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Vukic achieves Hollands Landing heroics At Gippsland Lakes in 2023, for the first app-based BREAM event of the year, ABT saw the largest field of boaters and non-boaters ever for the venue. It’s reputation for being the big bream Mecca of Australia continues to grow since the abolition of netting in 2019. ABT anglers each year since have been reaping the rewards as we continue to see significantly higher catch rates, bigger bag weights and fish being caught in a wider variety of locations than ever before. The Victorians once again proved hard to beat
for heaviest 5 fish bag with a staggering 6.442kg on day one, going on to place second in the boater’s division. Meanwhile in the non-boaters, Builder Mick Thompson chalked up his third ABT win from the back of the boat. Mick got one up for the Queensland cohort, leading the event on day one and going on to win under the guidance of Mario Vukic on day two. MARIO VUKIC – THE NAIL BOMBER Ask anyone that has made the epic 40km run down to Hollands Landing at the southernmost point of the Gippsland Lakes system and they’ll likely
2023 Gippsland Lakes Champion Boater Mario Vukic had a ball extracting quality fish like this from the snags. days together down there. One sure, but two is hard,” said Vukic. This year it was evident there were plenty of quality fish around the area, however quality bags don’t always mean quality fishing. Vukic explained; “Yes, we caught some
strait and he still managed to catch them. The way Vukic rigs his 2.5” motor oil grubs was born out of necessity, needing to keep the lure from getting hung up in thick timber. He uses
3/32oz Decoy Nail Bombs, a weedless worm hook jighead, with the hook point buried into the body of the bait to ensure it doesn’t get hung up. This set up, while extremely snag-resistant, comes at a cost however,
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Here’s a familiar face – Victoria’s Cam Whittam lead the event after day one with a record setting bag. It’s hard to believe he finished second with a total weight of an astonishing 12.475kg. on their home turf at the Garmin sponsored round, with plenty of that usual sponsor karma going around as Mario Vukic and his fresh new Garmin 8416 and LiveScope got the job done at Hollands Landing. Fellow Victorian Cam Whittam broke the ABT record (previously 6.3kg)
tell you it can be rocks or diamonds when you get there. Not many know this better than Mario Vukic who has been fishing the area almost exclusively in tournaments for 10 years. “Hollands is the land of the giants, but it can be really hard to put two good
BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 112 APRIL 2023
Angler Mario Vukic Cam Whittam Daniel Kent Mitchell Blomquist Peter Breukel Liam Carruthers Alex Franchuk Brad Hodges Jarrod Healey Steven Pryke Jamie McKeown
Fish 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10
great fish, but the fishing wasn’t on fire, we would go hours without a bite each day, but you had to be ready at any moment.” Where most people choose to fish the flats and edges at the mouth of the McLennan Strait, Vukic pushes up the channel and targets the big, resident, snag dwelling bream. Asked what he looks for, Vukic said, “I look for current at Hollands and it all depends on what the wind is doing leading up to the event. A southwester and it drains the top lake making it run out of the strait, whereas an easterly fills it up causing it to run in.” While he prefers the runout tide, he actually found it to be running in all weekend while he fished the
Trifecta! Queensland’s Builder Mick Thompson racked up his third win from the back of the boat with a crankbait and soft plastic combo.
Full results at abt.org.au
Weight(kg) 12.582 12.475 12.149 11.080 10.962 10.543 10.255 10.172 9.999 9.713 9.505
Payout $3800 + $250 1st Merc bonus $1900 $1000 + $125 2nd Merc bonus $900 + $75 3rd Merc bonus $800 $700 + $500 X Braid Big Bream $700 $600 $600 $500 $500
with many missed bites and pulled hooks due to the unexposed hook point. “Whenever you think you get a bite, even if you aren’t sure, you have to strike as hard as you can. All day Mick and I were having jigheads flying out of the water at us when we thought we had a bite, but when it was a bite, you had to make sure that hook connected.” You can see the hook setting power
