BETS Grand Final

We were pretty stoked to qualify in 17th for our first full season of fishing this series. It has taken us to a few new estuaries including the grand final location….Lake Macquarie. We left early Friday morning in the attempt to miss any Sydney traffic. Well that was a fail straight up. Our 4 hour trip soon turned into a 5+hour trip which resulted in a shorter than planned pre fish. We hit a few new spots thanks to a few mates that had previously fished a Kayak tournament there and was instantly rewarded with a few fish landed. We moved around a fair bit and found fish in most areas….nothing huge but it was confidence building to see active fish. Saturday morning and we were off to one of the new spots that we saw a lot of fish on the edges. As we approached something smashed the surface and the anticipation was high. The water was gin clear and that was as much action that was seen in this spot, although, we did see a sea turtle feeding on the weedbed in about 15’ of water……….yes, it was that clear. A move was in order so we headed to one of the flats we fished in the qualifying round. Once again, we caught fish there the day before. I managed 1 undersize then nothing. Various drifts over different parts of the flat produced nothing. Our confidence was dropping dramatically and we had to do something to turn it around. We pushed into deeper water and fished 100mm bloodworm wrigglers slowly, keeping them close to the bottom but utilising their long tail to impart plenty of action. On the first drift I came up tight to a kilo+ Bream and combined we caught a few Flathead. We decided to do another drift and Terry managed another legal on close to the same GPS mark. That was is, no more bream but a bit of by catch. Time was now getting away and we needed to catch more Bream. Another move to a shallow weedbed at the back of one of the bays was where it was at. Under electric, we zigged and zagged all over the bed and caught our bag and even upgraded a couple of times before we had to head back to the weigh in. Once back it was obvious that it was a hard day on the water. Most teams had a bag but no one caught plenty of fish. Some just ground it out in the deep getting 5 bites for the day. We weighed and pulled the scales down to 2.87 kg. This moved us up to 13th position for the day. It’s always good finishing higher than we started…although 13??? Unlucky for some. Day 2 started and most teams headed north. We were one of only a few teams to head south. We started on the flat that produced fish for us in the qualifying round but nothing the day before (I had a hunch it would fish better than the previous day). It wasn’t long before we landed the first, then the second. The fish were here and they were hungry. We were fishing lightly weighted plastics on 2lb fluorocarbon straight through. The plastics consisting on the squidgy prawn, squidgy lobby and wrigglers fished with secret weight jig heads. We covered the whole of the flat, fishing the plastics fairly erratically. We drifted into an area that had previously only caught us Long Tom. I put a long cast out and skipped the lure on the surface back towards the boat. Well…….. this fish appeared right behind my lure. I stopped the retrieve and as the plastic slowly sank, I felt as this fish grabbed the lure. I set the hook and it started to arc across the surface which had me thinking it was a Long Tom. It turned and as the fight continued, I started to think that this wasn’t a Long tom, but maybe a bream? Tailor? I couldn’t tell. I followed it with the electric motor and eventually saw this bronze flank of this huge Bream. My heart was in my mouth as it made lunges into the weed and rocks which covered the bottom. I eventually slid the net under it and wow……what a fish. This was the biggest Bream I had caught with its girth of close to 100mm wide. With that in the live well, our spirits were high as we continued on the flat for another hour or so. We landed at least 2 or 3 more off the flat and was quite content with our bag. We then decided to try a few new spots and hope to upgrade a few of the smaller fish in the bag. Small upgrades was the order of the day as we caught plenty of bream with some epic by catch of Whiting and Flathead. It was soon time to head back to the weigh in where there was a fair crowd of spectators. We weighed the biggest bag of the tournament at 4.36kg which jumped us from 13th to 5th for the tournament with a total weight of 7.23kg. I also managed big Bream with 1.83kg. (Definitely my heaviest Bream caught and to get it on 2lb fluorocarbon straight through…just amazing. This brings season 2016 for the BETS to an end.