This Is How We Roll.....

BRISBANE INTERNATIONAL BOAT SHOW INVITATIONAL 2010

2010-09-04T16:44:00.016+10:00

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

2010-05-23T12:11:00.010+10:00

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)

2010-05-09T16:47:00.010+10:00

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)

2010-04-04T15:25:00.015+10:00

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)

2010-03-19T09:40:00.015+10:00

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)

2010-03-11T17:01:00.018+10:00

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)

2010-01-30T15:54:00.012+10:00

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!!

MyFish 21-1-10 (Oh Reddy, you're so much fun)

2010-01-28T12:23:00.008+10:00

After a bout of bad weather mainly consisting of SE and NE winds, the weather started to settle a little and gave me an opportunity to get out to the old stomping grounds of Redcliffe.

Since my inception to the Breaming fraternity (and when the Morgan Bros pulled a 4.99kg bag!!) Redcliffe has been earmarked as one of the Breaming meccas of SE Qld.
Personally, it's pretty tough to resist a 10min drive from home to get amongst some awesome fish on light gear.

This day my fishing partner was my dad Joe, who had been on holidays and busting for a fish. We set out early to catch the rising tide and try to beat the late morning rising winds. With the water at a sultry 26.7 deg, I thought we would have a great chance to pick up some fish on topwater chasing their breakfast in the shallows. So while rigging my lines for the proceedings, Dad started fishing before i could even blink leaving this rookie still in the blocks!! Then on dad's third cast for the morning his deep diving chubby got smashed with line peeling off at a rate of knots as this freight train was in a BIG hurry. After several runs and several guesses as what it could be (I called an Estuary Cod) it turned out to be a cracker snapper reaching 42cm to the fork!! Now call me old fashioned, but aren't snapper caught in 10-15ft of water in winter??? Bizarre, as we were in 5.7ft of water in the middle of summer cranking hardbodies chasing bream!! With that start to the morning, it would of taken the death of Darryn Lockyer (from Brisbane Broncos) to wipe the smile off my dad's face as the arrested snapper was in the livewell and going to be tonight's dinner.

With all that excitment, I finally rigged up my Dog X Jr ready for battle to find some shallow chasing ravenous fish and I wasn't disappointed. In quick succession, this rookie was back on the scoreboard, as I pulled nine bream with the biggest five being 33cm fork, then 29cm, 28.5cm, 27.5cm then 27cm. Not bad if we were in a comp situation (but it's always the way!!)
My dad chimed in with three bream also caught on topwater, as it was the first time he's fished this technique and was learning quick.

One of the disadvantages of fishing in summer is by the time 10am hits, your boat turns into a 4.3m frying pan and you start to feel like lucifer with your rod being a pitchfork!! So we decided to sneak around the corner to change reefs but also to get back into the breeze which was a welcome relief.

On arrival to our next reef, the tide was at the top covering majority of our bommie leaving 3-4ft of water on top with 7-9ft drops on either side. Unless you are a Reddy local, this can only mean one thing....Cod time. These filthy lure stealing menaces are prevalent throughout the Redcliffe reef system and can be awesome fun if you can get them out of their holes!! It didn't take too long till dad was onto his first fish which fought with much angst, giving dad a good fight for his money. It turned out to be one of these cod at 34cm, with only dad's 8lb leader saving him from certain lure theft. Straight after that I was on also with this fish running in an arc like pattern meaning a bream was on the line. With several runs and it feeling weighty, I knew this was a good fish and once landed went 32cm to the fork and my day was topped off. I picked this fish up on an Atomic Deep Crank 38 in Ghost Gill Brown using a 5ft, 6lb yamatoyo leader which allows me a little stretch to set the hooks and minimal visibility. In saying this, my 6lb leader was no match for the fish I hooked three casts later which ran like Usain Bolt and left me scratching my head holding a shredded leader asking 'What just happened!!'

We then decided to call it a day as the sun was beating us up and after a great topwater session in the morning and dad's snapper, what more could you really ask for. I always love fishing with my dad as he was the one who introduced me to it at a young age and the fact that now I've grown up, I can beat him!!! On volume, not size!!
Love you Dad.

Happy Breaming,

Grayson

MyFish 7-1-10 (First Fish for 2010)

2010-01-14T09:30:00.011+10:00

After a lengthy break (two weeks seems so long!!) from fishing over the Christmas holidays, I thought it better be time to dust off the gear,spool up some new line and venture out to the bay islands for a looksey.

My partner in crime today was my cousin Nigel, who is my regular comp partner and self confessed 'learner' when it comes to breaming. Mind you he's one of those guys who just happens to pull a fish at the right time when we are having trouble filling our bag.

We ventured out to Peel and Goat Islands' as it's been a long time between visits to this bream mecca to see if we could find some bream on topwater. As the tide was just reaching the bottom, we started on the southern side of Peel Is and worked our way around with the increasing south-easter. I started the day throwing the trusty Megabass Dog X Jr in GP Avocado colour where Nigel stuck to the gun colour Modena Bone. Being the bottom of the tide this proved to be really tough, as we had a few little strikes but only one taker with Nigel landing a fat 22cm fork bream. Soon after we decided to move the the western side of Goat Island to get out of the wind and fish some sheltered waters ideal for topwater fishing.

With a combination of smooth waters and the turning tide, it wasn't long for Nigel lure to get smashed by a nice 26.6cm to the fork bream giving him a great fight in shallow water. This basically flicked the switch, as the barometric pressure rose and showers were imminent, the fishing really fired up.Surface hit after surface hit the bream were ravenous as Nigel and I went fish for fish for a cracker 30 minutes. We ended up with 10 bream with 6 legals, biggest being 30cm to the fork then one 29cm, two 28cm, one 27cm and Nigel's first 26.5cm. What a hot patch!! We then did another drift over the same area only to get some undersize bream which gave us the sign to head home.

All in all, another great topwater session at the Bay Islands had by all. This was Nigel's first topwater experience and one he'll never forget. Topwater is one of the most exciting kinds of fishing that really makes you addicted to the sport. It does have it's pros and cons though, as your hook up rate is less but the fish tend to be better quality and very aggressive. So stock up on some topwater lures and give it a go this summer, you'll soon see what I mean.

Happy Breaming,

Grayson

Special thanks to Ferdinando and Maria at www.fishin.com.au for their continual support through 2009. Please check out their website for some great bargains and latest lures.

MyFish 12-12-09 (My Hobie Experience)

2009-12-19T17:55:00.010+10:00

12-12-09

Last weekend Tristan and I entered our first Hobie Kayak Series event which is held at the 'never boring' Redcliffe. Being Redcliffe locals, we have pulled numerous big fish out of this Big Bream haven and when it really wants to fire it can fire.

For this event our Hobie Kayaks were supplied for us by Scotty Lovig from Scott Lovig Hobie in Melbourne. (http://www.slhobie.com.au/index.php) Scotty and his mates Scott and Neil had brought our crafts up from the south and were keen to tame these big Redcliffe bream.

The day started with the forecast of SE winds 10-15kt later shifting to the NE. After overcoming a shore break resembling the Pipeline in Hawaii (Least I was more gracefull than Tristo), I was on my way to my maiden Hobie voyage. The game plan was for Tristo and I to head south and hit the reefs we knew held big bream both shallow and deep and we knew we would have all bases covered as he'll throw Atomic Hardz and I'll throw the gun lure....The Jackall Chubby!!

Fifty metres into my comp, disaster struck. My steering locked up causing me to circle continuously as my rudder had locked in one position!! Coooool. So what did I do?? Do I know anything about Hobie steering mechanism.....NO!! Did I know how to get myself back to shore to fix this.....NO!! So to cut a long story short, I surfed this bad boy back to the beach and then out of nowhere the 'Angel of Distressed Hobie Fisherman' appeared and her name was Christine Hunt. Christine and I had a crash course on 'how to pull the Hobie steering apart and put it back together with a single screwdriver' which I'm sure was not only educational but entertaining as I hadn't even cast a line in yet and the comp had been running for 1hr 20mins!! So a special thanks to Angel Christine who's $2 screwdriver saved my behind.

