Sunday 16th January saw Round 2 of the Berkley Evinrude Team Series take place at beautiful Lake Macquarie. The ever-growing event was again hosted by the Wangi Point Holiday Park.
A final tally of 88 teams entered the event – the largest field in bream tournament history. Fortunately, if any waterway can accommodate 88 bream hungry tournament teams it’s Lake Macquarie with 250kms of shoreline, numerous cockle beds and drop-offs, flats and structure.
The water was glassy and any bit of windblown cover afforded to surface focused anglers was gone. It proved to be a tough day with only teams able to adapt to conditions sitting at the front of the pack. One such team was Team Hobie – Shayne Gillet and Kyle Prosper. Grand Finalists in the 2010 Series, Gillet and Prosper targeted the edges of weed beds in around two metres of water with deep diving hard body lures. Although not one of Shayne’s favorite techniques, the results came quickly with a deep diving Berkley 3B Fatdog in Bitza pattern and a similar diving Chubby lure. The pair had a bag of fish by 8.30am and could relax into “upgrade” mode.
As the bite dropped off a little the boys drifted out into yet deeper water and switched to a soft plastic approach using Squidgy Wrigglers. Around 9.30am one bite was followed by a hit and run that saw Shayne’s reel down to the backing. Calling it for a kingfish he resisted the temptation to snap it off and was glad he didn’t when a lively 39cm 1.26kg was safe in the well. Shortly afterwards a 31cm model followed suit. The team chipped away for the rest of the day and were able to slowly consolidate their bag.
The Hobie team’s bag weighed in at 3.74kg, enough to secure 1st place honours, a cheque for $4000 and an Engel Prize Pack.
1st placegetters Team Hobie, Shane Gillet and Kyle Prosper (centre).
2010 BETS Grand Finalists, Team Tackleworld Marks Point of Mark Healey and Adrian Neoh came in 2nd with 3.40kg to win $2800 cash, a $480 Mako Eyewear Prize Pack and 99 points towards a Grand Final place.
Team Tackleworld Marks Point of Mark Healey and Adrian Neoh (centre) took out 2nd.
The quest for the Evinrude Big Bream Award was also between the two top place getters, with Team Hobie taking the honoures with a 1.26kg bream, Tackleworld Marks Points’ a whisker under at 1.23kg. Courtesy of Evinrude, Team Hobie start the next round at the head of the fleet with their entry fully paid.
Shayne Gillet’s Big Bream weighed in at 1.26kg.
BETS Round Three takes place on the Hawkesbury River on 20th February.
For all the results and details from Round 2 click HERE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoCFaee_fEI
