HOBIE ABT KAYAK SERIES - ST GEORGES BASIN

What a round, one of my favourites so far...

Rather than go off on a massive 2500 word + rant on the St Georges Basin round of the Hobie Kayak Tournament series, I thought I would let others do it justice. Craig and Jason have spread the good word on the Australian Kayak Fishing Forum and commented on results, weather, experience and overall outcomes. To touch on what they said wouldn’t do the comp justice (Or KFA dedication to Kayak Tournaments) so below are their experiences (First Jason’s text, then Craig’s).

Jason 'Squidder' Price wrote:

“We arrived bleary-eyed at 5.10am, to see that most of the competitors had already arrived. At the briefing we were warned of high winds forecast around lunchtime (but none of us expected the cyclonic conditions that eventuated. We were also given awesome snack bags with fruit / chocolate / muesli bars / muffin bars and as many water bottles as we needed, it was the first time I'd experienced this and massive thanks to the local Hobie dealer who organised this, and the sausage sizzle afterwards.”

“After the countdown, there were people going in every direction, I waited to see where everyone went and then started off towards a distant bank where nobody else was heading. I had a few casts with surface walkers, caught a few tailor, and then Paffoh arrived and caught a legal fish first cast from right under my nose. Leaving him that patch of fish, I headed for the weed beds visible a few hundred metres up the bank, and after two more tailor I got a smashing surface hit, which gave a couple of head shakes then came in very easily. I thought it was a small Flathead initially, but when a mega bream appeared and just swam into the net I couldn't believe it. He ended up 36cm to the fork and 0.96kg, and missed out being the Boss Hog by 40 grams (Well done Peter!). “

“The wind got up a bit so I tied on a cup faced popper which gave off a bit more splash, and managed another legal off a weed edge which went 29cm. At this point the wind really started to hammer, so I tried anchoring up and casting surface lures with the wind for distance, but it was tough, so set off in search of more sheltered waters. Met up with Paff and Craig on the way, Craig had a full well and had upgraded several times, while Paff had picked up another nice fish for 2 in the well. We headed our separate ways again, and the wind dropped away again. I tried edges for about an hour but the bite had shut down, so tied on a blade and hit the open water, and was lucky enough to pick up a just legal 25cm fish, and then quickly upgraded him to 27cm, amongst a steady stream of pinkies, small bream, whiting, and a ripper Tarwhine which nearly pulled my arms off. “

“At this stage the wind started up again, and steadily increased. And then at about 12am a southerly sprung up and started really blowing its guts out, to the point where it was quite dangerous to be on the water. As soon as I saw people start to pull in at the weigh in point I headed in too, it was chaos with a nasty shore break flooding everyones yaks, there were quite a few reels which needed some TLC after being dunked. The next hour consisted of making sure fish stayed alive for the weigh in, which was tricky because the gusty breeze had blown over the tents. Major Props to the Hobie and ABT guys for running a professional comp, despite the very trying conditions. My bag ended up going 1.90kg, the same as Craig450, but I ended up a place ahead of him in 3rd because I had a bigger fish (Sorry mate!). Congrats to Peter Wood who weighed a monster bag, for a well deserved win, and also well done to Jason Meech who seems to finish top 3 in every comp he fishes. It was also great to see Paffoh get 6th for his best ever tournament bag, well done mate.”

Craig '450' Coughlan wrote:

“No apology needed mate, if anyone was going to beat me that way I’m glad it was you. I’m pretty damn happy with 4th place to be honest, I would have been happy enough with top 10 so I’ve exceeded my own expectations. The weather conditions were ideal to begin with, overcast and a nice gentle breeze being just enough to have a nice slow drift, but I knew it was going to come up pretty bad so I wanted to make the most of it while I could. The plan was to fish deep open water at first until the wind came up then find some shelter wherever I could and fish the edges. Within the first 45mins to an hour I had my 3 fish limit and 30mins later I had my first upgrade, and ended up upgrading 5-6times a cm or 2 at a time (Fishing blades in deep water).”

“The wind got up a bit so I chose to head back towards the weigh in and fish a sheltered bank nearby, but once we got back there the wind died right off again so i continued with the blades and ended up drifting slowly all the way back to where i had just been scoring plenty of fish along the way. I fished with Paff for the 2nd half of the day and watched him secure his bag limit then begin upgrading as well which was great to see. I knew Squidder would get his bag limit, and with the size of the big one he already had I knew he would weigh a heavier bag than me, but at the scales we went the same weight to the gram which was a real suprise to me!”

“I used the same lure all day and only changed to a different colour of the same blade in the last 30mins but couldn’t manage another upgrade. Paff and I started to head back at about 11:45am and about half way back is when the predicted wind shot up and we found ourselves in the middle of the bay in some pretty nasty conditions but made it back a little wet but safe, I’m just glad we didn’t put off heading back another 10mins. That place is the best fishery, and i really hope we see another ABT event held there in the future. Congrats to everyone that weighed fish, and well done to the top place anglers. Also a big thank you to the guys from Outdoors and beyond (Hobie dealer in Nowra) for the BBQ and lunch packs which were awesome.”

“Also, thanks to Jim and Wes from Basin lure and fly for the support boat!"