BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL BOAT SHOW INVITATIONAL 2010

Last weekend I had one of those fishing experiences that will be etched into my memory forever.
After a good result at the Bribie ABT, I was ecstatic to receive a call up for the annual Brisbane International Boat Show Invitational Comp. With this being one of ABT’s showcase events it was pretty hard to contain my excitement as I see this as a pinnacle in my short breaming career. I’m sure my fiancé, my mum and dad were equally happy but sick of me mentioning it everyday leading up to the event as my mind raced through the endless possibilities of outcomes that could unfold over three days of fishing Moreton Bay. Just to get asked to fish it was exciting enough!!
My partner for the event was half of the reigning champion team in Jay Perham, who with Tristan Taylor, took out the 2009 BIBS crown. Over the years, Jay and I have formed an alliance and friendship in fishing teams events together with many laughs and jokes shared along the way. Not only was it exciting to fish my first BIBS but it was even better to share the experience with a good mate. We were chosen to fish for Team Lowrance, who’s affiliation with the boat show continued this year along with being one of Jay’s personal sponsors. With a classy field assembled containing some of Queensland’s best Bream and Bass anglers, this event was going to be nothing short of exciting times.

DAY 1: A stiffening SW wind was forecast to greet us on the first morning of the event. With ABT opening up the boundaries to Moreton Bay, the fishing possibilities were endless let alone the ride was going to be interesting. Jay and I chose to tough out the conditions and head to the infamous Redcliffe. Redcliffe is known for it’s big bream but can still reduce grown men (and women, sorry Trace!!) to tears as the often tentative bite can be testing. On arrival to our first spot (after checking if I still had all my teeth from the bumpy ride!!) we were quick to notice only three of the nine teams decided to make the treacherous trek across the bay. We started working some flats that were knew held fish with Jay coming up trumps with 2 legals (27cm,28cm FL) in the first drift. With the tide rising, we persisted in the shallows as were knew fish would be chasing bait up before the sun got too high. Approaching our first lot of bommies we took a tandem approach on our drift with Jay twitching hardbodies and myself slow rolling shallow divers. This technique proved the killer as while slow rolling my Jackall Chubby it got smashed four to five cranks after landing. This fish felt small at first but as soon loaded up and started to give us hell. Two long runs and big headshakes, I called it for a squire which are very common in these areas but we had seen a flash of silver as that confirmed big bream. Fighting it in the shallows we eventually got him out of some nasty rocky terrain to find a fish notorious to Reddy....39cm fork length bream!! With several high fives and fist pumps we nailed a kicker fish before 8am on the first day!! How good. Jay then pulled a cracker 33cm in the shallows and myself a 28cm in deeper water to fill our bag by 8.15am. Now for a comp like BIBS, it’s essential to get at least 5 fish each day to put yourself in the running. We then move to another spot targeting deeper reefs to only upgrade a few of our smaller ones by a few centimetres.

After a relative quiet patch we waited for the tide change to hit some bommies which I knew held fish but were better attacked on the receding tide. Noticing several bait schools in the area, I change to an Atomic Shad 40 which is quite a small, light lure but when cast with the wind allows you maximum distance with little effort. Twitching this shad over the first bommie it got smashed, again with big head shakes and two decent runs to turn up a solid 34cm bream. Two casts later, Jay applied the same retrieve to his deep diving chubby and BANG!! with that fish going 35cmfork. Next cast I was on again, two twitches and a pause, with this fish going 33.5cm.

Now the next series of events were so hectic we could only look back and laugh. While still twitching my lure I hook up to something which I thought was big but it’s long runs gave away it’s identity... yes tailor, so Jay asks me to break its neck to take it home for dinner. So I take the lure out (chuck it in the water out of harm’s way) and as I reach into the net to seal it’s fate, the rascal tailor turns around and ‘inhales’ my finger!!! In a mad panic I pull my hand away to see bite marks that resemble a Rottweiler mauling , with blood pouring out everywhere!!! So while trying to apply pressure to my mauling as the bleeding wasn’t stopping, I turn around to pass the cursed fish to Jay to do the job right, I hear this ‘metal on metal’ clunk. So in all the chaos, a pike has taken my lure (that I took out of the tailor) it’s taken off and my rod shot into the water only to have my reel handle get snagged on the steering arm of the motor!!! How Funny!! So with the adrenaline flowing through my veins and ultimately out my finger, Jay yells at me to keep fishing as this electric bite may soon come to an end. With electrical tape (which did bugger all) wrapped around my finger, much to Jay’s amusement I pulled another 32.5cm then a 31cm bream which on any other day are awesome fish but this day 33cmwas our smallest.
So this day turned out to be the best tournament fishing day I have ever had at Reddy with the day having everything, big fish, rough seas, vermin pike, and a cracker F.R.I..........Fishing Related Injury!!!We finished the day in second spot weighing 4.45kg with my good mate Tristan Taylor and Scott Lovig from Team Hobie nailing a cracker bag of 4.83kg to hold a good lead into day 2. Roderick Walmesly and Sean Pallent of Team Sunline were in third place with a respectable 4.34kg, with the top 3 teams being the only ones to tough it out across to Reddy to reap the rewards. God bless her!!!



