Living just half an hour from St George’s Basin meant that we didn’t need to book accommodation for this event which was a blessing. So home base was literally home for this comp.
The weekend started with a Thursday afternoon dash to Totally Immersed Watersports, home of the Hobie Australia warehouse where I picked up my loaner kayak so I could take it home and prepare for the weekend. I didn’t know what kayak they were going to provide for the weekend so I wanted to make sure I could set it up and figure out my storage options ahead of pre-fish on Friday.
Hobie generously loaned me an Outback fitted out with Livewell and Power Pole. I’d not fished from an Outback before, being used to a PA14, so I was interested to know how different it would be. It turned out to be so much easier to manouver than the PA14 which was a great bonus for me. A little less stable and harder to stand up in, mostly because I generally use the arms on the seat of the PA14 to guide me up and down again, but I just need to work on my fitness to overcome that issue. I think in general I prefer the Outback. It also has lots of useful storage options, the only downside storage wise is not being able to store your rods horizontally.
I spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for the weekend and going through my gear and trying to decide what lures to take. I’d been hearing a lot about top water being where all the action is at St Georges Basin, but at the same time, I’ve yet to catch a fish on top water and on my previous visits to The Basin, that’s not where I caught my bream so I just tied on a bent minnow and stuck with soft plastics for the other two rods.
We made an early start on Friday and arrived at the basin around first light. From my recent trips I already had a plan of where I wanted to fish on Saturday and Sunday so I spent the day exploring new ground. Initially I was quite cautious about going somewhere I wasn’t at least vaguely familiar with, because the kayak didn’t have a sounder, but I found that I didn’t really miss the sounder at all and it was one less thing I was focussing on while I was on the water.
I headed over to the river and I’d barely got past the mouth when I hooked onto a big fish, confident it was a bream. Sadly I lost it before getting it to the boat so I’ll never be certain, but it did give me hope that I had found a backup option if my planned spots didn’t work out.
I worked my way slowly up the left bank with someone following a short way behind on the right. I had a number of bites and netted a few small bream and a couple of flathead by the time I reached the fork in the river. On the flat there, I saw a number of big bream swim by so I was hopeful it would be a good spot. My river companion (I should have got his name!) and I had a bit of a chat before we parted in opposite directions, he said he’d thrown everything up the river without success until he tied on a cicada and then he landed a couple of huge bream, I was kicking myself for not having remembered to bring the one I’d specifically put aside to bring with me! We both noted that nobody else had entered the river so we were a little hopeful at the thought that we would have the option of returning without too much competition though aware the windy weather forecast for Saturday might prompt more people seek sheltered waters.
I continued to head up the left side of the river into Tullawalla Lagoon. I saw plenty of bream activity and caught nice one that I can’t tell you the size of because it was at this point I discovered I hadn’t packed a ruler. I’d guess at about 28cm, not huge but definitely legal. I fished the area a little more before looking at the map and decided I should probably start heading back given it was quite a distance.
I managed to get one of my lures wrapped around the tip of another rod due to not being used to having to store my rods upright without the benefit of the horizontal rod holders on the PA14. As I was juggling both rods to try and sort it out I stupidly forgot there was a lure still attached to the other rod and ended up with a treble in my figure! At this point, I realised I’d also forgotten the first aid kit with my wire cutters so I had pedal the entire way back with a lure in my finger, and I didn’t even have my split ring scissors to remove the lure from the hook! It spoiled my plan of stopping back to try a few spots that had looked promising on the way up and I went straight back to the ramp where Brad from Hobie, experienced hook puller, assisted me with ripping the bloody thing out of my finger. He said he’d had plenty practice and at the last round at Bemm River he had a line up of people waiting for hooks to be pulled from their bodies!
The river was now my backup plan though I didn’t end up using it over the weekend I will definitely try and return there at some point to explore more.
Saturday rolled around and the atmosphere during setup and briefing was a mix of anticipation and dread given there were almost-gale-force wind gusts forecast for most of the day. The arena had been limited as a result so I was worried there’d be competition for the spot I wanted to start at. Luckily for me there wasn’t! While there were a few people fishing the flats nearby and one person fishing the opposite side, I was then only person wanting to work the bank that I knew from previous visits held some good bream.
I decided to head straight to the bottom end of the bank and work my way back up, and at the end of my first pass I managed to hook a nice 33 fork bream, it was just 7:45am so I knew my day was set. If that was the only legal bream I caught the entire day I would be happy!
I worked my way back down the bank, spending a little extra time at a particular spot I was confident with and by 8:30am I had my second fish in the bag, a very nice 35-forker! I was stoked. I knew I could just take it easy for the rest of the day and keep trying to get that final fish.
By early afternoon I’d hooked another really good bream but my lack of kayaking experience turned around to bite me and my reel screamed and my line shot out behind the kayak I didn’t quite get the coordination of releasing the Power Pole anchor, trying to turn the kayak and manoeuvre myself in a position to better fight the fish it snapped my leader and was gone. I was crushed, but pressed on. A short while later whack! another good bream! This time, it took off in front of my kayak but I didn’t stand a chance, my leader went ping… and it was gone. I suspect the leader had been slightly damaged and though I had checked it after each flathead, I probably missed something so it didn’t have the strength to hold onto that poor fish. Half the Basin might have heard me at that point haha.
I caught plenty flathead and a number of small bream, but nothing else qualified as a bag filler. I started working my way back to the boat ramp and spent a few minutes fishing the flat trying to nail that last bream. At one point I thought I’d done it but it only squeaked in at 25cm to the tip, just one cm short of the competition size limit.
Despite only catching 2 of the three fish I needed, because they were a quality size, I managed to land in 22nd position at the end of day one out of a field of 91 anglers. I was stoked, but also disappointed that I could have easily been in the top ten had just one of those two fish I lost been landed.
The morning of day two the atmosphere seemed more animated. There were no gale force winds to worry about and the arena was opened up to areas that most people wanted to fish. I wasn’t certain what to do but decided the best plan was probably to “stick with what I know” so I headed back to my spot to work the bank again. Sadly, while I caught plenty of flathead, the bream were nowhere to be found. By afternoon I decided to venture back onto the flats, and by the river mouth but without success, despite giving absolutely everything I had in me, and in spite of having an injured and very painful shoulder all weekend,
So after stating in a great position on day two I plummeted down the leader board and finished up in 53rd. I was so disappointed to have suffered the dreaded donut on day two, but when I look back on it now, I can see that I actually did pretty well. I got a better result than 38 anglers out of 91, most of them with more experience than me and that’s something I’m going to be proud of, rather than hung up on what I couldn’t do.
The most effective lure by far for me over the weekend was the Hurricane Sprat 85 in Hatchett colour. Almost every fish came on this lure.
I offer my congratulations to the top place getters Jason Reidm, Tyson Hayes and Grant Oliver and to Tracey Wright for taking out the Women’s division.
A huge thank you once again to Bradley from Hobie and Andrew Death from The Bream Fishing Project podcast for arranging a loan kayak for the weekend, I literally couldn’t have done it without you!
You can find out how this tournament was one by listening to The Bream Fishing Project podcast, the episode is expected to be online soon. You can subscribe through Spotify, Apple Podcastsor your favourite podcasting app.
I learned some lessons this weekend
- Be prepared and don’t forget things like first aid kits and rulers.
- Work out the best way to deal with scenarios like fish zooming off behind the kayak
- Check your leader twice
- Be quicker to enact your backup plan.
- Focus on the positives.