Abt Tassie Bream Tour 2009 - Part 2

[gerg]

Following on from my previous post HERE, Chris and I left Ansons quite satisfied. Some cracking fish, some monumental bust offs and Chris had a monumental tussle with a seagull that took a fancy to his favouite Daiwa Dr Minnow lure...

Unfortunately, for me anyway, the rest of the trip was to be a bit of a disaster. The 2.5 hour drive at dusk to Swansea saw me dodge a roo and a couple of rabbits at dusk. Unfortunately on arrival at our destination, we realised that one of the rabbits that i dodged wasn't quite so lucky and had had an encounter with the trailer. It was late, and by this time it was blowing a gale, and the temperature had dropped quite substantially. Fortunately for us, the guys we were staying with had food ready for us and we settled down to compare stories of the days fishing adventures.

Our plan for the following day was to fish the Swan River with a couple of the other guys, but Chris and I made a decision in the morning based on the wind to try our luck further South at the more protected Prosser River near Orford. On the drive down we crossed Little Swanport River and the wind didn't look to be too bad and spontaneously decided to try our luck. Note, we had been warned that this system wasn't really viable when the wind was blowing, but the upper reaches didn't look too bad.

We doubled back and eventually found the ramp to launch. It was located near the mouth of the river, and we were soon starting to understand the warnings. We pushed on nevertheless expecting that we would be able to find a sheltered bit of river to fish, but how wrong we were. We literally got blown off the water. The wind was so strong it was difficult to stand up, and near impossible to make a cast, even with the wind. We also nearly got stranded on several occasions when the water level quickly dropped from 3-4m into 200mm without warning - we quickly realised that the white sticks scattered throughout the system were very basic channel markers. After an hour on the water, we called it quits and moved on to the Prosser.

The Prosser is a small water way the pushes up into a rocky gorge probably no more than 2.5km long. I'd fished this system landbased last year with the kids and definately wanted to explore it in the boat. I'd also heard reports of it holding some good fish. Chris scored a good fish of about 35cm on his 3rd or 4th cast t the end of the gorge and dropped another. After 30min or so I hadn't had a touch and decided to move further down towards the mouth where we'd seen some likely looking snags. Went to pull up the electric and the handle slipped out of my hand. Out of instinct I grabbed the head unit on the electric - bad move - the housing snapped in 2! Crap, Crap, Crap and numerous other expletives escaped my mouth. It was Wednesday 4.30pm and prefish for the Derwent was on Friday. My first thought was I can't afford to buy a new electric... Once I realised the housing could be replaced, this thought was replaced by "how the hell am I going to get parts here by tomorrow"?

Desperate phone calls to BLA and a number of dealers confirmed I could have the parts sent direct to Hobart by Friday. CRAP! how was I going to prefish? As luck would have it, Steve Morgan carry's a spare electric for these kinds of mishaps and I could borrow this.

Drove on to Hobart where we were staying with Leigh McKenzie. I mentioned earlier about the mates I had met on the same trip last year, and Leigh is the perfect case in point. I posted on another forum in 2008 asking for a prefish for the 2 rounds, and Leigh answered my call. We've since become good mates. He flew up earlier this year to fish the Aus Open with me, and our families only really came to St Helens this year to catch up again.

Next day was spent on repairs and swapping electrics before the prefish Friday.

Prefish day started with me crossing paths with a big black cat - an Omen maybe? With a mixture of anticipation and nervousness we hit the water early. For Chris it was an awful start. First cast into a tree and lost his leader. Retied his leader and dropped the jighead over the side. When he stod up, grabbed the rod and he'd snagged on the bottom. Lost his leader. Retied his leader another couple of times before he finally settled into the routine. On a bank further down river that I'd had success on the previous year, he pulled a nice 40cm specimen off a small point.

I marked this spot and we moved on. I'd done some research on Google Earth, and in my discussions with Leigh, I planned to target the 4 main Marinas on the Derwent during the comp. I figured that these would be areas less likely to be targeted by the other competitors, and if they produced, hold good quality fish. Well it seemed I was wrong on 2 counts. They didn't seem to be holding many fish - I managed only 1 fish and quite a number of other competitors seemed to be prefishing with a similar plan in mind. Unfortunately at the end of the prefish, we had only caught the 2 fish, and I didn't have a game plan resolved.

We got out of the water quite late and made our way back to Leigh's. The parts had turned up for my electric, but the lures and leader I ordered hadn't. We then somehow managed to get to the briefing 3min late - bad move because leigh and I were relegated to last starting position - A bad start to the tournament, and probably worse for Leigh, who being one of the favourites to take out the comp, his gameplan revolved around getting to his spots first.

Day 1, in only my 2nd comp as a boater, and with my own electric back, I headed straight for the point we prefished and got smoked by a good fish on about the 5th cast. Fortunately, the fish must have throw the hooks and the lure floated back to the surface. I got out muscled twice more In the next hour,on the same bank by good fish, and a total of 4 times during that day. To make matters worse, whilst trying to retrieve a lure for my non boater, I jammed my electric hard into the rocks and the bearings in the main shaft exploded everywhere. Back to the weigh in with a big fat donut...

