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• WINTER FISHING TIPS • CHASING MULLOWAY •

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Chasing silver ghosts • Beginner’s bream on lures • Lazy fisho’s guide to kayaking • Sustainability of WA stocks • Boat test: Stessl 730 Coastrunner

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Species Spotlight

Aaron Roddam shows us how to chase mulloway

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CONTENTS

OUR COVER August 2022, Vol. 3 No.4 QLD NSW

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QUEENSLAND The Tweed Gold Coast Southern Bay Brisbane Northern Bay Noosa Bundaberg Mackay Townsville Hinchinbrook Cairns Port Douglas Cooktown Cape York Freshwater

From the Editor’s Desk...

16 18 22 24 26 28 32 34 36 37 38 38 39 42 46

Neil Simpson with a 95cm king threadfin salmon he caught at Hinchinbrook on charter with Ian Moody Sportfishing Charters. An Ian Moody image. Come and visit Fishing Monthly Group’s official Facebook page for all your monthly fishing information. Download QR Reader to access.

NEW SOUTH WALES 52

Sydney Rock

Sydney North

Sydney South

Coffs Coast

Hastings

Forster

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Swansea

Central Coast

Illawarra

Batemans Bay

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Tathra

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Hunter Valley

Batlow

New England Rivers

Canberra

VICTORIA Warrnambool

Portland

Cobden

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Port Phillip West

Port Phillip

Phillip Island

Marlo

Gippsland Lakes

Lakes Entrance

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Gippsland Freshwater

Crater Lakes

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AUGUST 2022

TASMANIA Hobart Offshore WESTERN AUSTRALIA Esperance Augusta Bunbury Metro Mandurah Kalbarri Lancelin Exmouth Karratha Freshwater

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REGULAR FEATURES Chasing silver ghosts Starlo’s back to basics Sheik of the Creek Kayak: Lazy fisho’s guide Fun page WIRF What’s New Fishing Tournament Calendar Tournaments Sustainability of WA stocks Trades and Services/Tide page Boat Test: Stessl 730 Coastrunner

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others see it as more a networking event. Regardless, if a fishing tackle store makes you act like a kid in a chocolate factory, then the AFTA show is definitely for you. As AFTA says, “This is a great opportunity for you to speak directly with manufacturers, importers and brand representatives about their products. You can check out some of the great new products in the recreational fishing industry.” It is held at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre between 10am and 3pm. Kids come for free and adult tickets are only $10 each. Seriously, it costs more to park under the building than to go to the event. Of course, if you live in a part of the country that is not near South East Queensland, you may be upset that you can’t get there. Fishing Monthly will be doing our best to bring you the latest and greatest from the event. You can pre-purchase tickets on the website afta.net.au, although cash sales will still be accepted at the door. FAULTY MAGAZINES Thank you to the readers who contacted us and told us about the magazines that had multiple, duplicate sections included. This was an error from our printer and it is a very rare occurrence. As always, if our printer or Australia Post doesn’t deliver, we will do so for you and send you a replacement copy of the magazine. Just give us a call on our free call number 1 800 228 244 and Kym can sort you out.

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THIRD TIME LUCKY FOR AFTA We have had a couple of false starts through the COVID times, but it looks like this year the AFTA Trade Show and subsequent Public Day will be all systems go. Without the pandemic, this would likely be the fourth year a Public Day was included in the industry’s biggest show, but it is what it is and everybody is welcome on Saturday, August 6th from 10am. Historically, the AFTA Trade Show has been a business-to-business event where none of the public are allowed access. In 2019, the show organisers (the Australian Fishing Trade Association), trialled a public day after successful models in Japan. And fishing fans loved it. You need to understand, however, that the AFTA Show is not an event where you can buy fishing tackle. It is a show where you can see the latest and greatest gear that will hit the market in the upcoming months. Tackle stores use it as an opportunity to make their Christmas purchases while

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Chasing silver ghosts QUEENSLAND

Aaron ‘Roddo’ Roddam

Chasing mulloway, also commonly referred to as jewies, can be a time consuming and

activity and fishing. Evidence has shown that new moon and full moon are some of the best times to go fishing, this is because of the bigger tides during these moon phase periods. The bigger tides stir

more fish activity, meaning more chances to catch fish, especially mulloway. The best moon phases to chase mulloway is the lead up to the full and new moons, this is typically between two to three days

Winners are grinners. A determined fisho, Harley Price, with a sizeable mulloway caught on a Gen-X soft vibe lure. Whether from a boat or land-based, persistence is always the key to success.

Late evening on the beach, lines out lying in wait for that elusive silver ghost. exhausting effort for little or no reward. Many anglers have put in hundreds of hours, not to mention hundreds of dollars, trying to catch these elusive fish, known as the silver ghosts of the sea. I am one such fisherman, having spent countless hours troubleshooting and perfecting my mulloway fishing techniques. Unfortunately there is no easy way to catch mulloway, but there are a few things that can help you land a cracker silver slab. Firstly, moon phase. A lot of people disregard the moon phase as nonsense or perhaps know little about the effects of the moon cycles regarding fish

beforehand. Combine this timing with an early morning or late evening, which also coincides with a tide change, and you have

the perfect recipe to catch that trophy mulloway. Mulloway hunt in the cover of darkness, so regardless of moon phase, it’s always better to fish at dusk or dawn to increase your chances of success. Now let’s talk about baits and lures. Which

Pretty much anything that is native to the environment that you are fishing. Although they’re not too fussy on type of fish when it comes to live fresh bait, do remember when choosing bait, fresh is always best. Finding the live bait

The mound shapes, known as boomerangs, show a schooled-up group of mulloway cruising along the bottom of the riverbed.

MULLOWAY RIG 3 Way swivel 15lbs 33lbs Main line braid

FG Knot 40cm Fluoro carbon leader

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AUGUST 2022

Double hook Snelled rig

The author with a little soapie caught on the mighty Hawkesbury River, a river system renowned for big mulloway. A lot of the small soapies tend to school up together, so it’s not an uncommon occurrence to get double hook ups, but once one is caught the rest are easily spooked. rig is going to land you that big fish? Mulloway are a predatory fish so will take most baits and lures. Live baits work extremely well, so think something like salmon or squid, yakkas, mullet and even slimies.

might require some time and can be quite tricky. Most modern fish finders have come a long way in the last few years and are quite advanced nowadays, so they can be very effective at finding these bait schools. Then once

you find the bait school a sabiki rig can be used with a soft lift and hop action. This method has proven very effective for many anglers in catching a variety of live bait. Mulloway can be caught on a simple paternoster rig (refer to Fig.1). A lot of

tackle stores sell pre-rigged jigs, which makes the process a heck of a lot easier than to tie. In the event that you do decide to tie your own, the main line should be 15-33lb braid, attached to 35-65lb fluorocarbon leader, tied with an FG knot. Then

approximately 30-40cm down the fluorocarbon leader add a 3-way swivel. On one side of the swivel attach 40cm of fluorocarbon leader down to a double hook snelled rig using 7/0 to 9/0 J hooks. Same again from the other side of the swivel, attach

When it comes to bait, fresh is always best. Fresh garfish rigged with a double hook snelled rig, using size 6/0 hooks attached to 30lb leader, is a temptation no fish can resist.

! W NE

30-40cm of fluorocarbon leader to a 4-5oz triangle/ pyramid sinker. With this sitting down the bottom of the water column, it’s only a matter of time before you land your first jewie. This rig is perfect to catch mulloway, although more than likely your first few catches will be smaller mulloway (not of legal size) known as ‘soapies’. Don’t let this deter you though, as these are all steps in the right direction for you to catch that elusive silver ghost. I’ve also had a lot of success using soft plastic lures and soft vibes for mulloway. There is a huge range and a variety of colours of soft plastics on the market today, pre-scented lures like Berkley Gulps are one of the best when choosing soft plastics. I’ve found the pre-scented 6’” paddle tails in dark colours like dark blues, purples and black and gold work extremely well when fishing rock walls or rocky headlands. In this environment it is imperative that you pay attention to the swells because fishing off the rocks can be very dangerous and you can easily be swept into the sea.

