Tournaments

At ABT we love when dams have decent service because it means we can run our LIVE app-based events and anglers can enjoy the benefits of being able to keep an eye on each other. Thankfully, the 2022 13 Fishing BASS Pro series at Lake Glenmaggie is one

Scan the QR code to watch the Boater winner interview

of these dams! However, as Mitchell Cone found out, this comes as both a blessing and a curse when the competition is nipping at your heels on day two.

Fortunately for Mitch his 3.353kg day one bag alone was enough to keep him in first place after what was a tough day two for many turned it off for day two.

Leading the charge in the non-boater division, Wil Stockton pulled off a pretty rare feat on the ABT circuit, taking a second consecutive win from the back of the boat and kick-starting his campaign with a tonne of AOY points too! Stockton weighed a total of 4/6 fish for 1.316kg to claim a massive come-from-behind victory over the rest of the field on the final day.

A MITCHELL CONE

MASTERCLASS IN GRUBBIN’

Hailing from mighty NSW, Mitch Cone made the long haul to fish the two Victorian rounds via flight, borrowing a boat off Bryce Abbott (whom he would like to thank for his generosity) so he could fish the events. Mitch is no slouch on any bass impoundment, even ones he’s never been to It’s become commonplace for anglers rocking Mercury motors to rule the top of the leaderboard. From left to right: 5th place (3rd place Mercury owner) Corey Goldie; 1st place Champion Boater (1st place Mercury owner) Mitchel Cone; and, 2nd place Boater (2nd place Mercury owner) Keeghan Painter.

The stakes in the Non-Boating division have never been higher with the introduction of the Rapala Bonus bucks for 2022. Throw in the $500 Buck n’ Big Bass for 2nd place, Jake Hardie (left), and you’ve got yourself a profitable weekend from the back of the boat! In the middle is 1st place Wil Stockton and on the right is 3rd place Brandon Scott.

anglers. This round was sponsored by Garmin, and Coney channelled a bit of sponsor Karma to get him over the line.

Coming in second place and not far behind after day one was well-travelled Queensland angler Keeghan Painter. Painter managed a 5/5 fish limit on day one for 2.778kg, which alone was enough to hold onto second place when the weather

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

before. This was evident as he was fresh off a second place at Lake Blue Rock and was out for blood in the second round, running away with the event after day one with the only bag over 3kg for the whole tournament.

During his pre-fish, Cone located a patch of sunken timber in the main basin approximately 80m squared in area and in 40ft of water depth. After a slow start to the first session, it wasn’t until he moved out onto the deep timber and hunted isolated fish with his Garmin LiveScope unit that he began to find the better quality of fish.

As a NSW angler, Cone is well accustomed to vertical fishing deep and slow, it’s a bread and butter technique on his home lakes of Glenbawn and St Clair during the summer months.

Coney was able to apply the same technique to the bass at Glenmaggie. The lure of choice was a 3” Black Berkley Gulp minnow grub on a 1/4oz Bassman Spinnerbaits jighead – a combination that has cashed a lot of cheques for bass anglers, including Coney, in years gone by.

After locating the isolated fish on the sunken timber, Cone dropped the grub down to them, where he could watch them on his Garmin

NSW angler and our champion boater for this event, Mitch Cone, is charging ahead on his quest for the AOY trophy. With the next two rounds on his home lake and coming off good form, he’ll be hard to stop in the Hunter Valley next month.

Mitchell Cone

Keeghan Painter Mick Johnson

Dane Pryce Corey Goldie Tom Deer Tim Oakley Matthew Langford Rick Goward

6/10 4.518 $2000 + $250 bonus

5/10 2.778 $1000 + $125 bonus

10/10 2.578 $750

4/10 2.013 $550

7/10 1.918 $75 bonus

9/10 1.873

LiveScope unit follow the lure up and down as he agitated them into biting.

“Some fish you really had to work on them, you might sit there for five minutes watching them follow it up and down as you rolled the lure dead slow, however nearly all of the fish ate it when it was all but dead-sticked in front of their face,” Cone said

A proud Millerod’s sponsored angler, Cone used a custom-made 7’6” Millerods’s FinnesseFreak LC paired with a Daiwa Fuego 3000 spinning reel, 4lb Berkley Fireline Crystal and about 10ft of 8lb Daiwa J-thread FC leader. The longer, slightly heavier and more powerful design of the 7’6” FinnesseFreak LC meant that the fish could be

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 2 Highlights prize of $500 cash for his 1.214kg caught on day two. That kicker fish alone was enough to bump Hardie into second place where he earned himself another $125 Rapala

bonus bucks!

