Abt Laurieton

[Luke K]

Hi All,

Well, where do I start. I would firstly like to thank Roberta for an outstanding report on Laurieton and some fantastic pics too.

It was a very interesting weekend for me to say the least. It was an awesome weekend, except for the weather and some other things . In fact I thought it was monsoonal at one point. It was great to meet new people and to put a face to those I have met on F.R.

Unfortunately I forgot may camera, but for the pics I didn't get, Roberta certainly made up for it.

I've never fished this area before and I didn't get a prefish in so i wasn't sure what to expect. Day 1 started out well. I love fishing man-made structure and so I headed a couple of hundred metres down river to a small marina. It looked quite fishy and sure enough I had my first legal fish in the yak in the first hour. ( that was a relief) It was a bit hit and miss after that for the next hour or aso, plenty of chooper tailor destroying my plastics and a flathead here and there.

I then found a small bay area where there were rock walls and oyster leases and soon enough I had a second bream in the yak and into the live well.

What happened next would bring any fisho to tears. Whilst trying to put the bream in my live well, I lost my diawa luvias and rack raider over board and to make matters worse, I could not retreive it. Oh and not to mention I had a nw52 pencil attatched to it. Well what do ya do.

I decided to head back to the main river where I caught and released several more bream, some small ones some legal ones. Little did I know that the bag limit was 3. I thought it was 2. So all my other fish I caught went back in the drink.

By the way, most of the fish I caught were caught using 2" gulp shrimp.

When I go back for the weigh-in I had mixed emotions. I was happy because I thought(wrong) I had my bag limit, but annoyed at losing a very expensive outfit. Little did I know my day was about to get worse.

I had some of the other competitors ask how I went. I told them I had may bag and showed them but then they said, you only have two. Ah yes everything came crashing down. In the end my two fish weighed 1.050 kg and I finished the day in 9th position. That was ok but not good enough to get me to a G.F. Yes I was was very disappointed. If I had kept any of the other legal fish I had caught I would have finished the day in 3rd or 4th position.

I was so disappointed that I contemplated coming back for the second day of competiton right up until 4.30am on sunday morning.

Well, there is always tommorrow! There is a lot of truth in that saying, well for me anyhow.

The 2nd day of competition had dawned and to be honest I wasn't sure how to feel. But even if it was only for good company and beautiful views it would be well worth it.

I went and fished the same areas as day one and immediately got results with the first fish in my live well in about 30 mins. It wasn't massive, but good enough and by 9.00am had 3 fish(no not 2) in the well. I up graded a couple of times through out the day but never in my mind did I think I had a bag big enough to put me through to the abt hobie final. Well I was pleasantly wrong and with a bag weighing in 1.450 kg I was through to my first fishing final of any type. I was pumped, In fact I still am.

A big thanks to all those who have commented in Roberta's post and I look forward to catching up with Roberta for a pre fish in forster.

Should be awesome.

Regards

Luke

[arpie]

OMG Luke - I am so sorry to hear about your rod & reel loss!! I know that I was feeling bad about busting my Starlostix Pro Tournament Lite!! I would have been inconsolable if it had been a Luvias & rod!!

Congratulations on making such a terrific 'come back'! Shame you didn't know about the 3 fish bag (upgraded from last year's 2 fish bag.) I guess it pays to read the fine print!

In my prefish, I had found a couple of likely spots to the left of the start where I had had some good bloops, but went with the gut feeling that I would do better in the oysters off to the right!! It worked on Sat, but not on Sun!

And YES - that rain on Sat WAS monsoonal!!

Looking forward to catching up in a couple of weeks!~

Cheerio

Roberta

[slinkymalinky]

Congratulations and commiserations both, Luke. Brilliant effort to make the final, particularly with the short-bag on day 1

I'm told that the hardest thing about tournament fishing is to be able to enjoy it... sound's like you still managed that to some degree (losing an outfit like that sure makes it tough I guess). Good luck in the final.

Cheers, Slinky

[jewgaffer]

Well done Luke you'll be in with a big chance if you head up early and fish with Roberta for a few days and then repeat the dose in the grand final

Cheers

jewgaffer

[Luke K]

Thanks Slinky.

Your right tournament fishing can be hard to enjoy. After a dismal effort at Narrabeen last year, I considered if it was worth it, but you just have to have a positive attitute and enjoy the little things like meeting new people and enjoying the serenity...

Congratulations and commiserations both, Luke. Brilliant effort to make the final, particularly with the short-bag on day 1

I'm told that the hardest thing about tournament fishing is to be able to enjoy it... sound's like you still managed that to some degree (losing an outfit like that sure makes it tough I guess). Good luck in the final.

Cheers, Slinky

[Luke K]

Thanks Byron

Can't wait to hit Forster with Roberta.

Well done Luke you'll be in with a big chance if you head up early and fish with Roberta for a few days and then repeat the dose in the grand final

Cheers

jewgaffer

[pmak]

LL,

Sorry to hear of your loss of a great outfit. Would have been spewing if it happened to me. Couple that with getting the bag limit wrong would've seen most people hit the road never to return. Rewards come to those who persist so well done on your 2nd day results! look forward to hear your report from the finals!