Tournaments

The two anglers who travelled furthest to fish the opening round of the 2022 Daiwa BREAM Series took home the trophies. The Maui Jim round was won by first time ABT BREAM competitor Tommy Wood on the non-boater side and veteran Steve Morgan in the boater division.

It was like the 2021 BREAM Grand Final where two Victorians – Mario Vukic and Jesse Rotin – won on the Clarence River, but in reverse.

Both used a topwater technique to put fish into the boat, albeit in different parts of the lake.

To dovetail with the subsequent event, this round was run on the ABT Tournament Series app, with anglers measuring, photographing and releasing their bream at the point of capture. Overall, over 1,000 bream were logged between the competitors. Two Queenslanders, Steve Morgan (L) and Tommy Wood (R), took top honours in the season-opening event of the Daiwa BREAM Series 2022, the Maui Jim Qualifier at Mallacoota.

Morgan relied on big black and yellowfin cruising in the back of shallow bays in less than 2ft of water to secure the win.

Lengths are converted to weights to create a live scoreboard, which was viewed thousands of times by spectators all weekend on the ABT website.

It was the start of a fourevent tour that encompassed two BREAM events and two BASS events in Victoria in which nearly $30,000 in cash and $20,000 in prizes were awarded.

MORGAN RODE TOPWATER PATTERN

Day 1: 5/5, 4.894kg

Day 2: 5/5, 4.715kg

Total: 10/10, 9.609kg

Steve Morgan’s win, self-admittedly, started very slowly.

“I only landed one decent fish during practice on a pink grub, and that was sight fishing on a bright, sunny day, so I was a bit lost when it dawned overcast,” Morgan said, “I couldn’t see any fish with the clouds so I just went From then on it was quality fishing, twitching a white O.S.P. Bent Minnow in 1-2ft of water and racking up the weight,” Steve said.

He fished the topwater on a 6’8” Daiwa Infeet rod and MQ Caldia reel loaded with 6lb J-Braid and 7lb Yamatoyo Chinu Harris leader. On the Sunday he swapped the outfit out to the 7’3” Infeet with a 3000 Revelry to gain a little extra casting distance.

Paired with Stuart Walker on Sunday, the pair landed just under 30 bream that weighed more than 600g. Quality fishing. You can watch some of it in the highlights by scanning the QR code hereby.

“It was all about a toned down retrieve. The black bream, in particular, like a bit of time to commit to taking the topwater bait, but they usually sip it down when given the opportunity. It was definitely a slower retrieve than I’d use further north,” he concluded.

The win was his 10th in ABT BREAM Qualifiers.

HODGES SLIPS TO

SECOND PLACE

Day 1: 5/5, 4.942kg

Day 2: 5/5, 4.209kg

Total: 10/10, 9.151kg

After leading the event on day one with just under 5kg of Mallacoota yellowfin bream, perennial Victorian placegetter, Brad Hodges slipped to second place when fishing finished. Dropping just 450g behind the winning pace.

Scan the QR code to watch the Non- Boater Winner Interview

to the bank when I knew I was struggling and fished everything.”

That realisation was at Fairhaven, and he immediately lost a good yellowfin on a Bent Minnow and broke another off on a stick minnow.

“After finding those fish cruising shallow, I focussed on the Bent Minnow and just covered water,” he said.

An hour later he had a limit and then he hit what was to be the winning spot around halfway through the session.

“As the Fairhaven arm shallowed at the end, the shallow flats were loaded with a mixture of big yellowfin and black bream.

It didn’t take Tommy Wood long to translate his barra skills into bream skills. He caught a string of cracking bream from the back of Brad Hodges’ boat.

1 Steve Morgan 2 Brad Hodges 3 Liam Carruthers 4 Grant Oliver 5 Jason Mayberry 6 Byron Hill 7 Peter Breukel 8 Jarrod Healey 9 Scott Towner 10 Jesse Rotin

10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 9.609 9.151 8.896 8.740 $3,100 + $250 Mercury $1,500 + $500 Big Bream + $125 Mercury $1,000 + $75 Mercury $900

10/10 8.691 $800

10/10 10/10 8.628 8.255 $700 $600

Hodges found good yellowfin on the weedy flats in the lower lake near the entrance of the system and a 38cm fork length fish cemented his choice.

