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Old 05-05-2003, 03:41 AM
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Dave W Dave W is offline
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Forster 2003 - It was a ripper :)

First off, to say I'm happy with my result would be an understatement - I'm bloody over the moon

I'm not 100% on the exact figures but I think there was 126 anglers fishing this comp, with around 75 of them bringing in 175 fish.

I'm proud to say that little 'BREAM ON' (one of the smallest boats in the fleet) was the only boat to bring in a full bag for both the Boater and Non-Boater, and as has happened to me in every B.R.E.A.M. competition I've been in, my Non-Boaters bag was bigger than mine......

How'd I do it?.... After fairly lengthy discussions with a Mr. Ira Fehlberg about the flats fishing techniques you boys use, I decided to give it a go - and Ira kindly sent me some lures to try out as well

I'd done O.K. over the weed a few weeks earlier when I pre-fished, so on the Friday, Billfish and I tried our luck over the sand flats with mixed results on the hard bodies, although I did get one O.K. fish....

We moved to where I'd done well previously and essentially applied the W.A. flats techniques, to weedbeds and sand with plastics and ended up with a bag or so each

On Day 1, I think Josh (Batterson) may have been a bit aprehensive when I told him how I wanted to fish over weed and sand instead of in the racks, and how I'd done O.K. a few weeks earlier...... but nothing like what actually happened

We'd pulled a few fish, and Josh had 4 in the well to my one using Squidgie Wrigglers (Bloodworm 65mm), while I persisted with the Brown Crawdad and Amber Atomics in 2" Single Tails...
Josh landed his 5th fish and then sat down and told me to use the Wrigglers, being an absolute gentleman, trimming their noses, putting them on my jigheads and superglueing them tight...

Nothing happened for a couple of casts, but then I got 2 legals from 2 casts, with another one shortly after - during this time Josh mostly sat back and kept replacing my damaged plastics (damn puffers and Leather Jackets....) and didn't really pick his rod back up until I had my 4th fish in the well....

We started to see massive schools of Mullet breaking the surface, and I thought they were being harrases by Kingfish that I'd seen the day before, we motored closer and I wanted to try and hook up to a Mullet, as the size of these guys would have given me a real battle.

I changed plastics to a Brown Crawdad Atomic, but this time in 1.75 inch Paddle Tail, and dipped the tail in a secret scent mix of mine...... Garlic Spike-It mixed with Garlic Yum!

Pelting out long casts and bringing the plastics back almost across the surface I got a few hits before I was on - and I seriously called it for a Mullet, how shocked was I to see a Bream on the end.....

From then on it just went spastic...... at one stage I landed about 20 fish in 10 minutes, multiple hat-tricks, double hat-tricks..... it was incredible fishing

I changed over to the 2.5" Storm Rattlegrubs in Smoke / Red Flake and just kept catching fish.......

Admitedly, the fish weren't huge but out of the approximately 75 fish we caught, around 40 of them would have been legal.

To experience this kind of fishing anytime would be fantastic, for it to happen in a competition is just indescribable...

I can guarantee that if it hadn't been for the information I've picked up from here, plus the tips given to me by Ira, I would have pretty much just done what most others did and fish the racks for the hope of a couple of fish.

All my fish were caught on my Okuma Epix-20, matched to my 6 foot Daiwa Procaster-X 602LFS, with 4lb Fireline and 2 meters of 4lb Siglon Flourocarbon as my leader.

I've got to give the Epix a huuuuge rap... the sheer numbers of fish caught over the relatively small time frame, especially using a light leader, really gave the drag a severe workout... and it just kept on going

At the end of it, Josh weighed in with 2.86kg, I scored 2.62kg and we managed 2nd and 4th overall.

We didn't get to fish a second day because of the weather - but even I'm not psycho enough to want to punch my boat into 40 knot winds.......

At the presentation, I gave the W.A. A.B.T. members a big thanks, particularly BreamMaster.com for the information and support and mentioned Ira for his examplory help......

Sorry about the lack of pictures - I was too busy fishing

I think the key here guys is definitely summed up by the B.R.E.A.M. series motto:

WHO SHARES WINS

Cheers,
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Last edited by Dave W; 05-05-2003 at 04:25 AM.
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Old 05-05-2003, 04:05 AM
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bluefin bluefin is offline
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I got excited just reading your post!

Top effort!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You realy are a thinking fishermen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Old 05-05-2003, 04:12 AM
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MATTY MATTY is offline
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well done dave and josh,
thats sounds like some awesome fishing and only on one day,imagine fishing 2 full days.mind blowing.good to see the non boater did well to.got to say this flats fishing has turned my thinking on bream up side down.it will be interesting to see when the boys from the west go over if any of the eastern staters are getting into it as well.be intereseting seeing how many reads of the threads here on flat fishing are now and compare in a month or so.reckon people will be swotting up on all the info.very true with the who shares wins motto,goes to show what an awesome site this is and bunch of people who contribute.
well done
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Old 05-05-2003, 04:32 AM
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Dave W Dave W is offline
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Another interesting point is that the winner of the Clyde NSW B.R.E.A.M. round, Trent Butler, also ignored the oyster racks and hit the shallows over weed and sand, on the shallow side of river bends...... does anyone else see a pattern forming here?

