DAIWA-HOBIE ABT RND 10 MARLO (ST) 2-3/4/11

Round 10 of the Daiwa-Hobie ABT series rolls into Marlo for the Victorian State Titles. This is a two day combined bag event, showcasing the best of the best kayak tournament anglers from around the country. Last years event shattered bag records and the Boss Hogg was close to 2 kilos. The turnout is sure to be huge and the Victorians are super keen to draw blood on home turf (Bring it on).

Recently Marlo/Orbost and the surrounding Gippsland region have been subject to flooding, we have all been informed its well and truely subsided and the fish are on. After all, you cant keep a good Black Bream down (And many are already having Bemm River withdrawals). State Titles not only offer prestige they also offer more qualifying spots, thats if you can fit the Bream in your livewell.

• April 2-3rd R10- Marlo ( VIC ST) 5 GF spots 2 Day Event



• May 8th R11- Clarence 3 GF spots 1 Day Event – Sunday



• June 11-12th R12- Narrabeen Lakes 3 GF spots 2 Day Event



• July 2-3rd R13- Redcliffe (QLD ST) 5 GF spots 2 Day Event



• August 13-14th R14- St Georges Basin (NSW ST) 5 GF spots 2 Day Event



• September 17-18th R15- Westlakes 3 GF spots 2 Day Event



• October 2nd R6- Hopkins(Rescheduled) 3 GF spots 1 Day Event - Sunday



• October 29-30th Hobie GF (Port Macquarie) 2 Day Event

For more information, please click here

DAIWA-HOBIE ABT HOPKINS RESURRECTED

A month or two ago I mentioned on KFA that the Hopkins ABT event (Round 6) was cancelled due to flooding. Hobie MD Steve Fields recently announced that the event had been resurrected and slated for the 2nd of October. This is great news for anyone that missed out on attending the original event, from all reports its a great fishery and one that supplies Bream on tap. Big props to Hobie and ABT, hope your rewarded with a record turnout (Mexicans are crazy).

For information on the event, please click here.

KFA KITCHEN - SEAFOOD SOUP (INSPIRED)

I don’t tend to divulge in the art of cooking very often due to my partner Claries wonderful culinary skills. Sometimes I get inspired to oil a pan but it usually takes some sort of exciting ingredient or someone elses passion to get my pot on. Lately it’s been a bit of both, accompanied by some serious cravings. When it starts to cool down in Canberra I get a hankering for some hearty meals, heavy soups and heavy servings. I watched a couple prepare a fish stew on a TV show recently an immediately wanted to prepare my own.

I searched the internet and found various recipes but decided to omit cream and start searching for a more structured soup that involved seafood. The result was a trip to a website that showed a video of Chef Guy Grossi cooking up a stew styled soup, followed by a recipe that could easily be altered. This recipe is not my own, perhaps only slightly hybrid but worth sharing none the less. Please note the recipe has a serving size of four but depending on your own take could serve just yourself.

Ingredients:

Salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1 onion, chopped 2 sticks celery, chopped 1 tbs fresh basil, chopped 1 tbs dill, chopped 2 tbs fresh coriander, washed and chopped 4 tbs tomato paste 1 cup white wine 4 tbs olive oil 2 litres fish stock 8 fresh prawns, cleaned with heads and tails intact 2 Blue Swimmer Crabs 12 fresh scallops 1 fresh tube calamari, sliced thickly 8 fresh mussels 1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

1. Heat a pan on a moderate heat. Add olive oil and sweat off garlic and chopped onion with the chopped carrot, celery, salt, pepper and herbs. Add the tomato paste and cook out well until the tomato paste has darkened a little. Next, add the white wine and reduce by half. Add fish stock and simmer for 20 minutes. In a large deep frying pan or pot, add crab, prawns, mussels, scallops and finally calamari.


2. Gently stir crab and other shellfish through the soup and season with salt and pepper. Allow soup to simmer until the crab has cooked through. Add chopped parsley before serving and serve with a slice of bruschetta in a large bowl.