On day one he fished a C’ultiva Zip-n-Ziggy quite aggressively for the first part of the retrieve after casting it as far as possible. Once a fish showed interest, he’d slow registered nearly a dozen bream over 30cm, all on topwater. Quality fishing in anyone’s books. WOOD BEST

FROM THE BACK

Day 1: 3/3, 2.452kg

Day 2: 3/3, 2.987kg

Total: 6/6, 5.439kg

If you are wondering whether the name Tommy Wood is the same angler that’s part of the current BARRA Team of the Year pairing, you’re correct. The BARRA champ won his first ABT BARRA event in November 2021 and his first BREAM event in January 2022.

In doing so he simultaneously knocked back Stuart Walker into second place and quelled any doubts that he was a Barraonly specialist.

And you can’t deny his passion; when his planned traveling partner couldn’t make the trip, he jumped 4lb leader. He fished with Scott Towner and Brad Hodges over the two days and used a variety of techniques to put together his three-fish bags. Non-boaters are fishing for a 3-fish limit in 2022. “Scotty was smashing them on day one on plastics, so I used a Samaki 2.5” grub in motor oil on a 1/16oz jighead and got a good one on my first cast,” Wood said. He also used Daiwa Spike cranks to add to his limit.

Day two with Brad Hodges, though, was all topwater.

“Brad was catching them on a larger topwater, but I used the Daiwa Infeet Slippery Dog (65mm), fishing it quite fast until I got a boil behind it, then I’d slow it down,” Wood said.

“Bream might be a lot smaller than barra, but anything you catch in a tournament is exciting. I’m stoked to do so well in my first BREAM event,” he concluded.

It was a tight finish in the end between Wood and Walker, with a kilo-class fish in the last hour proving vital.

“Brad swapped locations in the final hour and that’s where I caught the winning fish,” Wood said.

All of Wood’s fish were yellowfin bream on day two.

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 1 Highlights

it sown and talk them into eating it.

His prime outfit was an Abu Garcia Salty Stage Light Casting 722UL rod paired with an Abu Garcia ALX 2000 sized reel spooled with 8lb Berkley X9 braid and a 4lb Vanish leader.

Day two saw the

fish a little spookier and responding the pressure of several days fishing. He dropped to a Berkley Slurp 65mm as the fish were more responsive to smaller baits.

Even though the fishing was tough, he still in his car and drove the 20 hours to the events solo.

A Samaki-sponsored angler, Woods had just taken delivery of a 7’ C-12 rod, which he paired with a Shimano spin reel, 16lb Oltollos braid and a How’s that for a cracking Daiwa Infeet hard bait prize pack for the winning non-boater? No need to re-stock for Tommy. Scan the QR code to watch the Day 2 Highlights

Stuart Walker has nudged plenty out of top spot over the years, but was on the other side of the equation at Mallacoota.

Brad Hodges won the $500 and Buck-n-Bass gear for the Big BREAM award. The 1.31kg yellowfin ate a C’ultiva Zip-n-Ziggy on day one over shallow weeds in the lower part of the system.

1 Tommy Wood 2 Stuart Walker 3 Matt Perry 4 Bobby Sproule 5 David Shanahan 6 Neil Fleming 7 Jason Lane 8 Ruth Beeby 9 Col Wilson 10 Haydan Fitzgibbon

6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 5.439 5.372 5.114 4.868 4.765 4.706 4.603 4.388 4.272 4.212 Daiwa pack Daiwa pack Daiwa pack Samaki pack Atomic pack ProLure pack Rapala pack Ecogear pack Keitech pack Toadfish pack

The second of the Victorian rounds for the year took us to the expansive Gippsland Lakes system for the Mercury sponsored round of the 2022 Daiwa Bream series.