Cheers,
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Old 05-05-2003, 05:07 AM
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Great news Dave.
Just a quick question. How far off the NSW state team were you? Couldn't have been too much i wouldn't have thought!
With this news in mind, i really think our west aussie boys might give you easterners a run for your money come october!
Well done again

Dave
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Old 05-05-2003, 05:15 AM
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Billfish Billfish is offline
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Congratulations again Dave, a really top effort. You had a plan and had the guts to stick to it, goodonya.

I'm still spewin' that my boater wouldn't take my advice and fish the flats, particularly after our reasonably good day in the prefish.

Can't wait to get The Bream Reaper into the tourney's next year and I will let you in on a secret, I won't be treating ANY non boater the way I have been treated by a couple of my boaters this year
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Old 05-05-2003, 05:31 AM
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Dave W Dave W is offline
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Kingpin : I'm still not sure where I ended up in the AOY points, but probably worse than expected after my shocking Clyde effort......

Bill : I can sympathise mate, and I owe you some thanks for not persevering further with your boater, he may have stayed in 'that' spot long enough to see us really crack the fish, and then I would've had to bring out the cordless drill

My attitude is treat your non-boater how you'd like to be treated.... I guess after 3 comps this year, and having all my non-boaters beat me, I could have been a little more of a barstard but hey, the only thing better than me catching fish is putting others onto them

Cheers,
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Old 05-05-2003, 05:39 AM
Mick Mick is offline
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Great effort Dave, looks like you could just about be the hot favourite for the Sydney comp. If you see a green hornet following you around it wont be me .
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Old 05-05-2003, 05:53 AM
geoff_abrams geoff_abrams is offline
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well done dave you've gotta be stoked with that result look forward to meeting you at the sydney comp in just under two weeks . what size leader are you using in the sydney comp?
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Old 05-05-2003, 06:36 AM
cameron cameron is offline
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well done again dave! ive said it enough times over the weekend but hey once more never hurt.

Let me tell you guys, mr welfare couldnt hide the excitement if he had tried on saturday night after his amazing run.. if who shares wins is the motto then dave definately deserved what he got cause he let all of us who stayed with him know exactly how hed caught the fish during the day that night...

i can tell you ill certainly be testing that technique out in the coming weeks in a couple of systems down my way.... hopefully theyll work quite well.. although 75 fish in a few hours i dont think im likely to see..


one thing i can say is .. if anyone is considering entering one of these comps as a non boater.. who has a perfectly good bream spinning boat to fish out of themselves.. bite the bullet and enter yourself.. yes you may draw a very experienced breamer, but just as likely you may not.. and let me tell you it can be very frustrating fishing in places where you dont want to be and knowing full well you could be if only you had entered your own boat.. as Billfish could so well attest to.. in the above post... even if you get an experienced breamer who you may learn something from you may not get the chance to practice it!!


anyway catch you all later

cameron
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  #11  
Old 05-05-2003, 07:05 AM
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Dave W Dave W is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by geoff_abrams
well done dave you've gotta be stoked with that result look forward to meeting you at the sydney comp in just under two weeks . what size leader are you using in the sydney comp?
As light as possible mate

Looking at what I was doing this time last year, I started dropping leader size and plastic size (hope I'm not giving too much away ) in an effort to maintain catch sizes - the only problem with this is that the Bream size got bigger, and there were plenty of monumental bust offs that left you wondering 'what the hell was that'?

Then there's always the chance of nailing a decent Trevally, and I can certainly tell you that they are a genuine 50/50 chance of not landing them on 4lb leader.......

I'll definitely have at least one rod loaded with the 4lb, but it does depend on structure as well

As a side note, I was only using 'Redback' jig heads for the Forster comp, and they have been my jig of choice since I first got my hands on them, I haven't lost a fish to a hook straightening since

Cheers,
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Old 05-05-2003, 07:45 AM
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Steve Brown Steve Brown is offline
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Thumbs up Congradulations Dave

Well done Dave! Yep Ira and a few of our other lads over here in WA have shared what has worked on the flats. When it really took off in the Walpole comp thanks to Madfish, everyone was keen to give it a go. That's the comp that I read about that got me into bream on lures and I haven't looked back. I will enter my 1st comp over here in Oct, and look forward to learning more off blokes like Geoff P, Bear, Warren, and Ira ect. That flats fishing is in Starlo and Bushy's book( Ira showed me at Breammasters shop). Cheers Steve
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Old 05-05-2003, 09:23 PM
Horny Horny is offline
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Great job Dave ! Congratulations on your placing.

You were confident enough to try something a bit different, and that was rewarded.

I was one of the sheep that followed the flock to the racks and spent hours trying to temp the many fish I could see in the clear water - with nil result. Should I have persevered with them or moved on after the bream showed no interest in any of my offerings ?? I'm still not sure.

At the end I moved up into the dirtier water and managed to finally get one, which being my first ever in a comp. (after not weighing a fish at the Clyde event) had me over the moon !

To say I don't care about winning would be a lie. But at this stage I'm really in it to learn and develop as a bream spinner, and I learned a lot from the Forster comp (thanks to guys like Dave) - I'm very happy with that, together with my lone 620g bream.

See some of you guys for the Sydney learning experience (comp).

Regards,

Horny.
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