THE QUEENSLAND

ROAD WARRIOR

TAKES SECOND

Driving from Brisbane to almost Melbourne to fish the first two rounds of the season puts second place boater Keeghan Painter squarely in the hardcore category of BASS anglers – and road warrior as well for that matter!

Fishing out of his new (to him) Nitro Z20, one of the first upgrades he made to his new vessel was the addition of a Garmin LiveScope unit.

“I couldn’t fish without it now and I think you’re definitely at a disadvantage if you’re fishing without it. Plain and simple, I wouldn’t have caught my limit on Saturday had I not been using it,” he said.

Painter relied heavily on this technology to target fish hugging tight to structure, such as the bridge pylons up the river, where he was able to catch three out of his five fish limit on day one within half an hour of each other; all were better than average fish for this lake, around the

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 1 Highlights

stopped from heading back to the timber far easier than a lighter set up, one of the key factors in his rod selection.

A second place followed by a first place finish to begin the year has Coney spearheading the 2022 AOY battle and, with the next two rounds on his home lakes, he will be among the favourites to get it done again. Watch this space!

BUCK N’ BIG BASS

Non-boater Jake Hardie took out the events Big Bass

Wil Stockton has made an impressive start to his ABT career, winning the first two ABT events he’s ever competed in. This 824g bass was the kicker that launched him into first place.

32cm mark.

These bridge-dwellers all fell victim to the same wellplaced black Berkley Gulp minnow grub as champion boater Mitch Cone, however Painter rigged his on a 1/4oz size #1 TT Demon jighead from his sponsors at TT Lures. Once more, fishing slowly was important but when the fish wanted it, they hit it hard.

The last bass in his day one bag required the use of a more traditional piece of technology. A good old-fashioned pair of Costa polarised sunglasses. With his Costas on, he was able to spot a submerged tree at the end of a rock wall in the main basin that he otherwise would have driven straight over.

Instead, he stopped and began to scan the tree with his LiveScope unit where he found bass holding around the timber, which he was able to convince into eating a midnight oil coloured ZMan Slim Swim in the dying hours of the first session to complete his bag.

The go-to outfit Painter used was a 7ft medium-light TT Black Mamba spin rod paired with a 1000 sized Okuma ITX spooled with 8lb Platypus Bionic braid and around 10ft of 8lb Platypus stealth FC leader.

BACK-TO-BACK

FROM THE BACK OF THE BOAT

Winning his first ever ABT event obviously just didn’t cut it for Wil Stockton, he only had to go and win the second! Winning the first round at Lake Blue Rock, Wil Stockton’s win at Glenmaggie makes it two wins in as many attempts in the non-boater division, giving him a 100%-win rate in ABT tournaments. Not a bad start to a tournament career!

Stockton drew boaters Steve Morgan and Graham ford for day one and day two respectively and used a crankbaiting technique around the edges of the dam to catch his fish.

After bringing just 0.76kg in on day one, it was always going to be a big ask to come from such a long way back to win. However, cometh the hour cometh the man, as they say. Stockton was able to weight a solid 1.24kg bag on day two, which went on to remain unbeaten as the biggest non-boater bag for the whole event and rocketed him up the leaderboard into 1st place.

Admittedly a bit of a Daiwa fan, Stockton used a Daiwa TD Black paired with a 2500 Daiwa Kix, Sunline invincible braid and Daiwa J-thread FC leader to throw his deep diving brown suji shrimp Jackall Chubby at the standing timber and rock

edges encompassing the dam.

Nothing fancy in his technique, just a slow, steady wind all the way back to the boat. The proof is in the pudding, this technique accounted for his 824g kicker on day two that bumped his bag well up over a kilo.

Thanks to the outstanding efforts of Rapala, his exceptional angling efforts also got him paid, raking in another $250 Rapala bonus and bringing his total for the two events to $500 cash from the back of the boat.

It pays to run Mercury, as Keeghan Painter knows all too well. His 225hp Mercury ProXS earned him an extra $125 cash in the form of a 2nd place Mercury owners bonus cheque.

Scan the QR code to watch Mitch Cones insight into Livescope

1 Wil Stockton 2 Jake Hardie 3 Brandon Scott 4 Bradley Turner 5 Tony Neal 6 Daniel Holder 7 Luke Gilbert 8 David Lawson 9 Leigh Mirams 10 Bryce Abbott

4/6 1.316 1/6 1.214 6/6 1.150 Rapala prize pack + $250 bonus Rapala prize pack + $500 + $125 bonus Bassman prize pack + $75 bonus

6/6 1.026 Maui Jim prize pack

4/6 0.922 4/6 0.475 6/6 0.464 Ecogear prize pack Prolure prize pack Keitech prize pack

The time of year has once again come for the ABT to travel down to glorious Sydney for the jewel in the crown of Australian bream tournaments, The Daiwa BREAM Australian Open. The open is our Premier APP-based Live event for the year, bringing you (the viewers) the best coverage possible on our social media and YouTube platforms, thanks to our legendary observers and anglers with cameras on board.

