Fishing Monthly Magazine | July 2023 by Fishing Monthly

• WHERE TO FIND THE WINTER BITE • COD TACTICS •

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Cold water Murray cod tactics • All about sinkers • Latest in tournament news •

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Species Spotlight

Toby Grundy brings us cold water cod tactics

July, 2023 07

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CONTENTS From the Editor’s Desk...

OUR COVER July 2023, Vol. 4 No.3 VIC

TAS

Gill net free reef a gift for recreational anglers

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

16 18 22 24 26 28 30 34 36 38 40 40 42 44 48

NEW SOUTH WALES Sydney North Sydney South Sydney Rock Ballina Coffs Coast South West Rocks Hasting Port Macquarie Central Coast Port Stephens Swansea Illawarra Bermagui Tathra New England Rivers Hunter Valley Albury/Wodonga Batlow Canberra

53 52 54 56 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 66 68 69 70 72 73

VICTORIA Portland Warrnambool Appollo Bay Cobden Geelong Port Phillip East Port Phillip West Phillip Island Gippsland Lakes Lakes Entrance Port Albert Marlo Mallacoota Robinvale Bendigo Wangaratta Shepparton Ballarat Crater Lakes Gippsland Freshwater 6 JULY 2023

74 74 75 75 76 77 78 80 82 82 83 84 84 86 86 88 86 90 91 91

The recent decision to buy out all gill net licences and remove gill nets from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and parts of the Gulf of Carpentaria was a surprise to all who fish these areas – even though it was flagged in a UNESCO report in late 2022. On the surface, an unpleasant one for commercials active in these fisheries and obviously very pleasant for recreational anglers. For years, anglers and representative bodies have debated just how to fund an industry driven buyout. In Queensland, there’s no licence or fishing fee to use these fisheries, so the government’s offer to provide $160 million to buy the symbols and tightly monitor the trawl fishery seemed to come a long way from left field. $100 million goes to the licence buyback and adjustment and $60 million to cameras to monitor the trawl industry. But the fact is that recreational anglers themselves had a lot to do with the gill nets’ demise. And it comes down to data. Recreational anglers have been contributing to community monitoring of the resource in the smaller, local, Net Free Zones (NFZs) for decades – both before and after they were introduced. As such, there was an extremely solid case to show that the net removal would, quite quickly, result in a drastically improved recreational fishing outcome. You can thank the taggers, club members and thousands of hours of volunteers who helped to assemble this data for this. And we can also thank the conservation lobby. They took the data and augmented

Jimmy Clifton caught this 18kg long tail tuna off the beach while drone fishing. (Read an account of the capture on page 16, Tweed report) A Leon McClymont image. Come and visit Fishing Monthly Group’s official Facebook page for all your monthly fishing information. Download QR Reader to access.

TASMANIA Offshore Hobart

92 93

WESTERN AUSTRALIA Esperance

Bunbury

Augusta

Metro

Mandurah

Kalbarri

Lancelin

Exmouth

101

Karratha

100

Freshwater

102

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REGULAR FEATURES Cold water cod tactics

Starlo: All about sinkers

Sheik of the Creek

What’s New Fishing

104

Testing Booth: Hurricane

105

Fun page

106

Tournaments

107

Tournament Calendar

107

Trades and Services/Tide page

114

Boat test: Stessco Albacore 640

116

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their case for removal, which was more for the protection of vulnerable species than to help recreational fishers. I’m glad that there’s a substantial compensation package for the fishers effected. On the recreational side, you don’t get compensated if your business becomes obsolete, the tax department just takes your house. Remember, they’re not banning commercial fishing, just the use of certain nets. Good operators will find ways to catch their quota and make money doing it. If commercial operators didn’t see the writing on the wall for gill nets decades ago and the lack of social licence for these methods, they were out of touch. Illustrating this was when I went to see what was being said on the QSIA (Queensland Seafood Industry Association) Facebook page. Their ‘GoFundMe’ Save Queensland Commercial Fishing campaign had raised $2,300 in four days. In contrast, the latest national survey valued the recreational fishing in Queensland to be worth $2 billion to the economy. A small increase in recreational and charter fishing from these changes will have massive benefits to the local economy and tourism. So, it’s a gift for any recreational anglers who fish Queensland’s inshore waters. Let’s look after it like we are all inclined to do and enjoy the bounce-back in stocks of the fish we all love to catch. Thank you to Minister Furner and Queensland Fisheries for wearing the inevitable heat that will come during the roll-out of these measures.

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Cold water cod tactics CANBERRA

Toby Grundy

In my hometown of Canberra, there are a wide variety of fishing options for those who want to chase the iconic Murray cod. From Lake Burley Griffin through

the past few cod seasons I have honed my winter cod game on the river and discovered a few simple yet effective tactics which, more often than not, bring the fish on the bite in even the coldest of conditions. Outlined below are all the simple strategies I’ve learnt that have led

feed in cold water. These are the fish I target in cooler conditions and they usually cruise around the wider, slower and shallower pools in search of a quick feed at dawn or dusk. I think ‘shallow’ is the most important element. Wide pools that are 1-2m deep are perfect choices because the bait tends to push up into these areas to escape the predators during low light periods but the predators (cod) follow and basically use the shallower pools as a dinner plate. If there is a little current moving across this type of pool, then even better as I’ll use the current to swing the lure as tight to the bank as possible and look for cod holding out in the middle but also holding close to the bank.

Deeper pools in between faster sections are the best places to start.

Sometimes a lure with a more subtle action will trigger a reaction. the Murrumbidgee River, there is no shortage of big fish spots where serious trophy fish lurk. That said, winter always represents a challenging time for those who want to tangle with green fish. In fact, I have spent countless hours walking the banks of the river and casting into the fog with no reward for my efforts. However, over

to some truly memorable winter captures. THE LOCATION Choosing a location to cast a line is the most challenging part of fishing during winter. Once upon a time it was a widely held belief that cod stuck to one snag and rarely moved. The big fish sat on the large snags like boulders and sunken

Ben Lane landed this fish while fishing a slower pool.

Dawn on the river is a special time to be out fishing. AUTHOR’S COD LURES DStyle Reserve Hatch Mimix Dragonsaurus Jackall Gantia Bassman Spinnerbait Megabass Big M 8 JULY 2023

logs while the smaller fish hung around rocks and sunken shrubs. Now to some extent, this is true, but I have also seen and experienced firsthand the free swimming cod that

During winter, I don’t fish a lot of fast water. I find that the cod tend to shy away from these areas but if there is a fast section with plenty of rocks to break up the current then I’ll stop

and have a few casts on my way to wider pools as there is always a chance of a cod holding in an eddy created by a rock and often these areas do hold very large Murray cod. LURES I don’t take a large number of lures with me when I go cod fishing. I know this bucks the trend but I’ve honed my strategy and with that came a lure cull. I pack 3-4 surface lures, 2 spinnerbaits, a deep diver, a swimbait and that is it. Winter sessions are usually short sessions. The peak bite period is either side of first light or sunset, so if I haven’t caught a fish during the bite period then I know there is little point in staying and grinding it out. A lot of anglers mention ‘the grind’ and how rewarding that one bite can be after 24 hours of casting. Now I am sure that is true but it is equally as rewarding to have a

plan and execute it within a shorter time period, especially when a really big fish slams a surface lure in less than a metre

of water. I have included a fact box which contains the lures I use. TACTICS When faced with a big, wide, shallow pool devoid of snags it can be hard to know where to begin. The bottom line is that the fish will be there to feed and so will be moving around and this can be frustrating. First, I like to look for a bit of current and I’ll casting past the current and then work my surface lure back across the current. I usually start with a surface offering as these types of lures suit shallow pools and the cod are already swimming close to the surface and don’t have to come from deep to hit the lure. If I don’t get a hit working the lure across the current, then I will fish downstream of the current and work my lure right along the length current. If the current winds its way close to the shoreline then I’ll switch position, fish

The Dragonsaurus remains the author’s go to winter lure.

upstream of the current, cast my lure out into the current and without winding the handle, swing the lure from the middle of the current towards the edge of the bank. This is one of my favourite tactics to employ during winter as the surface lure moving from one side of the current to the other and then moving to the edge of the bank perfectly represents forage trying to escape after landing in the water. The cod also sit in the undercut banks right at the water’s edge. If the cod haven’t hit my surface offering in the current then I switch over to a spinnerbait and repeat the same process. A spinnerbait

coloured spinnerbait. A switch in lure is not always enough but a change in profile and colour can turn a quiet session into something special. If I haven’t had a hit in or around the current, I switch focus to the middle of the pool and work surface lures right out in the middle and swimbaits. Swimbaits are a great open water option as the lure

when working a swimbait in wide pools. Basically, I cast out, give the handle of the reel a few turns and then pause the lure before repeating the process. I will pause the lure for up to 30 seconds before winding again. I do this because I want to make sure that all the cod cruising the pool get a chance to take a look at the lure before it reaches the bank and I cast again.