DAY 2: Today the weather showed us some mercy with the overnight winds dying down to a light offshore breeze. After an awesome first day at Reddy, we knew we would have some company today as the rest of the field struggled down in the southern bay on day 1. Would Reddy hold up to the pressure??? Or will it shut down??? These questions were in the back of our minds as we shot to our first spot for the day, hitting an outer reef a few hundred metres from where I nailed my stonker on day 1. Fishing our tandem approach again, Jay twitched shad style lures while I kept to the slow rolling. My second cast of the day pitched right on top of this outer bommie r gets slammed immediately with this big fish exposing it’s back out of the water to try a rapid escape in a foot of water across the top of the bommie. While wrestling this weighty fish it’s headshakes become more intense as Jay motors the boat into deeper water out of harm’s way, giving me ample space to play this awesome fish. After several runs and countless headshakes up she came and did not disappoint at 41.5cm to the fork!!! Oh yeah I was pumped!!! Now to even get a yellowfin bream that big in your life is awesome but to do it at a comp like BIBS I was in heaven!!!So much in heaven, I reckon I made Jay’s ears bleed as I talked at a million miles per hour for the next hour trying to get my heart rate down. Jay wasn’t being left out of the limelight as he then pulled a fat 35cm fork bream while cranking a deep reef nearby and day 2 was shaping up to be exactly like day 1. But Reddy had different ideas, as clearing skies and dropping wind turn fishing into a semi shutdown. We then decided to visit the scene on day 1’s onslaught as the tide was approaching the top and the fishing was slowing down. Soon after our stop Jay hooked up on a big bream, as he fought him away from the reef, I motored us into deeper water to limit the risk of being busted off. As the fish arced underneath us, Jay’s leader popped much to his bitter disappointment. Being busted off at Reddy is a common occurrence so at the end of the day you just have to soldier on. We then picked up two legals at 26cm and 27cm fork which left us one fish to get to fill our bag. After seeing other boats come and go we knew people were struggling as well as us, so we knew we had to tough it out.
We returned to our first stop of the day and as the tide started it’s run out we fished deep cranks on the off chance fish were still feeding deep and out of the sunlight. With morale dropping with the tide, we were staring down the barrel of not filling our bag. Then out of the blue, bang I was on. I have never played a fish so carefully in my life (actually I think it was TOO careful!!) and as it came up I knew it was a good bag filler. It went on the lie detector at 32cm fork and my day was done. So after a hard fought day we weighed in the biggest bag of the day at 3.18kg to hit the lead, a mere 40g in front on Team Hobie with Team Sunline a further 770g back.


DAY 3: Taking a 40g lead into the final day was a new thing for me as I have had little experience being in the lead of a big comp. So our theory for the final day was treat it like a first day and get onto fish early. As our spots had produced over the weekend, we decided to keep the momentum going by sticking to our milk run early then if all else fails PANIC!! Hahaha just kidding. We had backup spots that we hadn’t even touched over the weekend so it’s good to have something up our sleeve. On arrival to our first stop, the site of yesterday’s big fish battle, it didn’t take Jay too long to hook our first fish a nice solid 30cm fork. Now for any tournament angler avoiding the dreaded ‘donut’ is a priority in all comps let alone the third day of BIBS, so this was a monkey off our back for sure. Soon after it was my turn, on the same bommie that produced our day two kicker fish, my shallow chubby got smashed by a healthy 32cm fork. What a great start!! We then did the rest of our milk run to no avail, followed by a move to another one of our spots to see if that was firing…. no good, only one legal at 25cm fork. As the sun was getting higher in the sky and time was ticking, we expected the bite to shut down so we went to plan B….. which was created within 5 mins while driving to a spot we haven’t tried!!! (Locals, who you calling locals!!). So we tried our luck at Woody Point which has not fired since last summer but has a reputation to hold fish, not sizable but legals. With the SE wind whipping up, I was forced to surf the waves on the electric motor as Jay pitched long wind assisted casts into the rubble flats. As my multi-tasking were being tested to the max, I was the first to pull a fish, not big but legal to make our bag total 4. Then it was Jay’s turn, again not big but right on the legal limit of 26cm tail tip. So our moved paid off with the only problem being weight. Three small fish could really come back to hurt us in the end as Jay’s calculations ran rampant in his head. We then moved to another new spot only to have our hearts broken by a 32cm squire as it’s strong runs had us fooled for a big bream. So it was off back to our milk run hoping the tide had turned not only the water but our luck for big fish. After several drifts and casts, the morale was fading as time was definitely running out.

As an awesome gesture of comradeship, Roderick and Sean from Team Sunline offered to chaperon us home as the SE winds were getting angry. Much to our tenacity (or stupidity!!) we chose to stay another 15mins as I was adamant to Jay my job was not done. I joked to Jay on the first day I was only there for ‘good looks and upgrading’, so after two days of doing just that I wasn’t finished. As we drifted across a bommie in 10ft of water, Jay had his doubts as I was certain reef was below us and then suddenly I felt a hit…… then another…. then bang, I was on!!! With a last throw of the dice, I felt good weight from this fish as it’s furious runs and countless headshakes had me certain it was a big bream!! We saw a flash of silver as it past deep with my Samurai 203 rod taking all the shocks of each headshakes and as a final run it took off under the boat to then have it surrendered to the net with only one treble hook left pinned in its lip!! How awesome!!! Now all weekend my heartrate has had some serious spikes but this last fish with 5mins before we had to leave was no exception. With countless high fives and ‘I won Gold Lotto’ like yells, I was certain we weren’t going down without a fight.