So after my minor glitch in the program I hammered my way down into the increasing winds to our favourite bommie to try and tame some bream. As I opted to take the outer bommie first (roughly 120m from shore) I soon realised holding a Hobie in one spot, in now 15-18kt winds, was more of a chore than fun as the wave size was increasing as the tide was dropping. After struggling through the surf for 40mins, my first strike came....... and left like a freight train which I suspected was a filthy big cod who showed me who was the boss!! Cod 1, Grayson 0. Ten minutes later, same freight train, same result. Cod 2, Grayson 0. So after losing two lures and having a minor sea sickness issue, I thought seeking refuge closer to the shore would be the wiser thing to do. This paid great results as on my arrival I landed a nice 24.5cm bream which put me on the board and left the dreaded doughnut (Nil fish) behind. With spirits high, I continued along the shore sitting in about 4-5ft of water casting a Jackall Chubby in brown suji shrimp colour. I then picked up a small cod (Cod 2, Grayson 1) and a flathead for my troubles which was firing me up big time as my luck was changing (and I was getting colour back in my face from my sea sickness!!)

Soon after this I ran into Tristo who had also had an eventful day with getting dumped in the shore break, falling out of the kayak whilst fighting his first fish, broken steering issues and catching big fish that weren't bream!! Got to love fishing!! Tristo already had his three fish limit and was chasing those elusive upgrades to keep him up the scoreboard. After getting smoked by another cod whilst talking to Tristo (Cod 3, Grayson 1) we decided to fish a pattern that involved him fishing shallow water (4ft and below) and I would fish deeper water (4ft and higher) to try and see where the fish are feeding on this dropping tide. As we drifted parallel to shore 50m apart, this proved to be great as I nailed a cracker 30cm bream using a deep diving Chubby in Suji shrimp colour and after a tight tussle around the kayak, I was super relieved to land this bad boy which left me only one fish to get and 1hr 30mins to go.

We continued to do this pattern as we worked our way back to the start line using the wind to our advantage. Soon after a lost another lure to a fish I couldn't stop and started to get a little worried as I only had two deep diving lures left in the tackle box and at this rate, they too were may get donated to the Redcliffe gods.
Continuing my drift out about 70-80m off shore I snared two undersize bream and then pulled a nice 28cm bream to bag me out with my three fish. Now to any non anglers reading this blog, the sheer relief when you get your limit is enormous as it opens a myriad of possibilities as you now are upgrading the size of your fish and all going well, you are definitely in with a chance to win as other anglers results are not known till your return to the weigh-in.

So now with my head held high, I headed back to fish a reef right outside the start line which I knew held fish depending on the traffic it encountered early in the day. This again paid dividends, as after getting dusted YET AGAIN, I pulled a great 27cm bream to upgrade my 24.5cm I got as my first fish of the day. WOOHOO!! and on that note I was back to the weigh-in happy as a pig in mud.

After all the anglers weighed in, I finished Day 1 equal third with my good mate Tristo on exactly the same weight of 1.36kg!!! Which left no one with bragging rights
until the next comp. We both chose not to fish the second day of this comp as we had things to do, but the win was sealed by another Brissie local and all round top bloke, Nick Meredith who had a cracking second day and pulled a mammoth 1.96kg to scoop the prize pool and qualify him for the Hobie Grand Final early next year. Well Done Nick!!

All in all I had an awesome days fishing. After overcoming my initial hurdles, I was rewarded by sticking to my guns (and having a vomit!!) to have a late run of catches which really topped off my day. Huge special thanks to Scotty Lovig for supplying my Hobie, Christine Hunt for the angelic intervention, Ferdinando Costa from www.fishin.com.au for all my lures and Tristan Taylor for egging me on all day, bringing out the best in me.

Happy Breaming,

Grayson

MyFish 28-11-09 (Bribie Comp,ABT GF)

2009-12-15T22:27:00.000+10:00

Last week Jay and I fished the first round of the Gamakatsu Summer Bream Series out of Bribie. With the forecast of rough seas in the middle of the day, it was really a tough call to make whether to do the run to Redcliffe or fish the flats at Bribie with both spots producing for us in the past. Bribie lost out and we made the run to Reddy in 10-15kt northerlies which was far from pleasant as we were one of only eight boats to run the gauntlet.
Pulling up to one of our regular spots, we were quick to notice the lack of clarity in the water but with the flooding tide we were hoping for cleaner water and moving baitfish which could potentially make Reddy fire. After a good hour of fishing and only a handful of hits, we knew something was not right. Is Reddy shutting down?? Do we run back to Bribie?? Or do we stick it out and wait for the tide hoping for fish?? Well, guess which one we chose?? Yep, we chose to stay and to cut a long, long story short, here is a summary.... We caught one legal bream, I caught a filthy big catfish (Which I reckon was lost and ages away from the nearest estuary!!), we took waves over the bow, I got smoked by a big cod (lost gear), we took MORE waves over the bow and we went to the assistance of our mate Tristan Taylor (who smashed the head off his electric motor and then crushed his stainless steel prop on one of Reddy’s hardest boulders!! OUCH!!)
So with our heads down, we face the dreaded trip back to Bribie into what was now a 20kt Northeaster......Oh fun!! After looking like two drowned rats, we decided to fish some flats that we knew produced fish for us in the past. This proved to be luckless to our surprise so we then headed to the canal system of Pacific Harbour to see if our luck could change. I changed plan of attack from hardbodies to plastics and decided to throw a 3in Berkley Craw rigged on a 1/16 TT jighead to wake these sleepy bream up. It proved to be successful when I nailed a nice 29cm fork Bream after working the back of an encrusted pontoon. We then proceeded to work a whole stretch of pontoons with only a Moses perch to show for it which really showed us it was not our day. With 10mins to go we decided to have a last throw of the dice and headed back to the flats to see if anything had changed. While slow rolling hardbodies across the flats we noticed a huge dugong dredging along the weeds having a phat old time eating everything in site. With all this activity, Jay suspected there would be trailing bream feeding on the scraps of the dugong’s fun so we decided to follow it aiming our casts in it’s trail of destruction. This paid off with a fat 27cm bream boarding the boat in no time and we were quickly off to the weigh in.
We ended up finishing 17th out of 40 entrants which wasn’t too bad after the mixed day we had. It really goes to show that when you aren’t catching fish, keep your chin up and keep plugging away as your next cast might be the fish that makes your day!!
Happy Breaming,
Grayson.

P.S. Here are some photos from this year’s ABT Bream Grand Final on Sydney Harbour. Special thanks to Benny Godfrey and Gavin Dunne who helped me finish 9th in the Non Boater Category!! Cheers Guys.

MyFish 20-10-09 (Spring Squidding)

