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April, 2023 ISSN 2652-5798
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CONTENTS
OUR COVER April 2023, Vol. 3 No.12 VIC
TAS
QUEENSLAND Tweed River Gold Coast Jumpinpin Brisbane Northern Bay Noosa Bundaberg Mackay Townsville Hinchinbrook Cairns Port Douglas Cooktown Cape York Freshwater
16 18 22 24 26 28 32 34 36 38 40 40 42 44 50
NEW SOUTH WALES Pittwater Sydney Rock Sydney North Sydney South Ballina Coffs Coast South West Rocks Hastings Forster Port Stephens Central Coast Swansea Illawarra Batemans Bay Bermagui Tathra Albany/Wodonga Hunter Valley Batlow New England Rivers Canberra
54 56 54 58 60 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 72 72 75 74 74 76 77
VICTORIA Warrnambool Portland Cobden Geelong Port Phillip East Port Phillip West Phillip Island Lakes Entrance Gippsland Lakes Port Albert Marlo Bemm River Mallacoota Robinvale Yarrawonga Wangaratta Shepparton Bendigo Ballarat Crater Lakes 6 APRIL 2023
From the Editor’s Desk...
WA
78 78 79 80 81 82 84 86 86 87 88 88 89 90 93 92 93 91 94 95
While looking for an early season mulloway, Graeme Doodson managed to drag in a monster lemon shark at Lancelin, WA. A Peter Fullarton image. Come and visit Fishing Monthly Group’s official Facebook page for all your monthly fishing information. Download QR Reader to access.
Eildon Gippsland Freshwater
96 96
TASMANIA Offshore Hobart
98 99
WESTERN AUSTRALIA Esperance Bunbury Augusta Metro Mandurah Kalbarri Lancelin Exmouth Karratha Freshwater
100 100 101 102 103 105 104 106 107 108
REGULAR FEATURES Bolstering bait tactics Starlo’s: The Great De-bait National Rec Fishing Survey Part I Sheik of the Creek What’s New Fishing Fun page WIRF Tournaments Tournament Calendar Trades and Services/Tide page Boat test: Stessco Albacore 560CC
8 14 46 53 59 61 97 110 118 120 124
COMPS AND OFFERS Find the logo
119
THE TECHNOLOGY DEBATE In my seat I get to see both sides of the story when it comes to the impact of new technology on fishing in the field. Advances in fish finders, outboard motors, rods reels and lures all play a part in making fish more catchable. Under sound fish management regimes, this is a great thing for our industry. People actually catching more fish means a more vibrant industry. And having fishing rules in place that contain stock depletion are the key. With the advent of forward-facing sonar, there are plenty of salty anglers out there who are finding that their lifetime of experience is being matched by someone good on their sounder. This new generation of anglers can find and catch fish in an instant where it used to take years to work out their patterns and habits. I understand this as well. When I was a young angler, I would always fantasise about a technology that would show me exactly where the fish were in real time. Back when I was 10, this consisted of little red laser beam shooting up into the air to show me where the fish were moving
16 34
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97 WIRF
around and where to cast my lures. As it happened this isn’t how the technology was delivered. But I can definitely watch fish, find fish and see their reaction to my lures in real time on my sounder screen. It’s a real game changer. It’s what the technology anglers talk about when they mention Garmin LiveScope, Lowrance Active Target or Humminbird MegaLive. In Australia and overseas I noticed that some fishing tournaments actually ban its use. I think this is a very negative outlook. On the tournament side of our company, I thought the tournaments were about people catching fish? People catching fish are much happier to upgrade boats, motors, fishing tackle and electronics. And that keeps us all in work. Some people tell me that fishing is becoming an elite sport because not everybody can afford the expensive electronics. My response is to ask them what has changed with the fishing that they have always enjoyed? Just because other anglers are catching more fish, does that diminish their own experience when they’re out on the water? If they have fun, take home a feed and are happy with their catch, why should anything change? In the end it comes down to the fact that anglers are reasonably jealous creatures. The fear of missing out runs strong in some and I don’t think that will ever change. What’s the take-home message? Enjoy your fishing in whatever form you practice. The fish are the same, they behave the same and what you’ve always done will probably still work.
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Bolstering bait tactics CENTRAL COAST
Jamie Robley
Pick up any fishing magazine or take a quick look around the internet or apps these days and it seems that lure or fly fishing are perhaps more popular than using old fashioned bait. If you’re not using lure or fly you must be so last century it’s not
at the top of the evolutionary intelligence list, but they’re a creature that’s not always easy to fool. As we move away from the warmer months and head into winter, most of our popular angling targets like to feed up before the water gets too cold. Some will continue to feed right through winter, while others migrate elsewhere and some slow right down to an
comes to success with baits. Regardless of where or how you fish, simply going to good spots at the right time is a good start. Researching your local area or a potential holiday destination is probably the first logical step to take. Being mindful of the weather, moon and tides is also greatly beneficial. More specifically, for the sake of this particular article, let’s focus more on two nitty
This big bream took a rather small bait of white bread while the author was chasing luderick at one of his favourite rock fishing spots. White bread works a treat for a variety of different species in the fresh or salt. late model 4WD vehicles, loaded up and heading to popular fishing destinations, with cheapy, low budget rods and reels secured to the roof racks or rod holders. If you can afford a new Hilux, Ranger or Navara then surely spending another few hundred on a couple
rather than names you can’t pronounce! Clean, functional, maintained tackle is another aspect of successful fishing to consider. A well-maintained reel that spins freely is better than a more expensive reel with a sticky drag or noisy bearings. The same applies
comes into it as well. So here are some of my all-time best performers. PILCHARDS It’s very hard to go past good old pillies for general beach fishing. They are extremely appealing to tailor, salmon and bream, while other species like trevally,
Bait and bait. These freshwater mullet were caught on small bread baits suspended under a little Styrofoam float. The author then used the mullet to catch bream at a nearby beach. even funny! Well, most of us know that’s not entirely the case, but let’s face it, chasing fish with artificial offerings definitely gets a lot of attention. Lure or fly fishing does have a lot going for it and yes, tricking fish with ‘fake baits’ certainly works. However, there’s still a lot to be said for fishing with a real bait down at the business end of your line. Fish may not be
almost shut down state. So, although casting or trolling an artificial bait may still work well in some cases, the next few months are a prime period for using natural baits. This is particularly so for coastal fishing the inshore reefs, rocks and beaches, but baits will also do very well in the estuary or freshwater at this time of year. There are a few main factors to consider when it
gritty aspects of fishing with natural baits. Suitable tackle and good bait. GOOD GEAR No matter where or how you fish, it’s pretty obvious that good quality tackle is beneficial. By this, I don’t necessarily mean top of the line, expensive gear, but I do mean decent quality rods, reels, lines and terminals like hooks or swivels. It often amazes me to see big,
This big carp took a bait of white bread in the middle of winter. Although carp will respond to flies or small lures, in most situations bait will work better for them.
A well organised tackle box, with nice sharp hooks will go a long way towards successful bait fishing. So replace any rusty old hooks with new ones. Mustad, Owner, Gamakatsu and Eagle Claw are some reputable brand names to look for. 8 APRIL 2023
of decent fishing outfits won’t hurt! Good quality lines and nice sharp hooks will go a long way towards success and this sort of stuff is relatively cheap. I buy the majority of my tackle online these days, so it’s pretty quick and easy to compare prices and buy some new line or hooks. Whenever possible though, I still try to buy from real local tackle stores, rather than going for the cheapy overseas option. Brand names like Daiwa, Shimano, Penn, Mustad, Gamakatsu and Wilson are what you need to look for,
to hooks and other terminals. So throw out older, rusty hooks and periodically check through your tackle to see what may need to be replaced or cleaned up. BEST BAITS Most keen anglers have their favourite baits and I’m the same. When considering what a good bait is, I firstly consider how much the fish like it or how effective it is. That’s probably the main thing overall. Then, how easy or convenient it is to use, how long does it last and how hard is it to find, gather, catch or buy and if you are buying it, the cost obviously
bonito, snapper, dart, bream, flathead and mulloway also go for pilchard baits. I’ve even caught the odd whiting on pillies over the years. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to buy good quality pilchards. So take a close look at them in the bait freezer before buying. At the moment, blocks or IQF bags of pilchards are the same price at my local bait shop, so I’ll look at both and try to pick a bag or block that looks decent. The size may also be important, especially when you’re using them on ganged hooks. So I try to find average or medium
size, rather than bigger or smaller. Pilchards are one of my favourite beach baits for winter tailor and salmon and yes, I still use them old style, pinned to a set of ganged hooks! SMALL TUNA I’ll group a few different fish species into
this category, just to make things easier. Bonito are more correctly, part of the mackerel family, but let’s be technically incorrect here for a minute and use old school terms. As far as east coast anglers are concerned, the small tunas are those speedy pelagic fish that are abundant
along the east coast from about January through to late June each year. The main fish in this group are bonito, mack tuna, striped tuna, frigate mackerel and Watson’s bonito. Those anglers into chasing monsters like marlin, larger kingfish, cobia and
This Hunter River bream fell for a bait of freshwater mullet that the author had caught with white bread. In fact, the bream would have also taken a bait of white bread!
Small tuna are great fun to catch and a can be used for bait in a variety of ways to tempt different species. The author likes to cut the fillets into cubes and give them a liberal sprinkling of rock salt. This toughens up the flesh so they’ll last longer on the hook. It’s definitely worth looking into salting techniques if you’re a keen offshore, rock or beach angler who targets snapper and bream.
sharks may consider small tuna as slow trolled live baits or faster trolled skip baits. The majority of rock, beach and inshore anglers though, can use small tuna in the form of freshly cut baits or salted baits for bream, snapper, tailor and a few other species. Small tuna are generally much better when the skin is left on and they are covered
with a liberal sprinkling of rock salt. The salt draws out moisture and toughens up the flesh, without adversely affecting the flavour. So they hold up better to repeated casting or annoying pickers and pests. Good quality freshly salted small tuna are right at the top of the list for bream or snapper around inshore reef and rocky headlands.