From day one Jay was adamant that Roderick and Sean were the darkhorse team to watch as Roderick’s fishing skill and knowledge, let alone his knowledge of Reddy, was impeccable. So as we suffered through the back breaking yet invigorating ride home(Got to love the Bay!!), we were certain a podium spot was definitely ours if not the top honours. After the final weigh in at the Brisbane International Boat Show, Jay and I finish a proud second with Team Sunline’s 4.05kg final bag, smashing a 770g deficit to take out the title with Tristan Taylor and Scotty Lovig’s Team Hobie securing third spot.


After having an absolute blast of a weekend I am still pinching myself to wake up out of this dream. To firstly get selected to fish and then finish second was certainly a pinnacle in my career. I’d like to congratulate Roderick and Sean of their wonderful victory, well fished guys. Also thank you to Simon Goldsmith and Steve Morgan from ABT for letting me fish and for another smoothly run comp. To my fellow BIBS competitors, great job on lasting three days of comp fishing and sharing heaps of laughs with us, it was priceless!!! Thank you also to friends and family for the ongoing support throughout the comp as it got us through the quiet times. In closing, I believe the BIBS commentator Bill Corten summed up my weekend after interviewing me on day two quoting ‘ he has a smile like a Cheshire cat’ and believe me if you had a fishing weekend like mine, you would too!!

Happy Breaming,

Grayson

HOBIE BREAM GRAND FINAL 2010 - Forster Tuncurry NSW

Last weekend I had the privilege to compete in the Hobie Bream GF held in the bream haven waters of Forster Tuncurry, just north of Newcastle. After qualifying through good results at Redcliffe and Scamander, I was pretty excited to not only fish the grand final but to fish a system as notorious as Forster.

Over the years Forster has a reputation to reduce grown men to tears with it's abundance of oyster crunching 'kilo plus' bream just waiting for any angler willing to back themselves fishing the plethora of oyster racks that line this system. With ABT being regular visitors to this venue over the years, it made sense to test the newbies to the ABT circuit. My travel partners for this trip were fellow Queenslanders Tristan Taylor, Redcliffe guru and chick magnet Will Lee and Sunny coast Hobie dealership owner Mal Gray. We would be meeting up with some other maroons who were nice enough to bring our rods down in Raymond Stork and Nick Meredith. Our 'State of Origin' was starting a few weeks earlier with all the guys fired up for a big match.

DAY 1 : Forty nine anglers lined up for the 7am start, all chomping at the bit to get out and smash some bream. The best part of the Hobie GF is that all kayaks are supplied by Hobie Australia, not only are they the top of the line 'Pro Angler' model but they are brand new to keep all anglers on a level playing field. This was my second time in the Pro Angler and since the last outing I had learned a few things. Being vertically challenged, my leg length was a genetic disadvantage last time but a quick trip down to Kmart the day before for a pillow would prove to be the best thing since Subway's meatball sub. With the shotgun start, anglers quickly shot out of the harbour with the incoming tide to beat their rivals to their favourite spots.

My game plan was to hit the flats outside Wallis Island first which we found to hold fish on the previous day's prefish. I started the day throwing the Dog X Jr in a 'Grayson's home pimping colour' with my other rod rigged with an Atomic Crank 38 mid diver in ghost gill brown. As my regular readers would know, I find the dog to be a great fish finding tool.... especially in two foot of water!!! It wasn't too long till I was onto fish as the windless morning was ideal for fishing topwater. My Dog X jr was producing fish at a great rate but size was a real struggle. With the legal limit being 25cm to the fork, I had nabbed three 22cm and one 24cm to leave me fishless and frustrated for the first hour of the day. As the wind picked up, I searched for broken weed patches to try my hand slow rolling an Atomic mid crank 38 to fire up these big Forster bream. Third cast in I nailed my first legal of the comp at 27cm much to my relief, as there wasn't going to be any doughnut eating for Grayson today!! I continued on drifting with the breeze to only catch more undersize fish which got me thinking where to now?? Previous to the comp Tristo had showed me where Tim Morgan and Michael Starkey had won MegaBream back in March so in the back of my mind that area was an option to go to with only one minor snag.... it was going to be a long paddle!!!! After debating with my non boater (my 27cm bream!!) I decided to make the long run.

Fifty minutes into the tide and wind seemed like an eternity but I finally hit my destination which was a small island next to Yahoo Island which was surrounded by shallow broken weedy flats which resembled the shallow flats of Peel Island in Qld. With the wind being my foe on the trip it proved to be my friend as the wind swept shore provided the next hours' entertainment. Working the shallow rubble grounds on the wind swept side of the island, I punched a mid crank with the wind to maximise my covered area without spooking the fish,which produced a nice 29cm bream within minutes of arriving. While holding position in the wind was hard, I faced my kayak into the wind to cast perpendicular to work the flats effectively. I then filled my bag with another nice 29cm which satisfied my choice of making the long run. But I wasn't done yet, as I knew this untouched area still had fish and a kicker was somewhere out there. Having a house brick as an anchor (Hobie Brick Anchor - $49.95 release date March 2097, see www.hobie.com for NO details hahaha) helped me slow my drift as time was running out for me to upgrade and start the long 1.30hr trip home. Then on my last drift, my lure got smashed on the splash down with this fish keen to give me curry before surrendering. After tangled lines, stuck net, me facing backwards and the wind blowing me to shore, I landed my kicker bream at 32cm!!! Great upgrade and I was out of there. I finished the day equal 11th only some 500g off the lead. First day honours went to breaming young gun Jordy Trusty who managed a great bag of 2.32kg.

