingers crossed and touch wood, but the weather is looking pretty good so far and from recent reports, the bay has been fishing fairly well.

Come on yakkers, let's turn up in force and get a good crowd there. You can enter on the day so just be there by 6am and sign up. Here's a link to a PDF with all the info you need: http://bream.com.au/abt/2010/Sydney10.pdf There's always good prizes for the winners and a chance to qualify for the Grand Final at Port Macquarie next year. In fact there's three spots up for grabs. Well, only two of them really, because I plan to take one... : ) Happy yakkin', everybody!

cheers,
Cid