The 19th & 20th of August saw the mighty Mallacoota Inlet play host to the second round of the 2006 Humminbird Vic Bream Classic Series. The East Gippsland Shire Council Mallacoota Inlet Bream Classic had 45 teams of 2 anglers champing at the bit to compete on an estuary made famous in recent times thanks to the soft plastics craze. The word around the pub after Friday's pre fish was that the fishing was going to be tough with fish schooled up and not willing to bite, but the ones that did were well worth the effort with kilo plus fish a common occurrence.
Day One
Anglers awoke on Saturday to a glorious sunrise and not a breath of wind which made for an impressive start with boats going flat out to race to the Gypsy Point area to get the first crack at the schooling fish. Cruising down the estuary early into the first day one could be mistaken for thinking there wasn't a boat on the water until we reached Cape Horn where we were confronted with half the field fishing in close proximity due to the schooling bream. Not all teams in the area were successful, but for Saturday's Berkley Round One winners Team Humminbird's Steve Steer and Wayne Friebe they had the right combination which managed to help them weigh in an impressive bag of 5 fish for 5.18kg. 'There were many boats around us not catching fish but by using the extremely light Berkley 1lb & 4lb Crystal Fireline and 3 to 4 metres of 2 to 3lb Yamatoyo Flurocarbon leader combined with Berkley Gulp 3inch Fry in Green Pumpkin rigged on a TT 1/20th 1/0 hidden weight jig heads, allowed us to tempt the 5kg bag of bream' Wayne said.
Hot on their heals and ready to strike on Sunday were Portland Bait and Tackle's Nathan McKernan and Stuart McKinnon who also weighed in an impressive 5 fish for 4.38kg on the Saturday. Having only fished the system a handful of times not unlike Team Humminbird, it was evident that local knowledge would not be the difference between success or failure this weekend rather technique and tackle would prove the difference between the teams. Among some of the standout captures on the Saturdays Round 1 were Team Westside's Spiro Spyropolous who set a hard act to follow for the Spotters Big Bream Prize weighing in an awesome bream of 1.6kg which he landed in the last 5 minutes of the session on the ever reliable Eco-Gear SX40 hard body lure in colour 304. Also setting the benchmark for the $500 Mercury Big Perch Prize was Phil Smallman who managed to land the only perch of the day which weighed in at a beefy 1.14kg.
Day Two
As the 45 boats circled awaiting the start of Sunday's Round 2 it was evident that there was tension in the air as the likes of Bushy & Capitan Kev, Chris Wright & Ian Miller, Adam Royter and Jarrod Healey to name just a few were still in the top ten and ready to pounce on the leaders.
While the majority of the field were still trying to crack the right pattern Team Humminbird's Steve Steer and Wayne Friebe were powering away, putting together a commanding lead. 'We can't emphasie enough how much the Humminbird 987c side imaging sounder helped us catch our bag. The sounders high tech imaging capabilities allowed us to sound 30 metres out along each side of the boat, in great detail locating schools of fish without having to drift over them and therefore not spooking them. Once located we could then turn to Humminbird's awesome entry level 141 colour sounder mounted on the bow of the boat to pin point where to put our presentations' Wayne said. Combined with the Berkley and Yamatoyo ultra light lines which were near on invisible to the bream, their weapons of choice included GLoomis DSR820s GLX, IMX and GL2 rods matched with Shimano 2500 Stella, 2500 Twim Power, Sustain 1000 and Stradic 1000 reels. Wayne said that the softer rods and extremely smooth drags on the reels allowed them to absorb the strain that the kilo plus bream were putting on the ultra light line and subsequently they didn't loose a fish. The Boys went onto weigh in an impressive Day 2 bag of 5 fish for 5.54kg and therefore run away with the victory with a 2 day perfect 10 bag of bream weighing 10.72kg. This netted them $1400 cash, 2 T-Curve Rods and 2500 Shimano Stradic reels thanks to Ray Long's Tackle World Geelong along with a swag of other tackle. Their names were also immortalised for ever on the magnificently presented Mallacoota Motel Hotel Perpetual Trophy.