This mulloway was taken on a Gen-X soft vibe lure. These lures mimic small baitfish. Jerk shads and paddletails are very handy to have in any tackle box, not just for catching jewies but a variety of fish species, with a lift-hop-hop-pause action, which mimics a

small baitfish darting up and paddling back down the water column. Mulloway will generally hit it on the pause or on the drop. They also mostly hang out on the To page 10

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A prime month to fish BUNDABERG

Luke Truant

Over the past month, nearly every trip has been a blinder, with hardly any small fish. We have been struggling to catch smaller species like hussar, sweetlip or tuskfish. Instead, we’ve been almost exclusively

the biggest red emperor caught last month was 85cm (approximately 12kg). Livies have been doing nearly all the work, so if you want to catch big fish and you don’t have livies, you’re pretty much wasting your time. Only around 10% of our fish have been taken on dead baits, which were mostly butterflied yellowtail

A beautifully marked bar-cheek trout. catching coral trout, red emperor and cod. It’s unusual for the hussar to go off the chew at any time of year, but we’re not complaining when there are bigger A-grade fish on the chew! The average size trout over the past month has been 65cm, with hardly any under 60cm. We’ve also had coral trout over 80cm (around 7kg), and

CATCH

scad that were originally caught for live bait. Strip baits have been catching the odd fish here and there. When it comes to where the trout are biting, lately there has been no apparent rhyme or reason. At this time last year we were catching 95% of our trout in less than 23m of water, but over the past month or so we’ve been catching trout almost

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anywhere we’ve stopped. Even places that have never yielded trout for me before have been turning up good fish, even in water up to 55m deep in flat fern country! It seems that as long as you’ve got livies down, you’re in with a very good chance of catching trout. Another welcome catch has been the big nannygai (saddletail snapper), with a couple going 85cm+ caught in recent weeks. Our nannygai have all been taken in deeper water of 45m+ on ferny, flat country. Most of our red emperor have been taken in 33m+ of water in fairly flat country, and they’re definitely still suckers for live baits. Still, anyone who follows us on Facebook may have noticed we got a 10kg specimen recently on a strip bait in amongst the live baits, so you never know. You should always have a designated dead bait fisher on the boat, as the dead bait will release an enticing smell and get the pickers active, creating a commotion to attract the bigger fish. And who knows, it may even get snaffled by a hungry red fish. When fishing for red emperor, I recommend using fish heads for bait every now and then. Don’t worry about using the rest of the frame or having wings, just cut the spine off a couple of centimetres behind the head, and you’re good to go. Insert the hook up through the bottom lip and out through the top lip, leaving the whole hook exposed to get a solid hook-up. Remember that the head is hard so it won’t fold away like a soft bait would, which is why you need a fully exposed hook. The artificial reef off Bundy yielded some really good catches of snapper before the season closed on 15 July (it reopens on 15 August). The biggest fish was just shy of 10kg, which is a pretty big fish for 15m of water. Snapper like eating strip baits, especially in the shallow water. Mullet strips have been working particularly well lately. When targeting snapper in the shallows, you should fish as light as you’re confident with. If possible, go weightless or with a tiny sinker. Last year there were some good snapper caught on plastics as well. 7” Gulp Jerkshads in bright and light colours seem to be effective, possibly because you’re fishing at dusk and dawn for snapper, so the bright/light colours are more visible. The average size is around 50cm at the moment, which is a nice size fish. If you find yourself catching lots of tiny ones, you may

Some nice nannygai have been showing up in catches lately. need to increase the size of your baits. If you’re using large baits, you’ll catch more legal-size snapper (the minimum legal size in QLD is 35cm). As forecast last month, solid gold-spot cod have been going crazy for live baits. The average size would be around 10-12kg, caught as bycatch while targeting red emperor. In the river, some of the people targeting bream have been consistently getting 1.1kg+ specimens. A prime bait for big fish is mullet gut. AUGUST FISHING August is traditionally the best month of the year for weather. In the average August we’d get offshore at least two out of three days, and hopefully this year will be no different. Live baits are still definitely the go-to, and you should try to get them every trip. You should still be able to find the livies all through August. Generally speaking, August is what I’d consider to be the best red emperor month of the year. You have to wonder what we’re in for this time around, because the last few months have been so good! If you’re shore-based or if you’ve got a smaller boat, I recommend targeting the river mouths for flathead this month. This time of year is when they get really thick, and it’s common to catch them above 90cm. You can

get good results fishing the sand banks near the river mouth on the drop-offs. Ideally you want to fish half an hour either side of both tides. A fun way to fish for flatties is to flick plastics such as grub tails. I love 4” Gulp Jerkshads in nuclear chicken for flatties, rigged on fairly light jigheads around 1/8oz. It’s important to work your plastic slowly and make sure to intersperse pauses in your retrieve. The flatties will usually strike on the pause. For flicking plastics

you want a light, whippy graphite rod and a spin reel. I use 16lb fluoro leader onto 4kg braid. Flatty fishing is great fun for kids. They don’t have to cast far from the bank – just 2m can be enough. When my son was 4 years old he caught an 80cm flathead at my feet in a foot of water! Don’t be afraid to fish that shallow clear water, especially on a making tide. • Truansea Charters specialise in 10-hour day trips chasing prized reef targets such as coral trout

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and red emperor, as well as arm-stretching pelagics like Spanish mackerel. The maximum number of anglers is 6, so you’ll never feel crowded. The price is $350pp (or $330pp if you book the whole boat), which includes all gear, fuel, bait, ice, chilled water/soft drinks and laughs! You’re welcome to bring your own reef fishing gear if you prefer. Other charter options include half-day reef trips, half day river trips and private guiding. To find out more visit www.truansea. com.au, or you can Like them on Facebook or call Luke on 0423 015 490.

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NSW

Ghosts and snap attacks COFFS COAST

Rob Taylor

There are two fish species that have been on everyone’s lips and in ice boxes this past month:

snapper and mulloway. We have seen a pretty epic start to our winter snapper run, with most boaties managing a good box of reds every session, including the odd horse fish of 8kg or better. Most

of the snapper are being taken anywhere between the 20-40m lines, and they’re falling to a variety of techniques, including bait and plastics. The local beaches have been the focal point for

Cameron Hall with a brace of solid river bream.

ba Prawn Blade s” “Yam Gavin Hackett with a solid red from out around the islands.

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This is why it’s worth braving a cold start off the Coffs Coast in August.

mulloway (jewfish) anglers fishing the night-time high tides, with plenty of midrange fish being taken by those willing to brave the cold. We’ve also seen some good catches of tailor, drummer, bream and blackfish off local rocks and beaches, and you can expect these species to continue to dominate throughout August. Surprisingly, there are still some good flathead on the chew despite the drop in water temperatures, with some good fish being taken over the flats on rising tides. On the sport and game fishing fronts, there have been a few lingering mackerel around, including a late run of spotted mackerel terrorising snapper plastics and putting a dent in tackle boxes. When the weather has permitted, pods of longtail tuna were swimming within drifting distance of the local headlands, and a couple of striped marlin have also been prowling just on the first shelf drop-off. Let’s take a look at what August should produce.

