gerg Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 I've just returned from a 2 week trip to Tassie to fish the ABT Bream events and all I can say is AWESOME! With great anticipation and excitement, I left for Launceston on the 21st of March with family in tow. Arrived and was confronted with a mix up with our hire car. We had ordered a Nissan x trail or similar and were presented with a Mitsubishi sedan. "Not likely" I said to the guy at the counter. With wife and 3 kids, associated luggage, fishing gear and an almost 8 foot rod tube, there was no way we were going to fit! We had to wait for an hour, but they upgraded us to a Nissan Patrol, so we didn't complain too much. Finally we arrived at St Helens about 9pm and checked in, which is when I saw my ride for the prefish at 5am the next morning. I had posted on a Tasmanian forum looking for a ride to prefish the 2 rounds and was kindly greeted with a generous offer from Leigh McKenzie to join him at St Helens. For those that don't know, Leigh is one of Tassie's local "guns", winning last years Derwent round, placing second the year before and backing up this year with another second placing. Prefish day: We were greeted with cold, wet, windy conditions. We struggled to find fish in Georges Bay, which consists of flats, flats, flats, flats, a few racks and you guessed it, more flats. The water is crystal clear and we barely saw a bream all day. I did however catch my very first Black Bream - a huge specimen of about 26cm to the fork. We did stumble on a few salmon schools though, butsting the bait up on the surface, and got into them on 3 pound gear. Day 1: I was paired with Graham Franklin. Graham had had a good prefish day, but again we struggled to find bream. We fished the flats hard all day and I finally managed to land 2 keepers, and Graham 1, in amongst the trevally, salmon and big taylor. Day 2: Fished with Steve Duff. I was pretty confident going out at 7am because Steve had done well on day 1, but the wind was howling at about 25-30 knots and it was just aweful! The fish had shut down and it was Donuts for both of us. Having said that though, about half the field failed to land a fish on the second day. We passed the time for the rest of the week touring down the east coast. Only pulled the rods out on 1 occasion and took the kids for a flick landbased. I did take note of a some great looking spots for my return trip next year. We arrived in Hobart and I prefished with Leigh again. there was no repeat of our dismal prefish at St Helens. This guy knows his home waters like the back of his hand. It was just mind blowing to fish with him. We would pull up to spots and have a few casts and 75% of the time we would hook up to great fish. We caught about 6 fish each, had a double hook up on kilo plus fish, and I smashed my PB which previously stood at about 950g with a 41.5cm approx. 1.5kg specimen. Day 1 saw me paired with local Paul Delphin. we managed to find fish straight away and on my 3rd cast of the morning, tight into bridge pylons, I hooked up to a good fish on 4 pound gear (which ended up being 40cm to the fork and 1.4kg). As Paul was going for the net, he too hooked up to a kilo fish. We made a move and Paul landed another 4 fish in quick succession to fill his bag. On one particular cast into a rocky point, I felt weight on the retrieve and hooked up. I said to Paul, I thought it was only a small fish, and then it realised it was hooked. Well then did it go off - it did 2 laps of the boat and when I finally got it to the boat Paul said "it looks like a bloody snapper!" It was definately bigger than my first fish, but at this point I could see the fish was only lightly hooked in the lip, and when Paul went to net it, he missed on the first attempt and it took another lunge and won it's freedom. I was a bit disappointed, because I thought I would have had close to 3kg for 2 fish. Things went a bit quiet from here, but late in the day I suggested that we make a move back to the bridge to fish the last hour and a half there with tide change. The move ended up being a good one because I managed another 3 fish in quick succession. I couldn't quite get my 5, but I had my chances. I pulled hooks on 2 fish and got blown away on the pylons by another. Irrespective I had a great day on the water, weighed a 1.4 kg fish in a tournament and got my best ever tournament bag at a tad over 4 kg for 4 fish, and was sitting in 7th place for non boaters at the end of day 1 - what might have been if we didn't drop that fish at the net... Another highlight for the day was Chris Wright's 7.05kg 5 fish bag. Chris was apparently so excited about his bag that he forgot to nominate his biggest fish for big bream. This fish was later weighed and came in at about 1.95kg! Day 2 was disappointing! I felt that 2 or 3 good fish would keep me in contention for a top 10 finish. The best that both myself and my boater could manage was donuts which dropped me into 18th place. Oh well, there's always next year. My other first for the trip was catching my first Trout weighing in at about 2 kg. I'd definitely recommend a trip to Tassie and particularly the Derwent to anyone. The bream there are huge and average over a kilo. Apologies for the long winded post cheers, Greg a few more pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregL Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Great report Greg! I had Steve ring me last week to rub it into me about the fishing..... Hasseled me all year to go down but I'm soft..... Maybe next time. Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arpie Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Top read, Greg!! Well done, given the conditions - bad luck on the stonker getting away at the last minute!! You had a terrific week, all up, made new friends & got into some new waters. Did they film you for the Series???? Cheers Roberta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 What a great tournament Those bream are huge Are you allowed to tell us what lures worked? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robeebee Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 awesome trip mate glad you did well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodgey Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Congratulations on a top effort mate. A shame you dropped the bruiser at the pylons but a great bag weighed in nonetheless. A nice trout to finish off the trip too! Definitely considering Tassie as a bream venue now. Great report! Hodgey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerg Posted March 4, 2008 Author Share Posted March 4, 2008 (edited) Great report Greg! I had Steve ring me last week to rub it into me about the fishing..... Hasseled me all year to go down but I'm soft..... Maybe next time. Greg Do it Greg. The fishing was awesome! Apparently there were a few 9kg+ 5 fish bags pulled off another of the waterways too, and the trout comp was apparently good as well. Only thing that would stop me going back next year is the cost of the trip with the family in tow and the cost to get my boat down there if I decide to do it as a boater. Greg Top read, Greg!! Well done, given the conditions - bad luck on the stonker getting away at the last minute!! You had a terrific week, all up, made new friends & got into some new waters. Did they film you for the Series???? Cheers Roberta Roberta it was a great couple of weeks. No way they would film me though, I'm just a hack What a great tournament Those bream are huge Are you allowed to tell us what lures worked? Andrew I've no secrets personally. I fished the lobbys for most of the 2 weeks as I have done for most of the last 6 months. The big bruiser I dropped at the net was hooked on a Daiwa presso minnow - the locals seem to love them. Also picked up a few the other morning on the flatback minnows (brown with the black back - can't remember the colour). Gulps worked well too. Edited March 4, 2008 by gerg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Thanks Greg I always like to compare what Im doing to what others a doing Flatback minnows are pretty good though a little soft I like the dirty lime colour in clear water Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerg Posted March 5, 2008 Author Share Posted March 5, 2008 Thanks Greg I always like to compare what Im doing to what others a doing Flatback minnows are pretty good though a little soft I like the dirty lime colour in clear water That's one thing that does annoy me about the flatback minnows. They are so soft that they seem to be a one hit - new lure proposition. But then again that's probably what makes them good. Robeebee, Hodgey I had a ball. Definately put it on your list of things to do. Cheers, Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouliis Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 There some nice bream great report Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElwoodBlues Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 They are some great bream there mate and well done on the new PB's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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