BEACH WORMS Although it’s worth learning how to catch beach worms if you live on the coast and have the time and patience, luckily they can also be purchased from good bait shops. Beach worms appeal to most saltwater species, but are particularly effective for whiting and mulloway. They may seem relatively expensive compared to
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Southern
OLD
Transitioning from the summer to winter species NORTHERN BAY
Peter Jung
April and the Easter period should see our waters transitioning from our summer to winter target species. However, considering the extended stretch of warm weather we have been having lately, the summer species may just hang around for a little while longer.
there are fish on any given marker, as they normally are pretty quick to show themselves, so you may need to marker hop a little until you find them. Also be aware that sharks tend to frequent these areas hoping for an easy feed, so use the appropriate gear to give yourself the best chance to avoid them. Tuna can be hard to find at times, as you are generally relying on them
injured baitfish). As our waters’ cool, snapper numbers will also start to increase. There is plenty of reefy broken ground areas around the Redcliffe Peninsula that will hold good numbers of fish and they can be targeted by drifting baits, using soft plastics or even trolling around and over the structure. OUR RIVERS At the time of writing
There have been plenty of saratoga captures from North Pine Dam and Lake Kurwongbah recently. This one was caught on a surface lure by Nicholas Willett.
It has been a great mackerel season. Steve Nash with a solid fish. MORETON BAY Fishing in the northern part of Moreton Bay continues to be very good with the mackerel fishing continuing to fire and longtail tuna numbers on the increase. Most anglers focus their efforts around the shipping channel
to show themselves or have birds show you where they are. Once spotted they can disappear as quickly as you found them, but it can pay to sound around the area looking for schools of bait. If you find them, the tuna won’t be too far away. Soft vibes are well worth fishing
or natural structure will also be very effective. Keep in mind that during these holiday
FRESHWATER The freshwater fishing in our lakes has progressively got harder as
There is still some fun to be had fishing around the edges using spinnerbaits, lipless crankbaits and
the first good showings of prawns have started to be seen in our rivers and this tends to be the signal that fish like flathead, bream, trevally and mulloway will push up the systems looking to feast on them. This is just in time for those anglers hitting the
There are plenty of trevally species to be caught in our waters. A golden trevally like this one caught by Dave Hudy is always a special capture.
Kelly Hurford with a lovely northern bay snapper. As the weather and water cools, we should see more of these showing up on our inshore reefs. markers, drifting baits back to them or throwing surface lures or slugs in and around them. You will quickly know whether 26 APRIL 2023
around these bait schools as the tuna and other predators are always looking for an easy feed that these vibes represent really well (an
water over Easter to pick up a feed. Fresh prawn baits will be deadly, however prawn imitation plastics cast around either artificial
periods, there will be more people out and about, so be mindful of other people so everyone can enjoy their time on the water. Areas to try would be the Pumicestone Passage, Pine River (Deepwater Bend or Hays Inlet), the Caboolture River or the foreshore around Sandgate and Woody Point.
this extended period of hot weather has warmed the water significantly. Bass have been harder to locate, as they tend to school in areas where the water temp is to their liking, and move around with it. If you do find them, soft plastics and small metal vibes hopped in front of them can result is some rod bending fun.
surface lures (low light periods). Saratoga have been regular captures using these methods as well as some bigger bass. You just need to have the patience to persist and get that bite. Lake Kurwongbah has fished the better of the two lakes if you are going to go out and give it a try.
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Sydney
NSW
Sydney flathead are still taking bait and lures SYDNEY SOUTH
Gary Brown gbrown1@iprimus.com.au
Over the past couple of months there have been heaps of bonito in Botany Bay, the Port Hacking and off the rocks from up north at Palm Beach and right down to past Wollongong. These fish have been caught while trolling, casting and trolling lures. Even though they started showing up a couple of months ago, they should be still around, just maybe not in as many numbers. I have been catching a few, taking a couple of fillets off them and salting them down for bait. Just about everything that swims in the saltwater loves a feed of bonito. If you are fishing from the shore in Botany Bay you could try Browns Rock, Bare Island, the beach in Yarra Bay, the break wall at Foreshore Drive ramp, the entrance to the Cooks River, anywhere along the beach from Brighton to Dolls Point and both the Captain Cook and Tom Uglys Bridges. On the southern side of
There are still a few quality Australian salmon being caught on both baits and lures. If you are going to keep a few for a feed, make sure that you bleed them and then keep them on ice. the bay, you could try Silver Beach and Sutherland Point for flathead, bream, trevally and whiting. Those of you with boats could try Trevally Alley, the end of the third runway, The Drums, The
Stick and the oil wharf. Just remember if you are fishing while at anchor it is much better if you have a berley trail going. Further upstream in the Georges River, the flathead, bream and whiting have
T S A O C T EAS 3 2 0 2 S E I R
been on the chew. Places to try are the Moons, Lugarno, Picnic Point, the Milperra Point and Chipping Norton Lakes. The Woronora River may be the smaller river compared to the Georges, but it will still produce plenty of bream, flathead, whiting, mullet and the odd mulloway or two. Due to most of the river not being that wide, I would tend to stick to the sides
while anchored up and bait fishing. If you prefer to lure fish, just work the sides where there are pontoons, wharfs, jetties and rock walls. Further upstream you could try lure fishing for bass and estuary perch. The beaches in Bate Bay have been producing good catches of bream and whiting. The best baits by far have been either beach or tube worms for the whiting, and half pilchards for the bream. Those anglers who have been using whole pilchards on a set of ganged hooks have been getting amongst a few tailor and Australian salmon. A mate of mine has been targeting mulloway at night with freshly caught squid, but has been mainly getting into a variety of sharks with only the odd small mulloway. Squid of late have been hard to come by. If you are struggling you could always try buying some from Max Bait Bar at Blakehurst. The only problem is, it’s around $60 a kilo. Further south at Stanwell Park Beach there have been a few salmon and tailor caught either very early in the morning or just before sunset. Once again, those anglers using beach worms have been getting into a few whiting and bream. As I stated in the March issue of Fishing Monthly,
I will discuss a different fact each issue that will hopefully help you to get amongst a few more fish. It may be something as simple as a suggested hook to use, how to put a bait on, what type of technique I use or what rig that I use. Here is my fact for this month. FACT How many times have you had a bream, drummer, snapper or groper take your bait and before you know it the fish has wedged itself under or between a couple of rocks, and you can feel that it is still attached? Sometimes violently jerking on the rod (not too hard or you’ll break the rod) will cause the fish to swim back out. However, if this doesn’t work, you should just let the line go slack and leave it for a while. Many’s the time I have done this and had the fish swim out from where it was. Once you sense this, you should lower your rod tip while winding in the slack line. When you feel the pressure of the fish you should take hold, and step back a couple of steps while winding in some line at the same time. Before you know it, the fish will be flapping at your feet. That’s it for this month. Don’t forget to keep those reports and photos coming in to gbrown1@ iprimus.com.au.
E S M A E BR am series consaislting
Fin Bre Grand Team s u l p ds . 5 roun ntry per team team.
e er • $150 Final $200 p tries back d en n f • Gra $100 o m u m ey. s. • Mini r e mon % of entrie z i r p Harbou s a 100 ydney l S a • n i d F n d e Rou e • Gran cquari Maquir
l ke Ma ch • Bil nd • La u th Mar 6 o 2 R : o 1 n ROUND Shima April • in h t 0 3 River : es Bas esbury Georg ROUND 1 k t w S a • H ay iction • : 28th M ny Bay kle Add c a ROUND 1 T • t d • Bota us n g u u o A R o : 27th himan ROUND 1 ber • S m te p bour e ey Har 24th S n : d 1 y D S N r• ROU Octobe L: 15th A IN F D r• GRAN vembe d 12th
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Scott Pavitt with his first ever dusky flathead. It was caught on a soft plastic while slowly jigging the deep water in Yowie Bay.
