Abt St Clair Bass Round

[Rick T]

G'day Fishraiders

A fair number of members fished the ABT bass competition this weekend which consisted of 3 rounds over 2 days. Mick and I headed up on friday for the prefish and the weather was horrible. we fished for 2 hours before deciding being drenched and cold was not for us, instead some was a much better option. I entered as a passenger for the event and first day I was match with a fella who sounded like he had a good plan. We fished deeper banks where the thermocline met the shoreline and I scored the only fish of the session between us on the jackal TN70. Next round was a change of plans, he said the fish were on heat and schooling and the 50 or so boats all jigging the main basin for them indicated he was right. He showed me a few jigging techniques with sliders but they were unsuccessful and either of us didn't land a fish. I was so exausted by the full days fishing I just sat on the end of the boat with feet up jigging lazily for alot of the session. Next day I fished with the leading boater of the competition and he put us onto the fish immediately. He actually scored a fish on his first wind of his jig. His techniques were much more specific concentrating on the sounded fish depths rather than just jigging the thermocline and his lure advice was much better. I actually caught one of my first fish on an ecogear He scored 2 keepers by about 9.30am one going about 48cm the other about 40cm. Being new to jigging it took me a while to get the hang of it and I finally scored a nice 44cm bass from about 40' of water. Got a lesson in deflating the fish to keep them in good condition for the live weigh in. He picked up another rat then decided to call it a day at 10am. I was a little dissapointed because I was just getting the hang of it and there was an hour and a half fishing time left but I wasn't 2 fussed to complain, I had caught a few fish over the weekend and learned a heap. The friendly company at the bass comp far outshone my experiences in the bream scene and the polite behaviour made the experience much more enjoyable. In one bay alone there were close to 30 boats jigging with metres of each other and people were sharing with other competitors successful lure types, depths and techniques which I was impressed to see. Overall I finished about midfield of the non boaters which I am happy with aswell. Heres a few pics of some members and their boats that I had time to take when finishing early today, unfortunately the weigh process was to quick to get fish pics.

[Pukka]

Great report Rick and good t'hear you had a good weekend.

I had a great time with my boaters over the w'end. they were both great guys and good fishermen. I learnt a few new techniques and gained a little more impoundment bass'n experience, which was just what I wanted as a non-boater.

It was certainly an eye opener seeing all those boats 'parked' in the middle of the lake, I'd never seen anything like it before! And as you mentioned Rick, although there were people fishing in very close proximity to each other, the atmosphere stayed friendly and relaxed which was great t'see.

And finally, a special mention goes to Jorg on his fine effort to finish 26 in his first ever bass comp'.

Mick C reminded us of the quote; "imitation was the sincerest form of flattery" and it was Jorg's fresh look at the lake during the prefish which had us all reconsidering our tactics the night before the start.

Jorg's "Topwater Masterclass DVD" will be coming to a store near you soon! Great fishing Jorg!

Joe

[snag]

Great report Rick and good t'hear you had a good weekend.

And finally, a special mention goes to Jorg on his fine effort to finish 26 in his first ever bass comp'. 

Mick C reminded us of the quote; "imitation was the sincerest form of flattery" and it was Jorg's fresh look at the lake during the prefish which had us all reconsidering our tactics the night before the start.

Jorg's "Topwater Masterclass DVD" will be coming to a store near you soon!   Great fishing Jorg!

Joe

37629[/snapback]

Thanks joe,

I had a great time with you, buzz and mick.

And to top it off, finishing 26th was just icing on the cake.

Great weekend guys thx.

P.S those DVD's will be on the shelf for 29.95 next week .

[Lizardboy]

I enjoyed myself and it was a great experience, despite finding the fishing pretty tough. I really liked the randon boater, non boater pairings. I spent the entire 2nd session jigging the deep water and found it pretty boring (the to hits I got came while my rod was in the rodholder...I was putting on sunscreen), I understand that's were most of the fish seemed to but I would have liked to have least spent 1/2 hour casting to weed fringes even if it proved as fruitless as the previous day.

Congrat's Jorg

Gus

[1337]

Great report guys and what a buzz it would have been to fish with the winning boater Jay.

Re: Deep water jigging for bass

How about some tips for the average joe to apply to his local impoundment.... I am particularly interested in lure choice and colour. Why did that ecogear redish paddle tail catch fish as opposed to the other plastics?

And what "jigging" techniques were used to target the fish holding at specific depts? Was it a matter of locating them on the sounder and constantly jigging the plastic at that dept in their faces?

Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

CT

[Pukka]

Great report guys and what a buzz it would have been to fish with the winning boater Jay.

Re: Deep water jigging for bass

How about some tips for the average joe to apply to his local impoundment.... I am particularly interested in lure choice and colour. Why did that ecogear redish paddle tail catch fish as opposed to the other plastics?

And what "jigging" techniques were used to target the fish holding at specific depts? Was it a matter of locating them on the sounder and constantly jigging the plastic at that dept in their faces?

Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

CT

38363[/snapback]

Hi CT

The Ecogear Grass Minnow M was a popular choice with the deep jiggers. Some used other colours (like me ), but Jay obviously had most of his success with the red and silver flake which I'm pretty sure has the colour code 111. The reason why the bass liked this colour is anyones guess. The reddish colour changes its appearance at depths where there is less light, and the added attraction of the silver flecks may have had something to do with it - who knows, but it sure worked!

The word 'jigging' was not really the right word to describe what a lot of people fishing deep were doing.

