Clarence River Bream Super Series

What a great weekend at a great location! I especially like fishing this event because it is such a magnificent waterway and with every cast there is the feeling that you could hook up to a monster bream.

The Berkley team got together on Thursday night for a drink before the briefing. It was great to meet up with all the guys and swap ideas on tackle and techniques for the weekend, and discuss where the fish might be.

Day One
The first day of the comp went ok for me. I spent most of the session at Browns Rocks and landed about 10 legal bream for the day mostly using the 2” Shrimp in the new Banana Prawn colour. I was rigging those on 1/12Oz Nitro Bream Finesse heads in size 1. Later in the session I started playing with blades and upgraded three fish with the largest a 29.5cm caught on a flat above Maclean.

Back at the weigh in, the scales hit just 2.42kg. But everyone was talking about Steve Morgan’s massive 4.15kg bag including a couple of fish over a kilo. A couple of the Berkley team did well with Andrew Homann and Nigel Webster weighing 3kg.

Day two, I knew I’d need over 3kg to make the cut, but it never really looked like happening. My plan was to get my five at Browns early and then head upstream looking for upgrades on the banks. Well, it took ‘till about midday before I got my bag, and I stuck it out on browns nearly all session, upgrading just once with a 26.5cm so I could release a just legal 25cm. Back at the weigh in the scales hit 2.2kg giving me a total weight of 4.6kg, which eventually placed me in 18th.

There were mixed results for the Berkley team with Britto and Wishey struggling to fill their bags on the second day. The Wizard struggled all weekend. Russ Babekuhl caught plenty of fish but couldn’t find the big ones and placed 20th overall. Mango had a better second day with 2.6kg, but after his ordinary first day it wasn’t enough to make the cut, but enough to beat me by 20grams! Travis Davies got a respectable 2.61kg bag, not quite enough to make the cut, placing 13th.

The Berkley guys who made it into the final day shoot out were Nige Webster and Andrew Homann. Nige had another solid day on Browns Rocks, but the most outstanding bag of the day went to Homer with a 4 keg bag cementing him no. 1. spot, with a kilo lead on the field!

After Blitzing day one, Steve Morgan struggled on day two after his motor broke down very early. Fortunately, Timmy met up with him around 11am, and as he already had his bag, they swapped boats allowing Steve to go on and catch three fish. Timmy still managed a couple of upgrades on electric only power in Steve’s boat!
Both of them managed to make the top ten, which also included, names like Andrew Howard, Daniel Brown, Ben Godfrey, Gav Dunne and Craig Simmons.

Day three dawned clear and bright with light winds early. From the start line at Maclean, five of the ten boats headed downstream and five up steam, highlighting how the fish were available right throughout the system, but the better concentrations of bigger fish either at the mouth or way upstream.

Nige Webster headed down the front to Middle Wall first and picked up some fish early before heading to Browns Rocks. Although he’d caught most of his fish there in the previous two days, it was very quiet on Sunday. Eventually he headed back down to Middle wall and managed to upgrade his entire bag in the last hour or so. Nige fished with Berkley Dropshot Pro tournament 7ft 1-3kg rods and ABU Cardinal 802 reels, 3lb Stren Microfuse and 4lb vanish leaders (2lb Microfuse/2lb vanish when the tide slowed). His gun lures were Gulp 2' Shrimp in Banana Prawn on Nitro Bream Finesse Jigheads from 1/12 to 1/6 Oz size 2 hooks. Nige's final weight was 8.43kg tieing for third, but slipped to fourth on a countback.

Homer stuck to his game plan and fished his productive banks upstream. This paid off with a final day bag of 3.69kg blowing the rest of the field away by nearly 2kg in total. Homer’s Tackle for the weekend consisted of a Pflueger Supreme 7’1” 2-4kg Rod matched with a Pfueger Supreme 8030 reel, spooled with 3lb Stren Microfuse line and 4lb Vanish leader. His lure of choice was the Gulp 2” Shrimp in the the new Banana Prawn colour rigged on a Nitro Bream Finesse jighead –weights 1/16th and 1/12th Oz on a size 1/0 hook. Homer’s tactics for the entire weekend involved fishing one 800m stretch of bank with the banana prawns, the bank had reasonable current and varied from 10 to 20 feet deep. Accurate casting tight to cover and allowing the shrimp to drift into and around snags was the key to his success. At the end of the bank was a flat that he fished with a Vx35 Blade, before heading back up to the start of his productive bank. He said he caught about 60 fish for the weekend, with 40 of them being legal size.