KFA Kitchen tips:

• Omit fish or add an oiler species like Mackerel. In our dish we used Crab, cut in half and washed thoroughly. Add more delicate seafood last when cooking. Ingredients like Chilli would work extremely well, so would Potatoes like Desiree or Pontiacs. Alternative Species: Freshwater Species

NSW STH COAST - HIPPOS, CHOKOS AND FIZZ

Tuross would have to be my favourite destination for a fishing/family holiday on the South Coast for a few reasons. I have access to some great accommodation options close to the lake; secondly, some of my favourite areas to fish are equally close by to the launch site. And thirdly, contrary to most of my trips, I’ve actually fared better in the lake and feel comfortable in locating some great estuary fishing option and a feed.

Recent Tuross reports from sea wind and forbs (thanks for the chat forbs) had whet my appetite and I was fairly confident that I would enjoy some success on the water over the three days I was there.

Thursday morning I launched with a four hour window to explore my old haunts. The difference this time being that it was now tidal due to the recent lake opening after being closed for a few years. Immediately I noticed the difference as my first 3 spots produced nothing, I may as well have been fishing with a diseased choko on my line as I was getting as much love as a red headed step child. 2 hours in and I was a bit annoyed.

It's all good, I'm a good fisho, my Dad said so, so it must be true. Time to explore a little bit and find the infamous EP tree that Forbs forfeited three love children under. That didn’t happen, all good, I quickly got on my phone and brought up the ‘Patwah battles massive morwong’ photo to remind myself that I touched a fish once. It made me feel warm and cuddly, a good thing.

I reverted to the bloodworm wriggler which brought immediate success, a gill hooked legal whiting. Nice one, I much prefer to hook fish in the side of the head as it makes their mouths look purtier. With great confidence and a small round of self administered back slapping, I continued in my quest.

Next passengers on board were a brace of excitable 24-28cm bream, they really do fight hard for their size and I can see why Greg L sleeps with a stuffed one each night. That was quickly followed up by a good size Silver trevally who had a chat to Knifey Mcknife and made an appointment to view my digs back at the house. I then dropped a couple of flatties which continued my run of failing to land them yak side, I was up to 5 now (including my recent poor efforts at Nelligen).

Day 1 was over and I proudly took my small catch home to be devoured by the money burners. Proudly boasting that although it was tough, I managed a lot more fish than anyone else I saw that day. (In reality, the only other person I saw that day was an elderly man on his electric scooter with a half full colostomy bag drinking from an old Tang bottle)

Day 2 was going to better. I launched early again, forgot my camera, forgot my phone (no morwong inspiration), and forgot my dignity. However I did remember to bring a nice pair of Spotters that Paff had donated, now proudly adorned with a floating neck strap courtesy of the ABT membership pack.

I waded out with my yak and prepared to hop in as the local fizzy folk passed by. My left foot sunk 3 inches more than usually as I lifted my right foot to hop in, this created a balance issue which no amount of inner ear influence was going to overcome. It was like a young hippo collapsing into 12 inches of water, much splash and legs flailing as I buried my head in the muck. The passing fizzy had a laugh and asked if I enjoyed my swim, he wasn’t laughing when my unused sounder battery took out his left cheekbone . (didn’t happen but I thought about it)

It's all good, I’m a good yakker, my Dad said so, so it must be true.

I had a few more hours up my sleeve, so I continued up the river to do a little more exploring as I hadn’t got as far as I wanted to the previous day. The sun has come up quickly and I reached for my sunnies, not there. Maybe I dropped them? Bugger…launch…..left foot…..right foot…hippo…splash……floating lanyard……..tidal………….gone….

