Day one and I got my first fish on the 2nd cast and it fell to my go-to lure lately, the Gladiator Shiver Vibe in purple and black (SV4010). I'd tempted the fish out from a set of broken racks by slowly hopping the vibe parallel with the rails. By the time I'd put the fish in the well, turned back and got ready for cast number 3, there were two skin divers heading down the same row. Ah well, time to move on I guess.
I only had one of these purple and black vibes though and it was soon taken home by a big beastie . On goes my next favourite, a brown colour one (SV4003) and it's working a treat also and I get my bag by 8:20am. I had a blast today and landed about a dozen legals but I was only upgrading a centimeter at a time.
Right at the end of the day, I checked my watch and I had 40 minutes to get back to the launch site. I really needed a kicker fish though and in the last ten minutes the wind had picked up and the fish were starting to come on the chew. I decided to roll the dice and have one more run through the racks.
I was now casting a Gladiator Bingo, landing it as close to the racks as possible before rolling it back to me. My roll of the dice worked out for me as I landed a 37 fork length which bumped my bag up by about 400 grams. Time to high-tail it for home and 'SNAP'!, there goes my back fin cable. Shizer! I paddle (as well as pedal) and I make it back with 2 minutes to spare. That was close! My 3 bag weight is 1.91kgs and I'm sitting in 7th.
A huge thanks goes out to Chris Purnell from Totally Immersed Watersports who sorted me out with a new cable. You're a champion Chris!Day two and I start off with the Shiver Vibe again but it's a bit slower today and it's not until 9:40am that I get my 3. From then on it was simply a matter of working through the racks hoping I'd slowly upgrade every now and then. I eventually changed to a Gladiator Bingo which did the trick and the bream were wolfing it down. Even the Long Toms were getting into the act with them. In hindsight I probably should have made the switch a bit earlier.
Every now and then I'd throw out a SP, a Bait Breath SL Remix and this was pulling it's fair share of fish, too. As per usual, I was done over a few times and I landed more than yesterday (15 legals) but I just didn't get the bigguns. A bag of 1.57kgs saw my 2-day weight of 3.48kgs land me in 9th spot and I was stoked to crack the top 10 here with such a big field of talented anglers.Congratulations to the podium getters: Joel Crosbie, Glenn Allen and Chris Burbidge and also to the Boss Hog winner, Jason Meech. And an additional HUGE congrats to Joel and Glenn for making it onto the Australian Team for the Hobie Worlds in China this November. Go get 'em boys!
Thanks again to Steve Fields and his team for running these awesome events, they simply are brilliant. And thanks for the continued support from Stephen Blackmore from GLADIATOR Fishing Tackle for the fantastic tackle and lures that keep on producing for me.
And last but not least, thanks Matt Petrie for the 20 bucks I won back off you after you took it off me at the Georges River round last year. : P
This weekend I'll be competing in the Sydney Harbour round for the Basin Lure and Fly Southern Bream Series which is also a Hobie Australian Championship Qualifier. It's still not too late to get your entries in, so jump in and have a go. The fishing has been great so there'll be some pretty good bags weighed in and I'm guessing it'll take a 2.5kg plus bag to win it (for the kayakers). Happy yakkin' everyone!
cheers,
Cid
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