DAY 2 : After a great sleep (probably from paddling so much) I was pretty fired up for day two. My plan was to make the long run up again to my spot in the hope I left some fish there for today. As I trucked my way up to Wallis lake I slowly watched everyone peel off the procession of Hobies to their day two spots to find a good bag as the title was still open to most. As I finally made it to my spot (1.40hr against the tide today), I decided to work surface first with my crank rigged again for another assault. First cast of the day, BANG!! my dog got smashed only to find out it was a filthy flatty much to my disgust. Then two cast later, bang again, 34cm whiting!! ARRGGHH!! All good fish, were about.

Today's conditions were much calmer than the previous day's, which turned out to play a bigger part than I thought. With no wind to stir the bait, I believe it change the whole area's feeding pattern. So after hundreds of casts, many drifts and decreasing hope, I finally left the area with only one legal after sifting through dozens of undersize bream and flathead. I put all my eggs in one basket and today it didn't pay!!! That's fishing for you.

I finished the Grand Final in 28th place which I was happy with as I learnt a lot over the weekend (Paddling 20km each day does that to you!!!). In hindsight you could always do things different if the day never goes your way but learning from your experiences I think is valuable for me to become a better angler, so my lesson was learnt. Congratulations to Dan Brown, who's flawless two days won him the title for 2010 with noted performances from Tassie Andrew Krushka and Jordy Trusty who all fished great to earn their spot on the podium. Of our group Nick Meredith finished 14th, Tristan Taylor 16th, Will Lee 22nd, Mal Gray 39th and Raymond Stork 43rd. Don't worry guys we'll get them next year!!

I'd like to thank the guys for making the weekend such a blast, full of laughs and sledging which makes our sport all that much more fun!!!!

Happy Breaming,

Grayson

P.S. Thank you Ferdinando from www.fishin.com.au for your continuing support. Cheers.

TASSIE ADVENTURES Pt 3 (THE DERWENT SHOWDOWN)

To all who have been following this Tassie series, sorry for the delay in the final chapter to this adventure. Our last port of call was the infamous Derwent River in Hobart which in the past years have produced some massive five fish bags ensuring the ABT circuit makes this destination a must on the yearly calender.

After having a field day at Anson's, Tristo and I made the trek back to Hobart straight after fishing all day. The six hour drive was made interesting by forgetting to fill up petrol back in St Helen's only to find out the nearest petrol station was 10k's out of Hobart. (riding the clutch down hills was the key!!)

So we finally met back up with the crew in Hobart and I must say is one of the best parts of travelling for comps. The guys I stayed with this year were all accomplished fisherman who had earned respect from their peers due to their knowledge, past performances and consistency. Chatting to these guys and gaining knowledge, I believe is essential for me to grow to become a better angler. Also their ability to keep you well amused through sledging was priceless!!

Deciding to give the next day prefish a miss due to tiredness (and laziness), it was awesome to see all the anglers at the briefing as there was a collective buzz that big fish were on the cards for this comp. My boaters I drew for this comp were local guns in Andrew Wells, owner of TACKLE US in Hobart and Andrew Krushka, a respected consistent bream angler, so I was keen to smash some bream after the wind was definitely in the sails following our epic day at Anson's.

Day one started overcast and drizzly with it being our first experience of wet weather for the trip. Andrew W and I headed way up river to our first spot to hit a shallow weedy edge where Andrew found good fish the previous day. I started the day throwing my Anson's destroyer the Smith DD Panish where Andrew opted for the black bream fav the Daiwa Presso 6F. Running 4lb leader on 6lb mainline I was adamant not to lose this lure as it was the only one Spiro gave me!!! Andrew drew first blood of the morning with a nice 28cm in the well after half a dozen casts which was good to know fish were around. I follow soon after with a robust 29cm bream which well and truly calm the nerves as I didn't come to Tassie to eat donuts!!!
Andrew then went on a rampage filling his bag in quick succession with some good fish with his biggest at 39cm looking a little worse for wear after swallowing his lure. I have learnt over the years if you have a sick fish, don't keep checking it too much as it takes away a lot of fishing time, time where you could be smashing more bream. With the score at 5-1 to Andrew, it was time to get my act into gear or I was going to be left behind!!

Now the next 45 minutes was some of the best fishing I've ever had in a comp, where I went from one fish, to a full bag in 15 minutes, to upgrading my 29cm with a 36cm stonker, to then upgrading my bag of 36ers (Yes, 36cm was the smallest at that time!!!) with a 38cm even bigger stonker, to finally upgrading again with a 40cm mini dump truck of a bream!!! Now this sort of situation has never happened to me in my breaming career but I'm rest assured it will be etched into my memory for the rest of my life. I think my grin could of been seen from Lindisfarne where the final weigh in was to take place!!

After hitting a few more of Andrew's other spots quickly we were off to the weigh in as one Andrew's fish was still looking a little dodgey (At 39cm, we didn't want this bad boy to die!!) Andrew was first to weigh in with an impressive 4.49kg for his five fish which gave me confidence that my first over 4kg bag was well in reach. Being next up, I was pretty nervous with anticipation as I knew I had good fish in my bag but when weighmaster Chris hit that final button I was gobsmacked!!! My total weight for day one was a whopping 5.16kg which left me in third place but too be honest my comp was already won. To experience that awesome session with big fish to boot was truly the essence that drives my breaming addiction. Thank you Derwent River.