Chris Troth with a solid winter green fish. in this scenario might seem counter intuitive as these lures tend to sink quickly but I have found them to be one of the best shallow water lures because I can work the lure quickly and therefore keep it off the bottom but the lure also creates a lot of disturbance when worked closer to the surface. It is important to mention colour change here. I often start with a black surface lure and then switch to a brightly coloured spinnerbait. Or I start with a brightly coloured surface lure and switch to a dark

Big winter fish are worth the effort.

A quick colour change resulted in this smaller model crunching the surface lure. represents a small fish that has made a big mistake and swum out too far. I employ a slow version of the ‘rip and pause’ style retrieve

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Make most of bite times CAIRNS

Dan Kaggelis dkaggelis@gmail.com

It’s been a fairly warm winter so far in Cairns, which has kept the fish on the bite in the Trinity Net Free Zone. Some of the NFZ rivers and creeks, like the Barron and Thomatis,

fish can be a little sluggish, so you really need to make the most of bite times around the change in the tide. These windows are only a couple of hours if that but that is the time to be on the water and in a good spot. When they do come on the bite they will come thick and fast so make the most of it and keep your lure in the water.

taking plenty of fish over the cooler months this year mostly thanks to the really light construction and Kevlar tail. Slow rolled hardbodies are also taking a few fish. As it gets cooler, live baits will be your best bet, especially if you can get your hands on some live prawns or herring. One species which will be active will be queenfish. Queenfish love to move into the creeks and rivers especially in the Inlet. You can chase them around the pylons or on the mud banks and there are some really good-sized fish on offer. Small metal slugs and fast worked surface lures will be the go. Grunter will also be in numbers over the hospital flats and small squid baited hooks floated out on light gear will be the

Paddle-tail plastics will be the choice if you are chasing jacks in the NFZ in July.

The fish will come on thick and fast if you are in the right spot at the right time. are still running dirty thanks to some late season rain. This has made fishing in these systems tough but when they clean up, they will fish exceptionally well. The Trinity Inlet has been clean for a while and is still producing plenty of fish. This time of year, the

Jacks have still been eating lures with vigour and very slowly worked paddle tail plastics and hard body plastics being your best bet. This time of year, I prefer to fish lures which are as light as possible so I can get the most action out of them. The Twitch It plastics have been

Grunter will be in numbers over the hospital flats this time of year.

Winter programming PORT DOUGLAS

Lynton Heffer www.fishingportdouglas.com.au

As we delve into the winter program with cooler days and wind at times, the fishing opportunity doesn’t ease up in the tropics. Adaptation is the key to a good day’s fishing. On the outer reef we’ve found there’s not a lot that isn’t biting well at the moment. Coral trout without a doubt are your go to fish when there’s a bit of wind about. They are quite plentiful at the moment up in the shallow waters of 20-25m deep where the adjacent reefs offer a fair amount of protection from the wind. On calmer days you’ll nail these delights into 35m of water, and slightly bigger. At various times and when the slightly lighter winds coincided with a low tide we’ve ventured a bit deeper and were able to source some cracking large-mouth nannygai to 7kg. There’s also a steady 40 JULY 2023

supply of small mouth nannygai around 45cm, which can become suicidal when in the mood. Banking solid numbers of small mouth can be problematic in a positive way so watch your bag limits. Any calm days ahead will see the nannygai duo become a real feature of our fishing on the reef. There’s plenty of other species popping up at times on the reef including tea-leaf trevally, golden trevally, long nose emperor, cod and sweetlip, so there’s a lot of variety to be enjoyed on any given day. Our light tackle trolling efforts proved to be super effective of late as we found where the Spanish mackerel are starting to school up. Using only a couple of deep diving lures, more often than not they’d result in a double hook up. There hasn’t been the need to run a bigger spread of lures as the fish have been concentrated. Sizes of the mackerel varied ranging from 7kg up to 12kg. A double hook up on the deck certainly lights up any day and is quite exciting for anyone. If you are going to run a bigger spread, say four

presentations, the outside riggers have to be rigged garfish to entice a different type of bite. Besides the Spanish mackerel, and in very similar areas the longtail or northern bluefin tuna have been running amok. Running the same set up, we nailed quite a few of these hard fighting fish up to 12kg. They are quite distinctive at the moment creating a serious commotion on the surface and will really go to town for a lot longer in the same spot than say to a mac tuna school which can be skittish and disappear before you know it. The longtail are also brilliant to take home to eat, so our light tackle days are working like a treat and will continue to do so as the winter continues. Our best inshore river system for results has been by the Daintree River by far. Once the skies turned grey and the winds started really blowing, the landscape of our inshore systems changed quickly. Water clarity and temperature dropped off and a change of tactics was in order. With the right approach with an

best technique. Casting and retrieving lightly weighted small soft plastics will also snare a few grunter in this spot. Just be careful of the tides as you can get stuck out there when the tide runs out. Finally the mud crabs will still be on the move and it will definitely pay to throw a few pots in when wetting a line. Next month we should see the trade winds abating which will mean the exposed parts of the NFZ will be able to be fished. This will allow anglers to chase the bigger better class fish out on the beaches and headlands.

Javelin fish have been turning up more this season. experienced angler/guide you’ll be able to account for fingermark to 55cm using live sardines. Similar baits and surface lures have also enticed a few good queenfish to 90cm in the main part of the channel and deeper bends in the waterway system. The big change of late has been fishing across the flats whereby a good old mix of pilchard and fresh squid

have returned some very tidy results. Big grunter or javelin fish to 60cm have turned up with more regularity offering some great angling moments, and golden/river GTs have made up the difference. If you are new to the area, a fillet of fresh javelin fish will put a new tasty perspective on your taste buds. Lighter gear is used in this situation and it’s quite exciting to see a

good-sized fish rip it up in a couple of feet of water. Sunny days will produce better overall moving forward and you’ll need to work a bit harder in windy, overcast conditions as a general rule during the heart of winter. Slight neap to middle range tides are also a good friend to have in your favour at this time of year.

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NSW

There are good numbers of luderick on offer CENTRAL COAST

Jamie Robley

There’s certainly no mistaking the fact that it’s the middle of winter right now. Despite the nice weather outside, my hands are still cold as I type up this month’s column. We’ve had a great run of glorious sunny days, as the big

lakes at The Entrance has narrowed up again, after it had been quite wide and flowing strongly for about three years. If we start heading into proper drought, the local authorities will probably have to continue dredging works in the channel. In reality, this is simply nature doing its thing, and I’m not going to complain either way.

catchable! Luderick are generally more active than bream in the cold water. Some good catches have come from The Entrance in the earlier part of the season, mainly from the north side. Here and in other places around the lakes and Brisbane Waters, luderick move around and change their dietary preferences. So, unless you’re fishing

Toukley Bridge is often overlooked these days. However, it’s probably worth a look here for bream and luderick in the coming weeks.

