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.