I started to fish an old oyster bed, that only had the posts remaining, and peppered the surface with a (must buy) lure that Squidder had put me onto a few weeks before. Apparently this lure was the bomb and he hadn’t seen them for a while, funnily enough it had the same emblem as the cheque he was depositing when I met him at the bank. Switching between the 'secret' lure and the wriggler, iI had a nice little session that produced a few bream up to 30cm and a few small whiting, again face hooked like creatures of the Camden Markets




I moved onto the flats to see if I could lose some more flatties to keep the streak going. None were forthcoming but I did manage to knock over a few flounder (undersize) and a few small bream on the flats. Bloodworm wriggler again was the successful applicant.(Groundhog) I managed to finish off with a nice flattie of around 45cm and break the streak. Day 2 was successful but not appetising enough. I trekked home and grabbed the family to see if we could get Lily (2 ½ yrs) her first fish.

While Mum was feeding little Patwah (?) on a rock, I cast out a peeled prawn into an area I knew held fish, tap tap, on and hand the rod to Lily. She looked at me and proceeded to discuss in detail what she was doing “I'm fishing with Daddy; I'm holding a rod, I wind like this and this and this and I'm holding a fishing rod and I can see a pelican and I like the water” so I quickly showed her how to wind and she managed (with some help) to land her first fish. Awesome.

I cast out again and she quickly grabbed the rod to show off her new found winding skills, within three winds another bream quickly grabbed the bait and gave her a rude little shock. I proudly watched as she wound and wound and wound (with commentary of course),. It got kind of weird then, as the fish came in she proceeded to step into the water, one foot raised, a steely glare……….then raised the rod like a spear and attempted to repeatedly impale the fish as it swam around her feet. The fish was duly beached with some verbal assistance. Amusing stuff and no doubt indicative of her future adult female behaviour.




Day 3 (last day):

I woke up at 6am to the sound of Lily coughing spluttering and dragging mucus from as low as her toes, not cool. To give Mum a rest, I got up and spent the next two hours watching ‘Tangled’ (a must see for Rapunzel fans) and put to bed any hopes of a fish before leaving for Canberra. Wife woke up and kicked me out the door with strict instruction to scratch the itch. After two minutes after standing there scratching my groin, she glared at me and told me she meant fishing not smelling my fingers. No invitation needed.!!

I headed straight for my new found flattie spot (near a red marker) and proceeded to cast into a great drop off I had located on the sounder. The next 60 or so minutes produced the best flattie fishing I have had in recent memory. Literally surrounded by the fizz fraternity (5 at last count within 60 metres) I managed to pull out 11 flatties between 40-63cm with each fish gave me curry. Having the Nitro Vapor doubled over with line screaming of my Luvias 1003 (sponsorship opportunities here) raised more eyebrows than a forum member disagreeing with Kraley. I commented to the Massive that (in my experience) Tuross flatties seem to pull a little harder than other places, I’m not sure why?


>

Comments and questions were flowing freely between the boats and boats, and boats and myself as I was continually hooking up under the noses.

F1 “What are you using mate?”
P “Diseased Choko”

F2 “You’re on fire mate”
P “No Im not, it's an orange shirt”

F3 “Save some for us mate”
P “Smell my fingers”

F4 “get out of the way”
P “Check yo’self before I wreck yo’self”

It was a great little session and I had an absolute ball, I must add that the fizzy fanatics were well behaved and very appreciative of my efforts in the plastic tub. A nice way to wrap up the three days away.

“You're a great fisho and yakker mate”

“I know, my Dad told me so”

NSW STH COAST - A NEW LOCATION 19/3/11

With the local waters close to home fishing slow lately, i decided a trip a little north to Wandandian creek would be a nice change so i packed the night before and made the trip up on Saturday morning to chase some Bream. The weather was horrible, dark clouds above and a decent breeze made for a very gloomy launch but areas of the creek looked sheltered enough to get a decent session out of so the yak went in the water at around 8am.

The first cast of the morning was with a Squidgie soft plastic cast into the snags and was taken aggressively by a undersized Bream which fought well above its weight. The action was consistent all morning, with most snags holding fish but nothing of any decent size. I pedaled downstream some more and saw some surface strikes deep into the snag so i fired a few casts into it with no response from the suspected EP.

