BASS AUSTRALIAN OPEN SERIES presented by
BASS AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Morgan doubles up on epic run to take BASS Open Brisbane’s Steve Morgan won his last and only ABT BASS event 17 years ago. Over two days and over 320km of travel in his boat over two days from the Grafton start, he outdistanced the field to take out the Rapala BASS Australian Open in the Clarence River. Both days he targeted fish in the Esk River, a Clarence River tributary flowing north from Iluka. He followed up his day 1 (5/5, 5.593kg) with the second highest limit on day 2 (5/5, 4.925kg) to stay ahead of a fast-finishing AOY leader, Mick Johnson by a 1.2kg margin. For his efforts he pocketed $8,000 and a pair of 13 Fishing baitcast reels. Here’s how he did it.
about 80% of the river because I couldn’t catch a fish in it and also learned that it was possible to get in and out of there on a halftide. This meant that I knew I wasn’t going to get stuck. Probably wasn’t going to get stuck…” “I’d never actually made the full run from Grafton to the fish, but I calculated that I should have enough fuel capacity to do it. Still, I took a little spare just in case,” he continued. As it turned out, the spare wasn’t necessary as he burned 85L per day to make the 160km round trip – great economy for a V8 200hp Mercury on a 19’8” BassCat. “I’d built my latest BassCat with all of this in mind. The Pantera Classic
Braden Schuch won the BASS Pro Grand Final last year on the Clarence. The river was unkind to him, however, on day two. surface bite died down. After a couple of hours and with fishing time running out, I started rotating other baits.
First cast with the Rapala Shad Rap Elite 55 that I tied on straight out of the angler SWAG bag and a small EP
Mike Nelson is a 13 Fishing sponsored angler who won two BASS Pro events on the Clarence previously.
Dane Pryce managed a pay cheque with only 9/10 bass for the event. “I always wanted to go and fish the Esk River in an ABT event. It always seemed like such a challenge to make the run, catch the fish and get back safely each day. This is why I took a day before the practice ban kicked in to learn the water a little and to be confident that I could navigate the ultra shallow mouth,” Morgan explained. “On that day, I eliminated
is a hull that sacrifices rough water ability for shallower draft and with a full lithium battery setup and hydraulic jackplate, I navigate water down to around 30cm deep,” Morgan said. “On the first day I ran the sandbars on pad, but hit plenty of times, even with the jackplate and trim all of the way up, so day two, with a lower tide, I chose to crawl in
BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 108 JUNE 2023
Angler Steve Morgan Mick Johnson Mike Nelson Kris Hickson Joey Urquhart Corey Goldie Bill Latimer Dane Pryce Tom Slater Brian Everingham
Fish QLD QLD NSW NSW NSW VIC NSW NSW NSW NSW
at idle. It cost more time but I’m sure it saved my motor from any damage.” Once in, he headed to the fishy water and started throwing a 1/4oz beetle-spin and a Tiemco Bass Tune Cicada topwater. “On the practice day, the beetle spin was the only thing that they wanted to eat, so I committed it to it pretty heavily, especially after the
Sponsor karma is a thing. Morgan used the brand new Rapala Shad Rap Elite 55 that was gifted to all anglers in the SWAG bag at the briefing.
Full results at abt.org.au
Weight(kg) 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 9/10 8/10 10/10
Payout 10.518kg 9.314kg 8.557kg 8.341kg 8.164kg 7.443kg 7.324kg 7.009kg 6.999kg 6.895kg
$8,000 + 13 Fishing Reels (x2) $4,000 $2,500 $1,750 $1,500 $1,400 $1,250 $1,100 $1,000
jumped on. After that the fish started coming quickly,” he explained. Wanting to save some water for the Sunday, Morgan left an hour early with his 5.5kg limit and made it home without incident. “I was nervous about actually being able to get into the river at all on the Sunday – the tide was lower and later, so there was no way I was going to try it at speed. We idled in over