Day 2 started earlier than normal, reinstalling Steve's spare electric again. Straight back to my point, and on the first drift my non boater scores a nice 39cm fish. Next drift I pull a 41.5cm fish from the same spot - no donuts today... and 2nd fish to my nonboater on the next drift over the same spot went 40cm. Then it all went quiet except for the flathead and trout, and that would be our tally for the day and the end of a disappointing comp on a fishery that has a massive reputation for quantity and quality.

On the way back to the weighin in the wind chop, somehow the housing on Steve's electric cracks too - I must have Pi$$ed off the Fishing Gods somewhere in my travels this trip. And this wasn't to be the end of it. Before we left Tasmania the following afternoon, I had an encounter with a collapsed trailer bearing, having to replace the other trailer bearing, a snapped bolt on the brake callipers, oh and there was the rewiring of the sounder in there somewhere along the way.

Are these excuses for my poor performances during the comps, absolutely not, however they did contribute to a really frustrating week away during which I nearly chucked in the towel on a couple of occasions, and nearly put the boat up for sale on more than one.

So, After the ferry trip home, comparing stories over a few drinks with new mates I've asked myself, "will I go back in 2010"? The answer is simply "Absolutely"!

So what did I learn from this trip?

1. I probably don't dislike flats fishing as much as I thought

2. Lure retrieves - Pauses, Pauses, LONG PAUSES

3. Black Bream vs Yellowfin Bream are very different entities

4. my mistakes and bad decisions are part of the huge learning curve that I'm on. I've been fishing for about 2.5 years and comp fishing for the best part of that. The experience I've gained in that time is miniscule compared to the lifetime of experience that guys who've been fishing their whole lives have.

5. Confidence is king!

6. Not only expensive Jap lures catch fish. Most of my fish were accounted for by sub $15 lures with treble and split ring upgrades.

7. Maintenance - although I'm pretty pedantic about my boat, there's always room to be a bit more vigilant especially with trailer maintenance, and especially on long trips.

Apologies for the long winded report

Cheers, Greg

[Hodgey]

I thoroughly enjoyed both reports Greg. I think they gave a real insight into tournament fishing. What you see on TV is the result of intensive planning, maintenance and a good deal of luck. It's a damn shame so much went against you in Part Two.

You both managed to get onto some thumpin' big bream on your trip away, and that's certainly reason enough to celebrate. Fingers crossed, the Fish Gods and lessons learned will ensure your next comp is a huge success. Great photos mate.

Cheers

Hodgey

[stoney]

Well done on your determined efforts there Greg,

So much went on and you kept plugging away and scored some very respectful fish.

[arpie]

OMG Greg! What an epic!! I was half expecting you to say the rabbit got stuck in front of your radiator & the motor blew up! Thankfully NOT!!

Shame about the windy, shallow prefish & damage to your gear (and Steves! )

What a trying week for you - well done on getting those cracker fish tho! I bet you found being a boater is a lot more stressful than being a non boater??

Given all the mishaps, you both recovered well & at least you headed back with fish in the bag!

Best of luck in your next comp!

Cheerio

Roberta

[DarkHorse]

G'Day Greg,

Wow what a series! I really enjoyed both reports, thankyou for taking the time to put it in writing for us to enjoy your highs and lows..........

Some very nice fish though. It is great to hear of the commaraderie and efforts of other tourno's offering spare electrics etc.

Would have been easy to throw in the towel but you didnt and that in itself should be reward enough, you must feel very proud.

I have only ever watched the abt fishing on tv and could only imagine what is involved.

I feel like giving it all up at the moment as I have not caught a thing on lures or plastics now for the last 6 trips out in the "Tiny Tinny".

Good luck in 2010, look forward to your posts then!

Regards,

Rob

[The Iceman]

Things can only look up after those mishaps Greg

I reckon you have used up all your bad luck for the next couple of years

Great read by the way

[justinp]

Great report Greg, dont worry Im sure we will smack them on the Hawks.

[gerg]

As I said, despite all the mishaps, I'd go and do it all again, it was a great experience and we got some great fish. And Roberta, you're absolutely right, Fishing as a boater was a massive step up, even from fishing in my boat in a teams event. The decisions I made were mine alone, right or wrong!

I really admire the top guys who can consistently manage to finish at the top of the field across the country and even across different species. I learnt a lot from talking to those guys this last fortnight, and hopefully I've learnt from my own experiences as well. Fingers crossed that Andrew's right, and I've had all my bad luck for a couple of years.

Darkhorse, mate take it from me and don't give up. I caught 2 fish in 3 days of fishing the Derwent his year after a great 2008, and I can tell you watching all of those 4+, 5+ and 6+ kg bags come in made me even more determined to get back out there again. - C'MON FISHING GODS, smile down on me...

Cheers, Greg