2009-12-15T22:25:00.000+10:00

20/10/09

With the torrid weather patterns over the last few weeks, finding a day with light offshore winds and good weather has been quite the challenge. Last Thursday I got the chance to get out for a fish with my Dad as the forecast was for light SW winds during the morning and freshening late afternoon. Our destination for a morning fish was Peel Island which I was keen to return to after the Gold Coast ABT to chase some bream but most of all squid as I had seen a lot during the comp.
Our starting point was the western side of Peel where we found that the tide to be full and up under the tree line. I started the morning chasing bream on surface using the trusty Dog X Jr while my dad worked the shallows chasing squid with his Yo-zuri squid jig. After a long drift in about two foot of water, we left the area with only two undersize bream and no squid to report. We then headed to the eastern side to start our drift from the wreck at the south east corner, working our way north to source out some bream. With the tide running out, the fish seem to be scarce in the shallows so we headed for deeper water around 5 foot and decided to throw deep diving hardbody lures. I threw an Atomic Hardz Deep Crank in Matte Ayu, while my dad threw a Jackall Chubby deep in Brown Suji Shrimp. Within two casts my dad was on to a healthy 27cm FL Bream which nailed his lure as he bumped it along the rubble bottom. I soon followed with a feisty 26cm FL Bream and a 25cm Squire which fought really hard with erratic runs and characteristic head shakes.
After this we went close to the shore to see if any squid were chasing baitfish up in the shallows during the receding tide and it wasn’t long to source some out. Having nice clear water in the shallows made it really easy to spot the squid chasing our lures but today was really strange in that they acted very timid before striking unlike their usual aggression when it comes to feeding time. I’m not sure if it was due to low barometric pressure, increased water temperature or time of year, but spring isn’t notoriously a good squidding time. We adjusted our retrieve to a really, really, really slow roll which gave the squid time to come up, investigate, retreat then strike our lure before getting spooked. We caught four squid in pretty quick succession at Peel (Which had dinner sorted!!) and then decided to shoot to Goat Island to see if we could get some more as the tide was rapidly dropping. When we arrived at Goat Island, I decided to try for bream as my dad stayed on the “Egi” train. I quickly picked up a nice 27.5cm FL Bream while slow rolling an Atomic Mid Crank 38 in Ghost Wakasagi close to the shore while my dad scored another healthy squid while fishing away from the shore. After cruising along a little further, my dad hooked the biggest squid I had seen for a long time. Not only did this thing take a lot of drag, it took my dad a good seven minutes to fight with plenty of ink squirting and long runs which was awesome to watch this cephalopod in action. On landing this squid measured 37cm through the body alone!!! (Probably big enough to feed a small tribe!!).
We ended the day after that as the wind blew up from the North and made the ride home pretty bumpy. All in all, things might have been quite on the Bream front but I had a great day out on the water with my dad and we got to catch some good squid too. With the summer just around the corner, chasing bream up in the shallows in the early morning is a must. Using shallow diving hardbody lures and surface lures will increase you catch rate and make your day more enjoyable!!
Also breamers, check out www.fishin.com.au for awesome lure specials when stocking up for this summer. They have a great range at awesome prices and the postage and service is A1!!!
Happy Breaming, Grayson

MyFish 26-9-09 (A Short Trip to Reddy)

2009-12-15T22:24:00.000+10:00

26-9-09
During this week I got the chance to duck out to Redcliffe for a short session with my mate Tristan Taylor. We went out to check how it was fishing as we hadn’t had the opportunity to do so with comps being held over the last fortnight.
We started at Castlereagh Reef fishing some deep bommies as the big rising tide had put most of our spots well under water. Fishing a deep diving Jackall Chubby in Suji shrimp and Tristo on a Megabass Mr X Griffon , we fished in 6-7ft of water trying to seek out any schooling bream. It didn’t take Tristo long to get onto some brute which we suspect was a cod as it took him for a great run and then buried itself into some reef. Now in this case you can do one of two things, try muscling the fish out but manoeuvring the boat around to find the angle he went into the hole and tightening the drag and pump away OR free spool your reel on the off chance the fish will sulk and swim right out of his hole. Either one worked this time so COD 1, TRISTAN 0.
Soon after that Tristan hooked up again with the same sort of fight unfolding then within seconds I was on too!!! With the both of us not giving a inch, we ended up muscling our fish to the boat to find it to be a double cod hook up...Oh Yeah!! Great fun.
We then moved to the shallows where we used the same lures as the tide was up and to work the lower water column. Bouncing my Jackall along the bottom, I nailed an awesome 31cm FL Bream who had obviously moved up the shallows with the tide to feed. This is common at Redcliffe as many of the reefs are out of water during low tide and as the tide rises, the bait move up to seek some protection amongst the flooded reef. After that we headed home after a short session as the fishing from the last two week was catching up with us both. With the sun getting up earlier and hotter, short early sessions over the coming months are heaps better than coming home like a beetroot for one day’s fishing. So remember the sunscreen folks.

On a different note, one of our regular readers has sent me some pics from some fishing expeditions on his kayak around Coochiemudlo Island and some local creeks catching Bass. Being a local to the area, it’s awesome to see at the end of the day you don’t need a flash boat to have heaps of fun fishing!! Steve and the boys have been nice enough to let me in on their secret Bass location but till next time, I’ll only give you a hint....It’s near Redland Bay (Hope that wasn’t too much Steve!!)
Keep up the good work boys!!!

Cheers Grayson

MyFish 24-9-09 (I Want a Skeeter)

2009-12-15T22:23:00.000+10:00

24-9-09
During the past week I was lucky enough to be invited to the SKEETER BOAT OWNERS Tournament at South West Rocks in northern NSW. Josh Batterson, who is the head of Skeeter Australia runs this awesome event annually and gives skeeter boat owners a chance to mingle with other owners and have a fish at a destination that is different.
Fishing with Gold Coast ABT winner, Tristan Taylor, was awesome fun over the weekend as it gave me a chance to show him how to fish......haha NOT!! Fishing South West Rocks was very similar to fishing every northern NSW river system with it being a deep water bite using plastics on 1/8th or 1/6th jigheads in fast current along deep rock walls or cranking deep hardbodies down the face which at the end of the day can be a little boring when you are use to chasing Bream in 1 foot of water with waves breaking over bommies all around you. No disrespect to our NSW counterparts but the truth is I CAN’T DO IT!!!
So a quick summary of the weekend’s fishing.
Day One: We did the rock wall thing, I threw 2” Gulp shrimp in Peppered prawn on a 1/8th TT Jighead and Tristo threw an Atomic Metalz 1/8th blade: End result Two fish 25cm FL and 25.5cm FL. Went to oyster racks, got dusted a few times heaps of undersize fish. Ended the day in 4th place with only 2 teams getting 5 fish.
Day Two: We changed rock walls, and did the rock wall thing ’AGAIN’ for no fish. Then with shallow water anxiety we went to South West Rocks notorious oyster racks right up river. There we sighted heaps of fish and caught heaps of flathead but had no bream love. We then headed to the mouth to chase jewies and within two 400m drifts we had four bream with the biggest being 28.5cm FL. Go figure. Ended the comp in 7th place.
All in all a fantastic job done by Josh and the crew at Skeeter Australia to put on and awesome weekend where the fishing was really second place to the social aspect and the chance to mingle with guys you have only heard of. After seeing all the different models of Skeeters and getting the chance to drive one, I know what I’m asking Santa to bring me for Christmas!!!
Happy Breaming,
Grayson

MyFish 14-9-09 (Gold Coast ABT)