Typically, our anglers would battle it out over three days, with day one and three held on Sydney Harbour and day two on the Hawkesbury Adam Bertoldo. He recorded the biggest bag ever at an app-based event of 6.560kg and nearly one of the biggest bags of yellowfin bream in all of ABT history!

Finishing off the podium in 3rd place was South Coast angler and long-time supporter of ABT Steve Nedeski with a 10/10 fish bag for 8.033kg. 1ST PLACE:

JAMIE MCKEOWN Day 1: 4.731kg Day 2: 4.732kg Total: 9.463kg

It’s hard to find any more consistent form than that of Jamie McKeown in the past three years of the Daiwa

Incumbent champion, Sydney’s Michael Colotouros, dint manage to pull a rabbit out of the hat this year to mirror his 2021 heroics.

River system. Unfortunately, due to weather warnings, day two was restricted to the Pittwater only and day three had to be abandoned, leaving it up to two days of superb angling to write Jamie McKeown into history as a two-times Australian Open champion.

Despite the rough weather, some exceptional fishing was had with the big tides and turbid water the perfect recipe for a Pittwater flats Masterclass from 2nd place angler and Sydney local close and I wind it back in and repeat. The bite isn’t the standard peck either, most of the time the line just starts to move away from you and you lift your rod tip and load up.”

Heavy structure requires heavy tackle and Jamie had three identical Samaki C12 V3 7’ 1-4kg rods paired with PE .08 Samaki X braid and 8lb Samaki leader, all with crabs ready to go.

As the tide dropped the reef became more visible to the point the swell was actually breaking on it and after a lull in catches and a

BREAM Australian Open. He’s netted himself two wins and a second place from three starts and regains the Greg Lee Memorial trophy from the bloke who took it from him last year, Michael Colotouros.

Heading east of the Harbour Bridge on day one, McKeown braved the big swells and went straight to the Sow and Pigs Reef (newly re-named to ‘Jamie’s reef’) that continues to produce year after year.

Positioning himself up The Greg Lee Memorial trophy will be getting pretty comfortable at Jamie’s house by now.

1.8kg worth of reasons to smile! Second place Adam Bertoldo brought to the scales one of the biggest bags of yellowfin bream ever seen in ABT, including this Pittwater flats dinosaur.

current from the reef and spotlocking his electric motor, McKeown exclusively fished a 65mm olive Cranka Crab, changing to a spotted crab midway through the session when the bite shutdown.

When asked about technique he had this to say, “There isn’t any room to fish it like a normal crab where you let it hit the bottom because if it finds the reef you lose a crab. Instead I cast it just off the reef and let the current wash it in until I think it’s getting too

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 1 Highlights Sydney thanks to the dirty water and big swell out at sea pushing fish around Barrenjoey Head and onto the flats. Admittedly not being very familiar with the ‘carpark’, he began the day with a 3” Powerbait Bass minnow before cycling through just about every soft plastic in his box on a 1/24oz jighead, eventually landing on a 2.5” Daiwa Baitjunkie grub in motor oil and switching to a 1/8oz head

Scan the QR code to watch the Day 2 Highlights Pittwater

move away to rest the spot, the big fish came out to play.

In the dying moments of the first session, McKeown’s heartbreak of losing a kicker fish boat-side due to being knocked over by ferocious swells was promptly replaced with euphoria as a last cast special yielded a 41cm-fork giant and put his bag up over 4.5kg.

McKeown believes his day two efforts on the Pittwater flats were largely and later a 1/4oz due to the overwhelming wind and tide. As the water got dirtier, the motor oil grub became an oil flash UV Baitjunkie grub to garner a bit more attention.

The technique was to slowly draw the rod tip upwards slowly before dropping it to let the lure fall, with all the fish hitting it on the drop.

For this flats technique, he had to reach deep in the rod locker to find a light combo – something he very rarely does these days – which consisted of a 762 Samaki Zing Extreme Daiwa Silver Creek 2000 spooled up with PE .08 Samaki X braid and 4lb leader.