The Golden Child of bream fishing 'Ben Godfrey' took out second place for the weekend with the second largest bag on day three seeing him jump three or four spots. Ben fished the middle wall most of the weekend, tempting the bigger fish on larger lures like Gulp 3" shrimp and 4" minnows on big jigheads from 1/6 and 1/4Oz. Ben continues to climp the rankings chart at a rapid rate!

The Pure Fishing Team of Pro Breamers is in fine form, and have now taken out the three Bream Super Series events in 2008 with Russel winning Taree, Mango taking out Gippsland, and now Homer winning the Clarence!

And what do you do on the third day of a Bream Super Series if you don’t make the cut? Go Jewie fishing of course!!!!

I took out an old mate Robert Tombs, who was also keen to try and catch a Jew. Although we had heard that a few Jew had been taken at Middle Wall during the comp. We decided to hit Palmers Island wall so we wouldn’t get in the way of any competing breamers.

I’ve only ever caught a couple of Jewies on Soft Plastics before, both incidental catches while breaming. I’d also lost some good ones on bream gear that I couldn’t stop, including one at Maclean in the prefish. This time I rigged up spefically for the Jewies with a Berkley Dropshot 6-8kg rod matched to an ABU 804 spooled with 20lb fireline and a 40lb Vanish leader. I rigged up a Gulp 6” Grub in Sardine on a 5/8 Oz Saltwater Pro Head and I was ready to go.

Things were quiet for an hour or so, but right on the tide change, as I was hopping the grub along the bottom in about 35 foot of water when I hooked up to something solid. Initially I though I was snagged but then there were two head shakes before line slowly peeled off the reel. I was on!!!!!!!! The fish steadily peeled line as it headed upstream. I turned the boat towards the middle of the river and powered away on the electric motor to get away from the bank and reduce the chances of the fish finding anything to bust me off on.

The fished slugged it out deep and wasn’t willing to come out from the wall initially. It felt like a strong heavy fish, but it never took any blistering runs. There were plenty of tell tale Jewie headshakes which got the adrenaline pumping. After about five minutes I felt I had the fish under control and out of danger of busting me off. As I worked it closer to the boat I backed the drag off a little to reduce the chance of pulling hooks.

That first glimpse of a long silver shape materialising out of the depths always gets the heart pumping. Fortunately it didn’t play up at the boat. Rob picked up the Berkley net and said, “How am I going to fit it in this?” I said, “Just get the head and I’ll grab him.” Rob did a good job and I grabbed the frame of the net and lifted the fish aboard, Woooohooooooo!!!!!!!!

It was a very nice Jewie!! and a great feeling to have targeted it specifically and come up with such a great result so quickly. The jighead was firmly embedded deeply into the top of the jewies mouth and the leader was scuffed a fair bit by the Jewies sharp teeth. If I was fishing a lighter leader I may well have lost the fish.

I put the fish on the brag mat and it measured 101.5cm, I’m guessing the weight would have been just over 10kg.

I gave Rob my Jewie rod after that and rigged up the same plastic on a lighter rod. We fished on for another hour or so before deciding it was time to hit the road.

All in all, the Clarence trip was a great experience. Although I didn’t cross paths with any big bream this trip, I learnt a lot and had a good time socialising with the other Berkley Team guys. We shared a lot of ideas on baits, blades, jigs, and stingers, and we are getting improving in the development of some new and innovative products. The Jewie was certainly a bonus! I’m looking forward to the next bream comp and certainly looking forward to getting back to the Clarence next year!

Cheers,

Matt

Tweed Action II

Another trip with Steve Wilson this weekend, saw us hit the Tweed again. the plan was to sneak out to the close reefs early to see if we could find some quality snapper or kingies, and then come back into the river to have a play with some bream.

