WITH pre-fish at the Lowrance sponsored round of the Gamakatsu Team Series at Nelsons Bay marred by huge downfalls of rain, 35km/h winds and flooding, 25 very keen teams showed up for a very difficult session.
Mercifully the weather took a turn for the better on comp day. Most anglers headed downriver under Teagardens Bridge and either stayed on the Hawks Next side of the bay and fished an area just around the wreck or braved the rough trip though the bay and were prepared to get drenched by the swell. The 25 teams were encouraged by the fact that the Gamakatsu Team Series was giving away over $9000 of cash and prizes including a Lowrance $2500 voucher.
Only two teams managed to catch their bag of five bream throughout the day and the winning bag was caught by Team Koolabung Lures / Gary Howard Rods, Neil Cheguidden and Ross Lamotte who weighed in five fish for 1.9kg. The team started the day crossing the bay and taking two waves over the bow, ankle deep in water, bilge pump working overtime and two reels dislodged from their rods!
In second place was the father and son team Bream On – John and Beau Startin – who weighed in a 1.71kg bag.
Team off Da Hook – Mark Robertson and Rod Ford – came in 3rd place for the day weighing in only two fish, but one of those fish was a 1.04kg beauty out of a 1.38kg bag!
Team SAS braid / Diztek weighed in a great size bream at 1.14kg, which earned them 6th place; if the boys had a few more fish in the tank they would have been very happy indeed!
St Georges Basin
Also last weekend saw the running of Round Two of the Gamakatsu Hobie Fishing Series (GHFS) take place at the big fish waters of St George’s basin in southern Sydney (see kayak report HERE).
In all, 59 boats and 43 kayaks turned up to test themselves against this massive expanse of open water and to see if they had the skill to tempt any of the giant fish that inhabit St Georges Basin.
One team that was more than ready for these XOS fish was team Breamski. Steve Nedeski and Jarrod Lye, who set out with a game plan to fish in between 10 and 13 feet of water and to target fish on soft plastics in the Erowal Bay area. Picking up their bag quite early, including two of their bigger fish, Steve and Jarrod used ultra light jighead rigged soft plastics and slowly upgraded their bag all day to amass a sensational five fish for 4.48kgs.
Finishing in second place was team Flikenmad consisting of Mike Ahern and Peter Hewit. These guys used a mixture of surface and sub surface options with their biggest fish of the day coming on an Atomic Hardz K9 Walker in Muddy Prawn colour. The mix of Atomic Walkers and Cranks was deadly and put together the fantastic bag of 4.42kgs only 60 grams behind team Breamski.
The round’s big bream deserves special mention as it is the biggest bream weighed by the Gamakatsu and Gamakatsu Hobie Fishing series to date. Team The Vibe’s angler Paul Wilson hooked, fought and landed the monster fish tipping the scales to a very impressive 2.17kgs! This fish was caught on 3lb straight through and after some spectacular angling skill it was bought to the net. Congratulation to The Vibe for taking out the Samurai Reaction Big Bream and are now the record holders for the Gamakatsu and Gamakatsu Hobie Fishing Series.
More details at: www.fishingcomps.com.au/gts
