Hobie Kayak Bream Series - Port Macquarie - 26th June 2016

Sunday 26th June 2016 saw me competing in Round 9 of the Hobie Kayak Bream Series sponsored by Berkley at Port Macquarie. Luke Kay and I drove up on Saturday night (thanks for driving Luke) and we were keen to hit the water the next morning.

I'd only fished here once before so it's still pretty unknown to me but I had a plan and I hoped it would work. 56 keen anglers set off at 7am and I scoot over to my first spot towards the breakwall and I start off with an Ever Green Little Max blade. I had a few tentative bumps before finally landing my first one after about 20 minutes. Not big at 27 tip but that's the donut monkey off my back (see ya sucka!).

I persevered for another 10 minutes then changed to a Bait Breath 2.4" SL Remix Chiby in Bloodworm on a 1/8th jig head. This brought me bream no. 2 and it was time to head up to Big Bay.

I bumped into Dave Hedge up there and we were both praying for a bit of a breeze to blow up. I could see a few kayakers already fishing the floating racks so I decided to stick to the barges with the old oyster trays on them. This turned out to be a good idea and over the next few hours I landed about a dozen legal fish, slowly upgrading by 20 or 30 grams every now and then. I was still using the Chiby but this time it was rigged on a 1/16th jig head and 4lb Gosen Bass Reloaded FC.

It was lots of fun but where were the big ones? Simon Morley drifted past and he had a similar story to me. Lots of fish but no kickers. It was too still in Big Bay now (no wind or tidal flow) and I needed to find some current. It was almost time to head back so I raced up to the entrance of Lime Burners. The current was still flowing here so I had time for a few quick casts.

We've all had that experience when you go to hop your lure and you feel a solid clunk and you know it's a good fish. I set the hooks and this thing raced back under the barge. I pushed my rod down into the water almost up to the reel to stop the line from rubbing on the bottom of the barge. I felt the line brush on something but it held and I turned the fish back out. A few quick winds of the handle and the fish lunges back again to repeat what happened the first time and again I stop it. Just as I was thinking 'yes, I've gotcha,' it does another run and this time the leader pings. Noooooooooo!

Ah well, everyone loses a biggie or two during tournaments but that would've been a nice upgrade. Next time fishy, next time...

Eventual winner for today was Steve Crawley, with 2nd and 3rd going to Jason Reid and Andrew Death. Congrats boys on some great bags.

My personal contest was to beat Luke but he got me with his four fish weighing 2.29kgs, easily beating my bag of 2.05kgs. My goal was to crack the top 20 and I succeeded (just) by getting 20th. But at least I smashed Simon and Dave! : P

Thanks Stephen Blackmore and Dane Tomaszewski from Gladiator Tackle for their continued support and thanks to Steve Fields, Jim Barrie and Hobie Australasia for running another superb event. The final thanks and a big shout out goes to James Kilpatrick for the fantastic BBQ and snack packs. Legend! Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,
Cid

Lane Cove River - 10-7-16

Luke Kay has been bugging me for ages to head over to the Lane Cove River for a session. 'Come on, it'll be fun', he said. 'You'll catch a kegger,' he said. And so with this tempting offer, we set off from Woodford Bay just after 6am. Not only were bream expected, I was also hoping for a jewfish or two as Luke has hooked a few around this area lately.

We slowly cruised down to the mouth of the river and headed around towards Manns Point. We found a nice little drop off with some nice arches showing on our sounders so we started flicking our lures out. I started with a Little Max blade and had a few bumps but no hook ups. Time for a change so on goes the Bait Breath 2.4" SL Remix Chiby rigged on a 1/8th jig head, 4lb Gosen Bass Reloaded FC and Gosen 9lb Mebarin PE. First cast and whack, I'm on.

There were a few good head shakes and I called it for a jewfish at first but when she came up I realised Luke had been good on his promise. A nice fat bluenose 1.09 kgs bream! Fantastic. And there in the background of the photo you'll see the ever elusive 'Lukellus Kayius'. : )

We picked up an assortment of fish: bream, tailor, flathead and flounder. The tide was just starting to turn and a bit more run might have brought the fish on the chew a bit more. Then to top the morning off just before we headed back, I come up tight on another good fish and this time it's a crackin' trevally. What a way to finish the session. Thanks for the invite Luke. And as Arnie said, 'Ill be back!' Happy yakkin', everyone!

cheers,
Cid

Back online! and Hobie Kayak Bream Series Round 11 - Lake Macquarie - 23rd-24th july 2016

Yes, I'm back! And there is sooooooo much to report. Where do I start? It's probably best if I start with the latest report, then jump back in time after that. So here goes...