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DAIWA TANACOM 800
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2022 delivered a reworking of the Tanacom electric reel platform with the release of the Tanacom 1200, and new for 2023 is the smaller Tanacom 800. Featuring the design, and advancements in technologies and features that made the 1200 a major evolution of the Tanacom platform, the 800 model shows that quality, performance and power can come in a small package. The Tanacom 800 sports the new design incorporating the motor housed inside the spool, giving Daiwa engineers the ability to increase the efficiency of the powerful motor, the same reliable unit that’s been used on Tanacom 1200. An aluminium body, DOT LCD Display, Line Counter, and Power Lever feature in the Tanacom 800, along with a 25kg drag, PE6/800m spool capacity, aluminium ball knob and more. For a full list of specs, head to the Daiwa Australia website. www.daiwafishing.com.au
BONE FOCUS COLOURS
3
The Australian Bone Focus colours have arrived, and all have been designed to appeal to Aussie species. There are six new colours that will feature in the ongoing colour range: CP (carp), FE (femur), FAB (fat Betty), PL (pearl), SK (skeleton) and MC (Murray cod). The Focus has a well-earned reputation as a producer of great glide-bait fishing, winning biggest fish of the day honours at the Lake Mulwala Cod Nationals, catching Andrew Hart from HLS his first metre-plus cod, dominating flathead catches over the flats and finding their way into plenty of barra mouths int eh impoundments and rivers. It’s the 130mm size that makes the Bone Focus such a well-accepted lure. This size allows anglers to use lighter tackle that is easier to cast for longer periods. The really big swim and glide baits on the market require specific tackle, whereas the Focus can be used on tackle most of us already own and that’s a massive plus. Add in the multiple tie-on points that give the lure slightly different diving and action characteristics and the Focus can be fished from water as shallow as a metre of weed channelled flat right down to 5-6m when anglers chase big barra on the scope. SRP: $35.99 www.wilsonfishing.com
RAPALA HOODED JERSEY
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The Rapala Hooded Jersey provides optimum sun protection thanks to its hood and built in face shield with breathing holes and built-in thumb holes. The breathing holes have the added benefit of reducing sunglass fogging. This jersey is made from UPF 50+ material providing anglers with optimum sun protection whilst staying cool at the same time. Breathable mesh sides will keep you cool on the hottest days in the sun. Rapala has also released a 13 Fishing Hooded Jersey, with all the same features. Both jerseys are available in the following sizes: S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL MSRP $89.95 www.rapala.com.au
LIME KERSHAW SHUFFLE
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The Shuffle is one of Kershaw’s most popular models, and how there’s one that won’t get lost in the bush or the back of your ute. The new lime green version really stands out, bright lime green handles make this Shuffle stand out. Other colours are purple, teal and black. The Shuffle is a compact, versatile and tough multi-function tool. You’ll like its compact size, manual opening, and discovering how useful that stubby little blade really is. The finger contours fit your hand nicely, and the K-Texture handle provides an extra secure grip. The Shuffle has some additional tricks up its sleeve, too. It has a flathead screwdriver at the butt of the knife, which doubles as a lanyard attachment, and a bottlecap lifter built into the back of the knife. The blade is made of made of a steel known for toughness and durability. The K-Texture handle is composed of a repeating pattern that enhances grip. A liner lock secures the Shuffle’s blade open in use, but closes easily when its tasks are done. It can be used as a utility knife, a work knife, or just a multi-function pocketknife. The Shuffle’s closed length is 8.3cm long, the blade is 6cm, and the overall length is 14.6cm. For more information on the Shuffle and other Kershaw knives, visit the Frogleys website. frogleysoffshore.com.au
SHIMANO CURADO DC 200
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The Curado DC 200 is an expansion to the Curado family of low-profile reels. The Curado DC 200 provides anglers up to 40% more line capacity for added versatility and performance using a wide range of baits and techniques, especially those looking to leverage heavier line, larger lures or maximize casting performance. The I-DC4 unit provides anglers with four distinct settings to control how much braking the DC technology applies to the spool during the cast for ultimate control, while minimizing backlashes when long-bombing casts or fishing in windy conditions. The MicroModule Gear technology creates a smooth retrieve by utilizing smaller teeth to increase the number of contact points between the drive gear and pinion gear. X SHIP provides improved gear durability. By supporting the pinion gear on both ends with bearings, the pinion gear maintains precise alignment with the drive gear. This increased support allows the gears to stay in the same position under the heaviest loads. X-Ship technology also eliminates the friction between the spool shaft and gear for enhanced casting performance and casting distance of lighter lures. www.shimanofish.com.au
6
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APRIL 2023 59
NSW
Mackerel fever spreads THE HASTINGS
Kate Sheldon
I may be a little biased, but the Mid North Coast would have to be one of the best stretches of coastline in NSW for catching mackerel. Mackerel fever has definitely kicked off this season, with some fantastic fish caught from Grassy Head all the way south to Camden Head. Grassy Head north of South West Rocks is where the season begins for the Mid North Coast. It’s one of the most popular locations for catching spotted and Spanish mackerel, and
live baits can be slimy mackerel, bonito and even a stinky pike. The best part of mackerel fishing can be the by-catch; many anglers have reported catching mulloway, snapper and cobia, especially when trolling a deep bait. On my first mackerel trip this season I hooked a black marlin in 10m of water in Plomer Bay. Unfortunately, a lot of fish this season have been taken by the ‘tax man’. Over the last few years we have seen an increase in sharks chasing down our catches. My mackerel tackle
setup is a light game overhead outfit, and I prefer braid although some anglers will use mono. I’ve found that the best bait is a live slimy mackerel or bridled bonito for slow trolling. Mackerel have a big set of chompers, so you need to use a wire trace. I like to use a single strand 44lb wire for Spanish mackerel, but on the spotted mackerel I usually go a bit lighter – as low as 27lb, with a haywire twist knot on a 2-hook rig. I’ve found the best bite is usually those afternoon or mid-week morning fishing sessions with not
Angler Ross Berrett caught this Spanish mackerel in Plomer Bay on local boat East Bound. Image courtesy of @eastbound_fishing.
South West Rocks angler Zane Cassidy with a great Spanish mackerel he caught at Grassy Head. attracts many local and visiting anglers. As the fish travel south the next best locations to fish for mackerel are off Lake Cathie, Bonny Hills and Crowdy Head. Mackerel season on the Mid North Coast generally starts towards the end of summer, with the odd fish caught throughout black marlin season, and usually ends around the start of winter. Catching mackerel is popular, as they are usually caught on the inshore reefs, making them an easy target for anglers with smaller boats. I like to find water sitting around 22-24°C, but if the water does cool down it doesn’t mean you won’t catch them. The fish will be there, you may just have to change up your methods of fishing. My go-to methods for catching mackerel are slow trolling live baits, trolling hardbody lures and ballooning from anchor. Some of the best 64 APRIL 2023
a lot of boats around. If you want to know more about targeting Spanish or spotted mackerel head into your local fishing tackle store and chat to the knowledgeable staff. As we head into the cooler months, we should continue to see some good catches of spotted and Spanish mackerel inshore until May. If you have no luck catching mackerel, have a try for a snapper on the same reefs using soft plastics or pilchards. Correction In my report in the March issue, ‘Local Ladies Leading the Way’, I stated that Cassie Herbert was ladies champion of the Port Macquarie Golden
Camden Haven local Genna Johnson with 7.7kg spotted mackerel she caught off Lake Cathie. Image courtesy of @genna.m.j.
Lure competition. This was reported incorrectly – Cassie Herbert was in fact runner-up ladies champion. Good luck to everyone heading out for a fish this month, and stay safe out on the water. • Kate is the proud owner of Bay Explorer
Marine Services, and she specialises in making deep drop fishing rigs for blue-eye trevalla, bar cod, kingfish and bass groper. For more info look up ‘Bay Explorer Marine Services’ on Facebook and Instagram, or find her store on eBay.
Harry Morris had a great day at Turners Beach, North Tasmania. He caught this trevally while casting a Berkley Gulp Sandworm in camo with a slow retrieve into a deep gutter.
NSW
Getting the small things right FORSTER
Luke Austin
For many anglers, the weeks around Easter are the best and most productive out of the whole
out from the gnarly structure that they love to hang about! Finding the happy medium between bites and bust-offs is the trick. This will vary from angler to angler but you will definitely see those anglers using 4-8lb leaders
often be lure fishing using lightweight rods and braid. This method of fishing does two things: firstly, these anglers are actively searching about for fish that are ‘switched on’ and ready to feed, and secondly, they are fishing with lures that have been specifically designed to grab the attention of fish by mimicking a baitfish or prawn, as opposed to a motionless, dead bit of bait. The other big thing to
great day filled with fish or a long day of not much action. ROCK AND BEACH Fishing the local beaches this month can be a real treat, with loads of fish on offer. While I have had reports from all over the coast recently, the best action has definitely been down south, with 7 Mile Beach producing some particularly good sessions. Most anglers have been finding mixed bags consisting of salmon, tailor,
Rob Voorby with a cracking April tailor. year. It’s when we get to make the most of two merging fishing seasons: the last of the summer and the first of the winter. There is a huge array of species on offer and plenty of tough fishing decisions to be made! Estuary fishers are managing to find plenty of fish to chase out on Wallis Lake. Bream numbers are beginning to really stack up throughout the bottom of the system, with some great fish caught from the rock walls and down around the bridge. If you really want to target these big, smart fish there are a few simple things that you need to remember. Firstly, the lighter you can fish, in both line weight and sinker size, will have a huge impact on how many fish you catch. Fishing a nice light line translates to more hits for one very simple reason: it’s thinner and harder for the fish to see. The downside of going thinner and lighter is that it is a lot harder to pull the fish
hooking many more fish than those fishing 10lb and up. Secondly, presentation is key. Whether you are fishing bait or lure, your presentations have to look as natural as possible. These fish are insanely smart and if they can see too much hook hanging out of your bait, or if your soft plastic isn’t quite swimming right, they won’t even think about eating it! FLATHEAD I always find it amazing to hear the variety of flathead reports that come through during the autumn months. In a single day I often hear, “I have been fishing for flathead for three days and have not seen a single fish” along with “how amazing are the flatties out there, I must have caught 50 over the past two days!” Trying to figure out why there is such a big difference in anglers’ outcomes is often puzzling, but there are definitely a couple of things that stand out. The more successful anglers (outside of the summer months) will
Cobia can turn up at any time this month. Scott Adams found a few very close to home.
Shaun and Cooper with some typical inshore autumn snapper. think about is when to go flathead fishing. Unless we have had a huge amount of rain, the run-out tide is generally the most productive time to chase a bag of fish for the table. However, if you’re after a really big trophy fish, the best time is often right up in the shallows on the top of the tide! Getting the small things right will nearly always be the difference in having a
bream, whiting and even the odd luderick! The whiting that have been hitting the sand have been of a very good size, and nearly all of them are in great condition with anglers struggling to get their hands around the bigger 40cm models. The local ledges are always busy in April. Now is the time to get amongst some
cracking land-based action, and there have been plenty of anglers putting in the hours to try their luck. There have been some big tailor, kingfish up to about 14kg, mac tuna, cobia and the odd longtail tuna getting about. If the action is slow, soaking a bait for a bream, drummer, snapper or luderick is also a real option with some great wash areas persisting up and down the coast. OFFSHORE The ocean is absolutely alive at the moment. The pelagic fishery has definitely kicked in and plenty of anglers are managing to find fish. Longtail tuna are chasing garfish right up and down the coast, the FAD is producing plenty of mahimahi and the reefs to the north are holding spotted and Spanish mackerel. If you prefer to target
demersal species there have been loads of snapper on the inshore reefs. The average size has been around 1.5-3kg, which is a perfect size for the table. Those anglers that have decided to head south have had a lot more success than those that have headed north. The shallow grounds down south are holding some great kingfish up to 18kg, as well as plenty of solid snapper. • Luke is the owner of Great Lakes Tackle – your ‘local’ bait and tackle store. They only sell the best brands and offer sound, friendly advice on where you can go to land your next trophy fish while visiting the wonderful Great Lakes region. It’s open 7 days in the main street of Tuncurry. Phone 02 6554 9541 or find them on Facebook to see what they have been up to!