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CREEKS AND RIVERS A lot of anglers will transition away from targeting flathead and whiting in the creeks and rivers, in favour of chasing bream and blackfish. The winter run of both species looks to be off to a good start, with some solid captures being reported. Bream will be fairly widespread throughout the local creeks and rivers, but you can’t beat the rock walls near the mouths as the best spots to find fish, or at least start prospecting for them. Both lures and bait will work on the winter bream run. You can also expect some soapy jew (small mulloway) to crash the party, but few anglers complain when this happens! Blackfish will also inhabit the local rock walls, and any rock structure around the local creek mouths will also hold luderick. Creative anglers will find success using weed imitation flies,

but drummer do). It sounds out of place to still be talking about LBG options in August. However, I was still catching longtails off the stones in September last year, and with a stack of fish still reported to be south of us, I’d wager there will be some fairly hot live baiting sessions on offer this month. All the usual haunts will be worth drifting out a live bait or having a spin, and if nothing else, mac tuna are guaranteed. OFFSHORE As mentioned, the big news for offshore fishos is the solid start to our winter red run, and this should continue through August and into September. This time of year sees some solid snapper

ROCKS

Brad Bye with a typical offshore mulloway taken off Coffs. while traditionalists will more than likely bag out on conventional sea lettuce and horse hair presentations.

ROCKS AND BEACHES As mentioned, the big talk of late has been the amount of mid-range

Mulloway are common bycatch in the rivers at this time of year.

mulloway being taken from local beaches by those willing to put in the time and brave the cold. Fresh strip and live baits have accounted for some great catches at night, and we can expect this to continue throughout August. Pick up some live yellowtail at the local marina and send them off the beaches to the north of Coffs and you’ll be hassled by sharks, but you’ll also be in with a good chance of a prize mulloway. Time your session with a high tide just after dark to increase your chances. Otherwise, there’ll be plenty of tailor and bream off the beaches and rocks, and I’ll be throwing metals such as Halco Twisties into the white water for some great tailor action at this time of year. If you like bare knuckle fishing then the rocks will also be worth a prospect for luderick, drummer and groper. Again, look for areas with good whitewater coverage but steer clear of any churned-up sand (blackfish don’t mind

up in the shallows and out to the 60m line. Drifting with plastics is a sure-fire way to attract a snapper’s interest, but don’t discount a good old-fashioned float lining session to bag a feed of fish. Pearlies and trag will also be feeding on the deeper grounds from 40m out. Expect the odd solid jewfish to also be taken in the same areas. For sport and game boats, we should now see some yellowfin out off the shelf, along with striped marlin. For the deep droppers, bar cod will be feeding on their usual haunts along the 100m line. All up, this is a great time to be out on the water, so rug up and good luck!

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Catches from Hopkins COBDEN

Rod Shepherd

Despite the wintry weather there are plenty of keen anglers still out and about chasing fish in our estuaries, freshwater lakes as well as out on the briny. Firstly, there’s no point talking about the Curdies estuary as no one is fishing it and if they are, no reports are coming in. We won’t know the full extent of the damage done to the bream and perch population until the system fills to the extent where it is manually opened to the sea and given a good flush-out. Of course, the system will see replacement species such as salmon and mullet enter the system ,and maybe a mulloway or three. Then and only then will we know what bream and perch are left, if any. I strongly suggest that

a catch and release only rule should be placed on these two species for the next few years to give the fish a chance to repopulate. In the meantime, the size and weight of what’s possibly left will give us an idea how bad the situation is. Meanwhile, the Hopkins is fishing well for all three species, including mulloway to almost a metre in length. The mulloway are responding to live baits such as mullet, as well as fresh cut baits of filleted mullet and salmon caught in the river earlier on. Decent-sized soft plastics and minnow lures in excess of 120mm are also picking up a few. The prime time is still after dark, especially around a change of tide. The mouth around the danger board, the road bridge pylons as well as any shallow mud flats (around the top of the tide) has seen

good fish hooked, lost and landed. Your leader should be a minimum of 12lb breaking strain, and I recommend using quality fluorocarbon material over monofilament for a better result. Speaking of mulloway, there are plenty inhabiting the Glenelg River along with positive reports also coming out of the Fitzroy and Moyne Rivers. Heaps of school southern bluefin tuna to 7kg are available right along our coastline, and with the help of binoculars and a good view from the shore, feeding frenzies accompanied with diving seabirds can easily be seen not far out at all. The odd larger specimen has been seen amongst its smaller brethren. Make no mistake though, the small tuna still put up a hard fight and are the perfect size to keep for a feed or two.

Unlike the Curdies River, these Hopkins bream are still readily available to anglers in the know. These beauties took unweighted cut crab opposite the Mahoneys Road boat ramp, and were released.

Reliable salmon catches GEELONG

Neil Slater slaterfish@gmail.com

August has always been cold and windy in the region, but you’ll always find a fish if

has seen consistent captures of small trout for anglers flicking winged lures and heavy spoons. The reservoir has been near capacity for a while now, and heavy rain can make it discoloured. Bait fishos armed with mudeye

seeing for Aussie salmon! They’ve been super busy around the Bellarine Peninsula, and there have been some real whoppers down the Surf Coast. The Geelong waterfront has been a real go-to for salmon fishos as they have been fairly reliable here. Sometimes, they’re smashing baitfish on the surface and other times,

patrolling deep. They’ve been caught on just about everything, including soft plastics, divers, surface lures and almost any bait. Most of the fish here have been from 35 to 45cm, with a few over 50cm caught. David Le has been loitering down the waterfront a fair bit and catching plenty. He has been fishing deep for them

Andrew released a bigger gummy off Barwon Heads but kept these for a feed.

Marc Ainsworth has been using squid with a pilchard tempter as bait. you’re prepared to throw on a beanie. Wurdee Buloc Reservoir near Moriac 78

AUGUST 2022

and float set-ups should do well with a light easterly around dawn and dusk. What a season we’re

Matt waded through the tiddlers to beach this 2kg salmon from eastern view.

using soft plastic lures and working them slowly close to the bottom. David has filmed a bit of the action on his YouTube channel ‘Fishing with David’. For boat fishos, these fish can turn up absolutely anywhere inside Corio Bay. If they’re not smashing bait on the surface, you may have to troll for them

and cover some water. Trolling from the entrance of Limeburners rock wall, Geelong waterfront, Rippleside, bulk grain piers and around to north shore covers a lot of their haunts. Point Henry and Point Wilson are other places to visit with the boat if the weather To page 79

VIC From page 78

allows. The most effective way to catch multiple fish is by trolling lures to locate them, then casting at them once they’re found. Portarlington pier

fishing the Bellarine and getting a few whiting up to 40cm. Marc says most have been 32-38cm with the dawn bite being best, and often in less than 3m of water. The best baits

David has been ripping the salmon in along the Geelong waterfront.

Marc Ainsworth has done well around the Bellarine, with fish to 40cm. has also seen numbers of salmon as well, but they’re a bit smaller at around 30cm. Salmon move around a lot, which means they can be flat stick one day and gone the next. Put the time in and you’ll bend a rod with them eventually. For land-based fishos, St Leonards pier has seen calamari and whiting caught, and the best time has been after dark. Take a good mix of colours as they have been a little fussy. Around 4m of water seemed to be the goldilocks depth for them last month, but moving around and swapping jigs is the key to locating them. Whiting have been unpredictable but a few dedicated anglers have them figured out. Typically, St Leonards down to Queenscliff is the ‘go-to’ for consistency, but remember that this time last year the 6m mark off Leopold was going off its head whiting-wise, so it pays to just keep moving and keep trying the spots you’ve caught fish from in the past. Marc Ainsworth has put in a solid few weeks

few tuna about off Lorne – both in amongst the salmon schools and out by themselves. Alby also managed to land his first ever tuna, which he was very excited about. Keith also notes the pier at Lorne has been fishing well with big salmon, trevally, snapper, calamari and whiting being caught by anglers prepared to rug up. Gummy sharks have been making themselves known offshore, with some solid models to 15kg being caught. Andrew McLaughlin from Leopold Angling and Aquatic Club boated three off Barwon Heads. He released the largest, a 15kg female, and kept the two smaller males for a feed. Dave Reynolds fished with Grant Greenwood out off Barwon Heads where the lads also boated a few gummy sharks, plus a pair of whopper 7-gill sharks fishing in 30-35m. The Barwon River estuary has had a good run of silver trevally and

have been a squid strip topped with a small piece of pilchard, and Marc has not needed to use pipis. He has been using a size 2 Mustad circle hook on a paternoster rig, with his best sessions yielding around 15-20 fish, and the worst was a 5-fish outing. Clifton Springs boat harbour entrance has been a real hazard on low tide, with many boats running

Rita with a 2.811kg sambo from Lorne.

