Healey Drops 5.24kg on Final Day for Hawkesbury win

Perennial BREAM event contender, Mark Healey, dropped a massive 5/5, 5.24kg limit on the scales on Day 2 to jump into first place and win $4,250 at the Daiwa round of the Daiwa BREAM Series on

Here’s how he did it.

“I really like how this arena fishes in summer –with topwater, crankbaits and other reaction baits coming into play – but in May I had to change my tactics and use a deeper soft plastic and crab presentation,” Mark explained.

And the Saturday didn’t start well for him. He did half an hour in Pittwater and then headed upriver. After several fruitless hours, he headed to his milk run of washes in the Hawkesbury River. The win qualified him instantly for the 2023 BREAM Grand Final, to be held at Port Stephens in November.

Healey earned $4,250 and instant qualification to the Daiwa BREAM Grand Final at Port Stephens later in the year where he will be in the running for a $50,000 Alloycraft/Mercury boat package.

Last time the BREAM rounds visited Port Stephens, Healey was also at the top of the Boater leaderboard at the end of the event.

The BREAM Grand Final just got a whole lot more competitive.

Healey assembled a 5/5, 3.56kg bay on Day 1, which provided the ideal platform to go big on the Sunday.

His total weight of 10/10, 8.79kg outdistanced last year’s champion, Michael Colotourous, by 165g.

4 braid and 6lb Ocea leader.

Broken Bay with a single fish in the livewell at 11am.

Catching two fish in two casts and identifying a patch of bream, he spot-locked the boat and didn’t move until he had his Day 1 limit onboard.

“I used a variety of plastics rigged on a 1.5g jighead and fished it right in close to the wash,” he said.

“I have six or eight of these outfits and I use them for everything,” he continued. “They’re light in the hand and I can throw any lure on them.”

Healey experienced a change on the Sunday, although he couldn’t put his finger on the cause.

“It was just what the bream wanted on a day when I didn’t really have any big bites.”

He fished all his presentations on a Shimano TwinPower 1000 or 2500 reel on Zodias L or UL rod spooled with 6lb Kairiki

“It may have been the sou’wester change, but the fish were bigger and hungrier on the Sunday in the same places I caught them on the Saturday,” Mark said. “I would have thrown back an entire limit of 32cm fork length fish, which was crazy.”

Mark bagged an early limit on the Sunday in overcast conditions on the UV coloured Cranka Crab, but then switched to the spotted colour to catch bream later in the sunnier conditions.

At the end of the 20-fish session, his limit topped the magical 5kg mark and surpassed a steady Michael Colotouros by 165g.

GAVE 150%

Michael Colotouros always quantifies his effort in percentages, and he definitely gave 150% to try to retain his Hawkesbury title. And he nearly did it. He was only stopped by Mark Healey’s mega-bag on Day 2.

Day 1: 5/5, 4.395kg

Day 2: 5/5 4.230kg

Total: 10/10, 8.625kg

Shell and Bones 1-5kg rods matched with a Daiwa Certate 3000 HiGear reel spooled with 12lb PowerPro braid and 8lb Yamatoyo Chinu Harris leader.

Taka proved that a bigger bag on Day 2 than Day 1 will rocket you up the Non-Boater standings.

Mick said that he came into this event totally prepared after not fishing the BREAM Australian Open in the preceding days. He may be onto something there – Healey also missed out on the banner event in the Harbour just down the road.

As such, he spent a couple of hours each night rigging his tackle for just two techniques.

After every cast, he’d have to check the leader for oyster-nicks and also test the knot strength.

“Not being vigilant cost me a couple of fish each day, but that’s the cost of fishing in this heavy structure,” he said. His second tactic, which he used later in the session when the tide receded, involved pitching plastics to oyster racks. In particular, a bloodworm coloured Squidgy Wriggler rigged on a 1/16oz #1H jighead and attached to 10lb Chinu Harris leader and his 12lb braid on the same reel. He’d deliver it on an older 13 Fishing 6’10”

Omen rod that he’d lock the drag on.

“I fished as a non-boater with Ian Miller years ago and he taught me this technique,” Colotouros explained. “It completely changed my fishing in the Hawkesbury.”

His consistent bags would have been enough for back-to-back titles if it wasn’t for Healy’s heroics.

On both days he got to fish rocky and kelp-filled washes with the Daiwa Spike 44 in the EXDR configuration in sunnygill colour. He fished it on the base model Infeet 702LRS rod and Infeet X reel spooled with Daiwa J Braid and terminated with J-Thread X Link 8lb leader.

Crawling the lure through the nasty country, Taka

KAWASAKI CHANNELS

SPONSOR KARMA

Sydney’s Taka Kawasaki is a product developer at Daiwa Australia. He used one of the lures that he designed to take his first ABT trophy from the back of the boat.

Day 1: 3/3, 1.77kg

Day 2: 3/3, 2.310kg

Total: 6/6, 4.080kg

Fishing with two Queensland boaters, Taka reckoned that the bigger bib helped with snag resistance. He should know!

Often the non-boater life involves having to adapt to different fishing styles every day, but Taka was blessed with being able to fish his favourite technique both days. His best advice to aspiring non-boaters?

“Make sure that you ask questions and learn every time you go out on the water. Everyone in the bream community seems happy to help. Absorb as much as you can.”

BIG BREAM

Adam Viksne announced his presence at the event in style. He weighed three fish for 4.095kg over the two days, including the second biggest bream ever weighed at an ABT event. This fish went 1.95kg and secured the Atomic Big Bream with style.

The first he employed on the high tide, targeting drowned oyster ledges in the river’s clear, lower reaches. He’d pitch a heavy Cranka Crab up into the oystercovered rocks and slowly drag it across them until the bream – which spook as the lure splashes down – come back and investigate the crawling crustacean.

He did this on six, identically-rigged Duffrods got to fish the techniques he loves and beat his friend and successful ABT non-boater Grayson Fong into second place by around half a kilogram.

Taka came off a less than spectacular BREAM Australian Open with a strong finish at the Hawkesbury, proving that you never know when it’s going to be your day.

Adam Viksne announced his presence at the event in style. He weighed three fish for 4.095kg over the two days, including the second biggest bream ever weighed at an ABT event. This fish went 1.95kg and secured the Atomic Big Bream.

It was only 40g short of Chris Wright’s 1.99kg fish from Forster, and it ate a black Mussel lure from Outback Breamer Baits.

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