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The reefs in close are holding good numbers of spotted mackerel, so make sure you pack your wire!
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APRIL 2023 65
VIC
Impressive catches in estuaries GEELONG
Neil Slater slaterfish@gmail.com
The water in the region cools over April, and we often see a surge in whiting inside Corio Bay. The whiting have fished well all year, so an increase would be busy alright. The Barwon River in Geelong has seen a few redfin around the 30cm mark caught on single-tailed soft plastics up around Queens Park and Breakwater. However, it was Adam from Trelly’s who broke the internet with a 53cm bass he caught from the Barwon using a 4” paddle tail soft plastic rigged on a jig spinner. That’s a cracking bass! Hugh Hanson has been fishing out at Wurdee Buloc
How’s that for a Barwon bass? Adam from Trelly’s looks pretty happy with this 53cm whopper.
Alan caught this kingfish jigging over an old wreck. a fair bit, bagging a few redfin up around 35cm using vibe lures. Hugh reckons the visibility is pretty good, and the reservoir is nice and full. A few feisty kingfish have been spotted, hooked, lost and landed inside Corio Bay, which has added to the excitement. Matthew Harris was casting a Texas-rigged Silstar Slapstix soft plastic off Limeburners when he saw a bust-up. Expecting salmon, he had his lure pounded around 2m from the rock wall and then it took off! The fish bolted under eight other anglers’ rods, forcing Matthew to increase the heat in an attempt to keep it close. After a 5-6 minute fight, Matthew hand lined the fish out of the water – a 74cm kingfish which he released 80 APRIL 2023
after a picture. Matthew said he had sighted what appeared to be kingfish schools cruising around Corio Bay for a few weeks prior, but this was the first one he had landed after many hours casting and changing lures. The kingfish were in close chasing garfish, which gave Matthew his chance. I would expect the kingfish to taper off as this month progresses. We can expect bream, mullet and trevally to provide sport for land-based fishers, while salmon will also patrol Corio Bay a little more often. Corio Bay has had a stellar snapper season this year, with strong numbers of pinkie snapper to 55cm being caught on soft plastics and bait. North Shore fishing platforms, St Helens, Geelong waterfront and Limeburners have all produced snapper for landbased anglers. For boaties, try Point Henry, the spoil grounds inside Stingaree Bay and off Leopold. Pike have also been a
fairly consistent bycatch for anglers targeting snapper on plastics. I’m not much of a fan of pike because they come up like a wet sock, shed scales, want to bite you and stink a bit, but someone told me they go OK on the plate. Flathead seemed to have increased in size and numbers over the past few years. Better fish around 50cm seem more common. Tasty rock flatties have been a welcomed bycatch for anglers fishing plastics for snapper out off Leopold, with quality fish either side of 50cm. Chris Pitman from Drysdale Bait & Tackle has caught a few 50cm flatties out off Clifton Springs using the new Asakura Clamer mussel lure. Whiting have been a little scattered off Clifton Springs, but it’s still worth a trip as the calamari have been biting well here. Around the Bellarine, Portarlington has had good patches of both, but St Leonards has been the stand-out for whiting, with a few lucky anglers picking up their bag limit captures of 40cm fish. Further south around the
Keep an eye out for silvers in the Barwon. Jak caught this 40cm fish up near Sheepwash Road.
Chris from Drysdale Bait & Tackle has been getting a few flatties off Clifton Springs.
Nick and Alan caught this tuna on a tough day out off Barwon Heads.
Coles Channel and Swan Bay, anglers have been catching quality whiting, with all baits doing well, especially squid. My work colleague Adam Jordan said he wrestled a few pike out of Swan Bay and noticed the shallows were full of big whiting that would not take any bait. He said they were onto his berley, but refused all baits he threw a them! Leopold Angling and Aquatic Club held a members whiting competition but due to the weather, only a few fish were weighed in. Luckily the BBQ was pretty good! Out wide off St Leonards has seen some solid gummy shark captures over 10kg, with the odd 20kg monster amongst them. The Barwon River
estuary has been producing plenty of silver trevally over the last few months. Jak Bergman fished up the Sheepwash and grassed a ripper silver that went 40cm. It was caught on a piece of chicken on slack tide. There have been some whopping kingfish over a metre caught out off Barwon Heads by anglers dropping knife jigs and live squid down over the reef areas in 10-20m of water. Smaller kings around 75cm have been caught by anglers trolling skirted lures for tuna, plus trolling over shallower reef areas near Black Rock and Torquay, which are known haunts of kingfish. Tuna have also been going off their collective heads, with solid fish from 10-30kg
VIC
Last chance for good PPB snapper sessions PORT PHILLIP
Gerry Morsman
The peak of the boat traffic is over now that the footy is back, and for some people now is the best time to capitalize on what great fishing is still on offer. The snapper are still going well before they head on out of the Bay, the whiting are still going strong and, as per usual, the squid and
gummy sharks are still firing as they stick around all year long. SOUTHERN CALAMARI The Mornington pier is seeing some great reports this month, with early morning and late afternoon being the ideal times of day to target them. The first section of the pier at the rock wall casting out towards the bay has been producing good numbers. You are best to use a 2.5 sized jig to get
Cuttlefish are always a welcome bycatch when fishing for squid. The author always releases them. being caught in Bass Strait. Skirts with and without teasers are getting results, as are diving lures, poppers and stickbaits. Alan Falzon fished with Nick Mahoney in Bass Strait recently. The lads trolled all the way down towards Torquay without luck, so they headed back to the Rip. Around 7:30am Nick hooked up on a shallow diving lure, and landed a nice little tuna. The lads drove around for a few more hours and ended up
the casting distance, and this size is also good because it’s not too heavy for the shallow reef that you will be casting over. Reports say the better colours have been green, red foil, black and white. Moving further up the pier, it’s best to cast on the inside as the locals say this area has been fishing very well. Bird Rock at Mount Martha has been in the reports a lot lately, with big numbers caught all throughout the day. It’s a big reef and you can get a very good drift going for a long period of time. Limestone Reef out the front of Mount Martha has been fishing very well also. KING GEORGE WHITING Fishing in the sand holes off Mount Eliza over the broken ground has kept a lot of anglers busy of late. You might have to move around a bit, but by all reports it has been very worth it with good numbers and sizes. Fish up to 45cm have been getting caught on squid strips and pipis. The better times have been early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Mills Beach off Mornington has been fishing
Hugh has been catching a few redfin at Wurdee.
Matthew caught and released this 74cm kingfish casting lures off Limeburners.
back near Torquay. They decided to give up on the tuna and went over to an old wreck that Alan knows. They sent a Chasebait soft plastic down on a heavy jighead, and landed a nice kingfish to round out the day. Alan reckons they were lucky to boat these fish because others at the ramp hadn’t had much luck. FISH HARD – DIE HAPPY! Catch a few around Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula or Surf Coast to Lorne recently? Send in a report to slaterfish@gmail. com with “FMG” in the subject field or give me a call on 0408 997 348. Please include where (without giving away your secret spot!), when, what on and who caught the fish. Pictures are always great, but please make sure they are at least 1MB (file size).
Michael Kandanoleon with a nice female gummy shark. really well, too. Fishing near the yellow poles will have you in a big sandy area just off the edge of light reef, and the whiting love to hang around these areas. You might get a few small pinkies, but if you persist the whiting will eventually turn up and push the other fish out. Bird Rock is an area that comes up every year as the whiting love to hang around this big rock that comes out of the water. Here you are fishing in around 6m of water in sand holes and broken reef. It’s possible to catch whiting all day long here, with the best baits being squid, pipis, mussels and cockles. As you move down to Dromana you will find you get a little more tide, which is a much easier way to fish as the tide will generally keep your boat and lines straight. You can also berley and bring the fish to you if they aren’t in your exact location. Look for broken ground and sand holes, and if you find the fish aren’t coming to you with the berley, you might have to move around a little bit.
end of the flood tide. Choosing your bait is a very big deal when it comes to gummy sharks. They have a very good nose so make sure you have the freshest bait you can get. If you can’t catch your own on the day, which is ideal, then getting some from a local fish store or market is the next best thing. A fresh salmon or trevally would be perfect as they are very oily and have a lot of blood, which create a really good berley trail. You would be surprised at how far away a gummy shark can smell it. Sorrento has been popping up in the reports also. The key is get right up close to the edge of the channel because this is where most of their food source will travel with the tide. SNAPPER This month will most likely be your last crack at
Ben found some quality whiting using squid strips for bait. GUMMY SHARKS The South channel all the way from Rye to Portsea is a very good area to target gummy sharks all year round. They will swim up and down this channel all day and night with the tide, cruising the edges looking for food. There have been great reports off Rye at the
There are still plenty of school-sized snapper on offer in the bay.
