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Bennyg78

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Posts posted by Bennyg78

  1. hey @Aussiefisherman

    I find a few differences in using the sugapen vs the bent minnow.

    • The sugapen and similar such lures cast alot better and further, they really excel as a searching lure as you can work them over longer distances and an array of distances. They only work along the surface
    • The bent minnow, doesn't cast as well add some cross or head wind and it catches a lot of that wind. The big advantage of the bent minnow and other similar lures is they also work sub surface which can have advantage over other topwater lures.

    They both catch fish very well

    • Like 3
  2. Great post @DerekD

    Its often the little things that add up to making a difference on when it matters. Your uni knot line preservation method has been one I have worked on a lot.

    When you're fishing a tournament you really want to preserve as much leader length as possible when changing lures, so a technique such as the one you have taught me is really good for this otherwise you might have to tie on a new leader during the tournament time which is lost fishing time.

    I have also found that the FG knot works at light leaders as well, for example on the weekend I had 4lb leader tied to 6lb braid. 

    • Like 1
  3. 1 hour ago, linewetter said:

    Really nice fish you caught! I can only imagine the excitement when you realized the first fish was a bream after you cleared the weed off it 😁 Never been to a comp before so really interesting to read how it goes down. How do you win the monster mover award? 

    Hi mate, monster mover is award to the person who has the biggest weight differential between day 1 and day 2. Typically this usually happens to someone who donuts on day 1 and catches a good bag of fish on day 2

    • Like 1
  4. 4 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

    That’s a nice report there Benny and well done on a couple of nice fish. Sounds like tough going but that’s the way it falls sometimes.

    Would love to one day get down to a comp like that, but will need to wait some years before I can even consider it. The idea of fishing for a whole weekend and learning off fellow fishos is what draws me in!

    Mate it is an awesome fishing classroom and you certainly learn a thing or two about planning and preparation if nothing else

    • Like 3
  5. Hi Raiders!!

    Just thought Id put a quick report in on my recent  outing at the Hobie fishing competition down at St Georges Basin on the 24-25 February.

    For those who don't know how the hobie comps are run and down it goes a little something like this:

    • The requirements are for you to catch a bag of 3 bream each day that must be legal + 1 cm from the governing body's legal requirement( in NSW becomes 26 cm)
    • The comps usually run from 7-2pm each day conditions pending.
    • its a weigh in event so all fish are that are used in the competition are to be kept in a livewell and handled carefully ( the Hobie staff, take fish care very seriously)
    • There are various prizes for big bream, monster mover, youth division, masters division, women's division and first timers
    • The big money prizes are handed out from 1st to 5th, with angler of the year point handed out to people who caught fish which is important if you're fishing cumulative points.
    • The person with biggest cumulative bag over the twos days wins.

    Anyway onto the comp, well almost heres a little preramble about last years event. The comp last year as run in September, the conditions were very hard to fish in with a strong 35 km/h wind blowing north easterly each day. I really struggled to find fish as did a lot of the field with me only weighing in one fish on day 1 .

     

    Fast forward to this year and the comps being run in Feb, much more favourable time of year for the fishing. I had the opportunity to go and have a prefish on the Friday. The launch point for the comp is at a place called Basin View ( which is pretty most the most north eastern point on the Basin.) and man was it hot as heck 36 degrees.  For those who have never fished or been to the basin its a huge body of water with very little to no man made structure like jetties, pontoons and bridges, there's a truckload of weedflats and  shallow dropoffs. My plan for prefish was have a look and fish some of the edges along the eastern side, fishing the shallow edges for a few hours. I ended up at bonito point and turning into that bay, it was boiling alive with bait being hit by bigger fish. I  was throwing topwater lures (of course) and got a nice mid 35 cm fish. I then turned back and headed back to launch as a huger storm was predicted to hit. I was pretty lucky to strap the yak on the roof and the stom hit with some thunder, lightning and strong winds blowing trees down. I headed to the accom and later to the local brewery for dinner and beer with some mates.

    basinprefish.jpg.3d104e6c3805719a1b3564b5a7dbff7f.jpg

     

     

     

     

     

    Day 1

    We had a big field of 92 anglers in the comp, which makes for an interesting proposition as to where everyone will go. Due to the strong southerly wind forecast the arena was shortened with the front end of the basin off limits, luckily this didn't affect where I was headed- back to the prefish spot

    My plan was to head back to bonito point and head up the north eastern side of it fishing the shallows and then into the shallow creek and then hit the north western side on the way out. One of my mates also tagged along as he loves to fish the shallows too. I raced my ass off to get there first and luckily it was us and two other competitors and that was it.

    We proceeded to fish topwaters including bent minnows, suga pens and slippery dogs getting plenty of taps but no commitments ( sounds like a dating story). My mate switched to an unweighted bream prawn and ended up with the 80+cm flathead pictured. I kept on the topwater and ended up with a just legal flat head on the bent minnow. We then proceeded up into the creek with me catching another two flatties on the sugapen ( I swear one of them was a bream.) 

    basinday1flat.jpg.80949fd6c61a4edc8c9321067599d5bc.jpg

    I even manage a couple of garfish on the suga pen!

