A tale (or tails) of two Hobie comps!

[Bennyg78]

Hi Raiders,

This is a long read so grab a brew if you want to read it.

Just on a year ago I got my Hobie outback and after a session with Jedi Master @DerekD and @AlbertW. I have been out on it lots learning the way of the bream in summer.

Anyway being the kind of guy who likes to get into things and get committed I was keen to get into some bream comps on the yak notably the Hobie rounds.

To fish the hobie comps you need a kayak (duh) not exclusively a hobie, a live-well ( as its a weigh in comp) and a good working PFD. The comps work on the format of catching 3 x Bream (usually) and they have a requirement of legal length + 1 cm ( so 26 cm in NSW) at the conclusion of the days fishing everyone weighs their fish and the combined weight of the day is the winner, add in day two and then you have the overall winner. There are other awards for biggest bream, monster mover, first timer, masters divisions and womens division. 

They also have a pre-fish ban two weeks out from the comp, which is usually lifted on the Friday before the comp begins. With the bigger fields there's some reasonable money to be won up the pointy end too, which is always nice.

Ill preface this by saying that you learn a vast amount at each competition you do. There's lots to consider and take into account to be successful such as planning,lure selection, efficiency of gear, fitness (pedaling your yak can be tiring especially when you add wind and current in), resilience, casting ability and then good old fashioned luck! I think just by taking part you do improve as an angler as you are forced to think and have a crack.

Now it might sound easy to catch 3 x 26 + cm bream to weigh in on each of the two days, which on a normal social fishing day would probably be quite achievable . In a competition you have to add several complexities:

• You can't pick and choose the tides or conditions, the events on the given day and you fish the conditions no matter what.
• You don't pick and choose your launch point, everyone starts at the same place so if you have a spot or area you want to head to you must plan the logistics around that.
• Things tend to get a bit more challenging when you have over 100 of your mates trying to catch the same thing, this is where the really good anglers know what, where and how to do it. If you check the results out on the hobie site there are people who are consistently inside the top 10.

 

Fast forward to this year and I signed up for my first big kayak competition with Hobie at Woy Woy.

Woy Woy Comp

The Woy Woy round was held on May 14-15 and was the biggest round in their history with over 135 competitors. We all launch from the lions park at Woy Woy, the preset arena is pretty much from Ettalong wharf straight across to Kourung Gourung point, and then all the way into the back reaches of Brisbane waters. So a pretty big arena to fish from, which gives you a lot to think about when planing your day to fish.

In the days and week leading into the comp we had a big cold snap which sent the temps plummeting, and with the time of year some fish may be starting to school up deeper in a pre spawn phase.

Friday May 13, I headed up for a pre-Fish. I hit some boat hulls and jetties from launch site to green point with some success on the baby vibe. Marked the spots and left them to hopefully bite on the weekend. No luck at other areas, got back and went to the accom to prepare; tie on new leaders, charge batteries, etc.

Saturday May 14, Comp day 1. My plan was to hit those boat hulls and jetties to get my 3 fish, unfortunately there was probably about 20 other people with the same idea and I ended up with a donut for the day. I did catch tailor and flatties but no 26 + cm  to weigh in.

Sunday May 15 Comp day 2. My original plan was to head out for long pedal to Gosford and fish the break wall and rail bridge there, but that had to be changed. On Sunday morning they shortened the arena ( basically putting all of the Gosford open bay area off limits) and shortened the timing to a 12 pm finish due to some bad weather rolling in for everyone's safety. Thank goodness they did, more on this later. So I had to change plan and decided to head up past the rip bridge and fish the front of the system, targeting some deeper moorings and maybe having a crack at some of the oyster racks.

The pedal up past the bridge was pretty interesting as the current was running in and can pump fast in past the bridge but I made it. I tried flicking some lightly weighted plastics in among the jetties I had some hits but no hook ups apart from some pesky tailor. I then pedaled up & hit some of the racks with another well known angler already there. There's definitely some skill involved here as I got busted off and watch this other fella pull out a few good fish. It was around this time the wind was really starting to pick up and I decided to head back, it was great to see my kayak handle the rougher conditions well with spray breaking the bow of the yak and hitting me in the head. Made it back safe and sound but with another🍩

So double 🍩 for the comp, but some goals to learn how to fish racks better and needing to learn how to fish deeper.

Next comp Georges River

Goal: to at least get a fish to weigh in

The Georges river round took place on 17th and 18th June. They ended up with 106 competitors fishing the comp. Our launch site was Donnely park, Connells Point and the cut off was made between LaPerouse and the end of Kurnell. I had never fished the Georges River before so went down with a few other guys to launch from Connells Point and see what we could see. I had a great day fishing some of the deeper wharf and jetties to pull 2 x bream that were 30 and 32 cm, I then hit Tom Uglys bridge with the muss lure and pulled a cracker 35 cm bream ( weighed 750 gram). 