2009-12-15T22:22:00.000+10:00

14-9-09

Over the last weekend we had the chance to participated in the eagerly awaited ABT Bream QLD Qualifier held at the Gold Coast. Being the host of last year’s ABT Grand final, it was interesting to see what the Goldy had in store for us in whether the Bay islands would again fire or will it be won by fishing the infamous canals of the Coast. Being only my second ABT as a boater, I was keen to get up to the bay and try to ‘ham it up’ with the big boat boys to see if I could crack a pattern over two days of fishing.
To any newbies, ABT events are normally held over two days for many of their comps but with this event being a super series, the top ten after the second day go through to a top 10 shoot out on the third day. Now for me, I would be stoked with a top 20 finish and to have two good consistent days of fishing. At the briefing held the night before the event, I found that on the first day I was a spare (Fishing solo without a non boater) which meant I was to spend 7 hours by myself fishing the bay!!! Oh man how boring!!! Ah well I guess it would give me time to catch up on my singing practice.
DAY 1: As I was the 19th boat to leave Horizon shores, it was awesome to see the big high powered boats go whizzing past me in my 435 Quintrex Hornet Trophy as we headed to the bay chasing the big bream. My first stop was the eastern side of Coochiemudlo where I had fished in the past and pulled some good bream out of in previous comps. I started the morning fishing topwater with my usual Dog X Jr with my other rods rigged with a Jackall Chubby and an Atomic Hardz Mid Crank 38, all that I knew worked at the Bay Islands. The next two hours proved to be a mixture of high excitement and sheer frustration as my topwater lure got more smashes than Game one of the State of Origin with very little hook ups. The bream weren’t exactly small under my lure either but they chose to follow underneath with the occasional swipe much to my frustration. I even would cast the Chubby behind it but to no avail. So with only one legal fish onboard at 24cm fork, I decided to run to the southern end of Peel Island which I had fished numerous times in the past with great success. There I started my drift fishing in 1½ foot of water trying to source out feeding bream chasing bait on the rising tide. It wasn’t too long where I got a nice strike and landed a solid 27cm FL Bream much to my relief as I was worried whether this spot was going to fire after being under fishing pressure from other anglers. Soon after that, I nailed another two legals in quick succession going 28cm and 26.5cm with the lure of the day being an Atomic Hardz Mid Crank 38 in Ghost Gill Brown. With just over an hour to go, I decided to return to Coochiemudlo Island to see if I could fill my bag as my fifth fish was proving to be quite elusive. With the tide reaching its top I deciding to throw a deep diving Atomic Crank 38 with the thought that the fish would remain deeper as the sun was high and also the tide. This proved to be awesome as my second cast got absolutely smashed by a feisty 29cm FL Bream and after a nervous fight near shallow rocks, I was off home with a full bag. My five fish ended up going 1.71kg which put me in 19th place with the leader after day one being Mick Horn (2.45kg) only 740grams away. It’s still anyone’s race.
DAY 2: On day two I woke up pretty confident I could find fish for me and my non boater as I saw a lot the day before with the hardest thing being whether they would bite. My non boater today was a top guy and gun angler by the name of Mark Lennox who was from Armidale with an extensive background in Bass fishing but has really taken to breaming like a duck to water. He had already qualified for this year’s Sydney grand final by coming 2nd in the Bribie ABT so I was keen to get him onto fish as he started the day in 7th place in the non boater standings. We started our day at Coochiemudlo where I had found timid fish on day one in the hope that they would become fiery on day two. Again the topwater option became a hit as it was drawing the fish out with Mark absolutely smashing good bream on the Dog X Jr in Modena Bone. I also had heaps of surface hits but failed to hook up, but Mark really excelled hooking four legals in the first couple of hours to leave me behind on the dreaded donut!!! As the tide turned and started to flood, we decided to move to the southern end of Peel Island where I got my fish the previous day. We started our drift the same as day one with immediate success. I pulled a good legal going 26cm to the fork which got me off the donut and gave me much more confidence that we could get more. In the next hour I got 3 more legals to get me to four for the day with the lure of choice again being the Atomic Hardz Mid Crank 38 in Ghost Gill Brown. On our way home we stopped at Coochie and Macleay and Russell Islands in desperation to fill our bags but had no luck which left us both on four fish and happy we got something. The final result for me was 18th place going 3.04kg for the two days which I was really happy with being my first ABT comp fishing at the bay. Mark’s four fish shot him up the rankings to 2nd place in the non boater category which I was really stoked I was able to get him onto fish on the final day.
All in all I had an awesome comp where I had nothing but fun over the two days. I got to meet some great people and it was great to see people look out for me as I was the smallest boat going up the bay each day (and 5-10kts each day really helped!!!) Also I want to send a huge congratulations to my good buddy Tristan Taylor, who showed awesome skill throughout the weekend to take out the Super series event by 600grams. Tristan is a massive inspiration to my fishing and with his knowledge base, handy tips, relaxed nature and goofy laugh, it certainly spurs me on to be a better and more confident angler. Cheers Midas!! Also congratulations to Jay Perham and Dave Mackenzie who qualified as boaters for the Grand Final and big Tony Moore for making it in the non boater category. See ya in Sydney boys!!!
Happy Breaming, Grayson

www.fishin.com.au

MyFish 6-9-09 (Happy Father's Day Neil)

2009-12-15T22:21:00.000+10:00

6-9-09

Being childless sometimes has it’s advantages. For me, it gives me the opportunity to go fishing pretty much all the time but in the back of my mind, as I may be the envy of some dad’s, my innings will one day come to a halt….not a screeching one I hope!! On Father’s day I took the opportunity to catch up with a good friend of mine, Neil Whillans, who studied acupuncture with me here in Brisbane. Neil and I have had some epic days of fishing in the past when we would skip lectures because the weather was great to chase bass at Lake Samsonvale or stingrays in Cabbage Tree Creek. Those were the days.
So with work and general life separating us, it was awesome to have the opportunity to take Neil to the infamous breaming haven of Redcliffe. Neil is not new to fishing but very new to catching bream on shallow running hardbodies and plastics. Our first port of call was Castlereagh Reef at Scarborough where we found the tide rising rapidly due to the moon phase of the previous night. I loaded up Neil with a light spin outfit comprising of GLoomis 820s GL2 rod with a TD Sol 2500 spooled with 4lb Fireline and a 6lb leader. The lure of choice was the trusty Jackall Chubby shallow in Pink Suji shrimp.
Now the biggest issue for me when taking someone new out breaming isn’t whether they can swim if we crash or hunt and gather if we got stranded on a deserted island, but it’s putting them onto fish!!! You talk breaming up to so many people, that you don’t wanna be eating you words and catch ‘donuts’ (for newbies that means zero fish!!) or spend the day talking about ‘remember the old days’ stories. So this morning I was keen to make it a cracker.
As we cruised around the northern tip of Castlereagh, the morning started off a little slow with only a handful of hits and 2 snags. Then it wasn’t too long till Neil was on to a nice healthy 26cm FL (Fork Length) Bream putting up a nice fight in shallow water which was a great introduction to breaming for Neil. We then cruised over some other reefs in the area to see if bream had started feeding up over them with the flooding tide. Using the SE wind, we drifted over some rubble flats close to the shore where I knew would hold fish during the flooding tide. It wasn’t too long and we had hit the jackpot. Pitching long casts with the wind proved to be the best recipe as we started nailing good bream around 24cm-28cm while cruising in the shallows. The fish seem to turn on the bite pretty fast and after several drifts of this area we picked up 20 odd legal bream with the biggest going 31cm FL and to add excitement I pulled a nice 28cm FL Squire who was cruising in 3ft of water looking for an early feed. Neil’s biggest Bream for the day was a nice fat 27cm which fell victim to the Jackall Chubby spell. As the wind stayed around the 10-12kts from the SE, this restricted us to the top of Scarborough which we weren’t complaining too much as the action was aplenty. We went further out to another section of reef that is normally visible at low tide but under on the high and motored over the top of it in search for more ravenous feeding bream. This proved to be good as we nailed plenty of bream mainly being undersize but enough to keep the excitement going for us.
All in all we had a cracker day as it was great to introduce some new blood to the breaming world and to get onto some good fish really topped off the morning. As Neil got an early leave pass for Father’s day to go fishing with me, I’m sure it’s one he won’t forget for a while.

Happy Breaming
Grayson

www.fishin.com.au

MyFish 27-8-09 (Reddy Firing Up)