having a solid Port Phillip Bay snapper session, until they return around September. They always go very well this time of year, and can be found in big numbers wide near the shipping channel off Frankston and Mornington in around 20-22m of water. The best bite time, judging by the reports, has been first light. That’s no surprise; it’s very common at this time of year. The best baits have been silver whiting and fresh squid. Berley is key, and you want to start before the sun comes up. As soon as the bite time starts, get ready because the chances are the school will be big, super-competitive and very hungry. If you are lucky you will have your bag limit within 20 minutes. Keep in mind that snapper don’t release very well due to barotrauma, so fishing in water over 11m isn’t ideal for catch and release after you have caught your bag limit. APRIL 2023 81
BREAM SERIES presented by
Tight bags and tarwhine on the Swan No sooner has the 2022 ABT season been wrapped up have we begun again with the first round of the 2023 Daiwa bream series in Western Australia. The Atomic sponsored Swan River qualifier in Perth was the battleground for 16 boaters and 13 non-boaters, competing for their ticket to the Grand Final in Port Stephens, New South Wales, at the end of the year. This year for WA anglers there are two boater and two non-boater spots, as well as a spot for the angler with the most AOY points that hasn’t automatically qualified. Joseph Gardner took the reins for ABT and ran the
knowledge goes a long way when the ABT comes to your hometown and it certainly helped Joseph Gardner secure his breakthrough ABT win by just 20g. Having got some good sessions in before the pre-fish ban, Gardner had a good feel for the area already when it came time to pre-fish. “I knew there were fish everywhere in the system, but I knew the upriver fish were going to feel the pressure a lot more, so I decided to stay down the front where it was less pressured and congested,” he explained. At just 3.85m long and
Perth’s newly acquired local Karl Stait knows how to catch them all over the country. His plan to target tarwhine paid off, along with the 115 ProXS on his right. It earned him the 1st place $250 Mercury owners bonus as well. fished by casting them into the current, parallel with the bridge pylons and letting them waft down underneath. If the lure made it to the bottom without getting eaten, he gave it ‘a few small rattles’ to imitate a loose mussel tumbling along the bottom. Most of the time the bream would eat it on the drop while it was sinking alongside the pylon and the action wasn’t required. Casting accuracy trumps distance around pylons
where it is essential to get the lure within a couple of inches of the structure every single cast. A shorter length rod around the 6’6” to 7’ length provides far better casting accuracy, so Gardner opted for a comfortable 6’8” 1-3kg JML Accurate presentation – short enough to be accurate but still long enough to get good leverage and keep fish away from the pylons. He paired this with a strong 2500 size Daiwa Exist spooled with heavy PE 1 Yamatoyo jigging braid and
Going home $1,500 richer for his efforts, Gardner’s eyes are now firmly set on the Blackwood River in June.
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tournament in the absence of Steve and Nicholle, getting some good karma for his efforts finishing in first place. In a weekend where tarwhine played a big part in the winning bags, He weighed 7kg neat for his final weight to finish just 20g ahead of second place Karl Stait, who exclusively weighed the bream sub-species. In the non-boaters we saw another first-time winner in Matt McCarthy punch his ticket to the Grand Final while the Atomic Big BREAM prize of $500 went to Kim McIntyre. LOCAL GURU GETS IT DONE A little bit of local
powered by a 25hp motor, having the smallest boat in the field certainly didn’t hold him back from having a go. In some ways, it became an advantage when he could sit back and watch the other boats ahead of him head to other spots and he could choose his accordingly. With others choosing popular spots at the front of the system Gardner settled with the causeway bridge at Herrison Island for the first half of each session. He and his non-boaters each day had a bag in no less than 15 minutes and had the rest of the day to upgrade, with the bite getting better as the tide changed and started to run in
BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 110 APRIL 2023
Angler Joseph Gardner Karl Stait Alex Griesdorf Paul Burton Jarrad Stevens Adrian Barbour James Graham Richard Raynham Greg Cooper Paul Furlong
Fish 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 9/10 9/10 8/10 8/10 8/10
later in the morning. Boat control and positioning around bridges is paramount and with the addition of a new Lowrance GHOST trolling motor to his boat – supplied by Tacklewest – Gardner was able to hold into the current behind the pylons all day with ease. “That’s probably been the best piece of technology I’ve put on my boat so far; it’s made fishing so much easier for me,” he said. Gardner makes his own mussel-style lures under the Blue Lip Baits banner, which he used almost exclusively for the whole event. He used the dark knight colour and Full results at abt.org.au
Weight(kg) 7.00 6.89 5.15 4.50 4.18 3.96 3.69 3.10 2.96 2.95
Joseph Gardner ran the event in the absence of Steve and Nicholle and he managed to pull through for the victory, weighing 7kg neat and punching his ticket to the Grand Final.
Payout $1500 $750 + $250 1st Mercury bonus $500 + $125 2nd Mercury bonus $75 3rd Mercury bonus No payout No payout No payout No payout No payout No payout
a 6lb leader, however he went as high as 8lb over the course of the event. Tarwhine featured in both the top two bags as the big schools were in good condition and relatively easy to catch, with Gardner himself bagging one on day one and three on day two to carry him to victory. As for the first guaranteed boater entry for the 2023 Grand Final that he
BREAM SERIES presented by earnt himself? Well, Gardner said he’ll be ‘making every possible effort’ to get to Port Stephens for the event and compete for top honours. SECOND FOR STAIT What he lacked in local knowledge, Perth’s newest local Karl Stait more than made up for in skill. Stait had a plan to target tarwhine from before he even pre-fished and executed his plan almost to perfection, falling an agonising 20g shy in the end. Since the recent addition of tarwhine to the list of weighable bream species, not often have we seen them actively targeted in hopes of outweighing black or yellowfin bream. In fact, Stait might be the first angler we have seen weigh a full limit of tarwhine each session and finish on the podium. He found the tarwhine could match the black bream for size, they schooled together in large numbers and they were far easier to catch than the black bream. Karl broke down his plan by saying, “I knew no one else was going to target them and from a few sessions before the pre-fish ban I knew there was definitely enough size there to win the comp. On pre-fish I could see them stacked on the pylons with my Lowrance Active Target and after I caught a 34cm-forker off them I had my plan for the weekend.” Being only new to the area, Karl brought a fresh set
Thanks to the team at Atomic, Kim McIntyre was handsomely rewarded with $500 and a Samurai rod for his 1.10kg black bream. day. “I remember looking at the time on day one and it was exactly 8:32am when I pulled up and I had my bag by 8:40am. I was absolutely stoked,” explained Stait. When he arrived, he had the last of the run-out tide, which was his preferred tide for bridge fishing, and this is the period where he caught all his fish. Once the tide turned and began to run in the bites slowed. The lure he caught his bag and most of his upgrades on each day was the new rattling model mussel vibe made in WA by Cal Blair at Outback Breamer Baits. He used a Millerods Twitch Freak paired with a 2500 Daiwa Luvias spooled with 14lb Gosen braid and
BIG BREAM PRIZE
Kim McIntyre claimed the $500 Big BREAM prize generously brought to you by Atomic, with a 1.10kg black bream caught off a jetty in east Perth on a 2.5” bloodworm grub. As well as $500, Kim also took home a Samurai rod. of eyes to the venue, which helped him think outside the box in this way. He made the long run through multiple 5 knot zones down to the front of the system where he had found the big schools of tarwhine hanging around the Fremantle and Canning Bridges. The risk of an hour and half run was immediately outweighed by the reward of an almost instant limit each
a few rod lengths of 10lb Yamatoyo Chinu Harris leader – he favours a long leader for this technique. When the bites slowed and he moved to the Canning Bridge to search for more fish he also used a River2Sea Baby vibe in black to put a few fish in the boat. Karl runs a number of Lowrance products on his boat and two essential pieces of his success were his ghost trolling motor and his Active Target transducer. The spotlock on the GHOST trolling motor kept him in perfect casting position while the active target allowed him to see precisely where the fish were sitting on the pylons and how they were reacting to his bait. A second place gives Karl the valuable AOY points he will need if he is qualify for his first ABT Grand Final. MCCARTHY’S MINOR MARGIN Another angler joining the winners circle for the first time this event was non-boater champion Matthew McCarthy, who somehow managed to win by an even smaller margin than the boaters with only 10g separating him and Ruan Van Der Berg. McCarthy fished with boaters Paul Burton (day 1) and Greg Cooper (day 2) and had the utmost praise for his boaters each day. Fishing from the back of the boat presents many challenges, of which one of the most difficult is the bad casting angles. As most non-boaters can attest,
fishing bridges from the back of the boat is extremely difficult, so it is a testament to McCarthy’s ability that he was able to still get it done. His day one bag of 1.730kg was the heaviest of his two bags and those fish came doing just that, slotting casts in where he could around the pylons.
With just 10g between himself and 2nd place, Matthew McCarthy cut it fine but got the job done for his first non-boater victory. The duo started at the Windan Bridge where McCarthy got his bag using a Squidgie Bio-Tough Wriggler in bloodworm colour rigged on a 1/22 size 2 Gamakatsu round 25R jighead, casting the lure hard against the pylons. “I like these jigheads because they have super sticky hooks and the round head gives the lure a better action,” he explained. He figured out that the smaller fish were feeding high in the water column on the face of the pylon and if you could get your lure
NON- BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Angler Matthew McCarthy Ruan Van Der Berg Hunter Grose Nick Cuccovia Blair Paisley-Kerr Nathan Walsh Michael Sammut Craig Doherty Steve Yarwood Christopher Allen
Fish 6/6 6/6 5/6 5/6 5/6 6/6 5/6 3/6 2/6 2/6
past these smaller models, the bigger fish were sitting directly underneath them picking off the scraps the little ones were dropping. His kicker fish of the day came on a Prolure Clone Prawn in tiger UV on a 1/28 TT hidden weight jighead. Being a bigger bait, he tied it on when he was looking for upgrades as the day went on. With Paul Burton on day two, the pair picked their way downstream from take-off and just slotted into banks where they could. An actionless morning until 10:30 was turned around when they picked up their fish in a 15-minute flurry on a flat in Belmont. “We were fishing a flat and I noticed the wind had come up which seemed to bring them on straight away” McCarthy said. He fished the same Squidgie Bio-Tough from day one but with a minor alteration, explaining that, “The Squidgies are quite a long bait and I actually found that when I
cut them in half, reducing the profile, I started to stick bites where before they were short striking it and missing the hook.” Around structure, McCarthy chose the rod Ian Miller designed specifically for extracting fish out of the nasty stuff – a 6’7” 2-5kg Millerods Brawler. Alternatively, on the flats he used the 7’3” 1-3kg Millerods GrubFreak paired with a 2020 DAIWA Luvias extra high gear in 2500 size, spooled with Toray Sea bass PE 0.6 braid and 5lb Yamatoyo Chinu Harris leader.