Lake Macquarie... after last years Australian Championships that were held there, I was keen to redeem myself and do well. At least catch my bag anyway. On Friday afternoon I set off with Eric Wood for a pre-fish. We hit the flats and weed beds and managed a few fish each. Nothing amazing but it was enough for me to start formulating my plan. The Bait Breath SL Remix and Chiby were the stand out lures for me so they would be my starting lures for Saturday.

It was supposed to be a two day comp but the Wind Gods said 'I don't think so' and Jim Barrie and Tony from Hobie made the correct call to cancel the first day. And thank God they did as it was windy enough to blow a dog off its chain.

But that wasn't going to stop us from fishing. We hatched a plan and 18 of us set off for Dora Creek to keep out of the wind. 10 bucks each into the kitty and the total length of your best 3 bream would take the cash. Well the fishing sucked big time! I dropped one fish and was there when Eric landed a 25cm bream which I told him to keep as it might be the winner. As I headed back I worked a small drop-off only 20m from the ramp and blow me down, I hook up and it's a 33cm bream.

Well whattayaknow, that bream was the biggest and I'm leading. But wait, there is still 5 minutes to go and Kevo and Simon Morley are just coming back in. Kevo has nothing (that's good) but Noooooooo! Simon has 2 bream (that's bad): a 36 and a 32 so he ends up scooping the pool and taking the cash. Great fun though and at least we weren't sitting back at the resort doing SFA.

Saturday night we had time to talk tactics for the next day, so my roomies for the weekend, Geoff Alford and Eric Wood dissected the lake and the weather and came up with our cunning plans. Mine was going to depend on what the wind did. Enough of it and I'd hit the flats and weed beds. Not enough, I'd hit some plateaus and rocky points I'd marked. Whatever I decided, I planned to stick with it as in the Australian Championships here last year (where I donuted) I felt that I raced around a bit too much.

53 kayakers set off from the Power Pole start line into the very chilly conditions. The wind wasn't quite enough for what I wanted but I decided to gamble and head to the weed beds anyway, hoping the wind would pick up. Thankfully, it did. I started with the Bait Breath SL Remix and also the Bait Breath Chiby that worked so well two days ago. These were rigged on a 1/30th Nitro jighead connected to 3lb Gosen Bass Reloaded FC (straight through) on my Psyborg rod and reel outfit.

20 minutes without a bite and it was time for a change so I went for the ever reliable Smashbait 3" Minnow (colour 12 - the green one). Two casts later I get my first bream then it's about 35 minutes before I get number two which is a nice 630g fish. Jim Barrie was going past and took a few quick photos. Thanks Jim.

I continued to move towards Swansea but once there I figured there were too many anglers about and the water just didn't feel 'fishy' enough, so I turned tail and headed back to my original destination. This was a good choice as number three soon goes into the well and at 11:14am, number 4 and my full bag is completed. All on the Smashbaits, too.

I land another couple of legals (26cm to the tip of the tail) over the next few hours but they aren't upgrades so I return to the weigh in, hoping I'll scrape into the top 10. The tough conditions worked in my favour though as a lot of the other anglers (and some of the gun locals) had struggled and my bag of 2.18 kgs was enough to clinch me 4th place.

Congratulations to the podium getters, Nathan Cliff, Tony Pettie and Michael Halliday and also to Luke 'Sick as a Dog' Kay who ground it out and took home the Boss Hog with that 1.03kg beastie.
I'd like to thank Jim Barrie and Tony who worked like trojans to run the event for us this weekend. Hats off to you guys. And also a huge thanks to Chris Purnell from Totally Immersed Watersports and James Kilpatrick from Hunter Water Sports for helping me out with my sounder woes (you guys are legends).

As always, thanks to Stephen Blackmore and Dane Tomaszewski from Gladiator Tackle whose amazing products are keeping me up at the pointy end in the tournaments this year. Next month I journey to Forster and the final qualifying round for the World Championships. There is going to be probably 80 or more anglers for this one, so it's gonna be HUGE! I cant wait. For further details, visit this page at Hobie Fishing. Happy yakkin' everyone!

cheers,
Cid