2009-12-15T22:20:00.000+10:00

27/08/09

Last Thursday I had the chance to have an early morning prefish with Jay for the BIBS invitational Comp held over the weekend. Jay was keen to check out how Redcliffe was fishing as over the winter we had found the fishing a little slow with both plastics and hardbodies as the annual spawning season was in full swing. Our first port of call was Castlereagh reef at Scarborough where we quickly wanted to cruise over some shallow bommies to see if they were holding fish and not to spook them too much for the weekend comp. I started off fishing topwater (Megabass Dog X Jr) while Jay went through his massive lure collection and threw everything bar the kitchen sink to try crack a pattern of what lures would fire the bream up.
Within minutes I was onto a nice bream (27cm FL) which smashed my lure in a foot of water which was a great sign that fish were feeding up in the shallows chasing bait and shrimp. We then move to some other reefs in the area that we had spotted on the lowering tide that may hold fish due to their surrounding drop offs and nice flat tops. Jay’s endeavor to crack a pattern was working, if we were fishing in a ‘pike’ comp, as these lure stealing vermin were the only things showing him love over the morning session!! Continuing my topwater fishing, I got smashed again in really shallow water with this fish giving me one hell of a fight to get him clear of the surrounding reef and rocky outcrops. This one turned out to be what we were looking for hitting the measure at 33cm FL (Fork Length) much to Jay’s delight as this was very ominous for the weekend.
Before I go on, I’ll explain to our new readers what’s involved and the reason why a prefish is done. A prefish is normally done a day before a comp starts to source areas that may hold fish so you can return the next day to that area to fill your bag. It’s normally done by not fishing areas too heavily so you don’t run the risk of scaring or ‘stinging’ fish from returning to that area. It’s sometimes hard when you catch a good fish and you want to catch more because it’s great fun but at the end of the day, BIGGER FISH IN A COMP = BIGGER PRIZEMONEY = MORE TOYS!! So hence the process of prefishing.
Our next port of call were some reefs just north of the Redcliffe jetty where Jay has pulled some good fish in the past and was worth looking at as the tide was low and the crashing waves were stirring up the water for fish to eat. I changed my approach to a shallow Jackall Chubby in Clear shrimp colour to see if this would work by contrasting in the slightly murky water. This bought immediate success and as I pulled a healthy 26cm FL bream off the top of some breaking reef in just a few casts. As we circled this reef I noticed the top of it was starting to become exposed as the tide had reached it’s bottom so that only mean’t one thing….. Welcome back to the stage… Dog X Jr!!! And in the first cast, Whammo!! I was on big time and it had weight to it. As this fight went on it got more exciting, navigating the fish out of treacherous terrain which was helped also by Jay steering the boat into clearer water. On landing this awesome bream it went 32.5cm FL which wasn’t the biggest we’ve encountered but certainly one of the better fighting.
Then it was off to our last stop which was some patchy reef just south of the Redcliffe jetty which was another area we wanted to check out on how it fished on the low tide. Up to this point Jay was getting his butt kicked by a 5’7” Asian, fishing from the back of the boat, who (by the way) was wondering how Steve Morgan lost my invite to the BIBS Comp!! (Maybe next year Steve?? Haha) But like in all fishing, true fisherman can catch fish when it matters and FAST and this is exactly what Jay did at our last stop. Within half a dozen casts, Jay had nailed 3 bream going 27cm, 28cm and 28.5cm in quick time using a shallow Jackall Chubby in Brown Suji Shrimp over the tops of these reefs. So Jay was back on the board and this concluded our prefish.
This goes to show sometimes changing lures to try and crack a pattern can sometimes be your undoing as sticking to what you know works, can be the percentage play to run. So breamers, arm yourselves with hardbodies for the fast approaching Summer as if this spring session is anything to go by, it’s going to be a cracker for shallow breaming!!!

Happy breaming and remember the sunscreen, Grayson

PS. Check out www.fishin.com.au for awesome lures at great prices and FREE postage!!!

MyFish 23-8-09 (Mud Island Madness)

2009-12-15T22:19:00.000+10:00

23/08/09

Last Sunday I had an opportunity to have a fish with Jay out at Mud Island and after spending the last two weeks snowboarding in NZ in freezing conditions, to come back to near summer days was heaven!! When we arrived at Mud Island for the dawn raid, the tide was at the bottom which really showed me the breaming potential that this island has on the flooding tide with the vast array of long flats, rubble bottoms and reefy outcrops that would make any breamer salivate with anticipation.
I started the morning fishing surface with my trusty Dog X Jr as Jay switched between plastics and hardbodies to cover all our bases to seek out what would fire up these bay bream. Although the morning started slow on the bream front, it wasn’t too long until I was on to my winter favourite ...good old squid!! After watching a Thorpedo like bow wave approach my surface lure, it wasn’t too long till we had dinner sorted with a few squid coming on board in quick succession. Working our way around the southern tip of the island, we encountered a strange fog pattern around the island that stayed with us all morning and made visibility poor but great for topwater fishing as we became invisible to the line of sight of feeding predators. As the fog thickened, I nabbed a slender post spawn bream at 25.5cm fork length that was cruising the shallows for an early feed. Soon after I was on again with topwater being the pick of the techniques bringing on board a nice fat 26cm bream who fell victim to the Dog X Jr’s mysterious ways!!
The next hour was pretty non eventful besides, one : Our run in with a school of tailor and bonito which resulted in a near loss of a $35 lure (Whoopsy), two: Jay hooking a nice bream while chasing tailor and bonito (Damn bream) and three: Me hooking a bird by the leg as it flew into my line while fishing topwater!! (Thanks Jay for the bird calming techniques during hook removal).
All in all a great day out on the water and it was even better to be back in our beautiful summer weather and I’m sure if this weather keeps heating up, so will the breaming action in the next couple of months!!!

Happy Slip, Slop, Slap. Grayson

MyFish 28-7-09 (Dash For Cash)

2009-12-15T22:18:00.000+10:00

28-7-09

After a long break in the tournament calendar, last weekend we had the eagerly awaited Dash for Cash comp held at the Gold Coast. With 42 teams competing in great breaming conditions it was interesting to see how the day was going to unfold. With a couple of prefishes under our belt, young Tom Slater and I weighed up the options and decided to stay at the coast and fish the deep reef of TSS thinking the fish were staying deep during the spawning season. Arriving at our first stop we sat in about 15-17ft of water fishing 2” Gulp shrimp in Peppered Prawn and Banana Prawn colours on 1/12th and 1/8th TT jigheads working them with slow twitches along the bottom during the rising tide. With no luck there, we decided to hit the adjacent pontoons where Tom nailed an awesome 33cm fork bream while working his 2” Gulp shrimp off the front of the structure and not only did this bream have good length it also was really fat which gave us hope that it may get close to a big bream place as it had good weight. So in having a good start to the morning the confidence was high as we continued to hit the pontoons in search for more bream. The next hour and a half we continued to catch fish but the lack of size was our concern. We then decided to tackle some flats in the hope that fish had decided to feed on the flooding tide and after drifting and casting for 40-50mins our confidence was taking a hammering but we still had time to fill our bag. On our way back from the flats we stopped in to investigate the big red barge near the seaway that we had heard held fish. Second cast there and Tommy was on to a nice 26cm bream caught on a 2” Gulp shrimp in Banana prawn which raised our confidence levels again. After peppering that area we returned to TSS in hope the fish were going to turn on for the final two and a half hours for us to fill our bag. So to cut a long story short, TSS showed us no love!! And we ended the day with only two fish.
Well that’s competition for you. I don’t know about Tom but I learnt heaps of things on the weekend but along the way still had fun. The biggest thing I learnt for next time is to follow my instincts and not to play safe. My instinct was to go to the bay (like the winners did) as my previous months’ sessions up there were all successful but what scared me was the long run up there. I think fishing conservatively was the wrong option as I had once heard Dizzy Borg say that he fishes bad when he’s not aggressive, point taken. I don’t like to not make excuses for bad days but to learn from them as that’s what makes you a better tournament angler in the long run. A big congratulations goes to Team Samurai Reaction of Steve Eldred and Simon Vaughn as they had the comp of their lives with a huge bag of 4.585kg and took out all three prizes of big bream for the weekend with all of them coming from their winning bag!! Steve’s 1.180kg specimen made our 33cm look like a guppy!! Better luck next time Tom. Also thanks to Tom Slater for making the day enjoyable as I needed someone to laugh at for 7 hours!!
Happy Breaming, Grayson.

MyFish 19-7-09 (Sunny Redcliffe)

2009-12-15T22:17:00.000+10:00

19-7-09

Due to Jay being away on holidays there is probably a back log of blogs as I haven’t exactly stopped fishing. I’ll try give you a short summary of each event but I’ll warn you I’m not exactly short winded!!!

After an early morning fish with Jay to shoot our second episode of Fishconnect TV, a glassy day on Moreton bay was too hard to resist the temptation to go home, pack some lunch, hitch on my own boat and head back out to enjoy the beautiful winters’ day of slight breezes and flat seas. My partner in crime this time was my awesome girlfriend Allanah who was keen to see what all the fuss was about with breaming and squidding as she had only seen photos of my escapades and heard endless tales of cracker sessions out on the boat. So I packed a few little extra luxuries to make her day enjoyable and we headed out to our local hotspot of Redcliffe where if you can’t catch a fish you should take up croquet!! (No offence to our croquet playing breaming brothers.) We ventured out from Clontarf to join the hordes of boaties who all had the same idea as us to enjoy this beautiful day. Our first stop was the shallow reef flats outside Woody Point jetty which occasionally holds pretty good bream and with the tide rising may bring some feeding predators into the area. We both started by throwing hardbodies using Jackall Chubbys in Brown Suji Shrimp and the new Banana colour. I think this colour will be awesome in summer as it’s contrasting colours on the clear body will get heaps of attention. Third cast in I nailed an awesome 52cm flatty which really tested my skills with only 3lb Yamatoyo leader between me and a $20 lure!! Within a minute later Allanah was on the board with her first ever bream on lure!! She played it with ease like a season professional but the real truth was behind the smile that came after landing it. My greatest joy is seeing people new to the sport land their first fish as the combination of adrenaline and achievement sends such a rush through their bodies which we all can relate too every time we catch a fish. It not only makes their day but etches a piece of happiness in their memory that lasts a life time and is priceless. Money can’t buy that stuff!! We soon left that area to venture further north and with Allanah grinning from ear to ear our day was off to a great start. Our next stop was a small reef system near Redcliffe jetty where I thought I would try christen Allanah to a bit of squidding as she had heard funny stories of her dad copping a shot of ink right on his pants from some angry squid in past trips. After only a half a dozen casts I was on to a cracker and boy, was it angry!! With Allanah on net duties, I could see this was gonna be funny as I steered the squid away from us to shoot it’s last ink shot into the distance. Hahaha the total opposite happened and put it this way I’ve never seen two people jump back so fast and my boat received a new custom paint job!!! Hell funny. After some quick fishing, we decided to enjoy lunch on the bay and I have to admit the mix of great weather, great company and plenty of laughs, it really confirmed my love for fishing and to see the only thing shining brighter than the sun being my girlfriend’s smile was priceless.