Silver trevally are likely to be caught by anglers targeting bream, drummer or snapper this month. high pressures systems move over the country, but the downside is that also means the nights are very cold. After the few rather wet years we’ve endured, it’s obviously nice to have good weather like this, and it makes fishing easier. However, it’s possibly been a bit too dry in recent months. The mouth of the

Both the lakes and Brisbane Waters have mainly been fishing well for bream and luderick, although it always gets tougher as we move into July and August. Water temperatures and fish activity slows right down in both systems at this time of year. However, fish still need to eat to survive, which means they’re certainly still

for them every week it can be hard to know exactly where to go, or precisely which bait to use. Mostly, I’d be sticking to good quality, stringy green weed and heading to the more known spots at The Entrance, Budgewoi, Woy Woy and so on. Then, if success isn’t coming your way, perhaps look into different types of weed or

even prawn or shrimp baits. Always keep an eye out to see whether other anglers are doing better, as they are probably doing something more effective or simply standing in a better spot! Bream fishing here is different in winter than it is in summer. Bait anglers will find that the same baits work at any time of year, but it’s where you cast the bait that matters most. In general, forget about the main bodies of our waterways and concentrate more on major structure, the mouths of the systems or up the feeder creeks. Major structure means the more obvious, deeper channels, prominent points and around the bigger bridges such as Woy Woy,

The Entrance and Toukley. The mouths of the systems from the Rip Bridge through to Broken Bay and around The Entrance are where more of the quality bream are likely to be found now, as this is closer to the adjacent beaches and headlands where they gather for spawning. Numbers of smaller bream also like to head up the creeks, at places like Wyong or Ourimbah, for example. Despite most bream up the creeks being small, you can definitely run into the odd bigger one in the creeks as well. Those using lures for bream would do best to stick with Gulps or small vibes this month. Suspending hardbody lures can also

be highly successful, but fishing them takes a bit of skill and persistence. If you have tried suspenders for bream yet, the best one I can recommend is the Lucky Craft Pointer 48DD. Regardless of the type of lure you use, a key factor is to go super slow in mid to late winter. Fly fishing can also work quite well, and that’s effectively a slower and more subtle form of lure casting, in a way. Rock and beach fishing can be excellent in July, provided that the conditions are safe and suitable. Once again, bream and luderick are prime target species, but drummer, salmon and tailor are also very much on the cards at the

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Locals are hitting their straps PORT STEPHENS

Paul Lennon

Even in the depths of winter, Port Stephens still fishes well – especially for those crazy anglers who don’t mind swapping a cosy, warm bed for some icy cold westerly winds. In the bay the luderick are in full swing, with

there are other options locally, with the Anchorage Marina, Torpedo Tubes and the jetties at Shoal Bay and Little Beach all worth a shot. The keys to success in this game are fresh weed, tide changes and correctly weighting your float to give no resistance as the luderick pulls on the weed. You can also target

than the Marina and rock wall at Nelson Bay. Fish on the outside with lightly weighted baits on tide changes, and fish the back of the boats on the inside between tides. Other areas worth chasing bream will be Corlette groynes, Wanda Head and Soldiers Point. BEACHES It’s a good time to walk the ocean beaches

fished in the gutters should produce some thumper big bream and whiting this time of year, even during daylight hours. If you’re prepared to brave the cold nights you may be rewarded with the ultimate prize for beach fishing, as winter is an excellent time to catch mulloway. Fingal, Samurai and Stockton are the best areas to hit for beach mulloway. Fish after dark with large fresh baits or, even better, a live tailor or whiting. OCEAN ROCKS The ocean rocks really come into their own through winter. The drummer fishing is as good as it gets, with the washy zones holding some cracking pigs to 4kg. The best way to get connected to these fish is to cast a large peeled prawn or price of cunjevoi into the whitewater, and allow it to slowly waft through the water column until it reaches the bottom, then wind up and cast out again. Doing this you can also pick up bream, squire-size snapper, luderick and grouper, so it can be a very productive way to spend a morning.

Anglers are picking up plenty of squid around the protected bays and coves.

There are excellent numbers of bream around. dozens of luderick fishers taking advantage of them every day. Nelson Bay break wall has to be right up there with the best places to target them on the east coast. However, if you want fewer crowds

luderick from the boat around the rock walls at Windy Woppa and Short Cut area. Bream are another staple target species through the winter months, and it’s hard to find a better place

like Fingal, One Mile and Box casting metal lures or ganged pilchards during the dawn and dusk periods. There is plenty of fun to be had with tailor and salmon this way. Live worms or pipis

moment. Just keep a very close eye on weather and swell reports and forecasts, to help work out exactly when and where to go. Offshore fishing is more about the wider grounds this month.

From 70m and further out, kings, bonito and snapper are the main species to concentrate on. However, there’s no doubt that leather jackets, morwong, sweep and silver trevally will be encountered at times. If conditions and currents

are favourable, it can still be worth fishing closer in for snapper, trevally, bream, tailor and salmon. Some days the wind will prevent smaller boats from heading wider, so it’s always a good idea to be ready to change plans and fish in close if need be. Young Joe Lennon with a solid snapper.

Port Stephens Estuary Charters

OFFSHORE Winter snapper have been on the chew, with the close-by islands all accounting for plenty of reds up to a solid 8kg. Anchoring up over the reef and casting out unweighted baits into a berley trail on dawn or dusk is a great way to catch snapper, however soft plastic lures fished in the right manner are arguably even more effective. Drummer and bream are red-hot in the washes, and flicking baits into the white water is usually a quick and easy way to get a good feed. There is some fantastic squid fishing on offer, with monster green eyes schooling up in the shallow bays and coves. They will readily take jigs in sizes 3-3.5.

ens estuary system the beautiful Port Steph signed g charter that can be de with a calm water fishin to family bait fishing to suit your needs from hing anglers. hardcore lure and fly fis

rters.com www.fishportstephensestuarycha 687 Contact Paul Lennon :0434370 mail.com email: paul.lennon.fishing@g

It’s luderick time on the Central Coast. This one came from the rocks at Norah Head.

fishportstephensestuarycharte @fish_portstephens

JULY 2023 63

East Coast

VIC

Bream head deep and school up GIPPSLAND LAKES

Brett Geddes b.geddes@bigpond.com

Finally, the bream are now going into deep mode and are schooling in big numbers, probably a month later than usual. The rivers have excellent flow after a few moderate rain events, and all looks good for the month ahead. A few perch and luderick are also turning up, along with big salmon near Metung. SLOT LIMITS First up, another reminder of the bream slot limits which came into effect in April 2021. These regs will be reviewed and they will stand until further notice, possibly for another five years. Legal sized bream are 28-38cm for the Gippsland Lakes only. It still seems some anglers are totally unaware of this important change. Sadly, I found one fella recently cleaning a large bream looking at least 43cm. I wonder if signage is required at major boat ramps or maybe local tackle shops around this area to get the message across? The bream stocks are in recovery mode here in the Gippy Lakes, and the science tells us there will be a 12% gain in the breeding population with the slot limit in place. So once again, the bag limit for bream remains at 10 fish, but none of them can measure under 28cm or

greater than 38cm tip length. Dusky flathead have a slot limit of 30-55cm, and the bag limit is five. RIVER BREAM Every year about now, you can rely on the bream to have fully moved out from most of the shallow lake areas, and

Local Gippy Lakes legend Stewie McKinnon knows how to find big bream on bait.

At this time of year, the bass head downstream to breed and will school up on the snags. 82 JULY 2023

into much deeper water or up into the rivers. This is when they can be caught in big numbers before they get into full breeding mode. Already some reasonable numbers of bream are in the lower Nicho and Mitchell, and they seem to have pushed higher up in

the Tambo even up to the highway bridge. If you are land based without the help of a sounder, you may have to move around quite a lot to find where they are schooling up. Or you can keep an eye on where the locals are hanging out, and where the most anglers are generally located. If you are boating and using a sounder, start in all the lower parts of rivers and you will probably see bigger schools of bream in 4m and over. If you pull a few fish out of these big gatherings, move on and find another mob. Often the fish will get spooky after seeing a few mates being hauled out of the water, and will refuse lures and even baits. After a few hours you can return to that school, and usually a few more of those same bream can be tricked. Lure anglers are well aware of how deadly blade lures are on these fish, but sometimes a small soft plastic fished extra slow is required to get the bite. HOLLANDS LANDING Strangely, for an area that is renowned for very big bream, this has not been the case in the Straits over the last few months. There are plenty of fish schooled

up, but nearly all of them are 24-36cm. Usually if you score 20 or 30 bream for a busy day, you will always measure a few trucks between 40-44cm. However, lately it’s been a real challenge to get many bream over 38cm. Still, as usual in fishing, this could change overnight. Let’s hope so. Interestingly, quite a few luderick have turned up this year being caught on small blade lures, and some ripper perch have also been finding lures in the snags. Mick Gned from Traralgon caught a thumper estuary perch recently, and released a 45cm fish along with about 30 bream to 36cm for a cracker day out. Sadly, he ‘bumped’ into a kangaroo on that early morning road trip, and end up with a $4,500 repair bill! I narrowly missed a big sambar deer a few months ago, and that was my second close call in three years. The number of hog deer also continues to grow, and it’s very common to see them just before dawn on the side of the road or in paddocks. The problem is that all of these critters are getting so accustomed to traffic and are not avoiding roads like they used to. Also missing this winter are the dusky flathead that normally flood into Hollands at this time. It’s strange because their numbers have