    No more hits in the shallow creek, its at this time my mate decides to leave me and fish another edge closer to launch while I decide to work the eastern side of the bay. By this time I am throwing a shallow crank alternating with topwater.  The southerly wind is really starting to blow, I decide to use this wind as casting assistance and send my sugapen flying, whilst working it back it gets smashed by what I am hoping to be a great bream! This fish runs me hard into the cockle weed so much so that I cant make out what kind of fish it is and after clearing out the weed from its face YES its a good bream. The fish is a tad under 35 cm and weighs in at 550 grams, yes a good one to start the bag but this is at 12 o'clock I go to turn the livewell on and its died a quick death, I keep the fish in the water in the net while I try to get my livewell working but it won't. This resulted in me hand bailing the livewell  with 21L of sea water from my 500MlL water bottle an exercise in patience. Anyway livewells full and in goes fish No.1.

     

     

    basinday1bream1.jpg

     

     

     

    Its at this point that times ticking and its around 12:30 pm , and I really want to get back to the opening point, Bonito point as I just had a feeling about it . It takes me about 30 or so minutes to get there and now theres less than an hour left in the competition with probably a 30 minute pedal back. I begin casting a shallow crank around and literally on the last cast I feel tap tap tap ban and I am on this fish feels like a good one and I pull up a bigger fish going closer to 36 cm and weighing over 650 grams. In the well it goes and its now 1:15 pm, I better pedal my butt back and I am praying that the fish in the well stay alive. Whilst pedalling I periodically stop to put fresh aerated seawater in the well.

    basindaybream2.jpg.bc180e313e72df1e8f873d9198bb9db4.jpg 

    Luckily I get back to the Launch in time and fish looking healthy, would have been great to have 3, but I am happy with the two I have.

    Now to the weigh in. The live weigh in process at the Hobie Comps is quite exciting as leaderboards chop and change. Competitors grab a bag put their fish in it and then take it to a bump tub with aerated water and wait for their names to be called up. Well my name came up and my two fish weighed 1.22 KG, this had me in in 30th spot overall.HFS15-ST-GEORGES-BASIN-202420240224_3598.thumb.jpg.3c618b88db8a72f73d87eeef741bf706.jpg

    Day 2

    My plan for day 2, was to head back to the same bay and fish the outer points and then head further around to jewfish bay. I was fast again off the line and got the bay 1st, however  I am struggling to get some hits I did decide to put a bigger bent minnow on to try and elicit some bigger fish. I manage to catch two Tailor and a toad fish but no bream.

    I am throwing cranks and topwater and getting no substantial hits, its at this time I decide to leave the bay and fish the edges heading to Jewfish bay. I think this proved to be my undoing here as I was trying to get to places instead of fishing the water in front of me, which resulted in me not being able to commit to an area and giving me 🍩  for the day.

    At the conclusion of day 2 I watched my placing slip from 30th-60th place, some lessons learned and alot of fun had!.

    It might take me another comp down at the basin before I really understand how to fish it!

     

    • Like 19
  6. @faker

    Keep working the cranks over distance, you will catch them.

    Some days they will want a bigger profile like the Dunk/Spike or sometimes something smaller like the prolure crank or infeet rollin' crank or (insert your fave little crank bait here).

    You might have to think about your area as well to get the best results and also what you are trying to achieve. Do you:

    • want the lure to hit and bump structure
    • want the lure to glide over the top of structure
    • does it need to run deeper or more shallow
    • do you want more noise and action or less so

    These all have an impact on the type of crankbait to use.

    For Bream, its usually a very slow roll, like when you think you're going slow go slower!!Then add a few pauses in, especially around or over structure. 

     

    • Like 2
  7. The fella @DerekD references is a custom rod maker and making 9-13 foot bream finnesse rods, I have seen one in person but not used it. He also was using co ploymer as a leader and then has switched to very fine braid as a leader ( he talks about it here in this video). I know a few people who have his rods, I will aim to see if I can have a play with one of them.

    • Like 1
  8. 15 hours ago, Restyle said:

    Well I took the kayak out yesterday to hit up the flats at gunnamatta. Left my ‘sunscreen’ at home which is basically a very thin jacket. ‘I’ll be fine, it’s cloudy’.

    Well fast forward 24hrs and me arms are tender as all hell and had a case of ‘sun poisoning’ this morning which included chucking my guts out and dizzyness

    sun protection lads, use it. If you forget it get it. Dosnt help when your skin is the same colour as the message box I’m writing this in ether. 

    and no, I didn’t catch anything worthwhile which makes this even worse. 
     

    I don’t use sunscreen as it makes me rash up so long clothing it is.


    probably more important is a set of good Sunnys which I always have nearby 

    Kayaks are a very vulnerable area for sun exposure, no shade and sun being reflected off the water at a very high rate. I usually cover up from head to toe including fingerless gloves. Hope you get better soon

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