Happy Living,

Grayson

MyFish 16-7-09 (Bribie Is. Hang Out)

2009-12-15T22:15:00.000+10:00

16-7-09

Being a mid week day I thought I’d go fish something different so I ventured up to Bribie with a good friend of mine Neil Gregson to tackle some weedy flats outside the mouth of Ningi creek. The day was clear but unfortunately the breeze was up with a stiff S-SW wind blowing making it hard to hold good position on the flats but we made do. Starting our drift on the dropping tide we threw hardbodies in the search for some bream or a resident big flatty who are known to cruise these flats searching for baitfish. I started our session throwing a Jackall Chubby in Pink Suji Shrimp while Neil also threw a Jackall Chubby in his favourite Brown Suji Shrimp colour. It wasn’t too long until I got smashed by a ravenous spawning bream at 26cm fork length who was obviously taking advantage of the early morning high tide to feed up in the shallows. This was soon followed by a nice 25.5cm fork bream on the same lure in even shallower water as we constantly were getting the electric stuck on the weedy bottom. Chasing fish in swallow waters like this is awesome fun as the fish tend to be quite aggressive as they cruise these areas to feed so anything can fall victim to their appetites. Going for a shallow diving lure, topwater lure or a light weighted plastic are some of the many options you can use when fishing these areas.
Fish of the day went to Neil when he latched onto a monster flatty at 68cm which gave his a great fight and much to Neil’s credit he took his time (granted he only had 2lb leader!!!) with this angry flatty as it had having several big runs before tiring out giving us the opportunity to net him just before Neil’s leader snapped. As the flatty swallowed Neil’s lure the only thing that let us land him was the fact that the leader was caught right in the soft articulation of it’s jaw where it has no teeth or rough edges!! After fishing the flats, the wind really started to howl so we seek refuge in the canals of Pacific Harbour to spend the last hour of our morning. Now I know I’m still learning this sport of breaming but next time I see the Morgan Brothers I really want to ask them ‘how the bloody hell did they pull fish out of there!!!’ It goes to show the calibre of their ability and I tip my hat off to them.

MyFish 12-7-09 (A Perfect Day On The Bay)

2009-12-15T22:14:00.000+10:00

12-7-09

Last weekend was part two to Tommy Slater and my prefish antics for the up and coming Gold Coast Dash for Cash comp in a couple of weeks. After covering the Goldy last weekend we were keen to check out the breaming activity of the Bay Islands especially Peel and Coochiemudlo.
With the forecast for an awesome day of light winds, we shot off from Cleveland whose parking lot resembled a shopping centre’s as many anglers took advantage of the great daybreak. Our first port of call was the shallow flats off Peel Island where we decided to chase the bream up in the shallows in hope their feeding time was approaching. No sooner had we stopped, I was onto fish our first fish a nice 26cm fork bream nabbed on a Megabass Dog X jr in less than 1.5ft of water .A great start considering Tom was still tying his line!!
We continued to pepper the shallows fishing surface with our Dog X jr’s with Tom getting absolutely smashed on his ‘modified’ lure by a healthy 29cm fork bream after only a handful of casts. Our first five fish came in pretty quick succession all on top-water so then we decided to attack another lot of good flats but this time fishing as a team with Tom throwing a shallow running hardbody in a Zipbait Khamsin SR and I continued to fish top-water with the Dog X jr. This system can be really handy in a comp situation as it covers all the bases with bream trailing behind the Dog X jr often get picked up by the following shallow hardbody. After a few surface hits on my Dog X Jr, Tom nailed our bream of the day on his Zipbait being 29.5cm fork length and what it lacked in length it picked up in width as it was built like a front rower!! Tom’s choice of gear was a 7’4” Slaterstick Custom rod matched with a Daiwa Gekkabijin 2004 spooled with 3lb Stren Microfuse and 6lb FC Rock Fluoro leader.
Fish of the day was my 45cm fork Tailor caught while fishing top-water. With more leaps than a frog on hotplate, it was certainly a “battle royal” especially with only 6lb leader and the life of my Dog X Jr hinging on my fighting ability!!! My lure survived to fight another day only to look like it’s been chewed by a Jack Russell for two hours!! After a long drift chasing breambo’s, we decided to have a quick cast for squid which we had noticed frolicking in the shallows chasing our top-water baits. Using my favourite blue Yozuri Squid jig it was too long before it was “EGI Time” and Tom’s family had their dinner on board. In the next half an hour, we (I mean ‘I’) pulled in another few more squid before we did a quick run to Coochiemudlo to see if there was further bream action on some weedy flats to the north-east corner. After only picking up a few undersize squeakers, we decided to leave the glassy conditions of the Bay and head home.
It was great to see that boating is such a popular past time in our state with the amount of boats in the bay on Sunday. I guess the combination of weather and the magnificent playgrounds we possess, how could you not own a boat!!
Safe Boating, Grayson

MyFish 6-7-09 (Goldy...Perfect one day...)

2009-12-15T22:12:00.000+10:00

6-7-09
The Gold Coast, perfect one day…… average the next. That would be the best way to sum up our Sunday trek to the breaming Mecca where we were greeted with a beautiful morning of cool crisp air and light westerly breezes.
My partner in crime today was Tommy Slater from Brissy who was virgin to fishing the southern coast but had heard nothing but good things on its fishing habits. We started in the upper reaches of the Nerang with our first port of call being a deep rocky reef system near Sorrento. We decided to start here just before the top of the tide to see if the fish were feeding in the upper reaches during their spawning run. After a few drifts over the reef we found the tide to be slackening so we decided to move further up to Bundall Rd bridge to fish the deep holes there which are notorious for good bream. After some time there and mind you, NO FISH, we were off the idea of a deep water bite and moved to a small canal section of Chevron Island. I peppered the oyster crusted shore with a deep Jackall Chubby in Pink Suji Shrimp while Tom threw a plastic combination of 3” Gulp minnow in new penny on a 1/12 TT jighead and it wasn’t too long for Tom to be onto our first bream (A small one at that but we were just happy to see a fish!!!). Soon after that I got smashed by a great flathead that must have been cruising the shallows for baitfish as it inhaled the chubby at the beginning of my retrieve.
After that stretch we headed to the much talked about TSS deep reef system to try our luck again on the deep bite. Joining two other boats, we held the boat in current fishing in 17-18ft of water using 1/8th and 1/6th TT jigheads rigged with 2” Gulp shrimp in Peppered and Banana Prawn. Within minutes I struck first with a feisty 25cm fork bream that inhaled the shrimp as I dead-sticked it on the bottom. On the second drift, I was on again with a great fighting 29cm fork fish which had a few surging runs before being landed. Now this bream wasn’t just your ordinary yellowfin, it had a massive sore that resembled a piece of raw steak the size of a tennis ball on its side. In hindsight, I should have put it out of its misery and stopped it infecting others in its vicinity. Tom was the next to strike with a nice 27cm fork bream caught on the deadly banana prawn colored 2” Gulp shrimp, worked with small twitches as we started on the top of our drift. This area proved to be fruitful and I think if you were prepared to stick it out you could get some great fish. Fishing deep reefs is certainly an art that I’m still trying to master!!
We then had a run up to some flats up near Crab island as both Tommy and I had ‘shallow water withdrawal’ so we needed to satisfy our curiosity and see if any fish were feeding up there. It started off well with Tom hooking a nice 50cm flatty while slow rolling a Zipbait Khamsin SR in 2ft of water and by the way; $25 lure + 2lb leader = Elevated heart rate!! On our run home we visited Runaway Bay canals for a little look at how they are fishing. With the tide low and it being the middle of the day, we didn’t expect too much and that’s exactly what we got!! Good waste of 45mins though.
All in all it was a great day out on the water. We had a really great look around the Goldy as the day was dedicated to pre-fishing for the up and coming Dash for Cash comp in three weeks. Our minds haven’t been made up yet whether to fish the deep reefs of the Gold Coast or bite the bullet and run up to the bay islands. Either way we may need a cut lunch to pass some time!!!