 

Friday June 16th I headed down for a prefish , I wanted to have a crack at canals around Sylvania Waters Canals and then fish a part of Kogarah Bay. The Canals were dead with the water temp reading around 13.5 degrees. I then headed over to kogarah bay and had some good bites at the entrance there. I then headed home as I wanted to only fish a few hours.

Saturday June 17th Comp Day 1 Having had some success on two weeks before I had planned to hit the bridges first up, unfortunately so did a lot of other people. I then headed out the front of captains cook bridge trying to work some boat hulls but  probably needed to have a heavier lure on. I then went back into Kogarah bay and some decent hits on some soft plastics but no hook ups. 🍩 for the day.

Sunday June 18 Comp Day 2 Having had no success up the front due the amount of people I decided to hit up Oyster bay as an exploration and see if I could at least achieve my goal of getting a fish to weigh in. I changed up what I had rigged up fro day 1 as well, rigging a blade, a crab, a deep diving crank, creature bait on on 1/20th jig head and a grub on a 1/12th. I had bites immediately on the first wharf with a 25.5 cm ( I even tried to stretch his tail) hitting the creature bait. Threw it back. I had a couple of other strong bites but no hook ups. I marked these areas as I knew I could come back and hit them ( only one other person went to the bay with me). I continued to fish the back of the bay with no success. I went back to the earlier spot and threw under the jetty waited waited, little twitch and bang I was on.  Got the bream in the net and yes legal just over 26 cm and weighing measily 230 grams, but goal achieved.

I then headed down towards Como bridge but the current was running hard, it was almost like riding rapids so no luck there and I slowly floated back to the launch site. 

It was a cool experience using the bump tubs and weighing in a fish (only 1 fish) . 

Definitely some learnings here on decision making and really need to practice fishing boat hulls more.

So finally if you have a yak, like to catch the wiley bream and want to really have a crack at a comp, just do it!  Its not intimidating and its a very steep but fun learning curve. Everyone's quite friendly and helpful and its a heap of fun even if you don't catch fish 

Edited June 21, 2023 by Bennyg78

[Isaac Ct]

Good job mate, good fun the comps and good experience.

Well done.

[Little_Flatty]

Fantastic report Benny! I’m going to have to live vicariously through you for another decade or so until I can have a go myself! I’m not sure I will survive a Hobie purchase before then…if you know what I mean🤣

Until then, tell me what the you and pros do around Meadowbank for the next Parra river round, will you?🤫😎

It’s one thing to watch the pros, another thing entirely to emulate it.  Not as easy as it looks on YouTube….

One thing my dad does when the comps visit his waters is go and fish for the fish that the pros release!🤣 Or at least he swears that the fish get bigger when the comps visit…he’s outdone my bream PB, that’s for sure.

[Bennyg78]

2 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

Fantastic report Benny! I’m going to have to live vicariously through you for another decade or so until I can have a go myself! I’m not sure I will survive a Hobie purchase before then…if you know what I mean🤣

Until then, tell me what the you and pros do around Meadowbank for the next Parra river round, will you?🤫😎

It’s one thing to watch the pros, another thing entirely to emulate it.  Not as easy as it looks on YouTube….

One thing my dad does when the comps visit his waters is go and fish for the fish that the pros release!🤣 Or at least he swears that the fish get bigger when the comps visit…he’s outdone my bream PB, that’s for sure.

Yeah definitely Steve Morgan makes it look easy but you only get there with practice, the pelicans also know the bream are being released 😉 

[kantong]

what an exciting report and well done on making progress. Thanks for sharing!

[Rebel]

Great story.

[Thrawn]

I've only ever caught one bream on lure, so wasn't ready yet for the comps.

Pottered around both days for a few hours on my Hobie watching the competitors in action.   I tried to see if I could nail any bream on Saturday morning but no luck.... switched to a black ZX-35 and caught a 57cm flatty  my biggest yet, not far from Tom Ugly's bridge.    Next day did the same and caught a 50cm flatty in same area.

A lot of the competitors are fishing right in the middle of the river.  Some of the top placing fished all the way into the back of Woolooware Bay and even into Cooks River.   2 hour paddle one way...

[Mike Sydney]

Proper inspiration there @Bennyg78! Awesome to see raiders getting into the comps. Tough month for a bream contest too it’s been many moons since I last caught a legal one.

Good on you for taking the plunge and entering, hope to hear more comp reports coming through!