DUO The Captain Risky Coota comeback

Returning to the scene of the 2022 BREAM Grand Final, ABT concluded its Victorian road trip at Mallacoota for the SUNLINE sponsored third round of the 2023 Daiwa Bream series.

Kris Hickson had a point to prove after a disappointing result at Gippsland Lakes. Even with numerous missed chances on big fish, he was still able to mount a monster comeback on day two, dropping 5.391kg on the scales to weigh the only 10kg total for the event.

Local player Mitchell Blomquist kept Victorians on the podium in second ranks of non-boater champions that have won the first ABT event they have competed in. He put his bent minnow to work from the back deck and logged a stack of yellowfin bream in the ABT tournament series app over the whole event.

He may have taken a small hiatus from bream fishing in 2022 but you cannot, and more he weighed the biggest bag of the event.

Risky summarised his day two as, “Frustrating to say the least” adding that he pulled hooks and busted off a “ridiculous amount of really big fish”.

When asked how confident he was in winning when coming back to weigh in, he replied with a simple “not at all, I thought I’d blown it”.

Kris spent the event running to spots he could tell people had overlooked.

“Every usual spot I fished had a boat on it, so I just started fishing banks that people had overlooked and tried to figure them out as I went along.”

Throwing mainly super lightweight plastics, and needing to be as accurate as possible, he used predominately two rods for the whole event.

“The first day I started with an Infeet EX 6101ULRS but after a few bust offs and missed hook-ups I switched to the Infeet Z 681LRS, great accuracy and a bit more grunt to set hooks and steer the fish,” he explained.

He paired it with a

Day two he broke the tip off the Infeet Z rod early on through a mishap so he switched to an Infeet EX place,

Marlon Thompson joined the ever-growing importantly should not, ever count Kris ‘Captain Risky’ Hickson out. If you ask him, he’ll be the first to tell you he wasn’t confident he’d done enough on day two to take the win, which might seem odd considering

722LFS, sacrificing a bit of accuracy on the calm slick conditions but gaining casting distance through the extra length. It was paired with a TD Black 2000 and 6lb J Braid Grand.

For leader, Kris ran 6lb J thread X-link all weekend.

“Some of the bust offs would have broken anything but some of the times I had fish running through sticks and weed and the leader came out unscathed, which was pretty impressive.”

Here is a trap for young players from Risky himself,

“Don’t leave the last of the spool of leader in the sun or a hot car or it will weaken it massively! I knew this but still did it and it cost me. Well, kind of…”

This little mishap lost Kris a few fish around the 40cm fork length early on day two that could have seen a bag over 6kg, but fortunately it didn’t end up costing him in the end!

Kris created his own hidden weight jigheads out of the Daiwa Bait Junkie jigheads by cutting the weight off the head, leaving just the bait keeper. He used this lighter option to lob creature baits like, the Little Trooper, to snag dwelling fish.

Meanwhile he chose a slightly heavier internal weight for the Risky Critter – a bait he had a big hand in designing, hence the name –to lob at ‘mudding’ fish as it was a bit windy, and he could cast closer to the fish.

He described the bite as, “non-existent, you couldn’t feel any bite through the line they were just picking

Blomquist fishes

Mallacoota regularly and his consistent efforts there paid off for him as he secured second place in the boaters. He built on his successful campaign at Gippsland Lakes that saw him finish in 4th place. A flats fisherman through and through,

Mitchell focused on fishing the northwestern side of the popular Goodwin Sands area quite methodically and although he did find a hand full of fish on edges, this is where he focused

Scan the QR code to watch the NonBoater Winners Interview and thoroughly working a small area at a time. his efforts.

Mitch would anchor in the weed (to hide the boat better) in 1m of water and cast up onto the sand in around half a metre of water, where he could see the fish cruising through with just his eyes and a quality pair of polarised sunglasses.

“The water was super clear and there wasn’t much wind, so with my sunnies I could see the fish come through and I actually sight cast to a lot of fish,” he explained.

His Bassco Tornado is fitted out with a 10-foot Minn Kota Raptor, which he described as ‘game changing’ to his fishing. It was the key to holding still in the shallow water

From experience he knew the fish would bite as the wind picked up from the east, which is his preferred direction on the flats, he just had to bide his time knowing that the fish would push up with the wind.

“There was fish on every edge in the whole system, you just had to sit and wait for them to come to you,” was his advice.

With the fish sitting on the sand, it took the weed out if play and so he was free to use a crankbait without getting hung up every cast. He chose a shallow Hurricane Twitch 50 in pink eye suji colour and a Daiwa Infeet Kodachi in rose suji colour, slowly dredging them along the sand with long pauses.

Rods and reels were a Daiwa Infeet Z paired with a Daiwa TD Sol spin reel and a Samurai infinite 2-6lb paired with a Daiwa Freams 2500, combos that have earned their reputation as quality bream hardware. Both outfits were spooled with Majorcraft Dangan braid in 8lb and the sponsor karma was in play again, this time for Mitchell as he ran 4lb Sunline V-hard Fluorocarbon leader on both outfits.

A combination of good decisions and excellent timing were major reasons for Mitchell’s success, both attributes that will no doubt see him continue to stay close to the podium, especially around his home waterways.

Paul

NSW won the for his

Big it up and swimming off. You just had to swing hard if you even thought that one had picked it up.”

1.488kg lump of a black bream caught on a creature bait fished along a rock wall upriver.

The 2014 Hawkesbury Grand final champion, Hickson will be relishing in his qualification to another NSW Grand Final at Port Stephens, a yellowfin fisher’s heaven!

BLOMQUIST STAYS

Our 3rd non-boater champion for the year and our 2nd first time winner, Marlon Thompson just so happened to do it in his first ever ABT event.

From the St. Georges Basin area of NSW, Thompson has experience targeting both yellowfin and black bream species and has recreationally fished at Mallacoota before, so he came to the event with a good idea of

QR code to watch the Field Highlights working it until he could see one come after it and he would pause it and then coerce them into eating.

A simple yet effective set up, Marlon used a Daiwa TD Hyper 702 1-3kg in a medium fast action matched with a Shimano Stradic Ci4 2500, 6lb Daiwa J-braid and, the most important link in the chain, a length of 6lb Monofilament leader.

Displaying a depth of knowledge of moon phase and bait, he explained that, “We had a new moon for the event, and I knew the prawns would be running and bream become so honed in on prawns.”

Making a long cast, he would work it back 5-10m and then pause for as long as 15 seconds and this is usually when the fish would rise to it. If they didn’t, he would continue

Unlike fluorocarbon, which sinks, mono has neutral buoyancy meaning it won’t drag the lure down and enhances the action making it the preferred choice for avid topwater anglers.

Thompson had no dramas landing fish clocking up 10 on day one and 15 on day two with the yellowfin far outnumbering and outweighing the blacks.

“I wasn’t doing anything overly special, I just had confidence in what I was throwing and stuck to it,” he said in summary of the weekend, adding that he is looking forward to the Grand Final at port Stephens.