Mallacoota ABT Qualifier

The ABT Mallacoota qualifier was a highly anticipated event by all participating anglers. With fine and calm weather predicted it would be hard to find a more picturesque location to spend a couple of days chasing bream.
Due to work commitments I had to miss the prefish day which lowered my expectations for the tournament. My plan rested solely on my findings during the Vic Bream Classic held two weeks prior to this event.
Starting down the order on day 1, I made a short 5 minute trip to Mallacoota’s top lake. I began fishing a big eye blade in 4m of water about 100m from the bank. With schooling fish being the word on the street, I was hoping the fish hadn’t moved too far since the classic. I was a little unsure of my decision and after the first hour clicked by, without even a hit I really started to curse not having prefished. I made a change to a 4” Turtleback worm in pumpkinseed matched to a 1/12 Nitro bream finesse jighead and immediately landed 3 legal bream included a plump 35cm fish. (how quickly things can change) The bite slowed again so I moved closer to the shore line to scan the shallows. Flicking lures into the lake fringe saw my non-boater pull an awesome kilo plus bream. Unfortunately that was the only fish sighted so we headed back out into deeper water. I spent the rest of the day throwing turtlebacks with a fairly standard technique, once the lure had reached the bottom I would gently lift the rod, moving the turtleback about 1m. Just long enough to attract the bream with the fluttering tail. Most of the hits came while the turtleback lay still on the bottom.
The bite pattern was very on and off for the entire day. There were long periods of nothing that were broken by small patches of 3-4 fish. With a couple of upgrades within the last hour I weighed in 4.18kg and was placed in 6th position. My non boater fished fantastically and took a healthy lead into day 2 with 4.26kg in the non-boater division.
On day 2 the bite pattern changed dramatically which had my live well empty at 8:30 and once again I was unsure of what to try next. I had 2 choices, either persevere in deep water with day 1’s proven pattern or move to the shallow margins. Decisions can make or break a tournament and this one set up an incredible day of fishing. The move to shallow water saw 4 bream boated, 3 of which were over a kilo. The fish were holding on the weed in between the rocky shore and the deeper water. Casting camo worms and a hardbody over the weed and working it back with an all important pause in the dark patches seemed to do the trick. I watched all 4 fish rise from the weed, chase down and swallow the lure. It was heart stopping, hold your breath fishing!!! The 5th fish proved to be the toughest. With 2 hours to go, I moved back to the deeper water and threw a big eye blade. It was pure relief when a 30cm yellowfin bream made it into the boat. To top it all off I was able to upgrade that fish with a 35cm black bream.
Weighing in just over 5kg on a tough day and taking my total to 9.41kg was extremely pleasing. The nerve racking wait as all the other anglers weighed in was made even worse when two other 5 kilo bags made it to the scales. The end result had the top ten riddled with quality anglers and to come out on top was unexpected but very satisfying.
Cheers Hodgey