Alby with his junior club record 2.96kg salmon – better than the old blokes!

aground. A long-reach excavator was put to use to dig the entrance out near the end of May. Marine Safety Victoria have advised to navigate with caution. The Surf Coast down to Lorne has seen plenty of salmon caught, with some around 2kg along the beaches and rock platforms, and up to 3kg caught near Lorne. Matt Golding fished Eastern View on the incoming tide where they caught plenty of small salmon around the 20-22cm mark using pipis. Just as the tide peaked, Matt’s rod (baited with bluebait) went nuts

and he beached a ripper of around 2kg. Keith Miller, the commodore of Lorne Aquatic and Angling Club, says the salmon fishing has been sensational with lots of anglers having a ball catching them. Recently, Alby Dawson set a new junior club record with a 2.061kg salmon which was nudged out by Rita De Bon with a 2.811kg fish! Rita held the record for a short time but then Alby reclaimed it with a 2.96kg salmon which is now the current junior record and is actually heavier than the senior record holder. There has also been a

salmon to 40cm on the incoming tide. The best bait has been pilchard pieces, and small soft plastics such as 50mm single-tailed grubs have worked very well too. • Catch a few around Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula or Surf Coast to Lorne recently? Send in a report to slaterfish@ gmail.com with ‘FMG’ in the subject field or give me a call on 0408 997348. Please include where (without giving away your secret spot!), when, what on and who caught the fish. Pictures are always great, but please make sure they are at least 1MB (file size). AUGUST 2022

BASS SERIES presented by

Noble wins and Langers gets his three-peat Starting our BASS Pro series in the southernmost impoundments, it was only fitting that the sixth and final round sponsored by Halco went to the northernmost venue, Cania Dam. After a few bleak years, the dam has seen some decent inflows, which is Scan the QR code to watch the Boater winner interview

what first placed boater John Noble focused on, pushing right upriver to win the event from the back of the dam. Nobles’ non-boater on day one Tim Steenhuis made the most of sharing the boat with the champion boater, weighing an impressive 3/3

a second place in the final event of the year Matthew Langford took home his third consecutive AOY title. LOCAL KNOWLDEGE KEY FOR NOBLE Local legend John Noble took out the final round of the year in a big way, by beating a very much in-form Matt Langford by a little over 600g. With streams of local knowledge behind him, Noble decided to focus on the recent in-flow that had pushed bait and bass right up-river. “There’s a lot of shallow weed up the river arm and a bit of a channel running through it,” said Noble, “The fish were either sitting hard up on the weed or timber, or just off the edge in the channel.” The overcast and

Boater John Noble took out the 6th and final round of the 2022 13 Fishing BASS Pro series and punched his ticket to the grand final on the Clarence River in October. giving them access to the fish they could see on LiveScope hiding underneath it. His jerkbait set up was a Samurai infinite 3-8lb paired with a Lews KVD 200 spin reel, 10lb Suffix 832 braid and 10lb sunline leader. On the other hand, his spinnerbait combo was a baitcast model 7ft Samurai Refraction with a

Scan the QR code to watch the Non-boater winner interview

Lews Hypermag speed spool with a heaver 14lb leader to put the brakes on those hard hitting fish.

Tim Steenhuis brought a cracking three fish bag in on day one to set himself up for victory. So good in fact that he didn’t need to catch another fish all weekend to win! limit for 2.945kg on day one that, after the dreaded donut on day two, was still enough to see him take out the non-boater division in a very tough bite. With the final round also came the conclusion of the 2022 AOY race between Mitchell Cone and Matthew Langford, and what a shootout it’s been. Ultimately, there could be only one winner and with

spinnerbait very shallow over the top of the weed and fish the jerkbait when the weed got a little bit deeper,” adding that he was most confident in the jerkbait to get the bigger bites. The day really opened up for him and non-boater Tim Steenhuis when the floating weed that had accumulated up the river – blocking a portion of their weed beds – broke apart with the wind,

rainy conditions on day one provided the perfect conditions for reaction baits. Noble used a 1/2oz Daiwa Steez spinnerbait in smoke shad colour to represent a bony bream and a Jackall squirrel 67 in brown suji-shrimp colour. When asked when and where he used each bait, he said “I pretty much fished what was in front of me at the time. I’d fish the

BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 98

AUGUST 2022

Angler John Noble Matt Langford Shaun Falkenhagen Matt Johnson Nick Anderson Malcolm Stewart Bill Latimer Gregory Burke Mitchell Cone Keeghan Painter

Fish 8/10 7/10 5/10 3/10 4/10 3/10 3/10 3/101 2/10 2/10

It was a good, consistent quality of fish, such as this one pictured, that got Noble across the line.

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 5.420 4.775 3.685 3.130 3.035 2.170 2.020 2.010 1.830 1.650

Payout $2700 $1500 $800 + $500 Big bass + $75 3rd Merc $600

BASS SERIES presented by Day two and the conditions were polar opposite to day one with the sun blaring and the fish feeling the pressure. It quickly became evident that the reaction bite had died so noble adjusted by targetting fish sitting in the deep channel of the weed, around 15ft deep. Vertical jigging an Ecogear ZX43 (colour 447 being the standout) accounted for just three fish on a tough second day, however it was enough to hold out Matt Langford and take the crown. MR AOY STRIKES AGAIN Writing himself into the history books once again with his third consecutive BASS AOY trophy is the infallible Matthew Langford. His 2nd place finish at Cania Dam means he finished the year with a total of 399 out of a possible 400 AOY points, followed agonisingly close by good Mate Mitch Cone with 398 – a score that any other year would have left the rest of the field in the dust. Using the clues he picked up from a comp a few weeks prior, Langford chose to fish rock edges in the main basin with a lot of submerged structure he knew held fish. Using his LiveScope unit, he was able to save time by ruling out the snags and rocks he couldn’t find fish on and focusing on the

ones with fish. One fish on the first morning fell to a Jackall Squirrel 79 before he picked up a 3/8oz black Bassman Jig and didn’t look back. Scan the QR code to watch the Day 1 Highlights

For a jig trailer, Langford uses a Berkley MaxScent creature hog. The technique was to pick apart the rock and timber in 10-20ft of water slowly, just dragging his jig across the structure and feeling for the bite, which was quite subtle. “It’s hard to explain but I can feel a buzz through the line when they swim off with it, it’s like the line cutting through the water. That’s when I know when to strike,” he explained. He added that the jig bite didn’t start to really get good until about 10 am, with day two being even later again. The bite was tough even on day one with Langford only landing his last legal at 1:45pm and his only upgrade at 1:50pm. With 2.640kg after day one and sitting in second, Langford was in a good spot after day one, he knew he just needed a few good fish to go close on day two. With no bites until 11am, he went on the hunt,

An all too familiar face on the podium – Matt Langford wrapped up the 2022 AOY race between him and Mitch cone with a 2nd place in the last event. He finishes the year with a total of 399 of 400 AOY points. pulling up on a timbered bank in about 15ft of water and hopping his jig off the bottom to be met with the ‘buzz’ he explained earlier and setting hooks into a Scan the QR code to watch the Day 2 Highlights

solid fish around 1.1kg. Proceeding to his, aptly named by Mick Johnson as ‘Langers bank’, Langers added another fish around a kilo to give him a two fish limit almost as big as his full

Matt Johnson caught the events Buck n’ Big Bass. This 1.58kg bass earned him $500 cash plus some great Buck n’ Bass gear.

