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