From the Outside 3 – Tales from the Back of the Boat

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As the late, great Big Kev used to say….I’m excited!!

True not quite as excited as the bloke in the picture and not quite as excited as Big Kev used to get about household cleaning products, but excited none the less. That’s Team Berkley’s Mark Mangold by the way, clearly excited by that large piece of paper.

You see it’s nearly tournament time again. I didn’t really think that I would miss the monthly “trial by bream” but truth be known I can’t wait to get back to it. In my last blog I alluded to using some weak excuses for not going fishing but now I look back I was probably getting a bit down in the dumps. There’s some thing very addictive about chasing bream as it is and I reckon the tournaments just top that off. Not doing them was triggering withdrawal symptoms!

Surprisingly what picked me up was reading the wash up from the ABT Grand Final and the Bream Classic Final. Following the results over the respective weekends it was great to Team Berkley’s Scott Towner and Mark Mangold lead the first day at the Classic only to see Andy Homann and Neil Foley fishing under the Team Pflueger/Evinrude banner take the top spot on the second day.

And if you regularly check this blog (as you should!) you’ll have read Nigel Webster’s wrap up of the ABT Grand Final and his trials and tribulation’s over the long weekend. I’ve never met Nigel but reading his blogs and following his results really has me admiring his determination and persistence and it was great to see him lock in a top four spot in the GF.

So in the space of a week or so I was getting fired up again and now with a month or two until the first events I can’t wait to get out there. Work is starting to free up a little and its time to get in a few practice sessions each week

One thing I want to spend some time on is fine tuning my finesse outfit. Based around the 6’10” 1 – 3kg Berkley Pro Tactic I’ve also taken another step and splashed out on some Stren Microfuse in 2lb breaking strain. Now to me, 2lb breaking strain sounds crazy but those in the know assure me I’ve got no worries. I’m told you can give the Stren a remarkable amount of stick for the breaking strain and its cast ability even with very light Nitro jigheads is excellent.

I can picture where I’ll do that now….tasty little area of flats, 2in Gulp shrimp in Peppered Prawn on a 1/50 Nitro Torpedo, long cast with the Pro Tactic, the 2lb Stren whistling through the guides, take up the line, tap tap, strike, good fish, hard fight but its in the boat, its massive, it’s the upgrade that puts Gatesy on the podium, the crowd roars!!!

Told you I was getting excited.

Ok I’ve settled down now so let me wrap this up. Congratulations and commiserations to all of the 2008 competitors in the bream comps. Thanks to all the top guns in particular the Pure Fishing guys for giving us little guys something to aim at and being happy to share info that puts on us on the right road. Best wishes for 2009 and I hope to be at the back of your boat one day.

And to anyone out there that’s thinking of giving the tournaments a go…get in there! You have the Berkley Summer Series in NSW and Queensland kicking off shortly and the 2009 ABT and Classic calendars will be announced very soon. It doesn’t need to cost you a fortune. A Berkley Attack or Dropshot, a selection of Nitro jigheads and a few packs of Gulp shrimps will kick you off as non-boater and you can grow from there. As for the entry fee, look at this way. For a couple of hundred bucks you can go on a fishing charter with six other people. For half that you get 2 days fishing with possibly the best tourney guys out there…alone. Talk about value…that empty seat next to Scott Towner could be yours!

And if self-drive is more your thing but you don’t have the means remember there’s a cool competition on the Pure Fishing website with a couple of boats up for grabs. Don’t hold out much hope ‘cos I have entered 1143 times so far and one has got to have my name all over it!

So check out the competition dates, get your entries in but a warning, go carefully now, it’s very very addictive!

Good fishing,

Gatesy

Ps. Just so’s ya know’s…I have no agreement or affiliation with Berkley or Pure Fishing other than a strange re-occurring dream that I’m pulling up to the Grand Final weigh-in in one of those big Berkley wrapped Skeeter’s and Mark Mangold is scowling at me. Weird huh.