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Full results at abt.org.au
Weight(kg) 2.83 2.82 2.72 2.64 2.51 2.35 2.24 1.57 0.99 0.83
Payout Daiwa prize pack Daiwa prize pack Maui Jim prize pack Daiwa prize pack Prolure prize pack Samaki prize pack Atomic prize pack TT/Toadfish prize pack No payout No payout APRIL 2023 111
BREAM SERIES presented by
Vukic achieves Hollands Landing heroics At Gippsland Lakes in 2023, for the first app-based BREAM event of the year, ABT saw the largest field of boaters and non-boaters ever for the venue. It’s reputation for being the big bream Mecca of Australia continues to grow since the abolition of netting in 2019. ABT anglers each year since have been reaping the rewards as we continue to see significantly higher catch rates, bigger bag weights and fish being caught in a wider variety of locations than ever before. The Victorians once again proved hard to beat
for heaviest 5 fish bag with a staggering 6.442kg on day one, going on to place second in the boater’s division. Meanwhile in the non-boaters, Builder Mick Thompson chalked up his third ABT win from the back of the boat. Mick got one up for the Queensland cohort, leading the event on day one and going on to win under the guidance of Mario Vukic on day two. MARIO VUKIC – THE NAIL BOMBER Ask anyone that has made the epic 40km run down to Hollands Landing at the southernmost point of the Gippsland Lakes system and they’ll likely
2023 Gippsland Lakes Champion Boater Mario Vukic had a ball extracting quality fish like this from the snags. days together down there. One sure, but two is hard,” said Vukic. This year it was evident there were plenty of quality fish around the area, however quality bags don’t always mean quality fishing. Vukic explained; “Yes, we caught some
strait and he still managed to catch them. The way Vukic rigs his 2.5” motor oil grubs was born out of necessity, needing to keep the lure from getting hung up in thick timber. He uses
3/32oz Decoy Nail Bombs, a weedless worm hook jighead, with the hook point buried into the body of the bait to ensure it doesn’t get hung up. This set up, while extremely snag-resistant, comes at a cost however,
Scan the QR code to watch the Boater Winners Interview
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Here’s a familiar face – Victoria’s Cam Whittam lead the event after day one with a record setting bag. It’s hard to believe he finished second with a total weight of an astonishing 12.475kg. on their home turf at the Garmin sponsored round, with plenty of that usual sponsor karma going around as Mario Vukic and his fresh new Garmin 8416 and LiveScope got the job done at Hollands Landing. Fellow Victorian Cam Whittam broke the ABT record (previously 6.3kg)
tell you it can be rocks or diamonds when you get there. Not many know this better than Mario Vukic who has been fishing the area almost exclusively in tournaments for 10 years. “Hollands is the land of the giants, but it can be really hard to put two good
BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 112 APRIL 2023
Angler Mario Vukic Cam Whittam Daniel Kent Mitchell Blomquist Peter Breukel Liam Carruthers Alex Franchuk Brad Hodges Jarrod Healey Steven Pryke Jamie McKeown
Fish 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10
great fish, but the fishing wasn’t on fire, we would go hours without a bite each day, but you had to be ready at any moment.” Where most people choose to fish the flats and edges at the mouth of the McLennan Strait, Vukic pushes up the channel and targets the big, resident, snag dwelling bream. Asked what he looks for, Vukic said, “I look for current at Hollands and it all depends on what the wind is doing leading up to the event. A southwester and it drains the top lake making it run out of the strait, whereas an easterly fills it up causing it to run in.” While he prefers the runout tide, he actually found it to be running in all weekend while he fished the
Trifecta! Queensland’s Builder Mick Thompson racked up his third win from the back of the boat with a crankbait and soft plastic combo.
Full results at abt.org.au
Weight(kg) 12.582 12.475 12.149 11.080 10.962 10.543 10.255 10.172 9.999 9.713 9.505
Payout $3800 + $250 1st Merc bonus $1900 $1000 + $125 2nd Merc bonus $900 + $75 3rd Merc bonus $800 $700 + $500 X Braid Big Bream $700 $600 $600 $500 $500
with many missed bites and pulled hooks due to the unexposed hook point. “Whenever you think you get a bite, even if you aren’t sure, you have to strike as hard as you can. All day Mick and I were having jigheads flying out of the water at us when we thought we had a bite, but when it was a bite, you had to make sure that hook connected.” You can see the hook setting power
BREAM SERIES presented by needed for this technique by scanning the QR code hereby. Heavy-duty gear was the only option, so Vukic used a 7’ 2-4kg Daiwa TD Battler Beowulf that he described as being closer to a 3-6kg rod, paired up with a Daiwa Certate 2508 with a locked drag, 16lb Castaway braid and 8lb Sunline V-hard leader. On day two, his new Garmin setup proved invaluable to locating the snags that the fish were sitting on, as most of the fish-holding structure was submerged and it would have been missed by the naked eye. Speaking to Steve Morgan, Vukic spoke in awe of the fishery Gippsland Lakes has become. “Mate, can you believe that people are bringing in 12kg and not winning the comp? It’s honestly unbelievable”. WHITTAM SETS NEW ABT RECORD One of the finest bream anglers in Victoria and
the fish at his third spot around 8:30am – an edge at the mouth of the entrance to Paynesville – and his non-boater quickly landed a 39cm-forker, he went to work doing what he does best, flats fishing. “I’ve never been much of a structure fisherman; my strength is flats fishing and that’s where I’m most confident I can beat my competitors.” Just using his eyes and a quality pair of polarised sunglasses, he found he could see the fish cruising Scan the QR code to watch the NonBoater Winners Interview
around in 4ft of water on the broken patches of weed and sand. Cam picked a line in this depth and travelled about 200m up it before he crept in 50m closer to
BIG BREAM PRIZE
Liam Carruthers is a big unit, so if he can’t get his hands around a bream you know it’s a belter! His 1.801kg fish landed him the $500 X Braid Big Bream. Australia for that matter, Cam Whittam has been a force on Gippsland Lakes for as long as ABT has been running events there. It was only fitting for him to find his way onto the podium and to set a new ABT record in the process. Describing his day one heroics, Whittam said it was, “Just one of those days you dream about.” Once he finally found
the edge and made a pass on the inside of his first run, and finally doing a run 50m on the outside of his first line. This allowed him to rest his main run in 4ft while also picking off the odd fish in 1-2ft or 5-6ft. A Lucky Craft Bevy shad in ghost minnow was Whittam’s crankbait of choice as it didn’t bury itself into the weed like a lot of other fast diving crankbaits do. This was essential to his technique, which was to wind his bait along the bottom slowly for a few turns of the handle before a long pause, allowing the lure to suspend just off the bottom. He explained that some bites would come after the lure had been paused for as long as 15 seconds. He used a 2-4kg Duffrods ‘the Broken Bone’ matched with a Daiwa Luvias that was spooled with 16lb Sunline Siglon braid and a long 20ft leader of 4lb Sunline FC rock. “I run braid and long leaders for everything. The stretch and finesse of a long fluorocarbon leader but the sensitivity of braid creates what I call a ‘hybrid feel’. Not quite the feel of straight through fluoro, but not braid and short leader either, somewhere in between,” he clarified. Cam’s 6.442kg day one bag writes him into the record books and becomes the new bar for his fellow competitors to try and raise for years to come. Through ABT history we don’t believe anyone has ever weighed a 12.475kg bag and come second, which could be a tough pill to swallow but Cam finds it hard to complain when he has days like his day one. “Honestly coming second to Mario, I can live with that if I get to catch fish like I did on day one, it really was something special.” THIRD WIN FOR BUILDER MICK Chalking up his third win from the back of the boat, builder Mick Thompson set the tone early on day one with Michael Hunt with a solid 3.202kg bag, followed by a 3.240kg day two bag under the guidance of champion boater Mario Vukic.
Ten years of punishment at Hollands Landing is suddenly all worth it. Vukic scored an extra $250 thanks to his V8 Mercury ProXS which handled the near 100km round trip each day with ease. It can be hard to find consistency from the back of the boat, yet Mick rarely ventures far away from the top of the leader board wherever he goes around the country. While he is comfortable fishing flats, black bream present a different Scan the QR code to watch the Field Highlights
challenge in comparison to the aggressive yellowfin of Moreton Bay that he is used to. Their timidness means that when fishing a crankbait, you must fish as slow as you can wind, with Mick’s advice being, “If you think you’re winding slow, go slower!” Mick got his bream on day one cranking his crankbait into the mud, giving it a few slow winds and letting it pause before slowly cranking again. In this instance, a floating bait rises too quickly on the pause, so Mick went for a suspending Daiwa Infeet Spike 53 SP in matte
NON- BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Angler Mick Thompson Taka Kawasaki Richard Patterson Travis Ryan Darcy Clifton Matt Stanley Dallas Blatchford Simon Morley Scott Scicluna Grayson Fong
Fish 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 5/6 6/6 6/6 6/6 6/6
prawn colour – his favourite colour for this venue. Fishing flats with Michael Hunt, Mick used a very slow crankbaiting technique, cranking the lure down into the mud, giving it a few very slow winds and pausing it. The choice combo for the weekend was a Daiwa TD Black Limited Edition with a cork handle, paired with a Daiwa Luvias spooled with 8lb braid J-braid grand and 4lb fluorocarbon leader. In contrast, his second day was all about bombing, or rather ‘Nail-Bombing’, snags at Hollands in good, old-fashioned hand-to-fin combat in the structure with a 2.5” motor oil grub rigged on a decoy nail bomb. Mick used the same rod as day one, however with an 8lb leader and locked drag to give himself every chance to turn the fish away from the timber. He and Vukic chalked up an impressive number of big fish with Mick bagging two 38cm-forkers on the final day, which anchored another 3.2kg bag bringing his total to 6.443kg and putting him in a comfortable 280g ahead of second place.