Ben Hotchkins with one of over 60 bream landed for a day and a half caught on a hardbody lure. been through the roof out in the lakes during summer. I have no idea where they are hiding. LOOKING AHEAD TO BREAM HOTSPOTS For all of us serious about catching a lot of bream, now is definitely the time to get busy. If you haven’t been out chasing them yet, some of the best prime time fishing is getting away from you. Looking ahead, here are the hotspots you need to search. The Tambo River from

the entrance right up past the bridge to the Blue Hole will continue to fire, so you should persevere in the upper reaches as we draw closer to spawning season. The same goes for the Nicholson River, but also keep an eye on your sounder in the lower river area for those schooling bream that will right now mob up in huge numbers. The Mitchell River will probably be the number one destination for land-based anglers with its easy bank access.

sky nights the water temps have dropped rapidly. LAKES ENTRANCE With the changing of the season and winter tightening its grip, the fishery has altered to adapt to the conditions. Lately

the local King George whiting have slowed right down, and it has been a challenge to find them consistently. Winter fishing in the lakes always has its stand-outs, with big schools Australian salmon and silver trevally being found right throughout the system. On the glassy calm mornings, schools of salmon have been commonly seen blowing up on bait fish this makes for some great fun fishing with small surface lures and soft plastics fished high in the water column. Offshore lately has been extremely good, with bulk pink snapper sitting on the outer reefs such as the 8 Mile. Traditional bottom bashing methods are fairly common practice, and never fail to produce the goods. Baits such as pilchard cubes and squid strips are hard for feeding snapper to pass up on. Bag-out sessions have been pretty common recently, especially on those wider reefs. Closer to shore, around the 18-20m mark, anglers have had good

Target gummy sharks LAKES ENTRANCE

Steven Pryke

Winter has settled in with a vengeance through East Gippsland with super crisp morning and clear

The author with a nice local gummy off the beach.

VIC

East Coast

Australian salmon and squid games PORT ALBERT

Brett Geddes b.geddes@bigpond.com

You may need a beanie on and three layers of clothing to beat the cold, but there’s plenty of fishing to be done. The squid are starting to fire up, and a few whiting or small rock flathead

are still getting caught. Some winter garfish have also been caught, but the salmon have been a real highlight, and that’s where my report begins. ESTUARY SALMON No matter what anyone says about Australian salmon and their poor eating qualities, I still reckon Arripis trutta is a species that all anglers

Some ripper salmon are on offer right now, like these Port Albert fish pulled from a massive hungry school. success on gummy sharks in recent weeks. Setting up an anchor right on the drop-off, and then slowly pumping a cube trail is highly productive way to target gummies. Baits such squid, salmon, whiting and barracoota heads are all great baits for gummies, and it pays to mix it up. The odd gummy shark has been venturing in closer to shore, with my father and I having a good beach session on the local gummies. Large winter salmon have been starting to make their presence felt on the beaches, with anglers having good success using metal lures in the washes, along with paternoster rigs baited with squid strips. LAKE TYERS The lake is up to its old tricks once again. Now that winter is here, the lake has decide to play hard ball, with many anglers struggling to locate good numbers of bream. The deeper edges and deeper flats have been the most productive lately, with the key being to use your sounder to locate either schools of bream or areas that they have been feeding

in lately. Metal vibes have been a solid producer lately, allowing you to cover plenty of water. The Lake Tyers monster flathead have really disappeared for the winter now, although the odd flathead can still be caught, especially if you’re fishing those shallow, muddy bays

secretly love to catch. Not only are salmon abundant, but they grow big and we all know how they pull plenty of string for their size. Unlike a lot of other species, we can rely on them to turn up every year at the same time and usually in never ending overflowing schools. Best of all, salmon are nearly always ‘hangry’ and will aggressively eat just about any lure or bait you launch their way. That’s why I love to get the fly rod out or spray surface lures in front of them to get that visual fishing fix for hours on end. It’s fair to say that they are so easy to catch that after a while the novelty wears off, but it’s a whole heap of fun to reach that point. After my arms start throbbing I take the hooks off my lures, and that’s another whole level of fun. Especially using surface lures then watching four or five big salmon constantly attack a bare lure with some of them hanging onto it for ages and even pulling serious drag! It’s such a hoot, and nearly more fun than struggling to haul hooked fish all the way to the net and busting trebles on lures deep down their hungry gobs. Without hooks the fish never get harmed – and as for the anglers, well, we end up laughing out loud while watching all the mayhem!

Right now, heaps of salmon of all sizes are at Manns entrance and Port Albert, and can turn up in deeper channels almost anywhere in between. Even from jetties you can find salmon running, especially an hour after high tide. 90 MILE BEACH This year we have noticed the average run of salmon are a bit bigger, with plenty of 2kg fish in amongst those schools of fish around the 1kg mark. Quite a few solid tailor are also in the mix, and I suggest that you think about using at least 6kg leaders or even stronger, because both species are hardly line-shy. Surf rigs using the standard bluebait or half pilchard will work fine, but always try surf poppers if the crabs get painfully pesky. The best option is to cast

Let the squid games begin. Big squid, big fun! SQUID TIME The real home of big squid in this area is Port Welshpool. This winter, numbers are yet to get too exciting, but it’s still well worth a look. Interestingly, they are a real mixed bunch, with very small squid one day and then a few thumpers up to 40cm hoods the next. I also hear that certain coloured jigs far outscore others, with each trip needing a bit of trial and error to get the squid into attack mode. As usual, two hours each side of high tide seems to be prime time. Some of my fellow squid anglers struck gold recently as we loaded up on some bargains. Our local BCF store had a sale on with one of the best jigs on the market in the Yamashita range. They normally retail for around $25, but when I saw them reduced to $5 each I decided to add another ten jigs to my tackle box! And I made sure I covered a wide variety of colours. I then called my buddies and between us all we cleaned them out of probably over 100 jigs! Best of all, they were in that perfect range of 3.0 or 3.5 sizes.

and points right up the top of the system. HAVE YOU BEEN FISHING? If you have been out for fish lately and have a great pic please send to stevenprykefishing@gmail. com with short description and you could be featured in the edition of fishing monthly.

Big garfish are very tasty and will often attack lures.

The author’s father with a quality land-based gummy shark.

lures if the surf conditions permit, and quite often we get light winds during the next few months. Use a long spin stick around 9ft long and toss small metal slugs or 3” soft plastics on heavy jigheads. Fine braid around 8lb will allow a super long cast, and just use a very short but heavy 14lb leader and ensure the leader knot won’t have to go anywhere near your rod guides while casting. Another handy tip is to superglue your soft plastics to the jighead so they don’t get ripped off or pulled apart, and last many more hook-ups.

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ATC VANDAL

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104 JULY 2023

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visit www.tacklejunkie.fish for the latest tackle news - AS IT HAPPENS!

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TESTING BOOTH

PRODUCT GUIDE BROUGHT TO YOU BY

Blown away by Hurricane Lures It doesn’t feel all that long ago that I tried a couple of lures from the Hurricane Lures soft plastics range (the Sprat 65 and Sprat 75) for the magazine. You can check it out on the Fishing Monthly website (search Hurricane Lures). This was the first time I had encountered these lures and I quickly realised these two profiles, as well as the colour range available, definitely caught their fair share of fish.