1 Jamie McKeown 2 Adam Bertoldo 3 Steve Nedeski 4 Tim Vickers 5 Liam Carruthers 6 Tom Slater

10/10 9.463 $5000

10/10 10/10 8.583 8.033 $2500 $2000

10/10 7.591 $1500

10/10 7.531 $1000

10/10 7.456 Daiwa reel

Spot lock on McKeown’s Minn Kota Ultrex was vital to holding him on the fish and not drifting off them once he caught one. This helped him secure an almost 3kg bag in under 15 minutes as the fish began to move through just

Scan the QR code to watch the Presentation Highlights

before the tide change. 2ND PLACE:

ADAM BERTOLDO Day 1: 2.023kg Day 2: 6.560kg Total: 8.583kg

Outside of Jamie winning yet another Open, the talk of the event would without a doubt have been 2nd place Adam Bertoldo’s gargantuan 6.5kg day two bag from the Hawkesbury River – the biggest bag from any of ABT’s app-based events to date! The smallest of his five fish limit wasa 37cm-fork, and his biggest was a whopping 43cm-fork length 1.801kg monster and the biggest bream for the event.

With the East Coast receiving some good drops of rain lately, Adam chose on the first day to fish the numerous stormwater drains that run into the harbour. A decision that was reinforced by local Sydney gun Ross Cannizzaro, in a chance meeting at, where else, but Bunnings.

“I actually bumped into Ross at Bunnings a few days before the event, and I had to ask him what he Yep, still smiling! And why wouldn’t he be? Adam jumped 18 places overnight from 20th into 2nd place and just have a look at the quality of fish that got him there. When the smallest fish in your bag is 37cm, you know you’ve had a pretty remarkable day.

Barrenjoey Point and sitting out wide in 3.5m of water, casting even wider towards the very edge of the weed and once he found the fish, spot-locking and targeting them precisely.

“I started out throwing a Berkley Gulp 2” shrimp bag was caught with a bunch of quality Daiwa gear, including his Daiwa Infeet 702 EX matched with a 2000 Airity spooled with 8lb Gosen braid and a generous length of 3lb FC Rock leader. Spot-locking in only a few key areas on the flats,

A last cast kicker for Jamie McKeown on day one. Jamie fished a submerged reef in the harbour with a technique he’s refined over the past few years.

thought about fishing drains and he backed up the idea for me, which was good,” said Adam.

The decision proved fruitful, fishing a Jackall Chubby in brown suji shrimp colour he was able to fill his bag with a decent sized average around that 27-30cm-fork mark.

Going into the second day sitting outside the top 10, Adam went out completely undeterred and with just one unwavering goal: Catch Jamie McKeown.

With a cocktail of big tides, big swell, wind, rain and a restricted venue, it didn’t take much convincing for Adam – a Sydney local who knows these waterways very well – to make the decision to fish the Pittwater flats; or as anglers have affectionately named it ‘The Carpark’.

Adam picked a section of the flats to the north of the boatshed, drifting towards on a 1/24oz jighead but once the current and wind became stronger, I couldn’t keep it down in the strike zone. So, I changed over to a Berkley Bigeye blade in bandicoot colour to maintain

Scan the QR code to watch Steve Morgan’s Day 2 LIVE FEED

contact and keep it tight to the bottom where the fish were,” Adam said about his lure choice.

Making a big cast, Adam let his blade sink right to the bottom and gave it five little twitches and a pause, working the lure like this about halfway back to the boat before reeling it in and making another cast as the fish were only eating it a fair way out from the boat.

On the tackle side of things, the whole day two he was able to consistently chip away at his bag all throughout the session until he had upgraded all of his fish, weighing a bag of yellowfin not seen on ABT scales in a very long time and climbing a ridiculous 18 places from 20th into 2nd. 3RD PLACE:

STEVE NEDESKI DAY 1: 4.080kg DAY 2: 3.953kg

TOTAL: 8.033kg

Motor troubles on day one was never going to be enough to stop veteran ABT angler Steve Nedeski from catching fish, especially on his birthday! Unable to fish the open in recent years due to work and family commitments and being resigned to living through live streams year after year, he decided it was his year to step up.

Setting off on his electric motor, his plans to go to Hen and Chicken Bay were thrown to the wind and instead he headed straight for a flat near Birkenhead Point.

There, he fished a deep running brown suji shrimp Jackall Chubby by winding it down and banging it into the sand and giving it a pause, at which point the bream would nail it.

Scan the QR code to watch Steve Morgan’s Day 1 LIVE FEED

By a stroke of birthday luck, he gave his motor one more crank after he had caught his bag near Birkenhead, in the hope he could get home quicker. The motor fired and he was off to Lane Cove for the last stop of the day.

