victoria 3 Days At A Fishing Mecca - Mallacoota, Victoria

[Orca]

Last week i finally got to visit a place that i had heard so much about and combine some business with pleasure. It was the ABT Bream Qualifier at Mallacoota and 2 of our Austacke Pro Anglers were competing against some of the best Bream anglers in Australia including Steve Morgan, Kris Hickson, Wayne Reed, Cam Whittam , Chris Seeto and Mark Mangold to name but a few.

Getting Ready for Action!

Friday was the official pre-fish day and i was lucky enough to spend the day with Dean Gamble in his high speed Legend boat, fishing the bottom lake, while our other Pro Angler Shane Barling, also driving a Legend, decided to go and fish the top lake. The weather was absolutely awful with plenty of rain and 30 knot winds at times but it didn’t deter us one bit as we went to various parts of the lake that Dean had fished before.

Dean cranking a Sakana lure across the Flats on Bottom Lake

I quickly learned that pre-fish day is more about finding where the fish are more than actually catching them and running the risk of spooking them for the next day. Once a fish had been caught we quietly slipped away to another spot.

The weather was making it difficult to hold the boat in the right spots at times but the fish kept biting even though it was what Dean described as a “soft biteâ€. A large number of fished were actually hooked up but failed to make it back to the landing net. After we had checked out most of Dean’s normal “hot spots†we spent the rest of the day fishing the flats in the middle of the lake. Dean and I both took the opportunity to throw our new proto-type lures around and we were far from disappointed with the results.

I actually managed to catch the biggest Bream for the day on a Chugga lure (Ghost Prawn colour) but the fish actually got its own back on me much to Deans amusement. After behaving perfectly while we took a couple of happy snaps, I turned the fish around to remove the lure from its mouth and it then went ballistic and snapped the leader before heading back over the side with my 1 and only prototype Chugga lure still in its mouth.........grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Mike with a 1kg Bream Hybrid caught on a Chugga Prototype lure.

One of the things that surprised me was the amount of bi-catch that was caught. Flathead were the main species but Tailor, Gar, Salmon, Jew, Whiting and Trevally were also inhabiting the lakes in very large numbers – great for the recreational anglers but not so good in the middle of a Bream comp!

After a nice dinner at Lucy’s Chinese restaurant, we went back to Deans holiday house where Dean and Shane busily re-rigged all their leaders and lures ready for the next day and swapped tales about the pre-fish day. It quickly became apparent that Shane had a very good day up in top lake in the deeper water. The banter between the 2 of them was fantastic and very funny but also tinged with a fair bit of friendly rivalry. Let battle commence.

Waiting for the Starter

Saturday morning we woke to much better weather conditions than forecast. The wind was nowhere close to 25 knots and the torrential rain was no more than an overcast sky with the occasional spit. My plans of taking up one of the 4 spare boat seats as an observer was dashed when i learned that 2 boaters had blown their engines the previous day and all of the spare places had now disappeared. Now i had to be content with being one of the many spectators who watched a big field of 45 boats and 90 anglers set off right on 7am for the start of day 1. As expected, Dean headed for his favoured spot in the bottom lake and Shane headed west towards top lake.

Dean had a pretty tough day with the soft bite once again causing him to drop many fish. He still managed to catch his 5 legal fish and finish Day 1 with a very respectable 5 /3.10kg. Shane on the other hand had a fantastic day up at Top Lake, and finished Day 1 in the lead with 5 /5.15kg. He caught 5 legal fish before 8-30am and was able to keep upgrading throughout the day catching over 30 fish in total.

Shane with 2 of his fantastic Day 1 Bream

Sunday was a beautiful morning with patchy fog on the lake and plenty of blue sky. The weather forecast couldn’t have been more wrong. The glassy conditions for the first couple of hours made fishing the flats on Bottom Lake a tough proposition with the Bream being easily spooked. Dean persisted with Bottom Lake and Shane went back to his favoured 200 metres of bank up at Top Lake. Sakana’s featured very heavily on Day 2 with both anglers banging in the deep divers trying to kick up the sand and mud.

Once again, Shane got his 5 fish but had a much tougher day with his 5th legal Bream not coming onboard until 12.30pm. There was, however, a vital last-minute upgrade, where he replaced a 29cm fish with a 35cm model. This bought his 2 day bag up to 10 fish for 9.69kg – a fantastic effort and we were very hopeful that this would be enough to take out the event.

Unfortunately for Shane, Cam Whittam (10/10, 9.89kg), fishing the arena he had fished all his life, mastered the big bream bite and relegated Shane into second place. Whittam’s consistency on the lower lake earned him $3,000 and a place in the 2012 Grand Final. Shane picked up $1500 for his second place finish and also won the Mercury and Ford bonus cash prizes worth another $500. Shane also qualified for the 2012 Grand Final which will be held at Bribie Island in November.

In the Non-Boater division, we received some additional good news when 3rd place finisher Troy Hamilton from Victoria announced to the crowd at his interview that he caught all of his fish on Austackle Sakana lures. This was a welcome piece of news as we have no association with Troy whatsoever. We then discovered that 2nd placed Lex Court from NSW - who fished with Dean on Sunday – also used a lot of our gear including Camo-Stiks to catch his fish.

The hard luck story of the weekend must surely belong to Spiro Spyropoulous who came in a couple of hours early on Sunday because he had been having live tank problems. He had the biggest Bream onboard that i have ever seen - a whopping 1.72kg monster - but it was close to death and despite some frantic attempts to revive it, it finally died meaning the fish wasa disqualified from the weigh in. Not only did Spiro miss out on the big Bream prize, he missed out on 3rd place in the overall competition.

Spiro with his 1.72kg Bream

The official Big Bream winner was Shane Dyason from Victoria with a beautiful fish weighing 1.49kg.

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Shane Dyason with his winning Big Bream

The results at Mallacoota once again add weight to my argument that our gear is capable of competing with all of the big name brands and at at much lower cost to the angler. As a fishing location Mallacoota is surely right up there with the best in Australia. I hope it’s not too long before i can go back and fish there again.

Mike Cole

Managing Director

AUSTACKLE

[Jords]

Not a bad result mike, well done to Shane!

[Dinodadog]

Gotta get bak there one day

[Orca]

Gotta get bak there one day

Yeah its quite a place. Friendly locals, great scenery and fantastic fishing. Can't ask for anything more that that.

[aussie123]

It's an awesome area down there to fish.

I used fish just below there in the Bemm River for those big Black Bream when I was much younger,great fun.

Some of those fish are rippers Mike,well done.

[Dubbzy]

thanks for the report

[Orca]

It's an awesome area down there to fish.

I used fish just below there in the Bemm River for those big Black Bream when I was much younger,great fun.

Some of those fish are rippers Mike,well done.

Yeah its the average size of the Breanm thats really impressive down there i think.

[Manni79]

Congrats to your team Mike, such a close result between first and second

[Orca]

Congrats to your team Mike, such a close result between first and second

Thanks Manni. It was very close indeed when you consider the size of the Bream being caught.