Happy Adventures, Grayson.

MyFish 26-6-09 (A Mixed Day On The Bay)

2009-12-15T22:09:00.000+10:00

26-06-09
Yesterday I had to opportunity to hit my local hunting grounds at Redcliffe after a few weeks of Southern Bay recon work. With Jay hitting the northern end at Scarborough first, I decided to start at the southern end near Woody point. We launched at Clontarf, where a few local fishos had informed us that good snapper were being caught at the southern end of the Scott’s Point Green zone in about 10-15ft of water using squid or pillies. I’m thinking plastics would also be a go in that area with a lot of baiter’s berleying up the waters. With the temptation there, we decided to stick to the game plan and chase some early bream. The water clarity was pretty average around Woody Point as there was heaps of debris that had obviously been flushed out from the Pine from the recent rains making it’s way out to sea. I started the day fishing topwater with my trusty Dog X Jr, with Allanah’s dad Ken slow rolling the old faithful brown suji shrimp shallow Chubby. With my second cast, a few twitches and a lengthy pause, I nailed an aggressive 27cm fork bream which was chasing small bait fish in about a foot of water. The bait school boils were frequent in this area early which we targeted with long casts proving to be a great strategy. Soon after, Ken got smashed by a 28.5cm fork bream in the middle of it’s feeding frenzy and after a tight tussle in a rocky three foot of water we landed him leaving us thankful of our upgraded 6lb leader.
After that we decided to travel north up to Redcliffe Point outside the Surf lifesaving club. Again we took the same approach of one guy using topwater and the other a shallow hardbody to maximize our coverage with the topwater often drawing out the inquisitive fish and the shallow diver being their downfall. We covered this area getting a few hits on the chubby till I noticed I was getting heaps of inquiries on the dog x jr but no hook ups. This could only mean one thing……SQUID!!! Oh yeah!! As I always have a pre rigged squidding rod on board in winter, the jig was in the water faster than Usain Bolt runs 100m!! Then sure enough, dinner was on board in minutes. We stayed in this little cove for a while backtracking over our drift as squid aren’t like bream where they won’t get spooked to easily so you can pull 4-5 out of the same area in no time.
We then worked our way further north casting into the shallows for little reward as the water clarity turned milky. Later we ran into Jay at the reef outside of Shields St where he had an average start to the morning but was please to report squid chasing his plastics up to the boat. No sooner had we heard that, we were back onto the squid with Ken pulling a monster one from just metres off the shore. The next two hours saw us cover a lot of territory for no cheddar with only a few squid and undersize bream being caught. On our way home we dropped into Woody Point again to see if the bite had increased with the tide but to no avail with only 3 undersize bream snared while slow rolling a shallow Chubby in Pink Suji Shrimp. At the end of the day all up we only caught 10 bream (4 legals), 9 squid and a flatty.
This weekend seems out for any fishing as the crap weather is setting in. I’ve got a few minor boat repairs and reel servicing to do so everything is in good shape for the next expedition. Special mention has to go to Ken who took one for the team and got sprayed a beauty from one very angry squid!! I’m still giggling to myself!!
Happy Breaming, Grayson

MyFish 16-6-09 (My First ABT Victory)

2009-12-15T22:08:00.000+10:00

16-6-09

PORT MACQUARIE ABT

Last weekend’s road trip down to Port Mac had so many funny events that this blog could go forever. Travelling down with Tristan Taylor and rookie sensation Tom Slater, we got off to a cracking start setting a great pace on the freeway to get there early for a prefish. The pace was so great, I had a run in with the law and then got the rule book thrown at me by some well versed policeman for my speed ‘with a boat’!! Hey we had a prefish to get to!! So after paying my NSW Arrival Tax, we were on our way to attack the infamous Port Mac oyster racks.
After only being on the water for an hour or so, Tom nailed a cracker 29cm bream after wrestling it out of nasty rack terrain with his 1-3kg Samurai Rod and 6lb Sunline super PE. We then ventured towards the seaway to fish the drop offs in search for bream lurking in the deep. After several drifts Tristan latched onto a great 32cm specimen which inhaled a 2” Atomic fat grub on a 1/12 jighead. So after a quick prefish we were ready for the next day.
The next day I was paired with boater Chris Russell from Newcastle. Chris’ stomping ground is Lake Macquarie near Newcastle where he targets the flats chasing big bream. We first started fishing deep water off the rock walls where Chris got off to a great start nailing a 27cm and 26cm on our first drift leaving me still on the dredged donut. After that we ventured up river towards the highway bridge where Chris wanted to tackle the weedy flats with his trademark unweighted plastic technique. I decided to work to my strengths and threw my ‘go to’ lure in the shallow Jackall Chubby in pink suji shrimp with the train of thought ‘if it works in Brissie’ why not here. In quick succession I caught 2 flathead and several bream with 3 being legals having the biggest go 31cm. We then shot to the racks where I got a 27cm leaving me one to fill my bag. As the sun shone over our heads we decided to go deep finding deep reefs where bream would still be feeding. We did several drifts outside Edgewater caravan park fishing in 5m of water where I got my fifth and Chris proceeded to fill his bag both using 2” Gulp shrimp (Peppered Prawn) rigged on 1/8 TT jigheads. After day one Chris was in 6th (Boater) and I was in 4th (Non Boater) with 2.23kg, only being 330 grams off the lead.
Day two saw me paired with a Port Mac local Steve Gardoll who was pretty new to ABT events with only having a few classics under his belt. Steve panicked more than I did about me being in fourth as he was worried he wouldn’t put me onto fish. Much to Steve’s credit he was awesome in taking me to where I wanted to go and asked heaps of questions about flats fishing and the styles we use in Brisbane. We quickly shot (as quick as a 385 Quintrex Explorer with a 25hp Yammie can take you!!) to my first day honey hole up near the highway bridge. There saw me pull 4 undersize bream in 6 casts but I knew we were in the right area. We then started our drift throwing shallow chubbies (Pink Suji Shrimp and Ayu) over weeds beds up against the bank with great results and after one drift I had three legals and Steve had two. Our second drift was a little less fruitful with Steve picking up only one legal at 27cm fork length. We then hit some sunken racks on the opposite side of Edgewater caravan park fishing in 4ft of water, slow rolling chubbies along the structure where I got nailed by a 27.5cm bream in quick time. We persisted with this technique as fellow anglers found it tough fishing in the deep. Then with one hour to go I got my fifth and final fish, a Port Mac special, 32cm bream that raced out of the racks and smashed my lure. After a fight that had me pulling out more moves than on the dancefloor, we landed this fine kicker fish leaving me with a racing heart rate, endless happiness and a stiff neck!!!
After weighing in early, I finished the weekend with 10/10 fish at 4.19kg anxiously waiting for the other day one leaders to come in. At the end I took out my first ABT victory by 800grams being the only non boater to get his full bag and earned myself a spot at the ABT Grand final on Sydney Harbour in November. I would like to thank my boaters, Chris and Steve, for giving me great days on the water, Tom Slater, Dave McKenzie, Tony Moore (for laughing at my stupid jokes!!) and Tristan Taylor, who’s relaxed nature, breaming experience and endless encouragement kept me calm all weekend and it’s Tristo I thank the most for showing me the way to victory.
Happy Breaming,
Grayson