On day two I think I was still coming down from the high I was on, where fishing seemed really relaxed for me. I wasn't too sure whether it was a combination of 'fishing exhaustion' after fishing 7 of the last 8 days or whether my Tassie adventure has had so many crescendos that no matter today's result I was leaving Tassie on a high. Day two panned out a little less exciting than the previous day with Andrew Krushka and I not getting onto schools of fish but more like finding the odd one here and there. Andrew finished the day with four fish to keep him in the top ten which was an awesome feat knowing the calibre of his fellow boaters where I was to finish the day with two fish with the biggest being 38cm to the fork to give me a tournament total of 6.975kg and leaving me in 7th place!! A top ten finish in an arena I've never fished....Awesome!!!

Now that our Tassie adventure was coming to a close, I would be the first to admit it was seriously a trip of a lifetime. In ten days, I learnt years and years worth of fishing knowledge, met some great anglers, had sore ribs from laughing too much and made some awesome friends. I don't know about you but what more can a serious angler (or any bloke!!)ask for. It really was an insight into a the essence of fishing to me where keeping an open mind, staying relaxed and having fun proved to be the best recipe for an awesome fishing trip.

I have heaps of people to thank for making my Tassie experience priceless; Graham 'the zucchini man' Franklin, Phil 'the eternal non-boater' Nix, Mark 'Yeah Dawg' Healey and Cam 'The most knowledgable Gui-Low I know' Whittam. Thanks heaps guys for the endless laughs and hope to see you next year. Finally my biggest thanks goes to my good mate and fishing mentor Tristo Taylor, who's search for the 'endless good time' is enough drive to keep my life relaxed and full of laughs as it's all to easy to get caught up in life's complications. Cheers bud, I'm be your wingman anytime. Happy Breaming.

TASSIE ADVENTURES Pt 3 (BREAM HEAVEN- ANSONS BAY)

After a hectic start to our Tassie tour with two comps and a prefish, we finally had our first and only recreation fishing day. I love recreational fishing as you go out with no plans or pressure to perform and it's the sort of days that keep rekindling the passion for our aquatic hobby.

Tristo and I had been given the good oil from our mate Tommy Slater on a fishery which he believes is close to bream heaven called Ansons Bay. Being only 40mins drive from St Helens, it would be a shame to not check out the hype as we had heard along the local grapevine this place rocks. Armed with a mud map, two iced teas and leftover supreme pizza we headed north in search of this untapped oasis to test our developing skills against Tassie's finest.

On arrival to this quaint little town not much separated it from your typical outback town except the lack of a PUB!!! Come to think of it, any shops!! Lining the bay were some awesome little shacks ideal for a chillaxing holiday or fishing getaway as I don't even think the federal police would find you here!! Pumped for a big day, we hit the water asap keen to find some big fish. I started the day throwing my new found favourite lure the Bassday Sugar Minnow as Tristo threw it's deeper brother, the Sugar Deep in his custom pimped colours.

Starting only 100 metres from the boat ramp, I nailed our first bream of the morning with my second cast as Tristo was still tying leaders and fluffing around.Going only 28cm to the fork it was a far cry from what we had heard this bay was capable of but good to know my technique (affectionately named the 'Spiro Twitch') was in working order. Two casts later I was on again along with Tristo as we hit a good patch of ravenous bream (ranging from 25cm - 28cm) feeding up in the shallows on the early morning bite. As always, Tristo and I kept a tally of our catch with the loser buying lunch but due to the lack of shops in Ansons Bay the loser was serving the pizza!!

We then ventured to the other side of the bay which presented wide open weedy flats in about 2-3ft water and as the tide was ebbing, we were keen to check them out. On arrival, Tristo had a first cast hook up as Anson's Bay was starting to fire up. I then got smashed as I paused my lure for our second double hook up for the morning with only 35mins of game time on the clock!! Oh yeah this was awesome!! As our tally rose to 15 fish in quick time, we noticed a fast bass boat going full noise across this peaceful fishery heading in our direction. Being the only boat on the water we were keen to see who was joining us for the day to smack these Tassie horses. Well low and behold it was the master himself Spiro Spyropoulos and equally talented angler Mark Hayes joining the game, as I swear I heard Spiro's laugh before he arrived!! It was awesome to have these guys on the water with us, as laughter and fishing are the second best things you can do on the water and being a hetrosexual male, laughter and fishing was DEFINITELY the only thing on the cards today!!Haha.

After Spiro left us, we continued smashing the bream across the weedy flats targeting our casts towards the sand patches as we were quick to work out the bream were nailing anything that crossed the broken weed. With only our biggest going 32cm so far, our hopes were still high to crack the 40cm mark. I was presently holding the big bream award as a bottle of Coke was up for grabs which would be sweet with a feed of bragging rights during the drive back to Hobart!! We left the flats and biting fish (massive sin!!) to check up the river to have a sticky beak at this awesome breaming system. After a short run and a few undersize fish, we returned to the main basin to hit the southern side which was again littered with vast weedy flats ideal for feeding bream.