A few minutes later, i saw another surface strike so i cast the plastic right to the spot and got nailed before i could even close the bailarm on the reel, the fish swam straight for the nearest snag and tied me up in it and earned its freedom. Within 10m of the first bust off, i got done 3 times all in a very similar scenario, so i upgraded from 4lb leader to 8lb hoping to be able to apply the brakes onto a few of these better fish but the only thing this achieved was spooking them and as a result, i was not even getting the hits anymore.

Frustrated, i went back to the 4lb leader and straight away started getting hits again and landing a few more Bream just on or over the legal 25cm mark. I changed from the soft plastic to a Khamsin Jr hardbody lure, and on the first cast with it i got smoked again straight into the timber and lost the lure. This happened many more times, and after the 7th or 8th Khamsin donated to the creek, i opted to go back to the SP's before it cost me more in lures than it already had.

Casting a 2" gulp shrimp at the edges i managed a few more small bream before coming up tight on a heavier fish which was a nice 65cm Flatty, which was released again after a quick photo. That was the last fish of the day, time had run out for me, so i called it quits and headed back just before the rain came down, avoiding a good soaking.

It was a very enjoyable session, and i wished i had more time up there but i will return and hopefully land some of those fish that wanted my lures so bad.

YAK FISHER MAGAZINE #53 (AUTUMN EDITION)

Issue #52 summer edition of Sport Fishing Australia (Incorporating YAK Fisher) is out in stores now, just in time for the onset of seasonal change. The Sport Fishing Australia section features many top articles from seasoned sport fishing journalists such as Jason Metcalf, Shane Mensforth, Brent Hodges, Roderick Walmsley, Nigel Webster, Lee Brake, Daniel Kent just to name a few.

YAK Fisher Kayaking Magazine has Yak news, Tournament results, dedicated Kayak test rundowns and also features many articles by industry stalwarts covering new products / innovations / gear reviews. The summer Issue includes 1770, Surf Launching & Beaching, DIY Getting Noticed, Offshore Game Fishing, Yak reviews, Sterling Silver and much, much more.

Available at all good newsagents or by subscription,

http://www.afn.com.au/cms/details.asp?NewsID=114

DAIWA-HOBIE ABT RND 8 FORSTER REPORT

After a FFC hiatus in 2010, the Forster round of the Daiwa-Hobie ABT series (Along with the Minn Kota Mega Bream) were again recognised as the two forefront and opening tournaments of the returning Forster Fishing Carnival. With a massive marquee providing a backdrop for the various area of the fishing competition, including the ABT weigh in stage, the scene was more than adequately set for a great kayak fishing tournament round. With support from companies/brands like Berkley and the products and cash prizes available to triumphant anglers the stakes were high (And the oyster racks nigh!).

The turnout was as expected quite high with 55 anglers assembling there tournament kit on the shores of the marina. The early morning shotgun start was delayed slightly due to the prevailing light but once underway was a sight to behold. Stories of a tough pre fish governed either a change in direction or a steadfast approach. With game plans and nous at the ready, beginning the search for a spirited bag of Bream would take many deep into the realms of Wallis lake and the system proper.

Many elements seemed to be against us from the start, mainly the tidal influence and the raging currents. Being a netted system and with the event run on a low tide during our scheduled tournament times made the going a little tougher, rendering many previously visited flats low on water and some virtually unfishable. The same can't be said for the many racks that abound though, Bream filled these tackle destructive underwater voids and ventured out only if the presentation was just right.

Being a combined bag two day event the pressure was on to perform straight off the bat, by the end of day one almost half the field failed to secure a legal tip length Bream (25cm to the tip measurement). Many undersize Bream were reported, termed 'Squeakers' these fish were in abundance and plagued the flats along with the racks. Day two brought windier conditions making drifting the racks in some areas a hull scratching affair. Some anglers told of losing multiple lures to racks and underwater obstacles whilst others had dream runs that shot them up the leader board.