Renowned for its thumping big black bream, many anglers travel big miles interstate to try and take out this event, however

Daiwa’s anglers had a strong showing at the Gippsland event.

the crown stayed in Victoria this year with local angler Darryl Baird taking out first place with 10/10 fish for 10.775kg. Second place in the boater division went to Jesse Rotin with a 10/10 limit for 10.113kg. In the Non-Boater division Richard Patterson from Daiwa Australia won with a 6/6 limit for 5.652kg.

WHO SHARES WINS

Darryl Baird has been on the ABT circuit for many years as both a boater and non-boater. In this time,

he has learnt a lot from fellow anglers and different arenas. In a twist of fate, he went out and used a Cranka Crab technique that he learnt from Jesse Rotin at the Grand Final in Yamba last year, then leapfrogged Jesse on day two to claim first place from the day one leader.

The Paynesville area of the Gippsland Lakes system plays host to a number of artificial structures in the form of piers, wharves, boat docks, pontoons and moored vessels. Two particular piers were where Baird focused his efforts for the two days.

Upgrading his leader to 8lb Berkley Vanish from his typical 3-4lb after getting a quick dusting on

day one, Baird went on to catch his entire 5.198kg bag off just one pier in Paynesville. Pitching the crab tight along the front of the pier and half a dozen poles back along the pier to catch his bag.

“I’d just let it drift down the front of the pier and they’d either eat it on the drop or you’d only give it the tiniest movement and the fish would load up.

At times it was like the less movement the better,” Baird said of his technique. After receiving a replacement crab off Andy Moore at take-off and heading to Paynesville again, Baird quickly discovered the fish had

Scan the QR code to watch the Boater Winner Interview Darryl Baird has been a familiar face at ABT events for around 10 years now and he claimed his first victory as a boater fishing piers with a technique he learnt in his time as a non-boater.

Brad Hodges had a slow first day, but added three kicker fish like this to finish fourth. moved off the pier from day one and onto the next pier over. Once more, he was able to work his way around the pier with his UV Cranka Crab and catch his entire day two bag without having to move from the one pier.

On the tackle side of things, Baird used a 7’ Samurai Inflict together with a 2500 sized spin reel spooled with 8lb Daiwa J braid that he used exclusively for the whole event.

Mr Baird would like to thank his wife Heather along with Matt and Karen from Struddy Marine for

Scan the QR code to watch the Non- Boater Winner Interview

Ruth Beeby proved that ABT is inclusive for keen female anglers.

1 Darryl Baird 2 Jesse Rotin 3 Gary Carruthers 4 Brad Hodges 5 Tom Slater 6 Brett Crowe 7 Alex Franchuk 8 Scott Towner 9 Grant Oliver 10 Daniel Kent

10/10 10.775 $3000

10/10 10.113 $1500

10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 7.853 7.088 6.344 6.225 $1000 + $250 1st place Merc owners bonus $900 + $125 2nd place Merc owners bonus $800 + $75 3rd place Merc owners bonus $700

supporting him to get out on the water. PATTERSON

GETS THE WIN

Richard Patterson from Daiwa Australia got stuck into the fish from the back

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 1 Highlights of the boat and was able to score himself first place in the Non-Boater division with nearly a 1kg fish average.

Drawing Tom Deer as his day one boater, the pair set off to Paynesville where he was able to fill his limit late in the day fishing a 2.5” Daiwa Baitjunkie grub in motor oil colour with a 1/8oz jighead, along with a Daiwa Steez blade.

Fishing in 10-12’ of

Like every ABT BREAM and BASS event, Mercury pay the top three owners extra cash for using their product. A Daiwa man through and through, Richard Patterson put a beat down on the southern black bream from the back of the boat to take 1st place in the Non-Boater division.

water with a strong wind meant he had to lean towards the heavier baits to remain in contact with the lure and feel the bites.

Setting off for Paynesville again on day two with boater Dan Kent, it was a small 100m stretch of bank with three pontoons that held all the fish for their day. Throwing a UV Cranka Crab around the end of the piers and their poles to secure his bag.

Working for Daiwa Australia certainly is not without its perks, as Patterson gets to fish with some of the finest bream tackle in the country. It was one particular outfit he leaned on: a stout Daiwa Infeet EX 702LFS paired with a 2500 Caldia MQ and with 6lb J braid with a 5lb leader.