PPs. Many thanks to the guys at bream.com.au for providing the tournament pictures.

Introducing Kids to Fishing and the Outdoors

"Dad can I play my Playstation?" It's all I ever seem to hear when I'm around the house. Lots of kids these days seem addicted to watching TV or playing computer games. It's so hard to get my boy away from this and play outside. But, if I mention fishing, he's begging to come along.

To kids, a fishing trip is an adventure. There's so many different things to see and enjoy that often the actual attraction isn't catching fish at all. I can still recall parts of my childhood spent fishing and camping with my father. It was a fun, learning experience. I never wanted to miss the opportunity to tag along.

My son caught his first fish (a golden perch) when he was two years old. He needed some help to hold the rod but managed to wind it in himself. He was facinated with the fish, especially its eyes.

When he was three, he started catching bass on his own. Most of his fish were caught trolling, although he did like to cast lures as well.

Now at almost five years old, he has discovered a whole world of fun things to do when we go fishing and camping. There driving the boat, playing in the water, toasting marshmellows, sleeping in the tent and looking for wallabies, possums and frogs,. The list of activities he enjoys goes on and on.

If you like the outdoors yourself, it's a great place to introduce kids to. Educate them and teach them to be safe along the way. My boy might find the Playstation fun but I know that when fishing is the other option, it will always be the winner.

The Spoonman!

We love giving fellow tournament anglers a bit of stick - and when it is a fellow Pro Staffer it is all the better! It appears one of our team members has acquired a new name. Chris Britton has recently coined the nickname "Spoonman" and for those left in any doubt why - I am here to clear the confusion up.

Anthony Wishy and Chris "Britto" Britton are great mates - but any chance to take the mickey out of each other is never ignored.

Britto has a reputation of typically finding the impossible way to stuff something unstuffable up - and recently he managed to excel himself.

On a session in the shed on his boat undertaking some soldering repair work - things came a little unstuck (pardon the pun). For starters - Britto's tools of choice were a little unorthodox. With the absence of a soldering iron, Britto opted for the trusty old spoon. Having heated the spoon and having the desired result on its contents, the molten products were used for solder and then in a moment lacking a dose of the grey matter, the spoon was laid to rest on the boat carpet. The result was pretty much as you would expect with the hot metal making short work of the boat carpet. Britto described the effect as very similar to your average mozarella laden pizza - stringy carpet that refused to let go of the spoon. All being said - Britto's greatest mistake was letting his good mate Wishy in on the error - because I've never known a radio man that could keep a secret. Now that the western world is aware of the abuse of britto's boat carpet it is safe to show some images in this blog. But please be warned the images may offend some boat proud people out there! Keep up the great work "Spoonman" - it is going to take some time to lose the nickname....

Very much in jest,

Nige

For those that haven’t seen or used the NEW 3” Berkley hollow bellies you are missing out! These things work and work well.

They are not all that dissimilar to the original 3” bass minnows, except they look even more lifelike! While the Berkley GULP Formula certainly catches more than its fair share of fish, it sometimes seems like the original power bait formula is overlooked. Be this the old school train or thought I don’t know…. I do know power bait still catch a lot of fish for me and will continue to for many years to come.

I love details in my lures, which is why I’m a big fan of the hollow bellies. Not only do they look like the real deal but the swim like it too. I personally hate lures that insist on twisting and turning as they please. Hollow bellies have a tendency to swim straight and true when you want but you can certainly make them swim erratically if you so wish. Their lifelike eyes and colours will make them irresistable to just about any predatory fishing in our waterways.

You can rig these lures on a standard jig head as you would most minnow style soft plastics, however I prefer to fish them on a worm hook (Owner 5101-091 are good). If you prefer your hook point showing use the same hook but push the hook up through the opening of the belly you can then place the hook point through the back of the lure. By rigging the hook internally and adding some solder wire to the shank of the hook you will create a silhouette in the lures body that looks very similar to a baitfish’s stomach!