MyFish 4-6-09 (Best Fishing Day In My Life)

2009-12-15T22:02:00.000+10:00

4-6-09
I believe the best medicine in the world is laughter and fishing, and boy didn’t I get my fair share of that this Thursday!! Known bay island guru and awesome mate Tristan Taylor took me to his second home; the infamous Peel Island, where a little bit of local knowledge goes a long way. Our morning got off to a wet start when a forthcoming downpour greeted us at Raby Bay boat ramp leaving us no option but to retreat to Macca’s for an hour for coffee’s and a quick game of Monopoly. Soon after that the gods gave us a break in the weather (a short one at that) and we were off to Peel, destination south east corner.
This spot has more variations than the Maroons backline with shallow flats, rocky outcrops, steep drop offs and tight structure. I started the morning fishing top-water with a Megabass Dog X Jr in a new colour, Albino Raigyo, while Tristan threw a shallow diving Atomic Hardz Mid 38 in Ghost Gill. It didn’t take us long to be on with Tristan nailing a cracker Bream on his second cast up into the shallows, slow rolling his lure across the rubble bottom. Then the fishing really heated up (least something was hot as we stood in the pouring rain) as we nailed 30 bream in the next hour with the biggest at 35cm to the fork falling victim to the Dog X Jr. The falling rain did little to deter the fish but in fact really turned them rabid as we were almost pulling a fish a cast. We then returned back to the start of our drift at the eastern end of Horseshoe Bay where we took a different angle and chased my favorite winter species…. Squid. Being new to shallow squiding, it didn’t take Tristan long to cotton on to the technique and we spent the next couple of hours filling the bucket with these table delights and laughing our heads off at the numerous ink sprays we copped with the funniest being my squirt in the face when ‘somebody’ left a live one in the bucket, cheers Tristo!! After a while we actually found it hard to get away from the squid as we went back to breaming only to find us hooking squid on top-water with our Dog X Jr.

After the early rains, the afternoon turned on great sunshine as we ended another awesome session at Peel Island. Armed with more knowledge and a new custom squid ink paint job to the boat, we learnt today that toughing out the conditions can be very fruitful. We might have been the one’s stupid enough to be standing in the rain but we had the last laugh…..and squid for dinner!!!

MyFish 20-5-09 (Wivenhoe Fun)

2009-12-15T22:01:00.001+10:00

20-5-09

Last weekend gave me the opportunity the take my Breaming skills and adapt them to our freshwater counterparts.....Bass!! I took part in the Grand Electric Bass Tournament Round 2 at the infamous Wivenhoe Dam. Known for it’s XOS Bass, there was no shortage of big bass being bagged. Largest for the day was cracking 2.745kg specimen caught by third placed David West with the final honours going to Corey Kerr with a healthy bag of 3.470kg (2 fish). I finished 16th after landing my first ever bass at an adrenaline pumping 1.885kg!! My choice of tackle was 6’10” G Loomis DSR820 rod matched with a Team Daiwa Sol 2500 spooled with 6lb Sunline Super PE and a 6lb Vanish flourocarbon leader. On that I threw a gold speckled Slider grub on a ¼ ounce jig head using a slow sink, twitch, twitch retrieve. I don’t know what the fuss was about having a specific bass outfit, I just used my Breaming gear!! So if you have the opportunity to go Bass fishing it’s well worth it. Queensland has an awesome choice of dams and the bass go hard.
This week looks like the weather is going to get the better of us in the Northern Bay. With 30-40kt winds forecast it looks like the Foxtel is going to get a workout!! This break is an awesome time to check your gear and stock up on depleted stores. Take the time to service your reels, check your rods (guides,grips), respool new braid and change leaders. On the tackle front, change damaged trebles on lures, O rings and stock up on jigheads (TT jigheads of course!!). All these practises ensure better longevity for your gear and keeps you ready when the weather finally fines up.
Happy Tinkering, Grayson.

MyFish 13-5-09 (Scarborough Sights)

2009-12-15T22:00:00.002+10:00

13-5-09
This week saw the northern bay really turn on some great fishing. With a short break from the prevailing South-Easters a nice cool change saw some westerlies come through giving the locals a few cracker days this week. I chose one of these days to check a few reefs around Scarborough concentrating on targeting Bream and the effect of the cooler conditions. Water clarity has greatly improved this week hence giving the bream greater scope when chasing hardbodies being rolled over shallow reefs. I find the clearer coloured lures like Brown Suji Shrimp, Clear Shrimp, Ghost Wakasagi and Suji Shrimp in Jackall Shallow Chubbies, Ghost Green Shad, Ghost Gill Brown and Ghost Blue in Atomic Hardz Mid Crank 38’s seem to work the best. The clearer lure uses the surroundings to blend in to make them seem more natural.
Using this theory we tackled Redcliffe Reef on the rising tide. Within 10 minutes we had six undersize Bream, two legals and one cracker tailor. These pelagic ‘lure stealers’ are an awesome fight but get them in quick!!! Progressing north slowly we cast parallel to the shoreline which proved to be the right recipe stinging a school of eight bream in as many casts. This ended our catching as we went the next 1 3/4hrs with only 2 pike!!! Got to love a shutdown!!
The biggest news this week is the sudden influx of squid at Scarborough and Woody Point. My father has been casting around the reefs in a pair of waders (Great news for land based anglers!!) and pulling good numbers. Remember keep your rod tip up to avoid snagging your squid jig. We have also seen squid chase our Jackalls but fail to hook up. The newly refurbished Woody Point Jetty has also been great to target squid and a tell tale sign for the right spot are the ink marks on jetty!!!
Happy Breaming and Egiing, (Japanese for squiding)
Grayson

MyFish 6-5-09 (Goldy Day Out)

2009-12-15T21:53:00.001+10:00

6-5-09
This week’s adventure has taken me away from the norm of Redcliffe peninsula to the wonderful breaming playground of the Gold Coast. Noted for being awesome diverse fishing area it’s great to go to the Goldy to test out your skills. Whether it’s casting hardbodies within millimetres of pontoons in Runaway Bay or fishing plastics and vibes deep in the Southport Seaway, your appetite for breaming is well and truly satisfied. No matter what the weather or the tides are doing there is always a place to explore. My intro to breaming was at the Gold Coast by a good friend of mine, Tristan Taylor, who used his outstanding knowledge of the area to podium at last year’s ABT Grand Final. So if you are thinking of checking it out don’t be afraid to ask some locals for the tips on some hotspots.
One of these ‘hotspots’ was my first destination last weekend. Fishing with me was one of my tournament buddies and cousin, Nigel Seeto and a good friend Jordan Benny. Jordan’s new to breaming, so the Goldy was a good test for his improving skills. We targeted an infamous area around Pacific Fair Shopping centre. With a slow start (and many casts into trees!!) we got onto a few good size (27cm,28cm) bream in quick succession. Nigel used a Jackall Chubby Deep in Clear shrimp while Jordan chose a Jackall Chubby deep in Salmon Roe head. Cranking these hardbodies uptight to the structures prove to be the right recipe. Getting close to the bottom of the tide and lack of schooling baitfish, we headed to some deep reefs along the Nerang River at Broadbeach Waters. Fishing in 14ft water we drifted a stretch of 200m bouncing a smorgasbord of plastics on TT lures 1/12 jigheads. The plastics of choice were 2inch Gulp Shrimp in peppered prawn, 3inch Gulp minnow in pumpkinseed and Nigel’s proven favourite 3inch Gulp minnow in lime tiger.
Great to see the fish were deep meaning that spawn migration is well and truly underway. All in all another great session at the Goldy and now with reborn skills I’m ready to tackle the brutes of Redcliffe again!!
Happy Breaming, Grayson.

I thought it was time....

2009-12-15T21:13:00.001+10:00

I thought it was time to start blogging my life as so much goes on in it. My inspiration for blogging is my good friend Chanel who has religiously blogged for ages and loves sharing her good times. I believe sharing these good times isn't bragging about 'how good your life is' but more like showing a side to your life that's important to you. Let's start this journey.....