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 2 Highlights

Going light to get the bite was required on day two as Patterson was unable to get the bites on 8lb leader, before moving down to 5lb and instantly started to catch fish.

“I was throwing 8lb all morning and the instant I picked up my rod with 5lb on it, I had a fish first cast,” Patterson said.

Expect to see some more great content from Daiwa over the coming weeks and months from Richard and all the team!

A true giant of Gippsland Lakes. People travel from far and wide to try and wrestle with these fish. Alex Franchuk landed this 1.430kg monster and landed him the $5,000 Buck-n’-Big Bream in the process.

1 Richard Patterson 2 David Shanahan 3 Harry Young 4 Allan Morrison 5 Tommy Wood 6 Lindsay Pryke 7 David Morris 8 John Parkinson 9 Neil Fleming 10 Kevin Beams

6/6 6/6 4/6 6/6 3/6 5/6 6/6 6/6 4/6 4/6 5.652 5.159 4.096 3.827 3.697 3.659 3.585 3.317 3.233 3.170 Daiwa Prise pack Daiwa prize pack Daiwa prize pack + $500 Buck n’ big bream Samaki prize pack Atomic prize pack Prolure prize pack Toadfish prize pack Ecogear prize pack Keitech Prize pack Toadfish Prize pack

The ABT BASS tour has ventured further south in recent years, thanks to successful stocking efforts in some of the smaller impoundments in Victoria, and anglers are reaping the rewards in the form of good sized, hard fighting Aussie bass.

Scan the QR code to watch the Boater winner interview

Many anglers travelled a long way interstate to fish the first round of the 2022 13 Fishing BASS Pro Series on Lake Blue Rock in Victoria, sponsored by Ecogear, with some well-travelled anglers achieving top results. Matthew Langford from

sunny Queensland once again found himself in the money with a cracking 10/10 fish bag for 7.450kg, finishing in 1st place with a huge 4.941kg bag on Sunday, which included the 2.048kg Buck-n-Big bass. Closely following him in second was good friend Mitchell Cone with another 10/10 fish limit for 4.933kg. Leading the Non-Boater division was new-comer Wil Stockton with a 4/6 limit of bass for 1.533kg in his first event as a non-boater. the majority of the big fish bites for the weekend.

“I found the smaller legals between 27-30cm were eating the spoon and as soon as I hooked one and got it in the boat, I could see the bigger fish come across on the sounder and I’d drop down a Gulp,” said Langford regarding the Gulp technique.

Both very specific techniques required technique specific tackle. For the spoon, Langford used a Millerods VibeFreak with a 2500 sized Shimano just two key lures.

The first was a 7g Jig Para spoon that was almost identical in profile and colour to the smelt that the bass were feeding on. He fished this with really fast, jolting hops right on the fish’s nose to really stir up a bite from the smaller, bag-filling models.

That technique was the segway to his second lure and technique, which was a black 3” Berkley Gulp minnow grub on a 1/4oz Bassman jighead, which was responsible for

DO THE MILES GET THE SMILES

Our reigning 2021 BASS AOY Matthew Langford got his 2022 AOY campaign off to the best possible start with a first place in the first round of the year. Langford ran away with the event too, winning by a margin of just over 2.5kg.

After flying down from Queensland and borrowing a boat from Dave Lawson (for which he is very thankful), Langford set to work figuring out the bass in Blue Rock via LiveScope technology.

Using the Livescope to find the fish holding deep on trees, together with his knowledge of the smelt type of bait the bass feed on in Blue Rock, Langford refined his baits down to Reigning angler of the year, Matthew Langford has kicked his 2022 campaign off in the best way possible, taking out the first event on Blue Rock Lake in Victoria.

This 2.048kg Blue Rock behemoth won Matthew Langford the Buck-n-Big bass prize of $500 and gave himself a nearly 3kg lead on the opposition. Stradic. Alternatively, for the Gulp technique he used a custom-made Millerods JigFreak that he got made by Ian Miller when he first began bass fishing.

