DUO 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 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, 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 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 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 needed for this technique by scanning the QR code hereby.

Heavy-duty gear was the only option, so Vukic used a 7’ 2-4kg Daiwa TD Battler Beowulf that he described as being closer to a 3-6kg rod, paired up with a Daiwa Certate 2508 with a locked drag, 16lb Castaway braid and 8lb Sunline V-hard leader.

On day two, his new Garmin setup proved invaluable to locating the snags that the fish were sitting on, as most of the fish-holding structure was submerged and it would have been missed by the naked eye.

Speaking to Steve Morgan, Vukic spoke in awe of the fishery Gippsland Lakes has become. “Mate, can you believe that people are bringing in 12kg and not winning the comp? It’s honestly unbelievable”.

WHITTAM SETS

NEW ABT RECORD

One of the finest bream anglers in Victoria and the fish at his third spot around 8:30am – an edge at the mouth of the entrance to Paynesville – and his non-boater quickly landed a 39cm-forker, he went to work doing what he does best, flats fishing.

“I’ve never been much of a structure fisherman; my strength is flats fishing and that’s where I’m most confident I can beat my competitors.”

Just using his eyes and a quality pair of polarised sunglasses, he found he could see the fish cruising

Scan the QR code to watch the NonBoater Winners Interview around in 4ft of water on the broken patches of weed and sand.

Cam picked a line in this depth and travelled about 200m up it before he crept in 50m closer to

Big Bream Prize

the edge and made a pass on the inside of his first run, and finally doing a run 50m on the outside of his first line.

This allowed him to rest his main run in 4ft while also picking off the odd fish in 1-2ft or 5-6ft.

A Lucky Craft Bevy shad in ghost minnow was Whittam’s crankbait of choice as it didn’t bury itself into the weed like a lot of other fast diving crankbaits do. This was essential to his technique, which was to wind his bait along the bottom slowly for a few turns of the handle before a long pause, allowing the lure to suspend just off the bottom.

He explained that some bites would come after the lure had been paused for as long as 15 seconds.

He used a 2-4kg Duffrods ‘the Broken Bone’ matched with a Daiwa Luvias that was spooled with 16lb Sunline Siglon braid and a long 20ft leader of 4lb Sunline FC rock.

“I run braid and long leaders for everything. The stretch and finesse of a long fluorocarbon leader but the sensitivity of braid creates what I call a ‘hybrid feel’. Not quite the feel of straight through fluoro, but not braid and short leader either, somewhere in between,” he clarified.

Cam’s 6.442kg day one bag writes him into the record books and becomes the new bar for his fellow competitors to try and raise for years to come.

Through ABT history we don’t believe anyone has ever weighed a 12.475kg bag and come second, which could be a tough pill to swallow but Cam finds it hard to complain when he has days like his day one. “Honestly coming second to Mario, I can live with that if I get to catch fish like I did on day one, it really was something special.”

Third Win For Builder Mick

Liam Carruthers is a big unit, so if he can’t get his hands around a bream you know it’s a belter! His 1.801kg fish landed him the $500 X Braid Big Bream.

Australia for that matter, Cam Whittam has been a force on Gippsland Lakes for as long as ABT has been running events there. It was only fitting for him to find his way onto the podium and to set a new ABT record in the process.

Describing his day one heroics, Whittam said it was, “Just one of those days you dream about.”

Once he finally found

Chalking up his third win from the back of the boat, builder Mick Thompson set the tone early on day one with Michael Hunt with a solid 3.202kg bag, followed by a 3.240kg day two bag under the guidance of champion boater Mario Vukic.

Ten years of punishment at Hollands Landing is suddenly all worth it. Vukic scored an extra $250 thanks to his V8 Mercury ProXS which handled the near 100km round trip each day with ease.

It can be hard to find consistency from the back of the boat, yet Mick rarely ventures far away from the top of the leader board wherever he goes around the country.

While he is comfortable fishing flats, black bream present a different prawn colour – his favourite colour for this venue. challenge in comparison to the aggressive yellowfin of Moreton Bay that he is used to. Their timidness means that when fishing a crankbait, you must fish as slow as you can wind, with Mick’s advice being, “If you think you’re winding slow, go slower!”

Fishing flats with Michael Hunt, Mick used a very slow crankbaiting technique, cranking the lure down into the mud, giving it a few very slow winds and pausing it.

The choice combo for the weekend was a Daiwa TD Black Limited Edition with a cork handle, paired with a Daiwa Luvias spooled with 8lb braid J-braid grand and 4lb fluorocarbon leader.

Mick got his bream on day one cranking his crankbait into the mud, giving it a few slow winds and letting it pause before slowly cranking again. In this instance, a floating bait rises too quickly on the pause, so Mick went for a suspending Daiwa Infeet Spike 53 SP in matte

In contrast, his second day was all about bombing, or rather ‘Nail-Bombing’, snags at Hollands in good, old-fashioned hand-to-fin combat in the structure with a 2.5” motor oil grub rigged on a decoy nail bomb.

Mick used the same rod as day one, however with an 8lb leader and locked drag to give himself every chance to turn the fish away from the timber.

He and Vukic chalked up an impressive number of big fish with Mick bagging two 38cm-forkers on the final day, which anchored another 3.2kg bag bringing his total to 6.443kg and putting him in a comfortable 280g ahead of second place.