Basically, it’s a tough, durable plastic that offers maximum movement with a natural feel. There are 7 colours in the range, with 5 offering UV enhancement. Not everyone is a fan of UV, but I firmly believe it makes a difference, and I have taken a shine to the camo UV and super oil UV colours. As mentioned, these plastics are super supple, so they are supplied in a hard sleave to maintain their shape and to avoid

that exist in the area. Aaron immediately took a liking to the Hurricane soft plastics (because of the colour range and profile of the lures), so getting him involved in trying the Sprat Hybrid 85 was a no brainer. The first thing I realised was that even

It pays to match the profile the Sprat Hybrid 85 (bottom) and the other Hurricane soft plastics with your jighead. It is then like an extension of the lure and ensures your lure swims straight.

Testing lures isn’t always fun, but at least this flathead caught on a Sprat Hybrid 85 put a smile on Aaron Dunlop’s face.

This time it is a Hurricane Sprat 75 doing the job on a beautiful Logan River bream. The versatility that these size lures offer lets you hedge your bets. They are in their element being fished in our estuary systems for bream, flathead, trevally, and the like, but are also large enough to hit our inshore waters in the hope of picking a reef fish or a feed of snapper. A recent inclusion to the range has been

The Hurricane 2.25” Sub Grub is the smallest plastic in the range. This small flathead ate it before the bream on a pontoon could get to it.

There is no doubt this bream wanted to eat this Hybrid 85 in sickle UV colour. the Hurricane Sprat 85 hybrid. A soft plastic that has a similar profile to the Sprat 65 and Sprat 75, but with a curl-tail. My first thoughts were that it is actually a larger finesse offering, which further enhances their range of versatile baits. I was keen to test it out and with the weather cooling in SE Queensland and the bream and flathead fishing on the improve, there is no better time to do it. HURRICANE SPRAT 85 HYBRID All of the Hurricane Lures soft plastic range is made of an 8X tough FlexiTech material. This material provides excellent durability, a very soft feel and stretches well beyond any limits a standard soft plastic material would.

contamination with other plastic. It is best to keep them in this sleave. THE PROOF IS IN THE TESTING Discovering whether the Sprat Hybrid 85 would be as effective as the other offerings in the range has been an interesting process. The transition period in South East Queensland, from the hot summer conditions to the cooler nights and very comfortable winter days, felt like they almost happened overnight and this changed the fishing almost as quickly. Quick change generally means poor or tougher fishing and that has been the case. In many ways a good test for these lures. At this point I would like to mention one of the anglers who steps in and helps me test many of the products for these testing booths. Aaron Dunlop has been a great help assisting with photos, even just getting me out on the water to try lures out. Aaron spends a lot of time fishing the lower reaches of the Logan River and its surrounds and together it has been fun fishing some of his proven spots, but also exploring other opportunities

though it is the largest soft plastic in the Hurricane Lures range, the bream love them. I guess I should have known that as these lures have a cult following in the East Gippsland region in Victoria. Many a big black bream has succumbed to one of these lures there. I can tell you our yellowfin bream like them too. Having said that, most of my success with them has come on the local flathead, in particular during the quieter (slow flow) periods of the tide. I love fishing a curl-tail plastic during these periods as the finesse tail offers maximum movement to attract a fish’s attention. This means you can slow roll them, hop them or even just let them sit there on the bottom (the tail wiggling in the current) and a fish is likely to grab them. The Sprat Hybrid 85 is a perfect option for this. As far as hitting our inshore waters, that is a work in progress. I have no doubt that the profile of the Hybrid 85 and the colour range will be spot on to fish for our shallow water snapper in Moreton Bay. Watch this space. FINAL OBSERVATIONS All the Hurricane Sprat range of plastics are small in profile and lend themselves to being rigged on a jighead that matches the profile. I am a huge fan of the jighead being an extension of the lure and it is important in the case of the Sprat Hybrid 85 (and the other Hurricane plastics) to rig them straight (there are markings on the top on

the plastics to assist with this) and that the head shape and profile match the lure. This ensures they swim straight and maximise the effectiveness of the lure. For me it has been a pleasure to test out the Hurricane Sprat 85 Hybrid soft plastic, like the other plastics in the range, they fish well and the compact range of colours is spot on. The biggest compliment I can offer comes from Aaron, not only has he tested these with me, he has enjoyed using them so much, he has made several orders of

Aaron helps the author with many of his testing booths. He has taken to the Hurricane products, even sporting their merchandise. them via the Hurricane lures website (www. hurricanelures.com). They have become one of his confidence baits. Enough said. You can check out the website for yourself. It has the full range of products that Hurricane Lures offers as well as stockists and merchandise. It is well worth a look.

The Hybrid 85 is a popular lure amongst bream anglers in East Gippsland in Victoria. The bream in Queensland like them as well. JULY 2023 105

BASS SERIES presented by

Langford wins Somerset at top of Lake Kingaroy’s Matthew Langford is now a full-time fishing guide and seems nearly unstoppable on each arena the 13 Fishing BASS Pro series visits. Backing up that assertion is the fact that he has won four consecutive Angler of the Year titles and is well on track to snare his fifth in 2023. He won the Rapala round of the 2023 tour on

and timber to get the bite and this bait did just that,” Matt explained. Langford’s areas got more attention on the second day, but by the time he was sharing banks with other boats, his limit was securely in the livewell. Matt nearly wasn’t able to get back to his Day 1 spots with motor issues late in the session, but Kilcoy local, Paul Aldous stepped in Scan the QR code to watch the NonBoater Winners Interview

Scan the QR code to watch the Boater Winners Interview

Lake Somerset by nearly a kilo and a half by fishing a combination of jerkbaits and blades well up into the top section of the dam. His first day 6.5kg+ limit was capably backed up with a near 5kg Day 2 catch. Here’s what he did. D1: 5/5, 6.505kg D2: 5/5, 4.870kg Total: 10/10, 11.375kg “Guiding on Somerset I knew that it gets difficult to catch schooled fish when

Always at the pointy end, Matthew Langford relied on a string of big, Somerset bass on jerkbaits and blades to take the win. looked and the better the fish were,” Matthew said. “I would have loved the pre-fish bag in the tournament,” said Matt, along

and loaned him his boat for the Sunday session. “I call Paul ‘The Governor of Lake Somerset’. He’s out here nearly as much as I am and I thank him for his offer. I have to give it a good clean out now before I give it back.

a foggy Somerset morning. He had a two-pronged approach and relied on a jerkbait and a ZX blade to assemble his fish.

Fellow guide, Callum Munro hopped blades in the top half of the lake for second place.

Another $3,500 to the cash pile for Langford. the wind doesn’t blow, and the forecast was for light to no breeze each day. I always prefish with Nick Brown and we headed upstream into the timbers. The further up we got, the better the banks

with dozens of tournament anglers over the years. Matt still headed up into the timbers, even though it took him just under two hours to get up there with the speed limits imposed on

BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 108 JULY 2023

Angler Matthew Langford Callum Munro Shaun Falkenhagen Mark Lennox Braden Schuch Anthony Thorpe Graham Ford Corey Goldie Matt Johnson Keeghan Painter

Fish 10/10 10/10 10/10 7/10 7/10 4/10 4/10 7/10 3/10 4/10

The blade was an Ecogear ZX40 in black and the jerkbait was a Jackal Squirrel 67. He fished both lures on identical outfits a Millerods XLFC rod, Daiwa TD Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 11.375kg 9.940kg 9.075kg 7.340kg 5.615kg 4.855kg 4.330kg 4.060kg 3.190kg 3.810kg

Black reel, 10lb Yamatoyo braid and a 10lb Yamatoyo fluorocarbon leader. “My main bait was the jerkbait, it caught more of the larger fish, but the blade was good for bass I could see out from the bank under the boat. “I needed a jerkbait that could get 7-8ft down. You needed to impact the rocks

Payout $3,650 $1,800 + $250 Mercury $1,000 + $125 Mercury $800 $700 + $75 Mercury $600 + $500 Big Bass

The win leapfrogged Langford over Mick Johnson on the AOY race, but there’s still two events to go in the Hunter River and Lake St Clair and plenty of opportunity for movement. MUNRO BLADES HIS WAY TO SECOND “I’m getting sick of that guy beating me,” Callum Munro joked while being interviewed for this story, “I really thought I was on the fish to win.” Indeed, Munro’s first drop of the competition resulted in a 45cm bass on a vertically jigged Little Max (colour 19) blade, rigged with Daiwa’s new assist hooks. The second drop was another legal fish. After 20 minutes he had filled his limit and left the spot for the Sunday. No wonder he was confident.

