LAST weekend saw the third round of the Hobie Fishing Kayak Bream Series presented by Daiwa at Marlo in East Gippsland, Victoria.
This was also a qualifying round for the 4th Hobie Fishing World Championships which meant the pressure was on as 61 anglers took to the water, all vying for the first two prized spots to be claimed to represent Australia and fish the Worlds in Europe later this year.
Day one of the competition kicked off with the anglers launching from a new location at the Broadribb River boat ramp, opening up new opportunities in this great Victorian fishery. Overcast conditions with just enough wind to put a ripple on the water provided cover for the anglers who headed up to Lake Corringle. Good sized fish were found up and down the waterway with only six anglers failing to present fish at the weigh in.
Central coast Breamer Patrick McQuarrie secured the lead on day one with a healthy bag topping the scales at 3.73kgs for three fish which also contained the Hogs Breath Cafe Boss Hog, Big Bream, tipping the weigh-masters scales at a smashing 1.67kgs and netting him $100 from Hog’s Breath Cafe.
Jason Childs from NSW tied with David Shanahan from Victoria in second place with good bags of 2.87kgs each at the completion of day one. A margin of only 300 grams filled out the rest of the top ten.
A power blackout in Marlo at the end of day one and an ominous forecast for damaging storms with winds in excess of 40 knots may have affected the decision making of some of the round three anglers as they made plans for how they were going to fish Sunday. Large numbers of anglers headed to Lake Corringle early up with many filling their bags with smaller bream and then spending the rest of the day on the hunt for upgrades. Despite the doom and gloom forecast it turned out to be a beautiful day with winds remaining virtually non-existent until mid afternoon.
Jonathan Chen showed why he’s becoming one of Australia’s top bream kayak anglers. Day one he was using a small Pontoon 21 Greedy Guts which proved effective, however, moving up to a larger profile lure on day two resulted in him moving up from 5th to the top of the leader board with the day’s largest bag of 3.27 kgs and total combined weight of 5.81 kgs for the two day total.
Day one leader Patrick McQuarrie, started the day with a healthy lead thanks to his Hog’s Breath Cafe Boss Hog Big Bream winning monster from day one which gave him a 1.19kg edge on the rest of the field.
Confident that he’d cracked the pattern at Bemm River in round two of the series, Patrick had the black bream consistently hitting the plastics on the drop on day one.
After briefly switching to hard bodies on Sunday, he reverted back to plastics, a decision that paid off seeing him take the top spot with a combined weight of 6.02kg and netting him $1300 plus a sponsors prize pack containing a Lowrance Fishfinder and an assortment of tackle from Daiwa, Strike Pro, Atomic, Berkley, Austackle, Ecogear, Yamatoyo and TT lures.
Both anglers have become the first Australians to qualify for a place in the 4th Hobie Fishing World Championships to be held later this year in Europe in addition to securing a berth in the Hobie Bream Kayak Grand Final in November.
Event website www.hobiefishing.com.au