“Admittedly I’m not

Scan the QR code to watch the Non-boater winner interview

2021 BASS Pro Grand Final Champion, Dane Pryce found that Blue Rock bass love chatterbaits.

1 Matt Langford 2 Mitch Cone 3 Declan Betts 4 Collin Robinson 5 Mick Johnson 6 Graham Ford 7 Tim Oakley 8 Corey Goldie 9 Alan Mcnamara 10 Dane Pryce

10/10 7.450 $2500 + $250 1st Merc bonus + $500 Buck n ’Big bass 10/10 4.933 $1200 + $125 2nd Merc owners bonus 8/10 4.423 $1000 + $75 3rd Merc owners bonus

9/10

3.635 $700 10/10 3.537 10/10 3.448 6/10 3.015 10/10 2.989 7/10 2.815 10/10 2.766

a huge fan of Gulping, however I found they really liked the Gulp in this dam and the JigFreak is perfect for it. It has a really soft tip so when the fish eats it you see the tip load up and you set the hooks,” said Langford.

Seeking shaded banks early in the morning and hopping between them to stay shaded until well into the morning was a crucial part of Langford’s strategy. This allowed him to stay targeting those feeding bass that felt protected by the shade. Each day along these banks he found a different submerged tree that happened to be stacked with fish, and where he was able to do a lot of upgrading.

About 12:30pm in at a whopping 2.048kg, not many (if any) have seen a fish of this calibre out of this dam before. Hopefully a sign of what’s to come in future years.

YOUNG GUN COMES OUT FIRING

Wil Stockton has only just turned old enough to legally enter an ABT event and he wasted no time in climbing straight to the top of the podium with a 1st place in the Non-Boater division at Lake Blue Rock.

Fortunate enough to

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 1 Highlights

Wasting no time in his first ever event as a non-boater, Wil Stockton put a chatterbait to work for the weekend to secure his win from the back of the boat.

From left to right: 2nd place Mitchell Cone, 1st place Matthew Langford and 3rd place Declan Betts were all using Mercury motors, earning themselves a nice little bonus on top of their winnings.

on day two, Langford stumbled across one of these submerged trees on LiveScope and was able to upgrade his whole bag off it in about a 1.5 hour time period before weigh-in. This included the 47cm fork-length 2.048kg monster that took out the Buck-n-Big bass prize.

BUCK-N-BIG ONE

The Buck-n-Big bass for this event not only won Matt Langford an extra $500 from our sponsors at Buck n’ Bass, it also blew apart all preconceived ideas of how big a ‘big bass’ out of Blue Rock Lake actually is! Coming draw two prolific NSW anglers in Mitch Cone and Simon Marchant, Stockton slotted in seamlessly at the back of the boat and went about catching his bag

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 2 Highlights

with a relatively simple chatterbait technique.

Throwing his chatterbait out into a depth of 15-20ft, he would allow the lure to sink to the bottom before beginning a slow rolling retrieve back to the boat.

“You want to roll it so you can only just feel it start to chatter,” Stockton said in his winner’s interview.

Obviously a hardcore Daiwa man, a ghost shrimp coloured Daiwa Steez Cover chatter in a 3/8oz size rigged with a baby bass coloured 2.5” Daiwa Baitjunkie trailer was his choice of lure for the event. Throwing his chatterbait on a matching Daiwa combo of a Tatula 100H Baitcast reel and a 6’6” 2-5kg Daiwa Tatula 19 (661MLB) baitcast rod spooled with 14lb Daiwa J braid and 12lb Sunline invincible leader.

Fishing for his best three fish, he caught his whole bag on Saturday, however Sunday was a grind with only one fish coming on his second last cast of the day and with only a few grams separating him and second place Non-Boater Luke Gilbert, it was that one fish in the dying hours that ultimately claimed him his first win.

Mick Johnson was one of several Queenslanders who made the big trip down south and loves the Victorian bass lakes.