BASS SERIES presented by Day 2 was a little harder, though, and a combination of this and a few lost fish left the door open that Langford strolled through. Munro fished only 3-4 spots, one just before the timber on a gravel patch and others in the 6 knot timbered area. He fished 12-15ft of water with a Daiwa TD Zero 22 732MLXS rod teamed with a Daiwa Revelry 2500 reel, 8lb J-Braid Grand line and 12lb J-Thread leader. “There was a short bite window each morning and the fish I was targeting weren’t getting much pressure,” he said. Alas, it was another second place for the Sunshine Coast based angler. Being the highest placed Mercury owner, he added $250 to his $1,800 cheque, earning over $2,000 for the weekend.

back of the boat a few years ago on the Richmond River. “Both times I’ve won an event, it’s been with Keeghan Painter, so we’re batting 100%,” Paul explained. The pair had made a move to the Kirkleigh flats Scan the QR code to watch the Field Highlights

Paul Mazaroli went from zero to hero in the last session from the back of the boat. His bag was anchored by this 3kg+ fish.

and found a bait ball wide of the competitors who were already there. They set up on spot lock and proceeded to hook fish. “I’d cast way past the bait and let it sink to the bottom,” Paul said. The retrieve was a mix of short hops and burns, letting the Yamba Blade in Black Prawn hit the bottom each time. “That hit and fight was

BIG BASS PRIZE

Some great kit from Rapala and 13 Fishing was accompanying Mazza on the way home. Sunday is moving day, however, and Mazaroli took advantage of some of the giant bass that live on the Somerset flats to take victory with only two fish. In fact, it was his single, 3kg+ giant that gave him the win. The second fish was just a bonus. His two fish weighed 4.555kg and he easily outdistanced second-placed Greg Rigby. Visibly excited at the final interview, Mazaroli added the trophy to his BASS Pro Grand Final victory at the

Anthony Thorpe weighed the event’s Atomic Big Bass on Day 1 and although challenged, it was never beaten. Weighing 3.19kg, it ate a Flash Union 7g blade on the Kirkleigh flats. MAZAROLI RIDES MONSTER BASS TO VICTORY It is fair to say that Paul Mazaroli’s first day of the event was ordinary. In fact, nearly his whole accommodation group was sitting on donuts at the end of the Saturday session. Brian Everingham bought a donut cake, but Maz refused to eat it. “I’m glad I didn’t eat it,” he explained.

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

Angler Paul Mazaroli Greg Rigby Nikki Sticklen Adam Mears Tyson Everleigh Bridgett Currey Luke Sticklen Rodney Thorpe Phil Nix James Reid

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

like nothing else I’ve felt. It was amazing,” Paul said. He fished the blade on a Daiwa Zillion rack rod paired with a Freams 2500 reel, 10lb J-Braid and 10ln Daiwa X-Link leader. Down to his last two blades, we asked him if he was going to save the winning blade as a souvenir? “Nope, I’m going to keep using it and when it’s gone it’s gone!” He concluded. Paul won a 13 Fishing baitcast combo and a pile of Rapala gear for his efforts.

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 4.555kg 3.110kg 3.030kg 2.650kg 2.105kg 2.075kg 2.060kg 2.035kg 1.995kg 1.360kg

Payout Rapala pack + $250 Rapala bonus Bassman pack Keitech Pack Ecogear pack Nomad pack + $125 Rapala bonus Rapala pack ProLure pack Hideup pack Atomic pack TT Pack JULY 2023 109

BREAM SERIES presented by

Healy goes back-to-back to take Lake Macquarie Local angler Mark Healey backed up his first place at the Hawkesbury River BREAM Qualifier the previous month with a second come-from-behind win at the Maui Jim round of the Daiwa BREAM Series on Lake Macquarie. The two wins were remarkably similar, with Healey backing up a solid Day 1 bag in the 3.5kg range with a 5kg+ bag on the day that counted. The win was assisted with the Atomic Big Bream that bumped up his final payday to over $4,000 – not a bad effort for two days of bream fishing in glorious conditions. Here’s how he did it. Day 1: 5/5, 3.73kg Day 2: 5/5, 5.055kg Total:10/10, 8.765kg Although Healey lives on Lake Macquarie he hadn’t fish the lake for a year prior to the tournament. He used his local knowledge on practice day to consolidate a plan to

you can catch bream so I spent my time fishing a few key areas and one of those was the bridge,” Mark said, “And the bridge isn’t fishing well. I think a lot of people went and checked it out in practice and maybe caught zero or one fish, so they Scan the QR code to watch the Boater Winners Interview

decided to give it a miss.” Indeed, Healey only landed six legal fish on Day 1 (including a 28cm tip specimen) and 7-8 on Day 2. “After winning the Hawkesbury I decided to go all-or-nothing on the bridge and luckily it worked out,” he continued. Healey caught the majority of his fish on a heavy, olive Cranka Crab that he added extra weight to get it down to the bottom in the

All of Healey’s fish came off the Swansea bridge - a structure that has resulted in several ABT wins over the years. One of his Saturday tarwhine pulled the scaled down to 1.35kg, which ended up being the event’s Atomic Big Bream. He used a Shimano 266L Expride rod to extract the fish from the heavy structure and to make it easier to fish under the bridge. It was paired to a Twinpower 2500 reel spooled with 6lb Kairiki braid and a 6lb Ocea leader.

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Healey’s winnings totalled over $4,000 - not bad for a weekend’s work! fish Swansea Bridge. The bridge had been the venue for several tournament wins in this arena over the years. “It’s too big a lake to check out all of the areas that

heavy current combined with a mussel vibe securing a few key fish on the second day. “You can either add a small ball sinker or a Snakelock weight to the crab,

BOATER RESULTS

110 JULY 2023

“That short rod was an extraction tool and although I didn’t catch everything I hooked, it definitely made it easier to get some of them out,” he concluded. Sitting a tight second in the Daiwa BREAM Series Angler of the Year (AOY) race, Healey is contemplating heading north to the Gold Coast Qualifier to try and secure the title.

and the bream and tarwhine still eat it,” Healy continued. Tarwhine played a major part in Healey’s bags each day, mixed with a smattering of yellowfin bream.

The south coast’s Jason Mayberry weighed two consistent bags to finish in second place. His tactic used light line in shallow water around the lake margins.

Full results at abt.org.au

Place

Angler

Fish

Weight(kg)

Payout

Mark Healey

10/10

8.785kg

$3,650 + $500 Big Bream

Jason Mayberry

10/10

7.470kg

$2,100

Jamie McKeown

10/10

7.370kg

$1,100

Mark Crompton

10/10

6.980kg

$900 + $250 Mercury

Kris Hickson

10/10

5.895kg

$800 + $125 Mercury

Drew Griffith

10/10

5.885kg

$750 + $75 Mercury

Craig Johnson

10/10

5.870kg

$700

Ahmad Mahfoud

10/10

5.870kg

$650

Tim Vickers

8/10

5.705kg

$600

Wally Fahey

10/10

5.695kg

$500

Luckily, there are lots of bridges to choose from on that urbanised waterway. MAYBERRY’S CONSISTENCY SNARES SECOND Past BREAM Grand Final winner, Jason Mayberry, lead the field after the first day of competition and weighed a second 3.5kg+ bag to secure second-place. His techniques were vastly different from the winner’s, fishing shallow flats and reefs with ultra light line. His consistency landed him 100g clear of third-place Jamie McKeown.