The way Jay and a lot of others fished was, firstly to target the schooled up bass on the sounder, drop the lure down to just under the school, if they were suspending, and then 'slow-rolling' (or slow-wind), the lure back up through the school Once past the school you'd either reel all the way in hoping you had a follower, or allow the lure to drop back to where you started and repeat the process.

Jay was using a technique where he would have the anti reverse on his reel disengaged. After winding his lure up through the strike zone 10, or 15 feet, he would wind the same number of turns of the reel handle backwards. This way he kept the lure moving up and down right in front of the fish's face for as long as possible.

I fished with Wayne Parry on the third and final session and the fish we found were holding around a thermacline about 10 feet off the bottom in 40-45 feet of water. We would drop our lures right to the bottom and wind them back up with a steady but not too slow 'roll'. Once a bite was detected we'd keep winding at a slightly slower pace until the fish swallowed the lure. Sometimes we'd wind all the way in, sometimes we would drop the lure back down when it got to about halfway.

We used 3/8th size jigheads, but I know some people opted for 1/2's or even 5/8th weight jigs'. Whatever weight you used, it was important to count the lure down to determine how long it took to reach the bottom then using that figure to work out how far down you had to let the lure sink to get to where the fish were holding on the sounder.

CT, I don't know if you know about 'needling' or 'venting' bass, but if you're fishing at these kind of depths I'd recommend reading up on it. Any fish you catch at this depth will go belly-up and die if it's swim bladder isn't pierced and the excess air released.

Hope this helps you a bit anyway CT,

Pukka

P.S. I forgot to add in my earlier post a big thanks to Lance S. from Ecogear for taking me out on the prefish.

Lance introduced me to fishing Ecogear VT65's over the tops of sunken trees, which was a hair raising experience for me I can tell you!

I managed to lose 3 Ecogear VT's, , but I was happy to try something new and next time I'll be sure to pack a heavier braid and leader!

[1337]

Mate,

Thanks a heap for the insight. greatly appreciated.

And yes, i will definately readup and ask for help regarding venting fish and making sure they are released with a 100% chance of survival.

Did anyone in the top 5 or 10 so ppl not fish the deeper stuff and fish some other way ?

Regards

CT

[Pukka]

Mate,

Thanks a heap for the insight. greatly appreciated.

And yes, i will definately readup and ask for help regarding venting fish and making sure they are released with a 100% chance of survival.

Did anyone in the top 5 or 10 so ppl not fish the deeper stuff and fish some other way ?

Regards

CT

38440[/snapback]

In a word, 'no' CT. All the top 5 to my knowledge fished deep the majority of the time.

At times when the bite was slow, I noticed a few boats taking a break from the deep stuff to fish the nearby bays or shorelines adjacent to the deeper areas. The odd decent fish was caught doing this, but they generally weren't as reliable, or as big as the deep schooled fish.

Pukk'

[Rick T]

G'day fellas

Joe has just about hit the whole jigging thing on the head. Just a couple of clarifications of Jays technique that I really concentrated on so I at least learnt a thing or 2. He used 1/2 oz jigs with the red/silver ecogear minnow rigged upside down. If the school was near the bottom he would drop his jig to the bottom, wind up 10 or so winds then drop it back. If it was near the thermocline he would count it for 10 or so seconds and wind up 10 or so then drop it back. If they were between the thermo and surface he would drop for 7 seconds and wind to the surface. If nothing was on the screen he would drop to the bottom and wind to the top and start moving the boat around to search for the schools. His wind was at a medium pace as Joe mentioned but he never used the anti reverse method, he just turned the bail arm over and dropped it back. I caught my fish with Jay doing the same thing except using the anti reverse to wind backwards and forwards and when the fish hit I got a good knuckle bashing by the reel handle. One thing I found interesting was when he told me his tactics with 3" curly tail gulp apparently if u get a hit just let the lure sit there like bait where as the ecogear was a continuous wind even when hit. Hope this helps those that have pm'd aswell

Mick R got some nice fish (2.4kg bag) in the first session using gold/black jackals in the shallow timber and weed beds but realised in the second session that they weren't going to play ball and went to jigging for the rest. I got my first fish working deeper banks about 10-20ft but that was the only fish we saw for a whole day. All of the top contenders aswell as the just about the whole feild were jigging.

[Pukka]

Thanks for clearing that up Rick.

I have to say, I actually enjoyed 'jiggin' the way we were doing it and didn't find it boring at all.

It took a bit of practice to work out the right weight, depth and retrieve and this made it far more interesting than the mind-numbingly tedious up and down jiggin' we were doing at the Clyde.

Joe

[Lance.S]

Hi guys.

Joe, it was a pleasure to fish with you , even if we only managed to get half a day in form our uncontrollable shivering .

And from here on in, Jorg shall be known as the "Topwater King"

Pullin bass on surface while the rest of us are fishing them at 40ft deep. Unbelievable, good on you mate

Cheers,Lance.

[snag]

Hi guys.

Joe, it was a pleasure to fish with you  , even if we only managed to get half a day in form our uncontrollable shivering   .

And from here on in, Jorg shall be known as the "Topwater King"

Pullin bass on surface while the rest of us are fishing them at 40ft deep. Unbelievable, good on you mate 

Cheers,Lance.

38699[/snapback]

Thanks Lance,

To see the guys faces after the prefish was a funny feeling and to use the same plan on the first moring of the comp and have thing work out went well.

My non-boater couldnt have been more happy, out fishing me with a bag of 2.19kg and one of his fish went 1.67kg to my bag of 1.4kg.

But i had a great time and it was good to finally have a chat lance.