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Recently I partook in the last Gamakatsu Hobie Kayak Series round for the year, held on the Georges River in Sydney's South. Having never fished this venue before I wasn't too sure what to expect but was warned of gnarly structure doting the shorelines. With this in mind I came equipped with a few different tools in the rod arsenal, including shorter rack rods and deeper diving lures. After receiving an updated lowdown on the arena from good mate Carl Dubois I was happy with my game plan and hoped to execute it well.
Just over 40 kayakers departed the start in cold conditions scattering into depths of big bays or wandering flats. My intended route saw me throwing hard bodied shallow crank baits tight to structure along rocky running ledges and into mangrove manacles. The tide was still running in and with a high set for 9:30am the edge bite was sure to fire with a decent bite window. Atomic shallow cranks and Khamsin Jr's failed to secure any results with only the PML brown Cicada gaining a glancing blow.
With the tide stalling and no run I was left wondering if the area I was targeting was worth leaving or sticking around. I bumped into fellow competitor and now AOY Craig Coughlan who had a full bag and had been upgrading all morning. He shared some knowledge of a pattern that was working and donated a Custom Lure Art Atomic to my stable. I have to say at this stage with no fish in the well I threw this lure with all my might for an hour without so much as a touch. Lure colour was always going to play a big part on switching on Bream in the dirty waters since the recent rains had felled Sydney.
The tide started draining from the Mangroves and rock piles were starting to become exposed. Switching to a Maria crank with a deeper action I employed a new technique I can't really say I had even thought of before. The results were impressive with three legal Bream off the same snag, with two in successful casts. Size limits were borderline so without weighing or marking fish with weight tags they went into the Hobie livewell with glowing hopes of upgrades.
The technique mentioned above involved using a 1-3 kilo rod (Daiwa Heartland Z Finesse Special) with a very slow action. Noodles as they are more commonly known, the rod loads slower due to the bend arcing like a true parabolic. At only 6ft in length the rod would get the crank down quickly, bumping the lure along the floor with a dragging motion rather than a pull. Every bump saw a pause and it became apparent that Bream were following the lure as the bib returned in a more vertical presentation, clearing the trebles from the rocks and gliding to a horizontal pause.
Minefields of old oyster poles, racks and rocks drained into mere millimetres of water and brought big Flathead and Bream swirling around my new presentation. Finally I secured a decent upgrade between some great Flathead and moved closer towards the bridge and deeper water. Unfortunately yI didn't see another Bream for the remainder of the day but considering I didn't hook a Bream till 10:00am either I was pretty happy.
Weighing in at 1.15kg it was going to be sheer luck to crack the top 10 and some great bags graced the scales from more fortunate competitors.
My Sydney journey ended in 16th place with three valuable AOY upgrade points.