BREAM SERIES presented by Day 1: 5/5, 3.855kg Day 2: 5/5, 3.615kg Total: 10/10, 7.470kg And although the Sunday was a lot windier than the Saturday, Jason’s areas were quite sheltered and he needed finesse presentations each day to buy the bites he needed. To do this he relied on long casts, straight-through 2lb and 3lb fluorocarbon line and finesse baits. He relied on four main baits to fish the shallow cockle weed and reeks that

Lance fished with fellow Coffs Harbour angler Nathan Gregory on Saturday and landed a string of big bream on docks on white, weightless Ecogearaquas rigged on Scan the QR code to watch the Field Highlights

Scan the QR code to watch the NonBoater Winners Interview

held the better quality fish and he close not to pre-fish on the practice day so that he didn’t hurt the spots that he knew that he’d fish. “I learned from my Hawkesbury River experience and this time I didn’t sting my fish on the prefishing day,” Jason said, “There are several banks that always hold good quality fish for me and I knew that I was going to fish them, so there was no reason to catch any.” The baits were a Shimano BioTough Fish in pumpkinseed fished in a

Non-boater Champion Lance Marsh weighed a string of big bream like this to take his first trophy from the back of the boat, despite being one bream short on the second day. He fished the BioTough in a braid leader combo with a Shimano T-Curve and Twinpower reel, 6lb Kairiki braid and 4lb Ocea leader. “I knew it was going to be a good event when I landed several bream in the mid to high 30s that had buried me in cockle weed but I could

a #1 VanFook Magic Eye worm hook. “One of the big bream had me tied up all around the dock, but it came out again. I ended up throwing out an 800g bream to upgrade it. I asked Nathan to pinch me, it was such a good day,” Lance said. As often happens, Day 2 was a different boater and different style – fishing moored boats and pontoons. Lance boxed a pair of bream for just under a kilogram, but it was enough to retain his lead

get in to get them out. When that happens on the light fluorocarbon, you know it’s going to be your weekend,” Jason said. Ultimately, Mayberry’s consistency was not enough to overcome Healey’s mega-bag on Sunday, but the best-ofthe-rest still took home over

BIG BREAM PRIZE

Based in Coffs Harbour, Marsh won a great selection of Daiwa tackle for his efforts.

Mark Healey weighed a combination of bream and tarwhine to win his second ABT BREAM event in a row. Mark landed a 1.35kg tarwhine on Day 1 that was often challenged, but held up as the Atomic Big Bream of the event. It ate a weighted Cranka Crab (heavy, olive) at the Swansea bridge. 1/20oz TT HWS jighead, a Hurricane Sprat on a 1/28oz HWS, an Atomic mid crank in black and a Hurricane Twitch 50 shallow in UV Prawn. “For me it’s all about long casts with ultra light line and using finesse to get the fish to bite – even in glassed out conditions. I use Sunline FC Sniper in 2lb and 3lb and custom Millerods to get the baits as far away from the boat as I can (a CrankFreak and a GrubFreak),” he explained.

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

Angler Lance Marsh Daniel Reynolds Cristian Bermudez Zack Messenger Neil Kelly Van Ho Nguyen Brian Wilcher Taka Kawasaki Jordan Armstrong Ben Monforte

Fish 5/6 6/6 5/6 5/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 4/6

$2,000 for his efforts. LANCE MARSH BEST FROM THE BACK Coffs Harbour’s Lance Marsh took home his first title from the back of the boat. His first day fish averaged nearly a kilo a piece and he had a nervous wait on the Sunday, weighing only two of his possible three bream. Ultimately it was enough and he scored a great pack of Daiwa kit as well as instant qualification into the Daiwa BREAM Grand Final at Port Stephens, NSW later this year. Day 1: 3/3, 2.875kg Day 2: 2/3, 0.960kg Total: 5/6, 3.835kg

until the end of the event. Lance uses a pair of Daiwa SK INFEET rods with the new, skeleton seats, paired with TD Black MQ reels, 6lb Daiwa J-Braid and 6lb Daiwa X-Link fluorocarbon leader. He also had one of the new Spike 53 in XD configuration that he used to upgrade a couple of times on the first day. Lance loves the non-boater format. “I usually fish from the back of the boat with by son-in-law, so I like it. Also, I get to fish with the best anglers in some of the best parts of Australia,” he concluded.

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Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 3.835kg 3.665kg 3.540kg 3.440kg 3.285kg 3.145kg 3.120kg 2.990kg 2.805kg 2.760kg

Payout Daiwa pack Cranka pack Daiwa pack Maui Jim pack Daiwa pack ProLure Pack Samaki pack Atomic pack EJTodd pack TTs pack JULY 2023 111

BASS SERIES presented by

Johnson goes wire-to-wire at Boondooma Matt Johnson is another local angler who seems to be always challenging the leaders in the Queensland rounds. He is a master of Scan the QR code to watch the Boater Winners Interview

throwing soft vibes and deep crankbaits and did both to perfection on his way to winning the Nomad

a strong favourite in that event where the winner takes home an Alloycraft/ Mercury boat/motor/ trailer package worth around $50,000. “In the cooler months up here the bass school up in the backs of bays and gullies in about 15-20ft and they love eating lures that are hopped up and off the bottom,” Matt explained. His lure of choice was the Jackall Mask Vibe that he threw on a G.Loomis NRX+ S842 rod and

Matt Johnson shot out to an early lead and didn’t get caught at the Nomad Design round of the 13 Fishing BASS Pro Series on Lake Boondooma. Scan the QR code to watch the NonBoater Winners Interview

John Noble dumped nearly 5kg of bass on the scales on Day 2 to jump into second place. Design round of the 13 Fishing BASS Pro Series on Lake Boondooma. In doing so he earned a $3,750 payday that included the $250 Mercury bonus for the highest placing Mercury owner. In fact, the top 11 boats were powered by Mercury engines, even though the bonus is only for the highest three anglers. Matt took the lead on Saturday with a 5.81kg limit and followed it up with a 3.845, five fish limit on the Sunday, outdistancing a fast-finishing John Noble by around 1.4kg and winning comfortably. In doing so, he automatically qualified for the BASS Pro Grand Final, to be held on the very same lake in October this year. It’s likely he will be

Matt caught his bass on a combination of soft vibe lures and ultra-deep diving crankbaits.

Shaun Falkenhagen secured third place with bass on both lure and fly.

BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 112 JULY 2023

Angler Matt Johnson John Noble Shaun Falkenhagen Matthew Langford Braden Schuch Mick Johnson Callum Munro Gregory Burke Mitchell Petty Mike Nelson

Shimano Sustain 2500 reel spooled with 10lb Kairiki braid and 12lb Ocea leader. “For me, that’s a dream outfit for fishing Masks, it’s light in the hand, you can throw them a mile and they’re sensitive enough to be able to detect when a bass eats them – usually

Fish 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 7/10 5/10 7/10 7/10 5/10 5/10

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 9.655kg 8.215kg 7.58kg 7.370kg 5.815kg 5.485kg 5.355kg 4.75kg 3.940kg 3.230kg

at the top of the list off the bottom,” he continued. On the first day, Matt caught a limit early on the Mask and then switched to a HideUp HU400 crankbait to crank fish in 15-16ft of water, upgrading his entire bag. He then switched to the Imakatsu IK800 to fish 22-24ft and caught more, key upgrades. The Sunday heralded a sou’wester change, which Matt said always makes fishing more difficult in Payout $3,300 + Mercury $250 $1,600 + Mercury $125 $1,000 + Mercury $75 $800 $700 $600 + $500 Big Bass

Queensland. His limit reflected this with neither the numbers or size of bass that he encountered the day before. “I dropped a few good fish on the IKs – they seemed to be nipping at the bait whereas the day before they were eating it properly,” he said. Still, with a winning margin of over 1.4kg, he couldn’t complain about his results. NOBLE CHARGES INTO SECOND John Noble found three or four areas that held quantities of bass on the practice day, but settled for an area in front of Sandy Creek to catch his limit on the first day of competition. It weighed 3.325kg and he left it soon afterwards to save fish for the Sunday. He landed all of his keepers on an EverGreen Little Max 1/4oz blade (clown colour) with custom stingers and an upgraded