Conditions were pretty good with light north westerlies early. Steve was the first to register a bite and quickly had a decent fish under control, but the hooks pulled half way through the fight. Fortunately next cast he was on again and this time a good snapper made it to the net

The current and wind were running in the same direction, speeding up our drift and making it slightly more difficult to get the 5" Jerkshads down on 1/4 Oz heads. I was just about to change up to a heavier head when my Sardine Jerkshad got hit! The fish immediatedly peeled line and instead of heading straight for the bottom, it turned eastward and headed out to sea at increasing speed. I had no control at all as 30lb Sten Superbraid melted from the spool of the ABU Cardinal 806 at an alarming rate. Within about 20 seconds I guess, I was into backing and calling on Steve that we needed to chase this fish - NOW! Fortunately, Steve got the electric up quickly and we took chase with the bottom of the spool starting to show.

The fish didn't ease up as we gave chase and although I got a lot of line back it was still taking serious runs. After about 5 minutes, the afterburners had run out of fuel and the fight turned into a slug fest, and the still unidentified fish, pulsed away in the depths. At this stage we ruled out snapper, kingie, jewie, and were thinking GT or Tuna. As the fight pushed past the twenty minute mark, we were pretty sure we had a tuna on.

We saw him shortly after, and I thought that I had him under control and we would have him in soon. How wrong was I! It continued to slug it out for another 10 minutes or more circling just under the boat. My right arm was aching severely as I worked him painfully closer to the boat. Finally Steve had the chance of a good gaff shot and made no mistake.

On the brag mat the Longtail tuna went right on one metre to the fork of the tail and we guessed his weight around 15kg. Thats my first Longtail and it was very satisfying to catch it on one of my own jigheads. A great fish, I just couldn't believe how tough it was, and how long it slugged it out for!

After a few pics it was back to the fishing. We'd just lost half an hour or more of prime bite time, and it seemed that our window of oportunity had closed, as we couldn't raise another decent bite, despite trying several areas and seeing plenty of good shows on the sounder.

After a couple of fruitless hours the wind started to pick up from the North East and we decided it was time to hit plan B.

Back in the river, the big rods were packed away and the bream rods rigged, with Gulps, Blades and other lures to test. We found bream on the sounder fairly quickly, but it was hard to get them to bite. However, as the incoming tide increased, they slowly came on the bite and we ended up getting a few decent bream, with plenty of small bream and flathead getting in on the act.

Although the action was generally pretty slow, I had some encouraging results on some new lures that I'm developing. The most interesting encounter involved a big flathead that I hooked in pretty deep water. I was fishing 4lb vanish straight through. Right from the start there was heaps of weight with big head shakes, but no big runs. At one stage it headed into the rockwall and came nearly to the surface and we both saw that it was a BIG fish. After about ten minutes the fight was progressing very slowly, but suddenly the fish seemed to change direction and I quickly gained line, and then wound in a 30cm flathead !??!! On close inspection the flathead had been roughed up severely and was missing a lot of scales.

My lure was firmly in the top jaw of the small flathead. So obviously the big girl ate the small fish at virtually the same time I hooked it, as I never felt a small fish early. Pity it didn't hang onto it a bit longer so we could get a closer look, because that in that first glimse from a distance it looked HUGE. That's the second encounter I've had with a big flathead eating a small one and then spitting it - quite amazing!

Anyway we pulled stumps shortly afterwards, happy with the days' results. We covered a few options in one session, landed some decent fish and successfully tested some new designs.

Sharp hooks, smooth drags, tight lines,

Matt

Offshore Tweed Action with 'The Wizard'

Its been a long time since I've ventured offshore, but Steve 'The Wizard' Wilson invited me out with him, to hit the reefs off the Tweed with soft plastics. He's been having regular success on the snapper, kingies and even landed a massive Red Bass on his last trip.

The Tweed bar was standing up a bit on a big outgoing tide, but Steve casually worked his 5.9m Attack through the bar with no dramas. Once out, we turned south and made a short run to the first of the reefs we were to fish. There are numerous reefs out from the Tweed all very close.