If your not happy with those rigging styles you can always opt for a floating hollow belly! Adding some foam to the body cavity will make the lure sit in the surface film making it very hard for a hungry bream to resist. This foam can be sauced from any fly-fishing shops. Rigged on a weed less hook, you can skip casts deep into structure while keeping the lure near the surface to better your chance of extracting the fish once hooked.

They are available in a number of colours from AYU to a pearl white and available at all good tackle shops.'


Pat Sullivan - Sportsfish Tasmania.

The 2008 ABT Bream Grandfinal - Nige's Diary

Just as the Melbourne Cup was run and won this week – so too was the 2008 ABT Bream Grandfinal. The early bolter from the pack was Darren “Dizzy” Borg who went on with the job to record a comprehensive and deserved victory. I managed to scrape into the top four shootout on the final day and then went on to experience one of the most disappointing days of my tournament time…More on that later! I would like to use the following writing space to recap on the weekend with a ‘Nige’s View” of proceedings.

Prior to Prefish Ban
Prior to the end of the official prefish ban – I spent a couple of days fishing as much water as possible to develop some pattern to where the fish might be holding. I covered an immense amount of water from the northern bay islands to the top of the Nerang (I think Caltex was the winner on the weekend!). Berkely Team mate Steve Wilson spent some time with me to put another lure in the water and speed up the research process. It’s great to be part of a supportive team! From the time spent on the water, Peel, Mud and St Helena Islands proved to be the pick of the locations fished. The shallow style of fishing also appealed to me and one thing I have learned is that you typically produce better tournament results when fishing techniques you most enjoy.
Prefish day
I opted not to fish my favoured location of Peel Island during the prefish day. I had a quick look at St Helena and then spent much of my time fishing around Redland Bay, Cleveland, Coochiemudlo and Macleay Island. I notice a heap of boats working the bay and experiencing some tough fishing – the fishing had changed considerably from the prefish ban period (gee that never happens!). I pulled a meagre bag from Coochiemudlo and Macleay Islands and at least had a plan B and C to fish to.

Tackle and retrieve:
My technique involved rigging a 3 inch Gulp minnow in peppered prawn colour on a 1/50th, #2 size Nitro finesse jighead. The outfit of choice consisted of a 1 to 3kg – 7ft Dropshot Pro rod matched with a Soron STX20 loaded with 3lb Stren microfuse and finished off with 4lb Stren fluorocarbon leader. My retrieve didn’t change much throughout the tournament. I targeted fish over any shallow reefy country I could find. I would simply cast the plastic over the top of the reef and give it a few seconds to sink towards the rock (depending on how deep the water was). I would then shake the rod tip aggressively and then pause to allow the plastic to sink again. This retrieve allows the lure to shake/vibrate in the water without moving it from the strike zone too much. The movement quickly arouses the interest of nearby fish and as the plastic is left to slowly sink again, it usually proves too much for an interested fish. Bites could be detected by watching the line suddenly dart off, or by feeling weight as you go to shake the rod tip after a pause. The duration of the pause was determined by the depth of the water. If snagging occurred you were able to quickly determine a speedier retrieve was in order.