NON- BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Angler Tim Steenhuis Adam Mears Shaun Ezzy Cameron Hall Heath Kimber Anthony Melchior Zachery Taylor Ricky McGuinness Christina Tschutura Beau Eveleigh

Fish 3/6 4/6 2/6 2/6 2/6 2/6 1/6 1/6 1/6 1/6

Weight(kg) 2.945 2.540 1.540 1.280 1.160 0.975 0.815 0.635 0.635 0.458

day one limit at 2.135kg. “After I got that second good fish I was over the moon. I’d spoken to a few guys throughout the day that said they were struggling, so I knew if I just landed a few good fish, I would go close to winning,” he said, adding “The best feeling was knowing I’d definitely done enough to take out the AOY. It’s an awesome feeling when you know you’ve done enough, and that second fish just sealed the deal for me.” For his jig set up, Langford uses a 7’3” Millerods SwitchFreak UL paired with a 13 Fishing Concept Z reel spooled with 16lb Yamatoyo resin sheller braid. SPONSOR KARMA FOR STEENHUIS Champion of the non-boaters at Cania, Tim Steenhuis, made the most of his time up-river with day one leader John Noble and plonked a cracking limit of almost 3kg on the scales to take victory and, in the end, his huge day one limit was all that was needed. Fishing in as shallow as 1ft at times, the fishing was extremely visual and often the pair would see bass come flying out of the weed over to their lure being worked just below the surface and smash it at full speed. Unlike Noble who opted for a spinnerbait/jerkbait option, Tim chose two baits – a silent, ghost gill coloured Jackall TN60 rigged with single hooks to keep it weed-free and a Bassman

spinnerbait in colour 27, rigged with a stinger hook to minimise any short strikes. “I don’t know if they still make that colour Bassman anymore because every time I ring Glen and Sue they have to go looking for it. But if they don’t, I reckon they should bring it back!” said Steenhuis. The bigger fish in his bag fell to the TN60 burned across the top of the weed and dropped down the face of it where the fish would come out and smash it on the drop. The most crucial technology wasn’t a sounder or a Hydrowave or anything flash and expensive, for Tim it was his polarised sunglasses that were crucial to being able to see the edge of the weed in perfect clarity, as well as the holes in the weed where he could land a lure. Having fished ABT for several years, Tim has collected a number of good prizes that he uses to win himself more prizes, and so the cycle continues! All weekend he used a Millerods SwitchFreak UL that he’d bought with his $500 from a Big Bass prize, paired with a 13 Fishing Concept Z he’d also won, spooled with 20lb Nitlon PE and 20lb Sunline FC rock leader, which, you guessed it, he also won at a previous event. Not that we need anymore, but Tim is living proof that the sponsor Karma is very real and it’s worth channelling!

Full results at abt.org.au

Payout Rapala Prize pack + $250 1st Rapala Rapala prize pack Bassman spinnerbaits prize pack Bassman prize pack $125 2nd Rapala + Maui Jim prize pack Molix prize pack + $75 3rd Rapala Prolure prize pack Keitech prize pack Toadfish prize pack Toadfish prize pack AUGUST 2022

BREAM SERIES presented by

Morgan cranks up 11th win at Tweed In an event that saw him win his 11th ABT qualifying event, Brisbane’s Steve Morgan rose from 13th place after day one to 1st place at the end of the Atomic round of the Daiwa BREAM Series on the Tweed River. Historically, the Tweed is an event that has been won by small bags. Recent floods, however, have enhanced the bream fishery on this river in the Queensland/ New South Wales border. Weights that would’ve won previous events were finishing midfield after the first day’s weigh in. Morgan weighed a 5/5, 2.49kg limit to sit in 13th place behind the two leading Victorian anglers (Byron Hill and Cam Whittam) and a bunch of others.

on day two, I was ticking off places I thought hadn’t seen much pressure on day one. One of these was the main Fingal rockwall between the boat ramp and the river mouth. It was a popular spot in earlier events but must have been overlooked by most of the field,” Morgan continued. And it didn’t take long for the decision to pay off. Cranking the wall on the last of the run-out tide with Atomic Hardz Deep 38 crankbaits in muddy prawn and Tim’s prawn yielded instant results with a 600g fish eating on the first cast. “The bream were sitting on the seam between sand and rock at 6-8ft down and the Hardz got to the right depth at the bottom of the

Two blokes with plenty of reasons to smile! Champion Steve Morgan and his counterpart in the non-boater division, Adam Wilson. boater Drew Griffith. Drew didn’t get out for a pre-fish on Friday, instead however he relied on his knowledge from his pre-fish on the weekend prior to the pre-fish ban to get him through. “I got out for a pre-fish before the ban ended and found a lot of good fish holding on the small reef out the front of Kennedy drive boat ramp up the Terranora creek arm,” he said. The reef is only shallow – about 2.5m of water –

however the current is strong through the channel, so he needed a bait that stayed down amongst the fish. For this, Drew chose a variety of colours in the Berkley Gulp 2” Shrimp, rigged on a 1/8oz Atomic Seekerz jighead with the main selections being natural shrimp, banana prawn and swamp gas colours. Drifting his plastic above the reef with short sharp hops accounted for four of his fish on day one at Kennedy Drive before he made the

Morgo bounced back from tough results in WA in a way that only he can, by winning the next event from 13th place the day before! He caught early fish on the outback breamer ‘Muss’ before cranking up a limit along the Fingal wall, as well as adding a vital kicker upriver on a soft plastic prawn imitation. “I had what I thought was a reasonable limit by noon, so I spent the last few hours fishing mangrove edges in the Terranora arm of the system,” Steve said, “because this river usually fishes tough on day two and I wanted to know if there was legal fish on the subtle structure.” A solid session on unweighted Ecogear Aqua solidified the plan with a couple of late upgrades. “As I sat at the start line

Scan the QR code to watch Steve Morgan and Adam Wilson Interview

tide. As the current slowed, so did the bite. There was a small window, and I was lucky enough to take advantage of it,” Steve said. “After that the kicker fish came one after another and by the end of the drift, there was about 2.75kg in the well,” he said. You can watch the action from Morgan’s livestream in the highlights by scanning the QR code hereby. After that, he finished by

upgrading the two smallest fish on the high-tide Aqua pattern in the Terranora arm. He fished the crankbait on a Daiwa Infeet EX 6101ULRS matched with a Caldia LT 2000S reel and 3lb Daiwa J-Thread fluorocarbon. The Aqua rig was an Infeet Z 732LFS with a Revelry MQ 3000, 6lm Daiwa J-Braid and 6lb Chinu Harris leader. The salt and pepper bait was rigged on his favourite #1 Magic Beak worm hook. REEF FISHING MASTERY FROM DREW GRIFFITH Another local claiming back the podium from the southerners who held it on day one was second placed

BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 100

AUGUST 2022

Angler Steve Morgan Drew Griffiths Jamie McKeown Byron Hill Tristan Taylor Peter Cashman Michael Horn Cameron Whittam Jacob Kelly Mark Saric

Fish 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10

Weight(kg) 5.550 5.430 5.360 5.245 5.235 5.185 5.105 5.075 5.050 5.040

Drew Griffiths slotted into 2nd place behind Morgo and he did so with a number of cracking tarwhine he caught late on day two off the southern break wall.