Drifting with the increasing wind was presenting a task as we moved over the sand patches at a rapid speed only allowing us to get one cast each into every spot. This didn't stop us from catching fish as our count was well over 20 by now and this day was turning into one of those epic days. To get out of the wind, we headed back to the sheltered waters of the northern side to catch up with Spiro and Hazey to see how their day was panning out. On our arrival we watched Spiro mid battle as he assured us he was onto another stonker. Sure enough he was right, as he nailed a 40cm to the fork bruiser which was added to their impressive bag of five fish they collected to see their day's tally. After seeing a mix of 38-40cm bream in Spiro's livewell, our envy was peaking as he weighed the five at a whopping 6.98kg!!! Awesome!! If only that would happen in a comp. Now Tristo and I were fired up to get some of our own horses as we traded pizza and drinks for lures from Spiro as the boys were starving and 'parched as' due to Ansons' lack of hospitality. As the boys headed home, we were amped up to get this party started and it wasn't too long until it did.

Drifting the patch the boys pulled their fish on, Tristo started our account with a cracker 38cm fork 'mini truck' bream smashing his Sugar Deep minnow in the 'Aaron Sharp' special colour. I was then soon to follow with another 38cm 'small pony' bream after it inhaled my Smith DD Panish (courtesy of the master) as Ansons reputation was showing us some love!! Finally. Then all hell broke loose, as we were nearing the end of our drift, I hooked up and this bad boy was not happy!! Running and head shaking like a bat out of hell, I knew this bream was the one we were searching for and just as I thought my day was at it's peak, Tristo was on too!! DOUBLE BIG FISH HOOKUP!!! As we showed more moves than a night out on the town to net both fish, we were in bream heaven. After all the hype and to see others catch them, our day had hit it's climax, double hookup on 40's!! I reckon the boat could of sunk and we would of both died smiling. Unreal.

Not to be undone, Tristo was to have the last laugh as he took out our Big Bream award as the sun began to set on our epic day. Fighting this mini 'freight train' really tested Tristo's ability but as it rose to the boat, heaven just showed another angel....41cm to the fork!!




As we headed back to the ramp, I swear we were talking at warp speed as our heads were spinning from the last hours fishing. We came to the consenus that this was the most epic day of our fishing lives as we ended up catching 37 fish with the biggest five consisting of two 38cm, two 40cm and a 41cm Tassie specials and as the pictures show...... we found our slice of heaven. Cheers Tristo for the memories!!

TASSIE ADVENTURES Pt 2 (St Helens ABT)

After our successful trip at Scamander, we ventured further north to a quaint little town of St Helens. With your standard pub, RSL, petrol station and IGA store there wasn’t too much else in St Helens So when the ABT tour rolled into town it was sure to generate some interest.


My first day boater was 2009 Derwent River Champion Spiro Spyropoulos. Spiro’s experience with black bream is extensive and his techniques have been developed over several years of targeting this species back in his home town of Melbourne. After a really short prefish the previous day, Spiro was more than confident he could put us onto fish as he had seen enough areas holding good fish but getting them to bite was the next challenge.
Our first stop for the day were some nice weedy flats holding about 4-5ft of water not too far from the start line. As we worked our way along the shore, Spiro methodically targeted the sandy patches amongst the flats as he explained how black bream use these areas to dig for sand worms and to ambush any passing bait fish. I began the day throwing a Daiwa Presso minnow 6F in a Dan Stead custom colour (thanks Steve M) where Spiro through his go to lure the Smith Panish. Both lures dove relatively shallow around 1.2 metres with the Presso being a floating lure and the Panish a suspending lure. This function of the Panish proved to be the key to the a@#e whooping I was just about to receive from Spiro!!
Now, being relatively new to black breaming, I believe my Scamander result was a total fluke (I’ll be the first to admit it!!) Having not put too much thought into retrieves and lures before the trip, Day 1 at St Helens was going to be a steep learning curve.... and the teacher for today Mr Spyropoulos. Spiro’s retrieve was the key to his success with a precise twitch, twitch, pause which allowed him to suspend his lure and attract timid bream to strike. After two bream in the first drift, we moved to Spiro's second spot on the notorious stockyard flats. On our arrival we found a few boats including the eventual day one leader Chris 'Slick' Wright but that didn't faze Spiro on his game plan. Again we drifted over the weed flats in 1.2-1.5 metres targeting the sand breaks in the weed to target feeding bream. Immediately, this had great success as the 'master' nailed his third fish but only due to my expert netting skills (Spiro was giving me good practice!!) we landed this feisty beast as it buried itself amongst the thick weed.

After all the excitment I had my first strike from a decent fish. After a run faster than Usain Bolt over 100m, this fish took so much drag Spiro and I looked at each other with amazement only to have it bury itself into the weed and get off. This provided amusement for the next few hours as theories on why I lost 'that fish' flew let right and centre. From Spiro accusing me of running 'Girlie' drag to another boat taking my fish off as it ran 80m to it!!! That loss left me shocked but not p@#$ed off as I knew my technique was getting better. In that time Spiro filled his bag of five as he was on fire. We then moved to spot three where Spiro nabbed another more two fish but no upgrades to his bag but we soon returned to the Stockyard flats for our last 30 minutes where many boats were congregating for the last throw of the dice. Spiro really showed his form for the day nailing a kicker bream 40cm to the fork with ten minutes to go giving him a final day 1 bag weight of 4.89kg.