Day One
The start to day one had a lot of angler’s eagre to see what the waterways would unveil. If I were to pick favourites going into the tournament they would have included the likes of Chris Britton (aka – spoonman), Anthony Wishy, Tim Morgan, Gav Dunne, Dizzy and Ben Godfrey. It seemed fitting the Grandfinal lead into Melbourne Cup week because the pedigree of anglers fishing the event made it as hard to pick a winner as the Cup itself. On day one I fished with Andrew Dibley which was pretty cool because Andrew was one of my first non boaters in an ABT event (the first was Royter – an experience I have had much counselling to forget!). Andrew was with me the day I cracked the ABT Bream record at Gippsland Lakes which I figured was a good omen! The plan for the day was to target some of the southern bay islands including Coochie, Peel, Goat and Bird depending on where the “vibe” called the loudest! Being I was starting in 16th spot I decided to fly to the NE corner of Coochie and target shallow feeding fish in the start of the run up tide. As it was a shared weight event – Andrew and I decided to do the team thing and he was to throw shallow had bodied lures while I stuck to casting lightly weighted soft plastics. We arrived at Coochiemudlo and Andrew’s first cast for the tournament bagged him a 34cm fish! This was a great way to start the event so we stuck it out at the island for a bit longer but to no avail. We then moved from reef spot to reef spot including areas around Peel, Bird, Goat and Macleay Islands. Our time ran out with only four 26cm fish (over a couple of upgrades) to add to the big one in the well. I got done over by two good fish around peel that would have made the bag look a lot better – such is life! Our bag for the day weighed in at 2.15kg’s and I knew the work was cut out for me on Day 2.
Day Two
I fished with Western Australian Tancredi “The Tank” Rubinich on Day 2 and he was great value to fish with. The wind blew slightly from the NE to start with and then gradually panned out to mill pond conditions as the morning wore on. These are typically tough fishing conditions and so they proved to be for us. Fishing the NE corner of Peel had us hooked up to several unstoppable squire/snapper before we decided to go find some bream! We began fishing around Goat Island and saw the weather take a dramatic change for the worse. The southerly wind ripped across the bay at us making the complexion of the fishing change. As soon as the waves started to push into the southern side of Peel we moved in and began fishing reef that was being pounded by the chop. The fishing was exceptional to say the least. It took us 40 minutes to put a bag together that had the smallest fish at 29 cm. Being that things were looking pretty ugly we decided to make a safe decision and head for home early. The buffeting we got on the way home was one of the best I have had in years and I was happy to have left when I did.
At the weigh in, I was able to scrape in to fourth spot and Tanc took out a well deserved win. I was happy with keeping my GF non boater winning record intact after fishing with Drew Rhodes in last year’s GF.
I heard later that Gav Dunne had to take his non boater for medical attention in the aftermath of the torrid weather – and most likely gave up a shot at fishing in the top four. I commend Gav for doing the right thing and have no doubt he will get his turn.

Day Three
The night leading into the final day was one of the longer I have had in a while. As much as I felt little pressure being that I was in fourth place – I couldn’t stop going over that game plan! After a bit of sleep between 11pm and 3am I got going early and was on the water ready to go when camera crews arrived. Little did I know I was in for one of the longest tournament fishing days ever!
I hooked up with Phil Lomas in the Berkley boat and went about the process of getting the day underway. My plan was to go to St Helena and fish the area while the water rose throughout the bay. When I believed the tide to be right I was aiming to head to Peel to fish the same spots as the day before. I stuck to my game plan and fished St Helena early and then fished Peel from 10:30am to 12pm. I dropped one fish at St Helena and then found the rest of my spots to be devoid of life. I learned later that Dizzy had caught some good fish off the spots I chose to fish at Peel and he arrived after I left at St Helena and got plenty of fish there….Like I said it was definitely one of those days (to be marked forever black in my calendar!). I enjoyed the day with Phil in the boat and we certainly threw everything at the fish however it was not meant to be – and certainly not the start I was after with an AFC camera on board! It wasn’t the first time I have experienced camera shy fish and I’m sure it wont be the last! A goal of mine was to make the top four shoot out of the GF and that at least came to fruition.

The season has been one of my more memorable ones and I look forward to all that next year will bring. I have to thank some great support I have that improves my success no end. My wife and children, my fishing family in the way of Berkley, Humminbird and Polycraft boats and the tournament anglers themselves have all made the year the successful and enjoyable one that it was. I also have to thank ABT for providing another great year of tournaments and all thoughts are now on the Barra tour and a few sneaky one’s about next year’s Bream season. Until then…

Happy fishing,
Nige