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Full results at abt.org.au
Weight(kg) 6.443 6.163 5.146 5.135 5.111 5.103 5.096 5.011 4.686 4.615
Payout Daiwa prize pack Daiwa Baitjunkie prize pack Maui Jim prize pack Daiwa Baitjunkie prize pack Cranka prize pack Prolure prize pack Samaki prize pack Atomic prize pack EJ Todd prize pack Toadfish prize pack APRIL 2023 113
BASS SERIES presented by
Johnson claims maiden BASS Pro win at Blue Rock Victoria’s Blue Rock Dam has been a happy hunting ground for Queenslanders since ABT started visiting this Victorian empowerment in 2021. After a COVID cancellation in the first year, Matthew Langford won the first full event there and this year fellow Queenslander Mick Johnson took his first ABT BASS Pro qualifier title.
“I had two patterns going – early fish on topwater around the edges and fish later on in the submerged trees. On day one I got distracted after catching the limit on the edge, but day two I got back on track and stuck to the game plan. That’s when the bigger fish bit,” Mick said. The day two limit catapulted him into first place. Scan the QR code to watch the NonBoater Winners Interview
Scan the QR code to watch the Boater Winners Interview
Blue Rock is undoubtedly a beautiful lake. It is stocked with plenty of bass by Victorian Fisheries and offers most competitors a fairly easy limit. The challenge in blue Rock has always been finding fish over 30cm. Run on the ABT tournament series app, the event offers live scoreboards
Mick Johnson, one of the newest additions to the Rapala Pro Angler team, rose to the challenge at Lake Blue Rock and worked out how to get the lake’s bigger bass to bite.
“There are a lot more big fish in this lake than most people realise,” Johnson said. He targeted these fish on deeper, submerged trees – usually ones that were in around 70ft of water with their crowns around 20-25ft under the surface. “Garmin LiveScope makes these areas much
Targeting suspending fish in the treetops, like this one, saw Mitchell Cone take the day one lead. and the ability to record any size bass, since they are measured and released at the point of capture. Indeed, the live scoreboards are a hit with spectators who can keep an eye on how their favourite
competitors are faring during the tournament day. Lengths are converted to estimated weights via ABT’s length weight curve, therefore five fish limits are possible.
BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 114 APRIL 2023
Angler Mick Johnson Mitchell Cone Steve Muldoon Matthew Langford Collin Robinson Braden Schuch Corey Goldie Tom Deer Declan Betts Steve Duff
Fish 10/10 8/10 8/10 10/10 9/10 9/10 10/10 9/10 7/10 8/10
Johnson weighed an average, sub 2kg limit on day one but found bigger fish on the second day to rocket into the lead and win quite emphatically, over 1.5kg ahead of Mitchell Cone.
New South Wales’ Tim Jones secured his first win from the back of the boat topping up his Rapala Prize Pack with the $500 X-Braid Big Bass cash prize and the first place Rapala Non Boater Bonus.
Full results at abt.org.au
Weight(kg) 7.624 5.921 5.387 4.975 4.849 4.431 3.950 3.412 2.980 2.921
Payout $2,600 + $250 Merc bonus $1,250 $900 $600 + $125 Merc bonus + $75 Merc bonus
easier to fish than they used to be. You can see the trees and you can see that there are fish in them,” he continued. Johnson used a 7’, 1-2kg Rapala Maxwell rod and 4lb Sufix 131 braid paired with 4lb Sufix leader to present a 1/8oz jighead and cut down soft plastic single tail to the fish suspended in the treetops and sunk or rolled the bait back as slowly as possible. “There was a real strike zone where the lure left the
BASS SERIES presented by top of the tree. The fish would have to decide whether they would eat it or retreat back to the structure. That’s where most of the bites happened,” Mick continued. With the win qualifying him for the Grand Final at Lake Boondooma, we assume that Johnson will continue his good form throughout the season. CONE’S BASIN PATTERN SLOWS Mitchell Cone led the event after the first day, but his main-basin pattern slowed and he ended up missing a limit and finishing in second place. “I think it was a combination of the pressure and the stronger wind on day two. My fish really started to become shy and move away when the boat approached the trees.” Cone also used his Garmin LiveScope to find
NSW Central Coast won his first trophy from the back of the boat with the help of the event’s X-Braid Big Bass to anchor his day two limit. Fishing with Steve Muldoon on day one and Tony Thorley Scan the QR code to watch the Field Highlights
A successful Victorian double-header for Mick Johnson has given him a great start for his 2023 Angler of the Year campaign.
on day two, Jones used a variety of techniques to get the job done. Non-boaters have to be versatile in this respect and have to adapt to the areas the boater is fishing. His presentations included a HideUp 150 crankbait, a Rapala Jack Deep crank and a black Pro S jig with tiny assist hooks added for finicky fish.
BIG BASS PRIZE
This event is run on the ABT Tournament Series App, which means we can track fish sizes and numbers each year caught by the field. The good news is that it’s all on the increase! Millerods Finesse Freak and a Daiwa TD Black 2500 reel. “I should have headed up the river when I saw what was going on, but I got a decent fish early and decided to stick with what worked on the first day,” he concluded. JONES BAGS BIG BASS AND NB WIN Tim Jones from the
Tom also landed the X-Braid Big Bass, which rewarded him with $500 cash and an X-Braid prize pack. It ate a jig cast parallel to the bank, up the river in 3-5m of water. “This fish didn’t get hooked on the stingers – it engulfed the lure,” Tim said. Measuring 43cm to the fork and weighing 1.535kg, it demonstrated exactly what lives in the depths of Blue Rock. He threw the jig on a Millerods Switch freak loaded with 15lb braid and 10lb leader. fish suspending in treetops, although the ones he was targeting were shallower – around 15ft. Cone would see the fish near the structure up to 50ft in front of the boat and throw a cast to them, using a ‘pendulum’, retrieve to slow the sink rate past the fish. He used a 3” black Gulp Minnow Grub on a 1/4oz Bassman jighead, 6lb J-Braid and 8lb Daiwa fluorocarbon leader that was rigged on a
NON- BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Angler Tim Jones Mal Draper Kris Dillon Garry Wilton Heath Kimber Taj Duff Nick Brown Marcus Schembri Robert Tilley Jake Hardie
Fish 6/6 6/6 5/6 5/6 6/6 6/6 5/6 3/6 6/6 4/6
He fished the basin edges on day one and learned a lot off his boater. “Steve was awesome, teaching me the technique he was using and helping me to my limit,” Jones said. “I used the Rapala like a crankbait on day two and caught fish behind Tony Thorley.”
Full results at abt.org.au
Weight(kg) 3.164 2.429 1.747 1.593 1.523 1.206 1.187 1.115 1.090 0.884
Payout $625 + Rapala pack $125 + Bassman pack $75 + Keitech pack Ecogear pack Nomad Design pack Rapala pack Pro Lure pack HideUp/Noike pack Atomic pack TT pack APRIL 2023 115
BASS SERIES presented by
Langford pips Johnson for Glenmaggie title Reigning BASS Pro Angler of the Year, Queensland’s Matthew Langford, is never that far from the top of the leaderboard in a 13 Fishing BASS Pro Series event. He took his first win of 2023 at the Humminbird sponsored round of the season on Victoria’s Lake Glenmaggie, relegating good mate and winner of the previous event, Mick Johnson, into second place by less than 50g over two days of fishing. Here’s how he did it. “Glenmaggie finished way better this year than I did last year,” said Langford, “And it’s good to see the Victorian dams become great ABT arenas.” Matt’s technique was based on catching a limit of bass on crankbaits early on the edges and then moving
in the comps. I’d catch a small limit in close out early and then move out to look for bigger bass,” Matt explained. He used the twin Garmin LiveScope setup, with an LVS 34 transducer in Perspective mode on his Mick Johnson pole and a transducer in forward mode Scan the QR code to watch the Boater Winners Interview
on his trolling motor. “I would see either single or pairs of fish on Perspective mode and then head towards them with my electric,” said Matt, “I could tell immediately if the fish were interested or not. They were either
Matt focused on catching a limit of bass on crankbaits early on the edges and then moving out to the unpressured fish floating around the main basin each session. on the second day in the windy conditions, but good mate Mitchell Cone came to the rescue – swapping boats and giving Langford the chance for the win. Ultimately he ended
Scan the QR code to watch the NonBoater Winners Interview
Mick Johnson’s second place at Glenmaggie has done him no harm with his sights set on 2023 Angler of the Year. out to the unpressured fish floating around the main basin. “The edge fish are only available for a short time in the mornings and they’re pretty heavily pressured
spooked or they would spin on the bait and dance around it.” “Once they reacted positively there was a fair chance that they would bite.”
BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 116 APRIL 2023
Angler Matthew Langford Mick Johnson Dane Pryce Steve Duff Mitchell Cone John Noble Graham Ford Tom Deer Braden Schuch Keeghan Painter
Fish 10/10 10/10 5/10 8/10 5/10 8/10 9/10 9/10 7/10 3/10
These bass were sitting only 5ft down in 30ft or more of water, so they escaped the pressure of other competitors. Langford flattened his trolling motor batteries
Victoria’s Nick Brown opted to do something a little different to his boaters each day, targeting suspending fish and getting the kickers he needed for the win.
