ECBS ROUND 2 RESULTS Lake Macquarie Round The weather forecast for round 2 of the East Coast Bream Series was not favourable, and it changed four times in the four days prior to the event. Fortunately, on the day the weather gods were smiling, and competitors were greeted with a glorious morning. A total of 58 boats lined up for the start, and round 2 was off and running on beautiful Lake Macquarie. 1ST PLACE - $2500 Michell and Matthew Simons (Team Off The Scales) took out first place, and Matthew said it was a great day. “Sometimes it just all comes together,” he said. “I fished with my son Mitchell who fished his first bream competition at St Georges Basin when he was 10. Now he’s 20, and he was lucky enough to land the two biggest fish at 1pm after not landing a fish all day. “We fished the southern end of the lake using Vex 40mm blades, swapping and
changing different colours and sizes. There was no pattern to the fishing – we would just cast 10 times each in a spot, and then move. We fished in 4-6m of water, trying to avoid the tailor schools chopping off our blades. It was a great day, and one we will never forget.” 2ND PLACE - $1300 Jason Graham and Cristian Bermudez (Team fishin.com. au) were the runners-up. “We pre fished on Saturday North and South fishing but found Chain Valley Bay in the South the best option,” Jason said. “As we caught fish quickly, we marked a spot on the sounder after catching a big fish. “Sunday morning took us straight back to Chain Valley Bay. We caught two fish and then decided to give it a rest, moving to hit some boat hulls. This landed our third fish, and we were ready to upgrade by 8:30am. “We headed back to the spot we previously marked where we landed our best fish on Saturday, and on the first drift upgraded two of our fish in the well. We continued to rest that spot in between fishing boat hulls, giving us the 1.35kg kicker fish and
TOP TEN PLACINGS Place Team 1 Off the Scales 2 Fishin.com.au 3 Hunts Marine/ Hurricane Lures 4 Bait Shop Toukley 5 Garmin/ Touring Marine Solutions 6 Flat Nacky 7 Sniff & Stiff 8 Messo Boys 9 Stratosfear 10 Zman Okuma Tosland Building
landing us the biggest bream prize at the end of the day! “We continued to fish our spot in Chain Valley Bay, and every time we hit the mark, we upgraded fish. When the wind changed direction around noon, the bite went away for us. “We caught all fish on a mixture of VX40 Ecogear, vibes in 439, and Berkley Big Eye blades. A big thanks to the sponsors and organisers who make these events happen.” 3RD PLACE - $800 Coming in at 3rd place were Ryan Jamieson, Troy Parsons and Dean HenrySmith (Team Hunts Marine/ Hurricane Lures). “The plan for us for comp day was to target shallow edges with cockles/weed beds, throwing lightly weighted Hurricane soft plastics,” Ryan said. “From the start we ran up to the north end of the lake to fish an edge, and we got a good one on the pre-fish. The edge produced plenty of fish, and we filled our bag by 7:40am. “From there we stuck to our plan up the north end of the lake, upgrading slowly through the day. With about an hour to go, thinking we would just go back with an average bag to weigh in, we hit an edge that
Left: This 1.35kg fish earned the Biggest Bream prize for Team fishing.com.au. Right: Winners Michell and Matthew Simons from Team Off The Scales. had a few cockles right up close to the bank in no more than 3ft of water. I watched a 36 forker swim out of the cockles and eat my lure in the clear water. Magic! “On the next drift, Dean banged another 36 forker. Even better! “Back to the weigh in saw us weigh 2.57kg for three bream, securing a 3rd place spot out of the 60 teams. It proves that you should never give up. Just persist and stick to your plan.” 4TH PLACE - $600 Adam Amos and Paul Harmston (Team Bait Shop Toukley) came in at 4th place.
Anglers Mitchell Simons, Matthew Simons, Jacob Wickerson Jason Graham, Cristian Bermudez Ryan Jamieson,Troy Parsons, Dean Henry-Smith Adam Amos, Paul Harmston, Jake Amos Jake Neville, Matt Neville Steven Cole, Daniel McLovin Hayes Marcelo Manuelian, Nathan Young, Emilo Manuelian Peter Messenger, Zack Messenger David Masters, Adam Richards Gary Brown, David Tosland, Jorg Van Husen
Fish 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
“We got most of our better fish early in the day with slow rolling small Ghost Recon cranks in dark horse, liquid sand and purple tiger, mixed in with some topwater Recons,” Adam said. “We had a solid bag after two hours with a few missed opportunities. We then started our spot hopping, looking for upgrades. “This is when we started junk fishing using Force Lure and tackle plastics (grubs and paddle tails in motor oil and bloodworm) bio baits, minnows, and some blading only to upgrade a few more times. “All in all, it was a good
day’s fishing.” OTHER WINNERS Jake and Matt Neville (Team Garmin/Touring Marine Solutions) rounded out the top 5, and took home $400. Teams 6 to 9 all received product supplied by Shimano, and all entrants received a Shimano drink cooler. The Kingswood Sports Club Biggest Bream went to Jason Graham and Cristian Bermudez (Team fishing. com.au), whose 1.35kg fish won them $200 plus a $50 club voucher. For more info on upcoming events, visit www. wsbb.com.au.
Weight (kg) 2.82 2.69 2.57 2.45 2.3 2.18 2.17 2.09 2.07 2.07
OOD SPO GSW RTS KIN
For full results and placings go to www.wsbb.com.au
Tournament Calendar 2023 DATE
Tournament
Location
State
Contact
BREAM R5 ECBS Tackle Addiction BREAM R6 BREAM QLD Open
Lake Macquarie Hawkesbury River Blackwood River Moreton Bay/Gold Coast
NSW NSW WA QLD
abt.org.au wsbb.com.au abt.org.au abt.org.au
BREAM R7
Gladstone
QLD
abt.org.au
AUGUST 19-20 Aug 20 Aug
BREAM R8 BASS Electric R4
Gold Coast Hinze Dam
QLD QLD
abt.org.au abt.org.au
SEPTEMBER 9-10 Sep 12-13 Sep 24 Sep 29-30 Sep
BASS Pro R5 BASS Pro R6 ECBS Shimano Round BARRA R1
Hunter River Lake St Clair Botany Bay Lake Tinaroo
NSW NSW NSW QLD
abt.org.au abt.org.au wsbb.com.au abt.org.au
JUNE 3-4 Jun 5 Jun 17-18 Jun 24-25 Jun JULY 22/23 Jul
Add your tournament or competition to this list by emailing jthomas@fishingmonthly.com.au Just supply a date, venue, tournament name, telephone number and contact name.
106 JUNE 2023
