BREAM SERIES presented by
Tristan Taylor wins back-to-back at Ballina It’s been four years since ABT has visited the Richmond River at Ballina in northern NSW, however history has a funny way of repeating itself, which it kindly did for Tristan Taylor who rode the sponsor karma wave all the way to 1st place in the Atomic sponsored round of the DAIWA Bream series. This is Taylor’s second win on this arena, earning him back-to-back titles, as he won the last time ABT visited in 2017. Anglers were forced to adapt for the weekend as the seaward boundary was moved upriver due to dangerous swells, eliminating the popular north and south break walls. This resulted in many anglers opting to fish the porpoise wall at the front of the system, with several good bags coming from the popular spot. This Scan the QR code to watch the Winner Interview
Luvias Lt 3000 with 10lb Unitika Aorika braid and 6lb Unitika Aiger leader, from his proud sponsors at Frogleys Offshore. “At times, the swell washing over the rocks was like a horizontal waterfall, Scan the QR code to watch the Non- Boater Winner Interview
Tristan Taylor claimed his second victory at Ballina, earning him the status of back-to-back champion and pocketing $2,500 cash for his efforts.
so I really needed that extra jighead weight to keep the lure in the strike zone, as well as to keep in contact with it on the bottom,” Taylor said. He focused his efforts along broken bits of the wall where the rocks had cracked and separated, washing out the
included Tristan Taylor’s 1st place bag and Blake O’Grady’s cracking 2.895kg day one bag. O’Grady was leading after day one with the biggest bag for the weekend. Unfortunately, a tough Sunday saw him drop to 6th place overall. O’Grady chose to throw brown Cranka Crabs into the rocks
Boater and non-boater champions, Mick Thompson and Tristan Taylor, proved they deserved to be there on what was a pretty tough weekend for some. along the porpoise wall, as well as an Atomic Crank 38 deep blank, which he custom painted, earning himself the $1,000 Atomic big bag. TACTICS OF A TWOTIME CHAMPION No stranger to the top of the leaderboard, Taylor – an Atomic sponsored angler – added 5/5, 2.375kg on Sunday to his 5/5, 2.610kg bag on Saturday to take the win over 2nd placed boater Darren ‘Dizzy’ Borg by a little over 200g.
Tristan only landed a handful of bream each day, but they were the right ones.
BOATER RESULTS Place Angler 1 Tristan Taylor 2 Darren Borg 3 Mark Saric 4 Steve Morgan 5 Nathan Gregory 6 Blake O’Grady 7 Jamie McKeown 8 Kris Hickson 9 Jake Stewart 10 Grayson Fong 116
JULY 2021
Fish 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 9/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10
Taylor made the decision to fish the inside of the porpoise wall all weekend, as opposed to the outside like most of the field. Due to the relentless wind and swell, Taylor relied on a motor oil 2.5, ZMan Grub attached to a 1/6oz (and at times 1/4oz) Atomic Seekerz jighead, fished in as shallow as 3ft of water. To get his lure where it needed to be, he used a Samurai Reaction 201 7’ 2-6lb paired with a Daiwa
sand from 2ft down to 3ft. The bites mostly came off these sand blowouts, instead of the rocks on the outside, which many anglers targeted. “The key was I was getting a lot of those snowy bream coming in off the seawalls – that we weren’t allowed to fish this weekend – so they were still in really good condition as opposed to those upriver fish,” Taylor said. Persistence was key for Taylor who, on both days,
Full results at abt.org.au
Weight(kg) Payout 4.985 $2500 4.755 $1500 + $250 1st Mercury bonus 4.635 $1300 4.620 $1100 + $125 2nd Mercury bonus 4.480 $900 4.470 $700 + $75 3rd Mercury bonus + $500 YoloTek big Bream + $1000 Atomic big bag 4.400 $500 cash 4.340 4.330 4.325
