A COOL and misty morning greeted 75 boating teams and 50 kayaks for the 2016 season opening round of the Atomic Southern Bream Series hosted at Botany Bay / Georges River, Sydney.
The Tonic Eyewear Round One of the series had generated great interest and excitement during the lead up to the event due to some fantastic new additions to the 2016 series including the “Ecogear Rookie of the Year” competition, the “Shimano Series Big Bream” Competition and the “Hobie Fishing BBQ”.
At 7am boats and kayaks headed in every direction to follow their plans and determine who would be the winners and losers of the opening round. As the wind began to pick up around 12pm plans began to change and boats could be seen shooting this way and that all over Botany Bay until 1.45pm when they began to hit the weigh in area. Some with grins of achievement and others bearing faces of pain and anguish.
The boating winners for the day were Tani Konsul and Jason Harlock of Team Hobie Fishing Australasia/ AFTA with a very impressive bag of five bream for 3.67kg taking out 1st Place and the Tonic Eyewear winners cheque of $2,925. Tani and Jason not only followed their plan but stuck to it all day through changing conditions and dirty water throwing Cranka Crabs hard against the structure letting them slowly sink to the bottom proving to be the winning pattern on the day.
In the kayak division Jason Meech – Team Samaki/Pro Lure took out the prize with a great bag of three bream weighing in at 2.97kg. Once again Jason had a strong plan and stuck to it, waiting on the tide and following the bream up into the shallows throwing Curlicious Samaki Boom Baits in motor oil color, rigged weedless. Jason’s winning pattern won him the winners cheque of $1,300 and puts him on top of the series leaderboard for 2016.
The Boating Ecogear Rookie competition was taken out by Tony Khouri and Thomas Konen with an impressive opening bag of five bream tipping the scales at 3.090kg fishing Cranka Crabs and hard bodies on deeper structure. The Kayak Ecogear Rookie competition was taken out by Jessie Riley – KFNSW, with a great bag of three bream weighing in at 1.3kg.
The Austackle Big Bream competition run each round was taken out by Chris Seeto from Team lureandfly.com with a nice fish weighing in at 1.1kg and in the kayak division by Jason Meech – Team Samaki / Pro Lure with a fish of 1.060kg.
It’s now time to move from the bright lights of Sydney into our first real South Coast river system for 2016 in the upcoming Fishing World Round 2 of the Atomic Southern Bream Series which will be held on the Shoalhaven River.
We know the bream are there but it will take skill, patience, perseverance and careful planning to extract them. Do you have what it takes? Why not check out our website and get your entry in, there is a mentoring program available and it’s never too late to join the Ecogear Rookie competition.
The full wrap up of Round One and all the results are available at the Atomic Southern Bream Series website as well as the Facebook page.