We were fishing with medium spin outfits, mine was a Berkley Dropshot tournament Pro rod 7ft, 6-8kg matched with an ABU Cardinal 804, loaded with 20lb Fireline and 20lb Vanish leader. I've done a bit of snapper fishing in Moreton Bay and usually fish 10lb braid/12-16lb leader. So I thought I'd be right with 20/20, but a few casts later I was destroyed into the reef in short order! Time to move up to 30lb leader and crank the drag up a bit more!

The fishing was fairly full on for the first hour or two and I cant quite remember the order of what we caught but Steve got a nice 3kg Tea Lea Trevally, and I got a 45cm snapper, followed by another smoking into the bottom. I think Steve also got done over before landing a 3-4kg GT.

Shortly after, I hooked a strong fish that I managed to stop before it found the bottom. I had the rod absolutely loaded and the tackle pushed to the limit, the battle raged for a few minutes before I finally subdued a nice little Kingie. The bait I was using was a 5" Gulp Jerkshad in Sardine rigged on a 1/4 Oz #2/0 Nitro Saltwater Pro Jighead.

Steve was chasing bigger fish and opted for the 7" Jerkshad rigged on a 1/4oz Pogy head with the 6/0 heavy wire hook. The areas we were fishing varied from 8 to 15 metres, so with the lighter heads it took a while for the baits to waft down. But I believe this enhanced our hookup rate as quite a few hits came on the drop.

I had one good hit on the drop, and I quickly cranked in the slack to come up tight on a good fish, it then woke up and hit the afterburners! Line cracked off the spool and then went off with a crack as the 20lb fireline exploded just out of the reel. I'd just finished hacking on Steve for fishing his drag too loose, but obviously I was fishing mine too tight! So I changed to the Cardinal 806 Outfit with 30lb Sten after that -too late though!

Things started to go a bit quiet after a while and we headed the next reef for a change of spots. It was also quiet there. The only action we had was helping out in the rescue of an overturned boat that got rolled when a big wave came over the back of the boat. Luckily the skipper (fishing solo) was OK.

The fishing definitely slowed as the day progressed, and apart from another small squire, some solid bream and a few small mixed reefies, we had no more luck on the reefs.

After working over all the reefs to the 9 Mile and back, we headed back into the Tweed River to chase some bream for a change of pace. There was a heap of bait in the water, and Steve rigged up a 1/8Oz #1 Bream Pro Jighead with green Galaxia 3" Powerbait minnow which imitated the bait perfectly. I was testing some new blades I've designed, to see how they'd go.

First cast Steve hooked up to a very decent fish that took a lot of line, and slugged it out for a good five minutes before he bought in a 2-3kg Golden Trevally. He went on to catch two bream and two flathead, and I managed a couple of bream on the blades before we called it a day.

It was a great day on the water and 'The Wizard' lived up to his name catching some top Fish and putting me onto some as well!

Looking forward to the next trip!

Welcome to the Nitro Workshop

G'day, I'm Matt Fraser and welcome to the Nitro workshop!

The complete range of Nitro jigheads are designed here in my Brisbane workshop. Basic tools of the trade are; a lathe, drill press, linisher, dremmel, verniers, files and wet and dry paper. Contrary to popular belief, I don't work with lead all that much. Most of my work involves making the master jigheads from brass. They are then put into a mold and poured in lead alloy, once the finished product is right a production mold is made.

Water testing is essential, and this is carried out in the family swimming pool. Once I am happy with the action of the jig, field testing is then carried out! To get good quality feedback the jigheads are passed onto members of Berkley's Pro Team, who put the jigheads to the test under serious fishing situations. After liaising with the team, it is decided what improvements need to be made or wether the jighead is ready to go into production.

So before you buy your next packet of Nitro jigheads, you can rest assured that a lot of work has gone into the design of each model of jighead, right from hook selection, to head shape and grub keeper design.

There are now over 100 models of Nitro jigheads in the range, and this is steadily growing to cover a wider variety of soft plastic fishing applications.

I am also starting to branch into the design of soft and hard body lures, and particulary the design of lead alloy jigs to specifically suit particular soft baits!

To keep posted on Nitro developments, rigging instructions, fishing tips and trips check back soon.

Good fishing!

Matt

Matt Fraser's Nitro

Stay tuned for the latest info about Pure Fishing Australia's Berkley Nitro range - designed by Matt Fraser.