Full results at abt.org.au
Weight(kg) 6.172 6.126 4.911 4.767 4.053 3.846 3.080 2.982 2.672 2.070
Payout $2,600 $1,200 + $250 Merc bonus $900 $600 $500 + $125 Merc bonus
$75 Merc bonus
up less than 50g ahead of Johnson. He used a cut down single tail grub on a Millerods Control Freak Jig Freak custom rod loaded with braid and leader. It was rigged on a 1/4oz Bassman jighead. JOHNSON LEADS AOY WITH SECOND PLACING Although separated by only grams, second placed Mick Johnson and
BASS SERIES presented by Langford’s techniques couldn’t have been more different. The current BASS Pro Angler of the Year leader threw crankbaits from start to finish, targeting any sort of shallow structure that he could find in the lake, but mainly laydown logs. “My main bait was a Rapala Shadow Rap Jack Deep in Haymaker colour and I’d make sure it was always near structure or bumping across it,” he said. Johnson fished the Jack Deep on a 13 Fishing OMEN and a 2500 sized reel spooled with 8lb Sufix 131 braid and an 8lb Sufix leader. “I did keep an eye on the scoreboards throughout the day. When I went to help Matt when his batteries failed I asked him if he’d caught any good ones. He said that he hadn’t,” Mick continued.
made sure that I counted my bait either shallow or deeper than his. It’s important to fish different fish than your boater is fishing,” he said. Brown used a Noike Kaishin 7g chatterbait in Scan the QR code to watch the Field Highlights
Qld’s Matthew Langford pushed himself and his gear to the limit to take home his first win for the 2023 13Fishing Bass Pro Season.
white and brown with a stinger hook but no trailer plastic. He fished it on a Millerods Vibe Freak rod and a spinning reel spooled with Sufix 832 braid in 10lb with a 10lb leader. “I caught some of my limit fish on the edges on crankbaits, but those chatterbait fish were the kickers that I needed to win
BIG BASS PRIZE
Nick has done the miles, fishing ABT BASS Pro events up and down the East Coast. He takes home his first win as a Non Boater at Glenmaggie. Langford, the pair devised a strategy for catching Glenmaggie’s suspended bass. He got to fish this way in the trees with his first day boater, Graham Ford. “I kept an eye on what Graham was doing and
It only took a few casts for John Noble to bag the event’s X-Braid Big Bass. Measuring 44cm to the fork and converting to 1.653kg on the table, it was the same size as a fish caught by Mitchell Cone, although Noble won the $500 and Samaki pack by countback. It ate a Little Max 1/4ox blade with assist hooks that he cast to suspended fish around a tree sitting at about 30 feet. There goes believing anything a competitor says on the water ever again! BROWN WINS FROM BACK OF BOAT Victorian Nick Brown has definitely done the miles when it comes to travelling and fishing ABT events as a non-boater. He has now won his first non-baiter title in his home state after all of that effort. Spending the pre-fish with his good mate Matthew
NON- BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Angler Nick Brown Heath Kimber Tim Jones Jake Hardie Taj Duff Marcus Schembri Nelson Rouw Barry Reynolds Robert Tilley Kelvin Hatton
Fish 6/6 6/6 4/6 5/6 5/6 2/6 3/6 6/6 5/6 6/6
this event,” said Brown. Nick’s son, Nate, draws Nick and Matthew a map before each event, showing the best spots for that event. We bet he was stoked with the result of this event’s cartography.
Full results at abt.org.au
Weight(kg) 2.592 1.931 1.732 1.526 1.409 1.122 1.074 1.029 0.760 0.683
Payout $250 + Rapala pack $125 + Bassman pack $75 + Keitech pack Ecogear pack Rapala pack Nomad Design pack ProLure pack HideUp/Noike pack Atomic pack TT pack APRIL 2023 117
Stessco Albacore CC560 with Yamaha F130 4-stroke
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gauges you will need for a day on the water. And I was surprised by the sturdiness of the T-top. It’s braced at its connection point to the deck,attached to the console itself, and can some port an adult swinging from it at the front or rear. They keep the weight down by using a soft material instead of fibreglass
DE FOR E XT FMG
Steve Morgan s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au
As the video tests on our Fishing Monthly YouTube channel begin to age, we start to see plenty of comments about the difference in the price of boats pre-and post COVID. I suppose I can understand the remorse in not buying a boat a couple of years earlier if you are shopping for a decent sized rig now. But the fact is that none of us have a time machine. If you do, I’ve got a few lotto numbers to send back to myself in 2019. It’s also unavoidable that post COVID, there has been
PERFORMANCE
Main: It’s a sign of the times when an $80,000 full featured, plate centre console with a T-top is considered good value. It’s a nice looking rig on the water. Above: It’s an optical illusion. They boys aren’t sitting in the lap. The seat is wide enough for two people.
Yamaha’s F130 outboard pushes this rig along and it’s the maximum that this hull is rated to. significant supply shortages and inflation - notjust in the boating industry, but through all of our lives. So we are now at a point where I jump in a full featured 5.6 metre plate aluminium boat that costs around $80,000 and I think it’s not too bad a deal! It definitely seems that every year when I test Stessco boats they seem to have evolved to a higher level. There is no doubting that the Albacore centre console 560 is a pretty neat looking rig. 124 APRIL 2023
of 1.6 km/L. Couple this with a 110 L fuel tank and your economical maximum range is well north of 200km. The theory of Stessco’s console build is also interesting. There are a couple of large panels where you flush mount your electronics and gauges and can have those panels undone and down while you’re working
Sure, the colours match the F-series 130 Yamaha on the back, but it’s more than that. The finish is neat, everything is positioned correctly and they are starting to pay attention to the little details that make a difference when you own a boat like this. Here is an example. A raised front of casting deck gives you plenty of storage place underneath. The only place where water can get into this storage area is through the hatches. Most manufacturers
don’t care about this and your stuff gets wet. Always. This boat has lips welded around the opening of the hatches. There is channelling to direct the water from the deck through the channels and down onto the main deck. Your stuff stays dry! You needed to have bought a fibreglass boat to get that in the past. Add to this a handful of gas struts to keep those hatches open while you’re loading them and all of a sudden you have a practical, functional solution to an age old problem in alloy boats. Well done. The Albacore CC560 is eminently towable by any twin
cab four-wheel-drive or larger. It can quite easily take you and a couple of mates for a big day on the open water, or nearly as successfully load the family in for a weekend of camping. The padded gunnels and fold down rear lounge add an element of comfort, while the broad console seat eats up a lot of other gear. The console is definitely large enough to hold a couple of big sounders as well as all of the other
RPM ............ Speed (km/h) ... Economy (km/L) 1000 .......................................... 6 .................................. 2.9 2000 ......................................... 11 ................................... 2.1 3000 ........................................ 16 ................................... 1.3 3500 ........................................32 ................................2.44 4000 ........................................40 ................................2.37 4500 ........................................48 ................................2.36 5000 ........................................54 ................................... 1.7 6100.........................................69 ................................... 1.7 or aluminium. Often manufacturers go a little heavy up there and the weight tends to be a negative. Although the 130hp did feel a little underpowered, the economy from this rig is excellent. The most economical cruising speed is 3500rpm or 32 km/hour where you get 2.44 km/L of fuel burned. Open it up and you get 69km/hour at 6100 rpm, but only an economy
SPECIFICATIONS Length ............................ 5.74m Beam .............................. 2.29m Depth.................................1.21m Bottom..............................4mm Sides ..................................4mm Max HP.................................135 Transom ..............................25” Capacity...............5 persons Hull weight..................575kg
This is exactly how the SRH Plate hull and the extended, welded, reverse chines are supposed to work. They take the water and angle it back down and out from bow to stern.
on the back of them. Finish rigging, screw them in place and you should be all neat and ready to go. The transom has all of the inclusions of a larger centre console boat – live bait tank, bait rigging station and transom door. Granted that the test day was pretty calm, but the ride felt smooth and there were plenty of places to hold on while cornering or accelerating. Finally, the SRH (Soft Ride Hull) Plate features fully welded reverse chined all the way from transom to bow. Previously, these were only pressed and ran for around 2/3 of the hull. You can see them working in the YouTube review on the Fishing Monthly channel - scan the QR code in the opening pic. As tested, this package came in at around $85,000, although you can get in one for just under $80K. See your local Stessco dealer for more details and to quote your build or visit www.stessco.com.au.
Top: The centre storage box is open at the front. Often these areas are accessible only from the top. Above: Stessco keeps the weight down in the T-top by using UV Stable Marine Fabric rather than aluminium or fibreglass.
There is plenty of room to walk both port and starboard of the console. Note the full length, padded gunwale.
Top: There is a reasonable amount of room in the cockpit, which gets bigger when the rear lounge is folded down. Above: This is the first time I’ve seen Stessco’s new console design. You can flush mount electronics into the panels and remove them to work on them.
Standard inclusions in the transom include a transom door and live bait tank.
The front casting deck is quite high, so you can keep a mountain of gear underneath.
Top Left: I love the fact that there are lips mounted around the storage hatch openings. Water drains away from rather than into the hatches. Top Right: We don’t see that many carpeted anchor wells - it keeps the noise down. Also comes with an electric motor bracket as a standard inclusion. Bottom Left: The T-top stabilisers look a little clunky, but they do keep the framework solid. Bottom Right: The front hatches also have a gas struts to keep the lids open while you are working underneath them.
Top Left: Standard side pockets keep all of your regularly used gear handy. Top Right: It’s great to see fully welded, fold up steps. These are the only solution which lasts a long time. Bottom Left: I think it is no accident that the colour scheme on the boat matches the colour of the outboard. The companies do lots of work together. Bottom Right: There are duckboards on each side which allow you to climb up and over the transom. APRIL 2023 125