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(Report taken from http://www.hobiefishing.com.au)
The third round of the 2010/2011 Hobie Kayak Series was recently held on the infamous Sydney Harbour at Bayview Park (Hen & Chicken Bay). An official practice session on Saturday the 20th brought mixed fortunes, some anglers dominated in conditions where as others faltered, either way there was no excuse for missing the line up on Sunday. Over 30 anglers began proceeding to do battle with the Bream in glassed out conditions, consequently followed by an accompanying windswept finish.
Josh Carpenter briefed the crowd along with his entourage the Seeto brothers, ensuring the event got underway without any foreseen hitch. Hobie MD Steve Fields helped clear up a few unmentioned rules (Fishing in Marina areas) and the competitors lined up for a group photo and a time synched start. With so many options in a Harbour such as Sydney’s the field spilt up in many directions. Some ventured immediately into Exile Bay, others started in Canada Bay while the rest scattered into the Harbour proper.
The surface failed to fire for most and even those most persistent with the dark arts came away a little bemused. Shallow cranking banks and mangroves proved to be the quick ticket but even that shut down quickly, making way for boat hulls and blades. Soft plastics down deep in shrimp and worm shapes proved again to be a worthy tool in a harbour anglers arsenal with a few tales of ‘The big one that got away and rubbed me off on the boats keel’.
Try and try as we could the bite really slowed down by mid morning and for many proved futile. You either managed your bag early or spent most of the remainder of the day tempting Flathead, such is the poultry pain of the bay. Gary Cooke’s 0.84gm Big Bream came from all the way down at Rhodes bridge, brought undone by a slick black blade (Brand unknown). Some other wicked specimens, such as Tristan Hooft’s 0.74gm and Cid’s 0.625 Bream pushed for the prize hog. In the end we all fell 100gm or more short of prying Gary’s grip.
While I think we all expected numbers to be a little higher it was great to see more than a couple of new faces at a Hobie ABT event. We had the Victorians attend, the Capital Massive, the North Coast lads and the South Coast Breamers. All regular faithfuls vying to take out the repeat round where it all began three years ago (As Steve says, has it been that long already?). Sailing Scene was on hand with a Sausage sizzle after event retreat and a big thankyou to the Coffee Van for extracting quite a few early morning beverages (Many over indulged, it really helped).
The weigh in was overpopulated with locals enjoying the serenity of Bayview Park, which made my day. There is nothing like everyone coming in en masse after seven hours fishing, muttering something about Bream and sporting that salty weathered look. Key tags hit the boards, weigh bags distributed and anglers patiently waited for what many perceived would be a close outcome. Some great bags were entered, Tristan Hooft in his first tournament weighed in two fish for 1.33kg (Beating five other anglers three Bream bag limit). It was a great effort from Tristan and was easily worthy of equal sixth place.
The top five panned out eventually with Victoria’s Scott Lovig weighing in 3 fish for 1.335kg, Carl Dubois with 3 fish for 1.39, myself with 3 fish for 1.435, Daniel Holder with 3 fish for 1.445kg and Andrew Death taking the win. Andrew’s 3 fish bag limit was pushing the 2kg mark, at 1.815kg Mr. Death easily took the win. Given Andrew’s recent form here in other tournament circles he was definitely one of the favourites.
A big thankyou to Hobie, Daiwa, ABT, Berkley, Hogs Breath and other sponsors for supporting the round and the series. With many more events yet to come, including events in northern NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia there is no better time to get involved. Contrary to the uninitiated belief they are quite social events and great fun to boot. Come along, catch a fish and embrace the ‘Who shares wins’ philosophy.
Full Results (Taken from http://www.bream.com.au)
Place Angler Fish Weight Boss Hog
1 Andrew Death 3 1.815
2 Daniel Holder 3 1.445
3 Derek Steele 3 1.425
4 Carl Dubois 3 1.39 0.625
5 Scott Lovig 3 1.335
6 Tristan Hooft 2 1.33 0.74
6 Jason Meeche 3 1.33
8 Andrew Hilliard 3 1.3
9 BillWoods 3 1.24 0.61
10 Luke Kay 3 1.18
11 Scott Baker 3 1.17
12 Pete Woods 2 1.095 0.675
13 Jason Lambert 2 1.06 0.65
14 K.Winchester 2 0.95
15 Gary Cooke 1 0.84 0.84
16 Wayne Robson 2 0.73
17 Jason Reid 2 0.725
18 Jason Price 2 0.655
19 Matt Petrie 1 0.62
20 Jonathen Chen 1 0.59
21 Stewart Donn 1 0.52
22 Dave Hedge 1 0.51
23 Rob Chambers 1 0.49
24 Steve Matronini 1 0.45
25 Scott Brownless 1 0.435
26 Ross Corner 1 0.415
27 Todd Young 1 0.405
28 Clint Short 1 0.4
29 Ken Raley 1 0.37
30 Greg Lewis 1 0.335
31 Steve Fields 1 0.255
32 Ronnie Sonter 0
32 Lynden Briggs 0
32 Brian Rutledge 0
32 Patrick Curran 0
32 Rowan Stanek 0
32 M.Carmody 0
32 Scott Carmody 0
32 Eric Wood 0
32 William Keeley 0
