THE Australian Freshwater Masters is an event that pits teams of two anglers against other teams in a three round series. Points are allocated at 1 point per millimetre of legal fish. For example, a 458 mm golden perch will receive 458 points. Teams measure in their top 10 fish to accumulate a total team score per round, while individuals measure in their top 5 fish for the Overall Champion Angler section per round.
The event visits Lake Windamere near Mudgee for the golden perch round, Lake Glenbawn near Scone for Australian bass and the final leg is at Lake Mulwala on the border towns of Yarrawonga/Mulwala for the Murray cod round. Three iconic freshwater species in three iconic freshwater lakes.
Round 1 Windamere
The first round of The Australian Freshwater Masters was held at an on-fire Lake Windamere near Mudgee in NSW in November 2018.
Day 1 of the comp saw the teams head to the bottom half of the lake and wait on spot lock for the start time to roll around.
Most of the favourite teams were using soft vibes such as the Zerek Fish Trap 95 and the Jackall Mask Vibe or Lake Police Transam to catch their fish and the edge bite was fantastic.
In fact the edge bite was so good that Team Venom had their 10 fish limit only 1 hour and 17 minutes into the competition with three landed golden perch in the first five casts!
Day 2 is a half day and the fishing was much slower as teams concentrated on upgrading their fish from day 1.
After round 1 was finished, Team Gotcha had amassed 5,780 points (average fish of 57,8cm) and Aaron Lawson had landed the largest golden perch at 59.6cm total length
Top 5 Windamere
|
1 |
Gottcha (Michael and Andy) |
5780 |
|
2 |
Team Dog House (Scott and Joel) |
5672 |
|
3 |
Team Venom (Stephen and Shane) |
5621 |
|
4 |
Jigheads (Brad and Mitchel) |
5404 |
|
5 |
Big Sumps Fishing (Jono and Wally) |
5334 |
Round 2 Glenbawn
Round 2 was at Lake Glenbawn chasing bass, a round where traditionally a lot of teams bag out, but getting a big bag is not so easy.
Anglers were keyed right in to a football or swim jig bite. This technique has found a home at Glenbawn and its resident bass love slurping these offerings off the bottom or when fished vertically around the trees.
Other methods to work were trolling and casting small chatterbaits and just about every team landed fish.
But it was the football jig bite that was astounding with the top teams landing over 40 bass with an average length over 400 mm.
Leading the pack was Skeeton who scored 4,037 points for the day and half fishing. The big bass was a ripper coming in at 45.4 cm fork length for Chris Bird.
Top 5 Glenbawn
|
Place |
Team |
Glenbawn |
|
1 |
Skeeten (Scott and Glen) |
4037 |
|
2 |
Wodonga Caravan and Cabin Park (Corey and Ben) |
4025 |
|
3 |
Team Venom (Stephen and Shane) |
3947 |
|
4 |
Windybanks (Simon and David) |
3938 |
|
5 |
Gottcha (Michael and Andy) |
3882 |
Round 3 Mulwala
Day 1 started with a briefing at 11 am where all the rules and regulations, including session times, were laid out for the competitors. Day 1 would see the teams fish from 12 noon through to 7:30 pm.
At start time, the teams scattered to all corners of the lake with boats heading up towards Bundalong, other boats staying in the main basin at Mulwala and plenty of boats hitting the flats.
Scattered storms rolled through all afternoon and the fishing was tough, however those boats fishing on the flats managed to get several scoring Murray cod with Team Jigheads leading the pack with four legal cod landed.
Day 2 had a horrible wind forecast with the gentle breeze on start time of 15 knots quickly escalating up to 30 knots by about 11am. This wind stayed with the field for the rest of the day making flats fishing next to impossible and had a lot of teams looking for some sheltered water to fish.
Again Team Jigheads did well landing 7 fish for the tournament and three other teams managed to land 6 legal cod for the tournament, Team Venom, Mine’s Bigger and MLC. The event was getting very tight with four teams in with a real shot at winning overall.
Top 5 Mulwala
|
Place |
Team Name |
Mulwala |
|
1 |
Jigheads (Brad and Mitchel) |
4286 |
|
2 |
MLC (Peter and Duncan) |
3754 |
|
3 |
Team Venom (Stephen and Shane) |
3681 |
|
4 |
Mines Bigger (Aaron and Corey) |
3675 |
|
5 |
Avid Anglers (Chris and Frank) |
3210 |
Team Venom Wins
At the presentation it was revealed that Team Venom had won overall Champion Team for the second year running by only 140 points, which is equivalent to 14 cm in total length. Consistency proved the key for Shane Banks and Stephen Booth with the team finishing third in every round to accumulate enough points to win overall.
It also ended up that the top three teams were all within one legal fish of taking the win – as close a finish as the Masters has had for a few years.
If you’re interested in participating at this event, contact the organisers via their Facebook page.
Top 10 teams overall
|
Position |
Team |
Windamere |
Glenbawn |
Mulwala |
Total |
|
1 |
Team Venom (Stephen and Shane) |
5621 |
3947 |
3681 |
13249 |
|
2 |
Jigheads (Brad and Mitchel) |
5404 |
3418 |
4286 |
13108 |
|
3 |
Mines Bigger (Aaron and Corey) |
5246 |
3840 |
3675 |
12761 |
|
4 |
MLC (Peter and Duncan) |
5190 |
3540 |
3754 |
12484 |
|
5 |
Wodonga Caravan and Cabin Park (Corey and Ben) |
5205 |
4025 |
1155 |
10385 |
|
6 |
Team Dog House (Scott and Joel) |
5672 |
3743 |
581 |
9996 |
|
7 |
Skeeten (Scott and Glen) |
5225 |
4037 |
640 |
9902 |
|
8 |
Gottcha (Michael and Andy) |
5780 |
3882 |
0 |
9662 |
|
9 |
Mako Eyewear (Murray and Mark) |
5327 |
3530 |
583 |
9440 |
|
10 |
Avid Anglers (Chris and Frank) |
2552 |
3638 |
3210 |
9400 |
Top 10 Individuals Overall
|
Position |
Competitor |
Windamere |
Glenbawn |
Mulwala |
Total |
|
1 |
Mitchel Skeers |
2625 |
1819 |
3102 |
7546 |
|
2 |
Stephen Booth |
2797 |
2033 |
2569 |
7399 |
|
3 |
Aaron Graham |
2621 |
1915 |
2402 |
6938 |
|
4 |
Duncan Eddington |
2305 |
1716 |
2493 |
6514 |
|
5 |
Ben Faro |
2670 |
2030 |
1155 |
5855 |
|
6 |
Shane Banks |
2818 |
1914 |
1112 |
5844 |
|
7 |
Corey Hohnberg |
2625 |
1923 |
1273 |
5821 |
|
8 |
Peter Kerr |
2702 |
1822 |
1261 |
5785 |
|
9 |
Chris Bird |
950 |
1883 |
2640 |
5473 |
|
10 |
Scott Hartley |
2895 |
1933 |
581 |
5409 |
