BREAM SERIES presented by
The Captain Risky Coota comeback Returning to the scene of the 2022 BREAM Grand Final, ABT concluded its Victorian road trip at Mallacoota for the SUNLINE sponsored third round of the 2023 Daiwa Bream series. Kris Hickson had a point to prove after a disappointing result at Gippsland Lakes. Even with numerous missed chances on big fish, he was still able to mount a monster comeback on day two, dropping 5.391kg on the scales to weigh the only 10kg total for the event. Local player Mitchell Blomquist kept Victorians on the podium in second
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ranks of non-boater champions that have won the first ABT event they have competed in. He put his bent minnow to work from the back deck and logged a stack of yellowfin bream in the ABT tournament series app over the whole event. WELCOME BACK CAPTAIN He may have taken a small hiatus from bream fishing in 2022 but you cannot, and more Scan the QR code to watch the Boater Winners Interview
Fear the beard! Kris Hickson is back and he wasted no time getting back on the leader board. Caldia 2000 and the new Saltiga 8 braid in PE 6, which helped massively with casting distance.
Day two he broke the tip off the Infeet Z rod early on through a mishap so he switched to an Infeet EX
In fine form, boater Mitchell Blomquist of Victoria hit the flats, weighing two solid bags of black bream to finish in second place. place, putting in a clinic on the flats at Goodwin sands and weighing one of only two 5kg bags for the whole event on day one at 5.054kg. Marlon Thompson joined the ever-growing
importantly should not, ever count Kris ‘Captain Risky’ Hickson out. If you ask him, he’ll be the first to tell you he wasn’t confident he’d done enough on day two to take the win, which might seem odd considering
BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 112 MAY 2023
he weighed the biggest bag of the event. Risky summarised his day two as, “Frustrating to say the least” adding that he pulled hooks and busted off a “ridiculous amount of really big fish”. When asked how confident he was in winning when coming back to weigh in, he replied with a simple “not at all, I thought I’d blown it”. Kris spent the event running to spots he could tell people had overlooked. “Every usual spot I fished had a boat on it, so I just started fishing banks that people had overlooked and tried to figure them out as I went along.” Throwing mainly super lightweight plastics, and needing to be as accurate as possible, he used predominately two rods for the whole event. “The first day I started with an Infeet EX 6101ULRS but after a few bust offs and missed hook-ups I switched to the Infeet Z 681LRS, great accuracy and a bit more grunt to set hooks and steer the fish,” he explained. He paired it with a
Angler Kris Hickson Mitchell Blomquist Peter Breukel Brad Hodges Paul Langley Ahmad Mafoud Sam Peck Grant Oliver Darren Weda Steven Pryke Tom Slater Blake O’Grady
Fish 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10
His likeness to a wizard is not just in appearance but fishing ability as well. Captain Risky smacked the biggest bag of the event on day two for a come-from-behind victory. Full results at abt.org.au
Weight(kg) 10.152 9.635 9.175 8.903 8.889 8.770 8.598 8.537 8.505 8.299 8.195 8.120
Payout $4200 + $250 1st Merc bonus $2000 + $125 2nd Merc bonus $1000 + $75 3rd Merc bonus $900 $800 + $500 X braid big bream $700 $700 $600 $600 $500 $500 $500
722LFS, sacrificing a bit of accuracy on the calm slick conditions but gaining casting distance through the extra length. It was paired with a TD Black 2000 and 6lb J Braid Grand. For leader, Kris ran 6lb J thread X-link all weekend. “Some of the bust offs would have broken anything but some of the times I had fish running through sticks and weed and the leader came out unscathed, which was pretty impressive.” Here is a trap for young players from Risky himself,