BASS SERIES presented by Gamakatsu W-hook that he fished on a Samurai Infinite 3-8lb, 7’ rod matched with a Lew’s KVD 2000 reel, 6lb Sufix 832 line and a 10lb Sunline RockFish leader. “I caught most fish vertically in 15-30ft of water and they seemed to bite better when they formed up out under the boat,” John explained. With no need to save fish any more he went to work on the Sunday with the blade, but upgraded his whole bag in the last hours of competition on a longlined Imakatsu IK800 crankbait that he’d run out about 100m before retrieving. He fished that bait on a Samurai 7” Refraction 10-16lb baitcast rod, Lews HyperMag 8.3:1 reel, 20lb 832 Sufix and a 14lb Sunline RockFish leader. “I wish I’d cottoned on to the longline technique a little earlier in the event,” Noble lamented. He had a line up in 25ft of water where he’d get

Sunday, placing him 1.3kg clear of a fast-finishing Christina Tschutura, who boxed the heaviest non-boater limit on the second day. For Steve, the weekend was a master class in casting and longlining ultra-deep crankbaits from his boaters, Matt Johnson and John Noble, who finished first Scan the QR code to watch the On Water Highlights

The non-boater champion was also wearing his free 13 Fishing shirt to get a bonus $250.

and second in the event. Mears displayed his longlining setup in the YouTube interview that can be seen by scanning the QR code hereby. It was a Millerods Switchfreak UL paired with a Shimano SLX DC and a Rapala DT20 tied on the end. “Adam won that bait in a prize pack last year,” Steve said, “and now it’s caught me some of the fish

BIG BASS PRIZE

Tamworth’s Steve Mears has now got a trophy just like his son, Adam. BASS Pro event in 2022. Little did he know that he’d have his own trophy to take home after the Boondooma iteration of the event in 2023. He jumped out to an early lead with a 3/3, 2.555kg limit on Saturday and finished it off with a second 3/3, 1.82kg on the

Chinchilla’s Mick Johnson didn’t land a limit on either day of the event, but sure did win the $500 Atomic Big Bass award for his 1.965kg monster. bitten every time the lure banged across the bottom. “There were other boats there but they were either too shallow or too deep,” Noble concluded, “You had to be around 25ft or you weren’t going to get bit.” STEVE MEARS MATCHES SON Tamworth’s Steve Mears was a proud as punch when his son, Adam, won the Non-Boater trophy at the Clarence Ricer

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

Angler Steve Mears Christina Tschtura Marco Grubb Heath Kimber Paul Mazaroli Garry Wilton David Lonne Phil Hoyt Tyson Everleigh Casey Monagle

Fish 6/6 4/6 4/6 4/6 4/6 3/6 3/6 3/6 3/6 3/6

to win this event.” Sponsor Karma at it again. “You meet such great people and anglers fishing these events. I used to take Adam fishing in the saltwater, but now he is taking me freshwater fishing and I’m loving every minute of it,” he concluded.

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) Payout 4.375kg Rapala pack + $250 Rapala bonus 3.015kg Bassman pack + $125 Rapala bonus 2.605kg Keitech pack 2.580kg Ecogear pack + $75 Rapala bonus 2.325kg Nomad Design pack 2.260kg Rapala pack 2.115kg ProLure pack 2.075kg Hideup pack 2.060kg Atomic pack 1.745kg TT Pack JULY 2023 113

Stessco Albacore SC640 with Yamaha F200 is a silver bullet

RE ONLI NE

CON

CAN THE Q

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-S

self-draining deck, because I was expecting this tinny to sound tinny. The one concession to any sort of luxury in this rig was the fancy Stessco seats and the padded gunwales. The console is substantial, and I like Stessco’s new MFD mounting solution that involves a large piece of

DE FOR E XT FMG

Steve Morgan s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au

Over the years that we have been testing Stessco boats, it seems as though the Albacore line has evolved the furthest and fastest. From its factory on the northern side of Brisbane, Stessco has expanded the range of these plate aluminium boats to five models from 4.8m to 6.4m, and they’re customisable to a centre-console or a sideconsole variation. On the test day we had a fairly special craft to ride in. It was destined for a coral farm in Western Australia.

PERFORMANCE

Main: Now this is a serious side console! 6.4m of workhorse that’s bound for a coral farm in Western Australia. Above: Unloaded, this rig is quick off the mark and shows marvellous fuel economy for a boat powered by 200hp – up to 2.2km/L.

Stesscos come with a serious set of boarding stairs at the transom. The 6.4m side console was fitted with a Yamaha F200 4-stroke outboard, and was a massive working space that could carry huge loads. If fact, I’m sure that the performance figures quoted in this article should come with a disclaimer – “boat tested empty” – because I think that in its working life it will never be as lightly loaded as when we tested it. Maybe that’s why some of the performance figures 116 JULY 2023

of aluminium boat design, and they’ve tackled it with a welded lip and drainage channels built in to let the water flow around and away from the edge. Since it wasn’t belting down with rain on the test day, I didn’t get to see exactly how well the concept worked, but rest assured I’d rather my dry clothes and expensive fishing tackle in

were so sweet: economy of 2.2km/L at 41km/h and 3,500rpm is fantastic for a Yamaha F200 outboard. And it might also explain why Donovan Weeks looked like he was having so much fun running the boat back and forth during the video and photo runs. It looked like a rocket sled! At wide open throttle and 6,000rpm it went 79km/h but the range halved – you got only 1.1km per litre of

fuel burned – so as always, it’s a balance between economy and fun. All of these figures were achieved with a Yamaha Reliance 17” stainless steel SDS propeller. As expected, there’s a substantial (220L) fuel tank underfloor which gives a theoretical range of nearly 500km at the most efficient cruising speeds. Interestingly, when you watch the slow-motion runs of the boat in the Test Video (scan the QR code hereby) you can see the newly released SRH (Soft Riding Hull) in action. It has fully

welded reverse chines from bow to transom. “The older Albacores only had pressed chines that went up around half way,” said Donovan, “but these go all the way to the bow and make for a much drier ride.” Behind the wheel, this was a much quieter hull than I expected it to be. There must be some good flotation and insulation under the

RPM ............ Speed (km/h) ... Economy (km/L) Idle ............................................ 3 .................................. 3.0 1000 .......................................... 8 .................................. 2.4 2000 .........................................14 ................................... 1.7 3000 ........................................33 .................................. 2.2 3500 .........................................41 .................................. 2.2 4000 ........................................48 ................................... 1.9 4500 ........................................ 57 ................................... 1.8 5000 ........................................63 ................................... 1.5 6000 ........................................ 79 .................................... 1.1 perspex covering the console opening. Anything that makes flush-mounting easier is a thumbs-up in my book. And on a personal note, well done Stessco for having a go at making the underfloor storage areas actually dry. I’ve been banging on to aluminium boat manufacturers for years about this disadvantage

this hatch than 95% of the other hatches on the market. Post COVID especially, boats are not as affordable as they used to be, however this boat motor and trailer package from Stessco with the 200hp Yamaha comes in at $90,036. For more information you can visit Stessco’s website on www. stessco.com.au.

SPECIFICATIONS Length .........................6.495m Beam .............................. 2.45m Depth................................1.53m Bottom sheet...............5mm Side sheet......................4mm Max HP................................200 Capacity...............6 persons

It goes without saying that the stability is pretty good. This boat is designed to have all sorts of compressors, product and work gear on board.

Top: The raised front casting deck gives you a large amount of storage underneath. Above: The raised front casting deck gives you a large amount of storage underneath.

That’s a meaty console with a removable panel you can flush mount your electronics into.

Top: The electric motor plate is now standard on Albacore hulls. Above: This Stessco finally has channels that direct water away from the hatch opening. Amen! This is potentially a dry storage area.

There’s no denying that there’s a mountain of work space in the 640 SC, complete with a little luxury in the form of padded gunwales.

Can you imagine this rig full of compressors and live coral?

Top Left: There are some substantial side pockets for your commonly used items. Top Right: We’re unsure why the coral farm needs a live bait tank, but there it is in the back starboard corner. Bottom Left: There’s a transom door on the port side. Bottom Right: These hatches on the transom give access to the electrics and isolators.

Top Left: It’s a broad and sturdy bait station with a shelf underneath and out of the mess. Bottom Left: The support from the duckboard also acts as a grab rail. Top Right: The kill tank runs across the boat rather than along the keel. Bottom Right: There’s another small access hatch at the bottom of the console. JULY 2023 117