I finish the day with no fish but I believe it was the most educational day of fishing I have ever had. It was like I had to do my 'seven hour apprenticeship' before I was allowed to catch quality Tassie bream which I thought was a small price to pay to become a better angler. Cheers Spiro for being a great teacher.

Day two saw me paired with a Hobart local, Andrew Dyson who had only fished St Helens a handful of times due to his busy work and family duties. Andrew and his brother Matt provided many laughs during the trip which is always great to meet people like that. Armed with my new techniques, I was pumped for a new day and my confidence was on the rise. After hitting a weed flat close to the start line it took me only five casts to nab my first keeper for the day!! It only went 28cm to the fork but it was about the catch not the size. When tournament fishing it is sometimes hard to make the decision whether to stick to techniques you know work or to veer off on a tangent and try something totally different. So after not catching a fish the previous day, snagging a keeper in the first 10 mins gave me total confidence in my technique!! (Yes, there was a few high fives!!)

The weed flats we fished are notorious to St Helens as many comps have been won on this area in recent years so Andrew's decision to stick around here could prove to be fruitful for us if all goes well. Soon after my first legal, I was on again and this fish was angry. With peeling line and big headshakes I knew this one was going to be big as it arced around the boat not wanting to give an inch. Andrew did awesome to back me out into deeper water to leave me no problems to fight this fish out in the open. After a feisty fight, my first big black bream hit the net, going 38cm to the fork and weighing a good kilo. This fish was awesome as it not only had good length but also thickness which was very different to it's yellowfin cousins.
The go to lure for today as the Bassday Sugar Minnow in HA91 colour and with only having a diving length of 0.5m, it was perfect for the weedy flats we were on.
For the rest of our day, Andrew was left on the dreaded doughnut where I caught a nice 32cm and lost a cracker only to my own laziness. A lesson was learned, don't just bend a crushed treble back and say 'it will be fine!!'. Yep, cost me a good fish.(DOH!)
So I finished St Helens ABT in 14th place for non-boaters which was an awesome learning curve for my breaming knowledge. I believe I won a lot at this comp with the experience gained from great anglers. Tristo finished 13th in the boaters category after nabbing the second biggest bag on day two only to have boat trouble and lose 600g penalty for being late. That's fishing for you!!

So now we were off to Anson's Bay for our recreational fishing day before we head to Hobart for the Derwent River round. Anson's Bay is a notorious big bream fishery that doesn't see much angler pressure. So with two fast learning black bream rookies heading up there, anything could happen!!!

TASSIE ADVENTURES Pt 1 (Hobie Scamander)

Recently I was fortunate to get some time off to venture down to Tasmania with my good buddy Tristan Taylor to compete in the ABT Tassie rounds for 2010. Our plan of attack was to compete firstly in the Hobie event in Scamander then travel to St Helens for the first ABT event. After that we going to recreational fish at noted 'big bream' haven at Anson's Bay then travel back to Hobart for the Derwant River round. Tristo had competed last year in Tassie, so catching black bream was a first for me.

Our adventure started at Scamander, a sleepy town three hours north of Hobart which had.....ahh.....not much. A pub, servo, IGA supermarket and takeaway made up the crux of the town so we gathered going to the movies was a no-go on our first night. With a early start we met up with the Hobie guys from Melbourne who also made the long trip down then called it a night after a full day of traveling.

As dawn approached, we headed down to the local boat ramp which played host to the tournament headquarters where 24 anglers revelled in the cool weather to tackle the infamous Tassie black bream. We had heard from some locals that the Scamander river had been fishing pretty well over the last few months so we were fired up to smash some fish.

After a hectic start, Tristo and I had been given the heads up to fish a small bay that held about 2-3ft of water at high tide and is known to fish pretty well. With others venturing up river, we joined Hobie hotshot Scotty Lovig and two other anglers in this bay all keen to get our limits early. Tristo started the day on fire bagging out in the first ten minutes with small legals but with having his limit so early took all the pressure off for finding fish. I started a little slower with my first legal taking me 35mins to find after it smashed my lure on the pause. For this event I threw a Jackall Squirrel 61 in brown suji shrimp colour using a slow rolling retrieve with a pause as the lure dredged the shallow waters. Pausing the lure seem to be the key as I soon found out black bream are a little lazier than their yellowfin relatives up north.

It didn't take me too much longer to bag out with my fish measuring 27cm, 28cm and 29.5cm which was a great relief to me as I had hours to find upgrades. With Tristo venturing up the back of the bay, I decided deeper water towards the mouth was for me. This paid off as I upgraded again with a 31.5cm within the next hour which really pumped me up. Soon after we were joined in the shallow bay by some Hobie regulars Scotty Baker, Jason Meech and Kevin Winchester who were struggling to find fish early but keen to try new waters. After handing out some lures to Scotty and Kev, I helped Jason with some stick weight on his lures which had immediate results for him as he started to get onto some good fish. I then decided to pay Tristo a visit up the back of the bay which paid massive dividends as on my arrival I nailed a great kicker fish at 34cm to the fork much to Tristo's disgust as he struggled to upgrade his smaller legals. Sorry Bro!!

As the sun got higher in the sky the bite slowed for me as the bay we were fishing became more populated as word had got around we were onto fish. I decided then it was time for me to move back into the river and work some of the shore banks slowly while making my way back towards the start. This proved a great change as I caught two small bream in quick succession then got nail by a sizable fish that was definitely going to be an upgrade. This fish gave me curry as the fight was played behind the kayak as I had trouble turning the yak and fighting the fish, but as he tired i knew he was mine. Then glory turned to poo, as in a final shake for his salvation, the bream flipped over and the trebles pulled out leaving him lying motionless only a rod length away!!! As I fumbled to find my mini scoop net, I reach out and accidentally touched his tail and he took off like a jet!! Doh.

