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A strange location for some but a godsend for others, Burrill Lake captivated everyone's minds once the threat of major inclement weather wore off. A perfect waterway almost purpose built for kayaking played host to 27 brave souls ignoring glancing heavy winds and scattered showers. Reports on the area were slim to nill but this event had no prefish ban so I am assuming a few got out for some fish.
Plenty of fish were weighed in come bell toll, some struggled but many found the action frentic enough. I was pleasantly surprised with the fishery itself with lots of Bream caught and some nice Flathead to mix things up a bit. The wind did make life a little interesting but if anything forced you to focus more on the decisions you were making. It also brought the Bream out in force, picking windows to munch a treble or two.
My day basically consisted of finding fish in deeper than expected water. Bait was held in mid water along a bank run (Luckily out of most of the wind) and was pushed up towards the surface by Tarwhine, Snapper and Bream. The speed of the retrieve was very important with lots of pulling hits shattering dreams of an early bag, these fish would even follow it next to the boat and hit it right in front of your eyes, alas failing to hook up.
Slowing things down helped but a pattern change and a super sharp rear treble did the damage, switching from a Ayu coloured Sugar Deep to a Atomic mid crank in Muddy Prawn. Fish no longer just watched it they moved away from bait and pursued it up into 5 foot of water at its final retrieve back on board. Sometimes big pauses and aggressive twitching forced them to jump onboard, sometimes it was a dead still approach.
Come 10:00am a change occurred, not quite tidal, more like change in wind direction and a spike in the barometer. Things got silly at one stage as it became a fish a cast (Close to it) for about 10 minutes. Nearly all fish were legal too but with my smallest Bream weighing 390grams everyone was identical or smaller. Every time I thought I had an upgrade it was major déjà vu, making this event another in what's now becoming a long list of tournaments I can't ditch the small fish from.
I really shouldn't complain that much, my biggest was around 700grams and the second 600grams, making my guess around 1.7kg. Come weigh in I was pleasantly surprised my bag was competitive and while the locals had done well the Central Coast crew had done even better. Weighing in mid field my total limit was three fish for 1.62kg, mirroring my faithful event buddy Craig Coughlan's bag (Also 1.62kg, fished similar area, different styles).
Once everyone had weighed in I was a little shattered to find out I missed out on a Grand Final qualifying spot by 1 place, knocked out once again by those pesky Central Coasters. There will be more opportunities but most likely in super competitive fields with large numbers. Time to put all my eggs in the one basket at the Clyde round, hoping tides match, areas produce and boaters stay away (Or at least off the flats so to speak).
Next tournament is the Marlo round in just under 2 weeks, events don't get more magic than that.
Full results available online @ http://www.hobiefishing.com.au (Including an ever growing gallery).
