Johnson claims maiden BASS Pro win at Blue Rock

Victoria’s Blue Rock

Dam has been a happy hunting ground for Queenslanders since ABT started visiting this Victorian empowerment in 2021. After a COVID cancellation in the first year, Matthew Langford won the first full event there and this year fellow Queenslander Mick Johnson took his first ABT BASS Pro qualifier title.

Blue Rock is undoubtedly a beautiful lake. It is stocked with plenty of bass by Victorian Fisheries and offers most competitors a fairly easy limit. The challenge in blue Rock has always been finding fish over 30cm.

Run on the ABT tournament series app, the event offers live scoreboards and the ability to record any size bass, since they are measured and released at the point of capture. Indeed, the live scoreboards are a hit with spectators who can keep an eye on how their favourite

Targeting suspending fish in the treetops, like this one, saw Mitchell Cone take the day one lead.

1 competitors are faring during the tournament day.

Lengths are converted to estimated weights via ABT’s length weight curve, therefore five fish limits are possible.

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“I had two patterns going – early fish on topwater around the edges and fish later on in the submerged trees. On day one I got distracted after catching the limit on the edge, but day two I got back on track and stuck to the game plan. That’s when the bigger fish bit,” Mick said.

The day two limit catapulted him into first place.

Johnson weighed an average, sub 2kg limit on day one but found bigger fish on the second day to rocket into the lead and win quite emphatically, over 1.5kg ahead of Mitchell Cone.

Full results at

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“There are a lot more big fish in this lake than most people realise,” Johnson said.

He targeted these fish on deeper, submerged trees – usually ones that were in around 70ft of water with their crowns around 20-25ft under the surface.

“Garmin LiveScope makes these areas much easier to fish than they used to be. You can see the trees and you can see that there are fish in them,” he continued.

Johnson used a 7’, 1-2kg Rapala Maxwell rod and 4lb Sufix 131 braid paired with 4lb Sufix leader to present a 1/8oz jighead and cut down soft plastic single tail to the fish suspended in the treetops and sunk or rolled the bait back as slowly as possible.

“There was a real strike zone where the lure left the top of the tree. The fish would have to decide whether they would eat it or retreat back to the structure. That’s where most of the bites happened,” Mick continued.

With the win qualifying him for the Grand Final at Lake Boondooma, we assume that Johnson will continue his good form throughout the season.

CONE’S BASIN PATTERN SLOWS

Mitchell Cone led the event after the first day, but his main-basin pattern slowed and he ended up missing a limit and finishing in second place.

“I think it was a combination of the pressure and the stronger wind on day two. My fish really started to become shy and move away when the boat approached the trees.”

Cone also used his Garmin LiveScope to find

Tom the bank, up the river in 3-5m of water. fish suspending in treetops, although the ones he was targeting were shallower –around 15ft.

“This fish didn’t get hooked on the stingers – it engulfed the lure,” Tim said. Measuring 43cm to the fork and weighing 1.535kg, it demonstrated exactly what lives in the depths of Blue Rock. He threw the jig on a Millerods Switch freak loaded with 15lb braid and 10lb leader.

Cone would see the fish near the structure up to 50ft in front of the boat and throw a cast to them, using a ‘pendulum’, retrieve to slow the sink rate past the fish.

He used a 3” black Gulp Minnow Grub on a 1/4oz Bassman jighead, 6lb J-Braid and 8lb Daiwa fluorocarbon leader that was rigged on a

NSW Central Coast won his first trophy from the back of the boat with the help of the event’s X-Braid Big Bass to anchor his day two limit. Fishing with Steve Muldoon on day one and Tony Thorley

Scan watch the Field Highlights on day two, Jones used a variety of techniques to get the job done.

Non-boaters have to be versatile in this respect and have to adapt to the areas the boater is fishing.

His presentations included a HideUp 150 crankbait, a Rapala Jack Deep crank and a black Pro S jig with tiny assist hooks added for finicky fish.

This event is run on the ABT Tournament Series App, which means we can track fish sizes and numbers each year caught by the field. The good news is that it’s all on the increase!

Millerods Finesse Freak and a Daiwa TD Black 2500 reel.

“I should have headed up the river when I saw what was going on, but I got a decent fish early and decided to stick with what worked on the first day,” he concluded.

JONES BAGS BIG BASS AND NB WIN

Tim Jones from the

He fished the basin edges on day one and learned a lot off his boater.

“Steve was awesome, teaching me the technique he was using and helping me to my limit,” Jones said.

“I used the Rapala like a crankbait on day two and caught fish behind Tony Thorley.”