So we headed back to the weigh in interested to see how the other kayakers faired over this good arena. I was hoping I did ok as I had two good fish on board thinking a top 5 finish would be great. After all anglers weighed in, I finished in second place, earning me a spot in the Hobie Grand Final later in the year!! I was stoked. The totally ironic thing was that first place was won by Jason Meech who had no fish until he came over to me and I helped him out with some sticky weight for his lures!! Ahh well that's fishing.

After having a great start to our Tassie adventure we were off to St Helens for the first round of the ABT Tassie Tour. Hopefully our form can be carried into the next round so we can tame some bigger black bream. Special thanks have to go to www.fishin.com.au for my tackle, Scotty Lovig for our Hobie's and ABT for a running a great comp.

MyFish 26-1-10 (Great way to spend a holiday)

This week I decided to take the time out from fixing people to recharge the batteries for the up and coming 2010 year which, by going by the previous, will be as busy as ever.

Just by luck(no not really, I timed it that way), a good mate of mine Jordan Bennie had a few days off also meaning I had a reliable ally to get out while the weather was good. Jordan is relatively new to the breaming game but with every outing is growing in confidence and knowledge of the finer details of fishing like tackle choice and knot tying which for a rugby frontrower, poses some challenges!! This has never slowed JB who has more than often shown me a thing or two.

Going by my last post, we thought it would be a great idea to return back to Redcliffe with the presence of bream, estuary cod and snapper in the area to see if we could at least get some table snapper for tonight's dinner.

We started down the bottom end of the peninsula this time to see how the area was fairing due to the restricted green zoning placed on the area last year. We started to fish shallow close to the recently refurbished Woody Point jetty working our way to the deep as the tide began to ebb. We both started the day throwing my go-to lure the Jackall Chubby Deep with JB using the Brown Suji shrimp colour and myself throwing the clear shrimp colour. Keeping the lure close to the bottom, it took JB only three casts to be on the board with a nice personal best 29.5cm fork bream. As JB doesn't get much fishing time during the year, to see him catch a good fish is priceless. Soon after that he was on again this time a smaller bream followed by a flathead who taught JB a lesson by spiking his soft 'office worker' hands!! Haha.


After nabbing a few more small bream, we decided to go out deeper to 7-9ft of water to see if we could find fish feeding back off the shore during the receding tide. JB stayed with the Deep Chubby option, where I decided to try a new tactic in the hope to nail a good snapper. I changed to a Jackall Squirrel 61 which is a longer suspending hardbody lure diving 4-5ft which would be ideal when chasing bigger predators. It didn't take too long till the squirrel got smashed while pausing on my slow rolling retrieve and after a great fight I pulled a nice 37cm fork snapper much to our delight. After another half a dozen casts, I was on again and this fish was angry!! After some big runs and heavy head shakes, my money was on a big estuary cod, but as it got closer to the boat our dinner was just about to get better!! And there it was a cracker 39cm fork snapper, being much more fatter than the last, had inhale my lure and there was no way of losing this bad boy.

After this we took advantage of the glassy conditions to venture to the top of the peninsula up to Castlereagh Reef. Joining some locals, we threw shallow running hardbodies over the top of the bommies using a Zipbaits Khamsin SR and Atomic Crank 38.Using these lures over the top of the bommies gives you great scope as one is floating and the other is suspending letting you fish different columns of water.
This only proved to catch us some small bream until we approached the outcrop at Scarborough Reef where we encountered some pesty cod. JB pulled a nice 35cm cod cranking over a bommie to find another bigger cod following it up to the boat. DAMN COD!!!

We then moved south hitting the shoreline trying to see if any bream were still feeding in the shallows. Jordan had changed his lure back to a deep diving chubby in clear shrimp as the water clarity had dropped due to the wind direction. This bought instant success as JB's lure got nailed with this fish showing great fight. With JB fighting hard, I backed the boat out to deeper water to give him a chance of not being busted off. This ended up being the bream of the day at 32cm fork length and Jordan's new personal best and if you want to see the definition of happiness look at his picture!!! He was over the moon.

We then moved further south to some reef which was to be our last port of call as the wind was picking up. Now the next 30 minutes proved to be an expensive fishing exercise. After catching two bream and two little cod within a handful of casts
we proceeded to get busted off several times loosing lures to big fish. I swear JB was so annoyed, i thought he was going to swim home in disgust as he lost a certain big bream. Well that's fishing.

All in all a cracker day had by the two of us. I love nothing more than putting people onto fish as all they normally hear is my stories and see my pics. Fishing with Jordan is always a pleasure as the day goes so fast with the constant sledging and 'man-banter' that goes on. As you can see by my blogs, I have no real secrets when I fish as I don't mind sharing. Being secretive about techniques, lure choices and locations (what irks me the most is people who black out their photos!!) is really a personal thing but I believe what goes around comes around so sharing will ultimately be rewarded and at the end of the day IT'S ONLY FISHING!!

Enjoy the summer and happy snappering,

Grayson

PS. Please checkout www.fishin.com.au for some awesome lure specials and great range. You won't be disappointed!!