Ian Seeto switched from boat to kayak and took out the $100 Boss Hogg with a 850gm Bream. Detailing the top three, In third place was previous winner Stewart Dunn with 6/2.57kg ($400, Atomic Pack). Jason Meech took a well deserved second with 6/2.61kg ($600, Berkley Pack). Luke Kay took 6/2.73kg and walked away a thousand dollars richer ($1100, Daiwa Pack), taking first place and the event win.. Courtesy of Hobie every entrant that didn't feature in the top three went into the draw to win a brand new Hobie Outback. Bill Woods was announced as a worthy recipient and cheers rang out throughout the tent, Bill is a regular on the kayak tournament scene and rarely fails to make an appearance.

1 Luke Kay Kayak 3 1.51 3 1.22 6 2.73 $1,100
2 Jason Meech Kayak 3 1.42 3 1.19 6 2.61 $600
3 Stewart Dunn Kayak 3 1.4 3 1.17 6 2.57 $400
4 Dave Hedge Kayak 3 1.38 3 1.05 6 2.43 $300
5 Nicholas Meredith Kayak 3 1.38 3 1.02 6 2.4 $250
6 Jason Lambert Pro 3 1.06 3 1.25 6 2.31 $200
7 Chris Burbidge Kayak 3 1.2 3 1.04 6 2.24 $175
8 Ian Seeto Kayak 2 0.66 3 1.51 0.85 5 2.17 $150 + $100 Boss Hog (0.85kg)
9 Greg Lewis Kayak 3 1.16 2 0.91 5 2.07 $150
10 Bob Boss Kayak 3 1.12 3 0.88 6 2 $100

For the events full tournament results and wrap up, please click here.

From a personal point of view I found the fishing extremely tough going over the two days. I lost count of how many 'Squeakers' I nailed, light gear and the pulling weight of a foul hooked Bream had me thinking I was out of the donut van on more than one occasion. Being confident fishing cockle bed flats my spot of choice failed to produce during my pre fish but I dropped a legal or two. Venturing back on day one found the opposing flats firing with an hour to go, not enough time to stick around and make the most of it. Day two I searched unfamiliar water in search of similar flats and ended up returning, dropping a good Bream and failing to rid some sort of Flathead curse.

It's the experience you gain on the water that makes you a better fisherman off the water, be that a favourable result or not. Money just can't buy that sort of stuff, even if you spend hundreds on tackle and don't get to test it. It was my fourth visit to Forster and it basically mirrored my previous efforts, still I will return (With more newfound respect). A great waterway, a great tournament and all round a great weekend fishing with friends. Congratulations to the winners and also well done to the visiting Canadian Tim Allard for weighing in a fish in his first Bream tournament in Australia.

Bring on those giant Marlo Blacks...

DAIWA-HOBIE ABT RND 8 FORSTER 12-13/3/11

March signals the return to the paddocks, the big bruisers and the fast tidal sweep. The Forster ABT event will be run on Saturday the 12th and Sunday the 13th, a combined tournament bag of 6kg+ over two days is more than possible (1kg Bream on tap). It will not matter if you fish racks, edge bites, flats, drop offs or other system structure the chance of tangling with an epic fish and shooting up the leaderboard is yours for the taking, all you have to do is enter. An event that has to be seen to be belived, can we top a record field of 57? (Set at Bemm River 2011).

• March
  12-13th R8- Forster 3 GF spots 2 Day Event
  26-27th R9- Albany (WA ST) 5 GF spots 2 Day Event
  
  
• April
  2-3rd R10- Marlo ( VIC ST) 5 GF spots 2 Day Event
  
  
• May
  8th R11- Clarence 3 GF spots 1 Day Event – Sunday
  
  
• June
  11-12th R12- Narrabeen Lakes 3 GF spots 2 Day Event
  
  
• July
  2-3rd R13- Redcliffe (QLD ST) 5 GF spots 2 Day Event
  
  
• August
  13-14th R14- St Georges Basin (NSW ST) 5 GF spots 2 Day Event
  
  
• September
  17-18th R15- Westlakes 3 GF spots 2 Day Event
  
  
• October
  29-30th Hobie GF (Port Macquarie) 2 Day Event
  

For more information, please click here