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Kayak Fishing in Victoria has a rather strong following, with equally strong willed tournament attendance at both ABT Hobie Kayak series rounds (First Bemm River and now Marlo). The Victorian state titles were held in picturesque Marlo, home of the exiting Snowy River. Multiple lakes, rivers, creeks, mouths and slow tidal flow, Marlo was found to be a typical kayak angler’s wet dream.
Mixed weather hampered solid pre fishing but not everyone was sharing their well rounded results so freely (Business end of the season and all), with five qualifying places on offer for the ABT Forster grand final, plus amped up financial incentives (State results, two day event) the available stakes were higher than ever. The word from the water was five pound ‘Blacks’ were not uncommon, with skills honed it turned into a well matched affair but whose Bream would reign supreme?
Light conditions were unfavourable for the scheduled 6:00am start, due to the ever closing daylight savings period meant the start and finish times were delayed by almost an hour. With no ABT adjourning boating round (Due to Mallacoota shuffle) there was no pressure on adjudication at or during weigh in. The two obvious choices for competitors were up or down stream. One direction held the lakes, flats and rivers whilst the other held deeper water, schooling fish and the iconic mouth. Many of those who did manage a Friday pre fish struggled, not with the conditions but the system itself.
Those that learnt from the lesson, became ‘In the know’ and firmly put any Friday woes behind them. Some absolutely smashed previous ABT kayak records clean out of the water which not only included biggest Boss Hog but biggest day one and state final bag overall. The end of day one saw coy Dave Hedge submit a generous bag of 4.36kg, full of three swine’s (With the sow of sty weighing around 1.6kg). Believe it or not this wasn’t the biggest Bream submitted on day one, Jeff McDonald caught, presented and released a 1.72kg specimen (Could only imagine how well it fought on light gear).
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