Full results at abt.org.au

Payout $2500 + $250 1st Merc bonus + $1,440 Atomic bonus + pro option $1500 $900 $600 + $125 2nd Merc bonus +$500 Big Bream $500 + $75 3rd Merc bonus

BREAM SERIES presented by move down to the mouth of the system to finish his day fishing the reef in the middle of the main channel at the front of the Jack Evans Boat Harbour. On day two, the current was ripping hard through Drew’s Kennedy Drive spot and with fishing pressure, the fish weren’t playing the game. “There was too much Scan the QR code to watch the Day 1 Highlights

current there, so I decided to make a move to down the front to the reef where I got fish at the end of day one and just stick it out down there,” Drew said about his decision to move on from spot one on Sunday. Moving from 2.5m deep to 4.5m deep down the front of the system, Drew changed his jighead from a 1/8oz up to a 1/6oz to make up for the deeper bottom. Also expanding his soft plastic choice, he added a smeltcoloured Gulp 4” minnow to his quiver, which accounted for its share of reef fish too.

Byron Hill was leading the event after day one with an exceptional Tweed bag, however he wasn’t able to hold on for day two but did hold onto the $500 Buck N’ Big bream. “We actually stumbled on a pretty hot bite along the south wall on the turn of the tide in the afternoon. We were just drifting Cranka Crabs along the rock face and I picked up a 36cm tipper for my first upgrade, then I got a couple of donkey tarwhine around 900g to upgrade nearly my whole bag,” said Drew. Four Chris Britton custom rods are what Drew

sheer volume of fish they were getting. Working through the numbers paid off as his 3/3 limit for 1.9kg on day one had him leading the non-boater division going into the second day. Growing up on the Clarence River, fishing rock walls and shallow reef is a technique you pick up quickly, so the adjustment from canal fishing to fishing rock walls and reef with Tristan Taylor on day two was an easy one for Adam. He chose two baits to fish the front of the system on day two, sticking with his Aqua set up, but also adding a Cranka Crab rigged on a Daiwa Infeet EX 702LFS paired with a Daiwa Revlry 2500 again spooled with

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 2 Highlights

non-boater division was Tweed local Adam Wilson who was fortunate enough to get to fish to his strengths over two days – Ecogear Aqua in canals, and Crabs on

Mat Cameron is a Atomic-sponsored local non-boater who finished runner-up in the non-boater division.

Tristo summing up how all of us feel at takeoff on comp day! Naturally, a Cranka Crab made an appearance on the reef to contribute to the limit as well. With his bag now in hand and the tide beginning to rip fast, it became harder and harder to fish the reef so by the time of the tide change towards the end of the session, Drew made the move to the southern break wall.

used for the whole weekend – two of which were 6’6” and 7’ 1-3kg models and the other two 6’6” and 7’ 2-4 kg models. For reels, he used Daiwa Esmerelda, Certate and TD Sol models with 8lb J-Braid and 8-6lb Daiwa J-Thread leader. WILSON CLEANS UP IN THE CANALS Spearheading the

deep rock walls. Drawing boater Byron Hill for day one, he was pleased to find out the plan was to fish canals for the day. “I lived on the Gold Coast for 15 years so Aqua fishing is my bread and butter,” Adam said, “I didn’t really expect to get them in the canals, so I was stoked when we did, it’s such a fun way to fish.”

NON- BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Angler Adam Wilson Mathew Cameron Grayson Fong Bernard Kong John Glover Michael Maas Taka Kawasaki David Lonne Mark McKay Lance Marsh

Fish 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6

The pair punished the canal bream with Aqua rigged weightless and weedless on Vanfook Magic Beak worm hooks, skipped around the pontoons, boats, poles and often at times just up onto the sandy and rocky banks. A long cast is important so as not to spook the fish, and for this he used a JML Dragon 7’ 1-3g paired with a Daiwa TD Sol III 2000 spin reel, PE-8 Sunline ADV braid and 5lb Sunline leader. “There were times there when we had double hook ups, or we’d land 7 or 8 fish in the space of 10 minutes. We would have landed 40-50 fish for the day, maybe even more,” Adam said of the

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 3.315 3.195 2.940 2.905 2.820 2.730 2.660 2.655 2.650 2.520

Payout $880 pro option + Daiwa prize pack Daiwa prize pack Daiwa prize pack Prolure prize pack Rapala prize pack Keitech prize pack Toadfish prize pack Toadfish prize pack

Sunline PE8 ADV. When asked if he adapted his Aqua set up to suit the deeper structure, Adam’s experience shone through. He said, “I decided to keep fishing the Aqua only I chopped and changed my jighead weight throughout the day from as heavy as 1/4oz when the tide was really pumping, down to a 1/12oz when it lulled.” Increasing his leader to 8lb, due to the harsher environment, made sure that any fish he did hook close to the nasty stuff was getting to the boat, which is especially important when you only have a handful of bites for the day. “I really enjoyed both days, they were two different styles of fishing but two that I’m used to so that made it fun.” said Adam. BUCK N’ BIG BREAM Our day one leader and the man with who weighed the biggest bag for the tournament, Byron Hill weighed in the events Big Bream at 1.02kg, making himself $500 richer in the process. It can be seen eating an Ecogear Aqua in our day one highlights package, scan the QR code to check it out! AUGUST 2022

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BASS SERIES presented by

BASS ELECTRIC SERIES

abt

Ezzy Sliders to victory The Lake Macdonald round of the BKK Hooks Bass Electric series was always going to be tough, with plenty of water entering and exiting the lake and a cold snap leading up to the event. The lake, however, seemed

to produce plenty of fish – undersized and some of the right ones as well. A great turnout of 34 anglers saw 39 bass delivered to the scales. Shaun Ezzy brought a kicker bass of 1.58kg, helping secure the first place

After catching fish like this, Ezzy broke off his lure and gave it to fellow competitor, Peter Woods. Who Shares Wins, we guess!

and some good karma and the ABT motto of Who Shares Wins, with a winning bag of 2/2 2.80kg. “Leading into the tournament, I found the bigger fish had migrated down the dam towards the main basin so I concentrated my efforts in that area. The bubbler had produced some quality leading into the event and again early on prefish morning, but it had a short bite window first up in the morning. Knowing that, I decided to hit the bubbler early for a bag then go searching the flats in the main basin for upgrades,” Shaun said. “It turned out that the fish I got at the bubbler first up would be it for the day. I caught eight for the session there in a short period of time with a few upgrades,” he continued. All the fish were caught on a John Deere Slider grub and a 5/8 jighead rolled slowly through the bubbler. The fish were in 8-10ft of water, the bites would come about a metre either side of the bubbles. “The Lowrance Active Target showed that the bass where grouped in one particular area along the bubbler, which made it easy to locate the exact spot to

Shaun Ezzy broke through for his maiden BASS Electric win at Lake Macdonald. cast,” Shaun concluded. In second place, not far behind Shaun, Peter Woods brought 2/2 bass to the scales for 2.64kg. Fishing from his kayak, he also landed his limit from the bubbler, however he benefited from Ezzy’s generosity when he handed Woods the lure that he was catching all of his bass on. Immediately, he landed

a 42cm fork length fish, which, when added to the bass already in his well, propelled him to second place. “I would like to thank Shaun for his generous offer of the plastic that was working the best on the day. The plastic had a couple of cut downs throughout the day but lasted me until the end,” Woods said.