“When I pulled up at Lane Cove, I actually left the motor running because I didn’t want to get stuck if it didn’t kick over again!” he said.

Nedeski used a G loomis DSR 820 4-8lb drop shot rod paired with a 2500 sized FE Stella spooled with 16lb Gosen casting braid and a long length (approx. 10m) of 4lb FC Rock leader. The trip to Lane Cove proved well worth it as he netted himself three upgrades in the last 45 minutes of the session before scooting back to weigh in.

With motor troubles resolved, Nedeski knew he was heading straight to the carpark for day two.

“I tried fishing in close to the edges straight away, but the water was too dirty and too shallow, so I moved deeper” he said of his first hour on the flats.

The strong current and wind meant that Nedeski couldn’t fish his typical flats combination of a 2” Camp Gulp shrimp with a 1/24oz or 1/32oz jighead. Instead he chose a Berkley Dam Deep 1/8oz size #2 jighead rigged with a 2” camo Gulp shrimp, a real confidence bait/jighead combination for him.

A different rod and reel combo was called upon for the flats, being a 7’ 2-4 kg Duffrod’s SSP 842 paired with another 2500 sized FE Stella, 16lb Gosen braid and 4lb Sunline FC Rock leader.

Like most passionate anglers, Nedeski has a very understanding wife at home who he’d like to thank for her support in fishing tournaments. A sentiment shared by many Steve!

From humble beginnings to more than 200,000 downloads, Recfishwest is very proud to have launched its upgraded fishing rules app.

If you haven’t already, be sure to go to the Apple or Google play stores – depending on your phone or tablet – and download the latest version of the Recfishwest fishing rules app.

Having the upgraded version on your device will make it even quicker and easier for you to have all the fishing rules at your fingertips while fishing, even if you’re out of phone range.

Recfishwest Operations Officer Sedin Hasanovic, who helped develop the app alongside Perthbased app developers Redi Software, said:

“Because it’s effectively a new app – any information you have stored on the ‘My Tools’ section of the app, including safety gear and licences, won’t transfer across to the new version,” he said.

“Apologies to any of you who have lost this info as a result.

“If you have not yet upgraded to the new version, make sure you screenshot or make a record of your info so you can reload it into the new version once downloaded.

“If you don’t already have automatic updates for apps on your device, updating the new version is simple and will take just a couple of taps on your phone or tablet.” boundaries; • New fish species bringing the total on the app to more than 240; • Map locations for artificial reefs, fish aggregating devices (FADs) and fishing safety infrastructure such as angel rings and rock anchor bolts; and, • Refreshed content throughout the app.

It’s been six years since the Recfishwest team, working with Redi Software, developed a free, simpleto-use app that could make accessing and understanding the often-complex fishing rules easy.

More than 200,000 downloads later, it is WA’s most successful fishing app and shows West Aussie fishers’ commitment to looking after our fish stocks by sticking to the fishing rules and ensuring we can continue to do what we love doing, forever.

Over those six years, our good friends at Shimano have come on board as supporting partners for the app and we added interactive GPS-responsive marine park maps helping you navigate what fishing and boating activities you can and can’t do in multiple marine park zones.

We are committed to delivering high quality products and outcomes in everything we do, and with the funding support of the State Government and Shimano, we’ve now rebuilt the app using upgraded, state-of-the-art software.

We hope you like the upgraded app and it continues to help you enjoy your fishing.

FAST, EASY TO USE AND GREAT NEW FEATURES

The new version of the app is even easier to use with a fresh new look and with exciting new features – but with the individual species rules, fish ID function, maps, ‘My Tools’ section and the always-popular species edibility rating remaining largely untouched.

The upgraded app’s new features include: • Significantly less memory taken up on your device by the app resulting in much quicker download speeds; • Updated marine park info; • Clear seasonal closure

Drawing heritage from the beautiful beaches and crystal-clear waters of one of WA’s most renowned coastal environments, the Esperance RTT expands quick and effortless both to set up and to pack down. With features such as an internal telescopic ladder, gas strutassisted opening, and only three push-lock ratchet straps, up with compact bedding left inside.

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The Esperance has a windresistant, slimline hardshell design that has been crafted with a streamlined mould. Stainless steel hardware ensures long-term durability. The canvas is made from 200GSM poly cotton fire retardant material, with a silver-coated 2m water head. The fly is made from removable 210D fire retardant canvas, with silver-coated 3m water head.

Other handy features include internal dimmable LED strip light with concealed

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With convenience in mind, the Esperance is travelling with the Esperance is a breeze.

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