Tales From The Back of the Boat - Port Macquarie

Look at this picture of the Hastings River at Port Macquarie. The sun is rising, the water glistening. You can almost sense the anticipation of the anglers in those boats as they head off on Day One of the Port Macquarie ABT event with nothing but bream, bream, bream on their minds.

What the picture doesn’t convey so well is how bl**dy cold it was!! Ok it wasn’t so bad sitting at the start even though the temperature was only four odd degree’s, but once that boat started moving the wind cut right though and once on the plane at some 80km/h I’m sure I would have been warmer standing starkers in the meat fridge at Coles. I remember leaving the cabin that morning saying “the last thing I must do is not forget my gloves”. Sure enough the last thing I did was forget my gloves. For that I was to suffer but more of that later.

For various reasons having a pre-fish on the Friday meant leaving home at 3am and heading straight to the boat ramp but as we slowly chugged away around 7am any grim thoughts of being up half the night vanished. The sun was up and its weak warmth was kind of comforting as we headed into the mouth of the Hastings River to see what was happening and try and establish some kind of pattern to how the bream were feeding. After picking up a few undersized fish and watching a fellow breamer distracted by some Mack tuna sitting in the middle of the channel we slowly worked our way up river, hitting each spot briefly to see if there was any sign of life. Upstream the water was very dirty, a hangover from the recent floods but the lower reaches weren’t too bad and as the tide changed the water cleared dramatically as fresh seawater pushed in. As it was we found a few fish here and there and came away with the idea that whilst conventional tactics might be ok early in the day, as the water cleared and the sun came out fishing straight through fluorocarbon lines would be the go. Re-rigging that night on went the 2lb and 4lb Berkley Trilene Fluorocarbon with a fresh Nitro jighead ready for the morning.

Now if your doing the right thing and reading the Berkley Pro Blog regularly your probably looking at the picture opposite thinking you’ve seen it before. And you have…check my tale of woe in Tales from Taree. Yes it happened again, tournament time and Gatesy gets a cold (‘bout the only thing he would catch according to some!) That’s where the glove thing comes in. I didn’t feel too bad at the start but the cold wind was cutting through me and the absence of gloves had me stuffing my little handies as deep in my jacket as possible as my boater tried to converse with the sniveling ball in the passenger seat.

Luckily we didn’t go to far come the whistle and we started to fish the seawall at the mouth of the river. Half an hour or so in and my 2inch Gulp Shrimp in Banana Prawn colour was pursued out of the rocks and the Pro Tactic/Abu 702 /Microfuse combo did the rest. Sometimes fishing this gear is like fishing on autopilot, its just so solid and despite my clumsiness the first legal was in the well. Amazing how much better a fish in the tub can make you feel!

The day continued relatively slowly but I managed another three legals in similar fashion and would have had my five had I not dropped a good fish during a quick sortie to some oyster racks. Solely my fault I had upped the drag on the reel to give myself a chance at getting fish out on 4lb Trilene FC (gee you can give that stuff some stick) and when a good bream took my Camo coloured 3in Craw on a 1/16th Nitro head all was going well until I was a bit slow to back the drag off when I got the fish to clearer water. Obviously lightly hooked, a final lunge near the boat saw freedom for the fish and me practicing some of my finest swearwords.

So take from that Gatesy’s lesson of the column. Don’t be afraid to vary that drag when playing a fish. Just make sure if you do your positive and clear in you actions and the great drags on the Abu and Pflueger reels allow a fine adjustment to help you. Once the fish is in open water don’t be afraid to give the fish some room but keep in control and if you’re a bit clumsy like me a leader like Trilene FC will give you a bit of margin for error.

Day 1 finished with a four fish weigh-in and I was sitting near the top of the field. A top ten place, another dose of medication, steak and a beer for dinner…this is living. Cold….what cold!

“This cold you clown!” my head screamed at me as I woke on Day 2. I felt shocking, and any thought of building on the previous days’ result were replaced with thoughts of simply how to survive the next seven hours. It felt even colder that morning and I just could not get warm enough to even think straight let alone put together a fishing plan for the day. As it was my boater and I lucked out and couldn’t find a consistent bite anywhere. The lift in spirits brought on by that first legal fish on day one never materialized, and to be honest for the first time since I started tournaments I was genuinely glad to be off the water.

The long trip home left me thinking what might have been. There were positives. Yet again the Pure Fishing gear, the Pro Tactics, the Abu reels, the Microfuse and Trilene leader had been faultless. My growing confidence in fishing 2lb Trilene FC straight through had seen me fishing $30 hardbody lures at times, something I would never have risked a few months back. And on Day One I pretty much hooked every fish that hit, not something I can usually say. At that moment though such positives didn’t stay in my mind too long. All I really wanted was my bed.

Enough of my whining, what happened in the main game? Well it was a good showing by the Team Berkley boys. That bloke in the Berkley boat Scott Towner capitalized on a good lead after Day One and took out 1st place with another good second day bag. Russell Babekuhl hung in for a 9th place after describing his first day bag as one of the hardest he had chased. And just for good measure Mark Mangold held his 12th place from Day One and would have sat higher in the places but for a couple of millimeters after a fish that measured bang on the limit lost a little in the livewell. No shrinkage gags thankyou! All in all a good effort…well done fella’s.

As for me I’m looking to the next comp at Mallacoota. Surely I can do one tournament in reasonable shape this year! I hear it maybe a vibe affair. Sounds like a reason to go and secure some of Matt Fraser designed Berkley Powerbait MF40 soft vibes.

But hey, like I need a reason to buy more Berkley stuff!

Until next time, good fishing.

Gatesy

Ps As said before I have no affiliation or agreement with Pure Fishing other than an enjoyment of their products. Oh and I do have a red Berkley hat which like I told the kid in the park at the time, “Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers!”

Pps Thanks to the boys at ABT and bream.com.au for the use of the pictures and organizing another great event and as always my boaters. Cheers boys.