1 Wil Stockton 2 Luke Gilbert 3 Leigh Mirams 4 Daniel Holder 5 Tony Neal 6 Taj Duff 7 Jake Hardie 8 Kelvin Hatton 9 Bradley Turner 10 Nick Brown

4/6 1.533 Rapala prize pack + $250 1st Rapala bonus 5/6 1.498 Rapala prize pack + $125 2nd Rapala bonus 6/6 1.485 Bassman Spinnerbaits prize pack + $75 3rd Rapala bonus 5/6 1.441 Maui Jim prize pack 5/6 1.020 Ecogear prize pack 5/6 0.703 Prolure prize pack 6/6 0.630 Keitech prize pack 5/6 0.499 Toadfish prize pack 3/6 0.445 Toadfish prize pack 3/6 0.426

West Aussie salmon – they’re truly an iconic southern sportfish! Spotting massive schools of salmon while standing on a postcardquality beach in WA’s south before casting your favourite lure in its direction and inevitably hooking-up is simply awesome.

And, these fish are big too – a size our eastern states fishing counterparts are no doubt envious of – with salmon measuring more than 80cm regularly caught during the annual autumn salmon run.

It’s no wonder tens of thousands of WA fishers spend $331 million annually on chasing these hard-fighting fish.

AN AWESOME

ANNUAL RUN

If you’re not a WA-based fisher and are not familiar with the annual salmon run, let us quickly get you up to speed.

The annual salmon migration, colloquially called the salmon run, sees massive salmon schools travel from WA’s south coast northwards towards Perth each autumn.

With big schools of salmon found relatively close to shore along easily accessible beaches, fishers are provided with unrivalled access to an amazing and world-class WA salmon fishing is for everyone. Josh Mitchell is only 5yo and he caught this beautiful fish from Bunker Bay.

Zach Relph getting in on the action at Manypeaks’ Back Beach.

awesome prizes.

This year’s Slam will be divided into three phases, with prizes awarded at the end of each phase – for categories including ‘four longest salmon’ – and overall prizes at the competition’s end.

It’s easy to take part – just take a photo of your catch with the ‘tournament code’ written in the sand or on your brag mat.

The code will be distributed on 1 March, so keep an eye out on the Recfishwest website and social media channels to see what it is.

Also, visit Recfishwest’s website to read the competition rules, buy an exclusive Recfishwest Salmon Slam fishing shirt and see the many awesome prizes up for grabs. JOIN US ON THE RUN

If you’re a new fisher or a seasoned angler, Recfishwest CEO Dr Andrew Rowland abundance that underpins the awesome fishing experiences enjoyed by so many fishers in the Great Southern, South West and when we get a good run in the metro.

“Recfishing for salmon does generate $331 million, which is obviously a terrific boost for local tackle, retail and hospitality outlets.

“However, the fishery’s real value lies in the pleasure it gives to tens of thousands of anglers from a wide range of backgrounds – the time spent fishing with family and friends is simply priceless.

“This is a true worldclass sportfishery which is accessible to so many West Australians – that’s why we’re committed to protecting it.

“Along with a wider range of other industry supporters sponsoring this Salmon Slam, collectively the celebration sends

sportfishery.

And, it is why Recfishwest hosts the Awesome Autumn of Salmon, to celebrate the safe and accessible sportfishing WA salmon provide.

The 2022 edition of the Awesome Autumn of Salmon will be held in partnership with Western Angler again and, in very exciting news, Shimano is also coming on board as official partners!

SALMON SLAM!

One of Australia’s biggest app-based fishing competitions will again headline the Awesome Autumn of Salmon – the FREE 2022 Salmon Slam.

More than 1,600

salmon chasers took part in the Slam last autumn, catching salmon and simply submitting photos of their catch via the official app.

To take part in this year’s free competition, download the Salmon Slam app from the Google Play or Apple stores to enter your catches for a chance to win a host of encouraged fishers to take part in the Salmon Slam and get involved in the terrific fishing.

“We will continue to raise the profile of this important sportfish to make sure they’re recognised and celebrated as one of the WA’s icon recreational fishing species,” Dr Rowland said.

“It’s WA’s salmon a powerful message to decision-makers that salmon abundance must be protected to ensure West Aussies can continue to enjoy these fantastic sportfishing experiences.” • The latest version of Recfishwest’s popular fishing rules smartphone app is now out. Be sure to download it from the Apple or Google Play stores!