Bostock dominant at Toonumbar The first round of the ABT BASS Electric round sponsored by BKK Hooks was at Toonumbar Dam, in northern New South Wales. This tournament was almost not going to go ahead due to the local flooding in NSW and SEQ, and the immense amount of rain that these areas had received. It was therefore going to be an interesting competition for the weekend as the water was chocolate brown and had floating debris. 21 anglers took off on Saturday at 12:30pm and finished the session at 7pm, while the second session was Sunday morning from 6am until 12 noon. After session one’s weigh in, it was known that is was going to be a tough event, with small fish hitting the scales and word of a lot of undersized bass being caught. It was still showing that there were fish to be caught but you just needed to be in the right area for the legal size. There was one angler who stood out from the rest, Peter Bostock, who led the field overnight. Sunday morning saw the field take off to do it all again, to see if it would be another day of sorting

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AUGUST 2022

Peter spent the rest of the evening throwing Chubbies to the edge, hooking up fairly consistently. Sunday saw Peter head back up the creek and he caught a few undersized fish. With 30 minutes to go, Peter lost a good fish at the net – this was to be second keeper. But finally on the last cast

of the day he hooked and landed his second legal. Peter finished the weekend with a winning weight of 3.4kg for 4/4. “Massive shout out to our new tournament director Adrian Wilson, the ABT team and Col Linton from BKK for their support,” Peter said.

Peter’s Big BASS was 1.34kg and earned him a BKK Hooks prize pack. through the small bass again. After the session finished, the weigh in revealed a few bags with single fish and only a couple with the full limit. Toonumbar only produced three anglers that had their 4/4 bag limit. In second place was Charles West. Westy fished the top part of the lake casting the edges that had any sign of weed on them and lily pads. Most of the

legal fish were caught on a 1/6oz jighead rigged plastic in pumpkinseed colour. The winner of this round led the event wire-to-wire, Peter Bostock. Peter had a prefish Friday afternoon for not even a touch. On Saturday Peter headed up the creek where he managed one good fish on a ZMan Slim SwimZ and was the bass that would end up being Big BASS for the weekend. At 1.350kg, it was in great health.

Peter Bostock continued his vein of hot form with a win on Toonumbar Dam in northern NSW.

East Coast Bream Series Round 4 Results A total of 44 boats started the fourth round of the East Coast Bream Series on the Hawkesbury. The morning was cold and windy, and the wind remained for the entire day, which made it a tough fishing.

last Hawkesbury River round with ABT a couple of weeks earlier, I felt very confident with my usual milk run. “I used low tide to start fishing oyster leases far upstream where we were lucky enough to land

make it three”. In second place were Troy Parsons and Ryan Jamieson, Team Hunts Marine/Hurricane Lures. The pair got $1100 for their efforts of 5 fish for 4.30kg. Troy said, “With the comp starting at Brooklyn

First Place: Phoenix Boats All Clear Team - Michael Colotouros, Robert Patruno, John Nacitaa. we decided to head up river and target rocky edges. Throwing lightly weighted Hurricane Sprats we had a bag early and steadily

Second Place: Hunts Marine/ Hurricane Lures Team Troy Parsons, Ryan Jamieson, Simon Morley. Bag sizes were down on previous years, but some competitors managed a good bag of five bream. There were quite a few of 1kg bream brought back to the scales with the biggest bream caught by Michael Colotouros hitting the scales at 1.34kg. Despite the all day wind, the teams managed a full day fishing. All reports for Monday was for gale force winds, which would have probably seen another round postponed. In first place was Team Phoenix Boats All Clear, consisting of Michael Colotouros and Robert Patruno, who won $2000 for a winning bag of 5 fish for 4.31kg. Michael said, “After successfully winning the

a 1.32kg fish straight up. As the tide pushed higher on the banks we started running from Milsons Passage, the Vines, Mooney Mooney and Brooklyn. “Fishing light weighted Daiwa Bait Junkie bloodworm grubs across the oyster covered rocks. Most spots we were lucky enough to land over 800g and consistently adding weight to the bag. “Finding unfished water was the key! Most places were like a car park with boats heavily fishing on top of each other, so we needed to find untouched banks, and that gave us a great advantage. “This is our second back-to-back win on the Hawkesbury and hoping to come back next year to

RESULTS

upgraded through the day. “Both Ryan and myself managed a kilo fish, which helped our bag to a very respectable 4.3kg and

Third Place: Fishin.com.au Team - Jason Graham, Cristian Bermudez, Nathan Young.

2second place.” In third place was Team Fishin.com.au with Jason Graham and Christian Bermudez. They got 5 fish for 3.98kg and won $800. Jason and Cristian chose to fish close to the start line, as they were restricted this round with boat travel times because they were using a slower hire boat for this event. Jason said, “We predominantly fished rock walls throughout Broken Bay by throwing ZMan Grubs lightly weighted and Cranka Crabs tight to the edge, on 6lb line. “We caught a good bag of 5 fish by 9am. After that we caught many more fish, but it took to 1pm to get a couple of upgrades. Our bag weight was helped along as we had two fish over a 1kg. Big thanks to the organisers for making the event happen.” For full results go to www.wsbb.com.au.

www.wsbb.com.au

TEAM

Anglers

Phoenix Boats All Clear

Michael Colotouros, Robert Patruno, John Nacitaa 5

Hunts Marine/ Hurricane Lures Troy Parsons, Ryan Jamieson, Simon Morley

Fish

Weight(kg) 4.31

4.30

Fishin.com.au

Jason Graham, Cristian Bermudez, Nathan Young 5

3.98

Parko

Andy Parkinson, Tyler Parkinson

3.94

Off the Scales

Mitchell Simonis Matthew Simonis

3.69

Smart Fish/Lowance

Ahmad Mahfoud, Christian Wardini, Louie Wardini 5

3.38

Edgey Bites

Adam Hughes, Matt Green

3.29

Bolton Lurez/ Fishfingered

Michael Solomon, Steve Dewell

3.07

On the ChargeFishing

Karl Stait, George Agathos

3.04

Baggin Out

Daniel McCheane, Brad Muir

2.85

OOD SPO GSW RTS KIN

East Coast Bream Series

Third Place: Parko Team Andy Parkinson, Tyler Parkinson. AUGUST 2022

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A commitment to training In a day and age where technology in fishing has taken giant leaps (and continues to do so) there are those of us who feel like we are being left behind. Not because we don’t want to understand, more because the technology needs to be explained in simple terms, or in my case, hands on. BLA (Boating Lifestyle Adventure) the wholesaler of the Humminbird and Minn Kota brands (plus many more) in Australia provides their sales representatives a hands on way for their retailers to answer their customers questions, whether they are on the advanced or basic end of the scale. I was lucky enough to be invited along to check out the BLA’s Formosa 525 CC training boat that has been fitted out with an impressive list of accessories to provide that exact hands on experience I have mentioned. I have no intention of writing about every accessory on board, but I would like to summarise a few things that caught my eye and certainly answered questions that I had. Humminbird Mega LIVE transducer This was my first experience of any form of LIVE technology and it didn’t disappoint. We took the opportunity to scan one of the break walls and a few of the channel markers at the Cleveland boat 120

Left: The Raptor 12’ shallow anchoring system is a great option if you wish to quietly fish shallow water. On the day it allowed us to hold in 4-6ft of water and target tiger squid in the shallows around Peel Island. Right: You certainly won’t miss BLA’s Formosa 525 CC training boat if you see it at your local ramp.

Humminbird Sounders The Formosa was fitted with 3 sounders. An Apex 13 and Solix 12 flush mounted in the centre console and a Solix 10 attached to the forward rail using a RAM mount. They are all linked via a Humminbird 5 port ethernet hub, so you can use them individually or together in whatever configuration you want. What was even more impressive was how neatly all the communications, fusing and wiring was housed in the console.

AUGUST 2022

Left: Everything at your fingertips, switches, gauges and electronics all flush mounted in to the console. Right: The heart of all the operating systems in the boat was housed in the console. A neat, tidy and effective way to connect the electronics in your boat.

ramp. We didn’t come across any giant fish, but we did find some activity and, in more detail, than I had expected. What I took away from it was that it wouldn’t take a lot to understand using it and no wonder this technology is changing fishing. Optimus electronic power steering This is an electrical pump control module to hydraulic pump controlling system. It provides the operator the ability (electronically) to adjust the ratio in which the wheel turns the motor and how difficult the motor is to move (bit like having power steering or no power steering in your car). I can imagine operators of much larger boats than the training boat would appreciate this system. Shockwave S5 seating base Another accessory that will interest larger boat operators that spend plenty of time seated travelling from location to location. A shock absorber system in the seat base cushions the person seated from all those bumps associated with travelling on the water. 120

AUGUST 2022

system. Designed to lock the boat in position to reduce extended electric motor usage and noise in shallow water. In our case on the day, a nice bank that was holding a few squid we were keen to catch. In summary These are but a few of the items on board. There were plenty of other toys too, from numerous lighting options, deck washes, anchoring systems, lithium batteries, sound systems and the switch panels to control and monitor them.

The mapping used for them is the Humminbird Coastmaster East premium card. Another system that offers the user a number of options to have as little or as much detail in your maps as you need. Raptor 12’ Active anchoring system This is a hydraulic shallow water anchoring

The Shockwave S5 seating base fitted to the training boat is well worth considering if you spend a lot of time travelling from location to location while on the water or if you just want to have a very comfortable ride.

Ultimately a great training tool to show BLA customers (hands on) what is available, how it works and what options will suit their client’s needs no matter what size their boat is. Or to just answer your questions, as they will have experienced it first-hand. - Peter Jung

Left: Pictured is one of the artificial reefs that have been placed just off Peel Island in Moreton Bay QLD. How good is that down image picture? Right: The author took advantage when the sounder picked up a school of fish hanging around one of the artificial reefs they were checking out.

45 YEARS OF INNOVATION

Visit shop.stessl.com.au

For all your boating needs including RAILBLAZA, Apparel and Genuine Replacement Parts

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The Stessl TE TRAC now comes standard on all side deck models, meaning your new Stessl boat will be ready to take advantage of the Saltwater Series of

accessories right from the get go.

www.stessl.com.au | shop.stessl.com.au

Stessl 730 Coastrunner with Yamaha 300hp V6 - SC

TENT -

RE ONLINE MO

SPECIFICATIONS Length (bow-transom) 7.3m Beam .......................2.5m Depth .......................1.5m Bottom ................... 5mm Sides....................... 4mm Hull weight........ 1,400kg Max hp ......................300 Fuel ..........................350L Capacity......... 7 persons

Main: The Animal #7 is a pretty slick rig, and turned heads no matter where we were on the Gold Coast. Above: The 300hp V6 Yamaha on the transom is the maximum rated. Be warned about being heavy on the throttle, though – you only get 0.73km/L when you drive this flat out. is upgraded at the helm. You’re sitting on some pretty cool shock absorbing

Here we see The Animal #7 at home in its natural environment – the offshore grounds east of the Gold Coast. 122

AUGUST 2022

DE FOR EX

Statistics show that a third of new businesses stall within the first two years, and half close within the first five years. But in the fishing and boating industry, we have a much better metric for measuring the lifespan of a business. It has to do with how many boats you upgrade. Gold Coast apparel company, The Mad Hueys is up to number seven. We think that this is pretty good, because Fishing Monthly is only up to #6. Stessl’s Mark Johnson joined us for the test day. “Innovation is our catch-cry and these are the biggest Platerix2 hulls that we’ve done to date,” Mark said.

s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au

The Animal 7 is a new model that Gold Coast builder, Stessl, has released. Based on its Platerix2 hull, it’s a 7.3m walkaround hard top that’s powered by a 300hp Yamaha 4.2L DES outboard and it’s one in which not many ‘options’ boxes were left unchecked. That’s how you get to a $200,000 price tag on a boat. Start by ordering the biggest Stessl that you can and then cram heaps of cool stuff into it. For example the DES Yamaha means Digital Electric Steering. These are the outboards that can have the Yamaha HelmMaster system plugged right into them. Although adding nearly $20,000 to the price tag, you get joystick steering, autopilot and the ability to lock yourself to a GPS coordinate. And that’s not the only thing you notice that

Steve Morgan

CON

AN THE

FMG

seats, and you’re looking at a 16” Garmin flush-mounted into the console. Interestingly, they’ve still opted for a Minnkota (powered by lithium batteries) up front. I wonder if they’ll fish more on the Yamaha or Minnkota spotlocking ability? You also notice that this is a proper walkaround rig. Even though it has a decent size cockpit, you can still walk and fish 360° around it and the gunnels are high enough for you to do this in comfort, with a decent fish on the end of the line. As you would expect, this boat is not particularly cheap to run. At today’s fuel prices it costs a fair bit to fill up to 350L fuel tank. Drive this boat hard and you will achieve 0.73km/L. The most efficient speed was at 38km an hour (3500rpm)

where the Yamaha delivered 1.4km/L. That gives you a theoretical range of just under 500km. Given that the weather conditions were pretty close to perfect, the ride was still pretty good. The foamfilled hull rode quietly and you can see from the boat test video that the attitude looked great. You can watch the video test by scanning the QR code hereby.

I was kind of surprised that the guys had opted for galvanised steel, twin axle trailer for this rig when there’s definitely an aluminium option available. But when you consider that this rig falls easily under 3t, maybe there’s no need to skimp on weight underneath. You can tow it with a standard twin-cab ute if you don’t overload it. Also a function of modern times are the drive away prices on the iterations of this rig. Although the Hueys’ boat came in at around $200K, you can get a down-spec package for closer to $150K with a 250hp outboard and a lot fewer options boxes ticked. You can get more information on www.stessl. com.au or by asking your nearest Stessl dealer.

PERFORMANCE RPM ............Speed (km/h) ... Economy (km/L) Idle ................................. 5 ......................... 2.2 1000 ................................ 9 ......................... 1.8 2000.............................. 14 ......................... 1.1 3000.............................. 26 ......................... 1.3 3500 .............................. 38 ......................... 1.4 4000.............................. 48 ......................... 1.3 5000.............................. 62 ......................... 1.0 6000.............................. 74 ....................... 0.73

Top: One of the joys of being an aluminium boat builder is that when HelmMaster turned up you only had to make slight modifications to fit it all in. Above: There is some old-tech. Side pockets.

We like that the Stessl was a proper walkaround with high gunnels and the ability to fish 360 degrees.

Top: What would an offshore boat be without ample rod storage above the hardtop? Left and Right: If you are going to be doing some serious miles offshore, why not be comfortable? Suspension seats are luxury.

Even the passenger gets a suspension seat. The rest of the crew just have to hang on – tight.

The owners have chosen the camouflage SeaDeck to line the cockpit. Some like it and some don’t like the complex design.

Left: The grab rails on the front of the console are a neat addition. You have something to hang onto when chasing a school of tuna. Top Right: You don’t get the same bunk length as in a cabin boat, but we are sure that you will appreciate the rest after a long run in the shade in here. Bottom Right: The new, white Yamaha DES is a great colour match to this boat.

Top Left: This rig has Lenco trim tabs installed, however we did not need them on the test day. Top Right: We did find one area where they could have upgraded. This is a manual deploy MinnKota! Bottom Left: Platerix2 always have sturdy entry steps. The transom door is standard. Bottom Right: Although full of fenders on the test day, the kill tank should be full of fresh fish. AUGUST 2022

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