Not far behind and setting the scene for a huge rematch or should I say grudge match at the Glenelg River Round in October was Team Portland Bait and Tackle's Nathan McKernan and Stuart McKinnon who weighed in another impressive Day 2 bag of 5 Bream at 4.78kg giving them a perfect 10/10 bream for 9.16kg to take out the second place prize of $700 cash, 2 Nitro rods and Shimano Nexave reels along with a bag full of product. Stewie and Nath used the new Berkley 1lb Crystal Fire Line and 3lb Yamatoyo fluorocarbon leaders on some rods and other rods were rigged with the 3lb Yamatoyo Flurocarbon straight through. This was matched to Mick Rantall Custom Rods, Wilson Live Fibre Rods and Penn Infinity Reels. 'Our strategy involved fishing the Cape Horn area to schooling fish and using a combination of modified 80mm Squidgy Wrigglers in the Red Rum Colour, Berkley Gulp 2inch Shrimp in Nuclear Chicken colour on 1/16 Pig Jigs jigheads. The teams around us were giving us the weirdest looks as we worked the lures with a series of vigorous shakes and huge whips of the rod tip to aggravate the bream into to biting' Stewie said.
The big story on Day 2 however was the Sunday Berkley Round 2 winners of Aaron Dyer and Dale Pattison from Team Mitchell Fishing & Outdoors who raced from 24th position after only weighing in 1 bream for 0.74kg on Saturday to finish an impressive 3rd place after weighing in the biggest bag of the tournament, a huge 5 bream for 6.06kg.
Just as the crowd thought the days excitement was all over up walked Bradley Lestrange from Team Dead Ducks with what seemed to be a big bag of bream, but as he pulled the solitary fish out of the bag it was revealed, a monster perch of 2.06kg caught on an Eco-Gear SX40 hard body lure that smashed the previous Big Perch mark and handed Brad the $500 Mercury Big Perch Prize. Spiro's 1.6kg bream weighed in on the Saturday couldn't be topped on the Sunday and therefore Team Westside picked up the Spotter's Big Bream Prize to add to their top ten finish.
Mallacoota Turns On a 10kg Winning Bag
Mallacoota 2006 Report
Posted: July 23 2007 10:00pm
©2008 Vic Bream Classics
Comp
Pos
|
Team
Name
|
Angler's
Name
|
Rnd1
Fish
|
Rnd 1
Weight
|
Rnd2
Fish
|
Rnd 2
Weight
|
Total
Fish
|
Total
Weight
|
1
|
Team Humminbird
|
Steve Steer
Wayne Friebe
|
5
|
5.18
|
5
|
5.54
|
10
|
10.72
|
2
|
Portland Bait and Tackle
|
Nathan McKernan
Stuart McKinnon
|
5
|
4.38
|
5
|
4.78
|
10
|
9.16
|
3
|
Mitchell Fishing & Outdoor
|
Aaron Dyer
Dale Pattison
|
1
|
0.74
|
5
|
6.06
|
6
|
6.8
|
4
|
Breamlardens
|
Mat Hedger
Mat Wright
|
1
|
1.36
|
5
|
4.68
|
6
|
6.04
|
5
|
Team Tica
|
Stephen Duff
Rick Massie
|
4
|
1.86
|
5
|
4.06
|
9
|
5.92
|
6
|
Hank Hunters
|
Lucas Smith
Dwayne Nielsen
|
5
|
3.22
|
5
|
2.42
|
10
|
5.64
|
7
|
Team Gulp!
|
Adam Royter
Jarrod Healey
|
5
|
2.76
|
3
|
2.84
|
8
|
5.6
|
8
|
Team Bream Rustlers
|
David Kellalea
Alan Grey
|
1
|
0.68
|
5
|
4.8
|
6
|
5.48
|
9
|
Team West Side
|
Drew McGrath
Spiro Spyropolous
|
4
|
3.76
|
2
|
1.16
|
6
|
4.92
|
10
|
Millerods
|
Chris Wright
Ian Miller
|
5
|
3.1
|
2
|
1.78
|
7
|
4.88
|
11
|
The Pier Huggers
|
Ben Scullin
Karina Pierotti
|
1
|
1
|
5
|
3.5
|
6
|
4.5
|
12
|
Bream Addiction
|
Robert Harvey
Andrew Smith
|
3
|
2.56
|
3
|
1.56
|
6
|
4.12
|
13
|
Waterview Homes
|
Mathew Flukes
Matthew Bowman
|
2
|
2.3
|
3
|
1.82
|
5
|
4.12
|
14
|
JV Marine
|
Thuan Huynh
Tan Trieu
|
1
|
0.88
|
3
|
2.36
|
4
|
3.24
|
15
|
Grumpy Old Men
|
Kaj Busch
Kevin Gleed
|
4
|
2.8
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
2.8
|
16
|
River 2 Sea
|
John - Paul Cronin
Miriam Melis
|
4
|
2.72
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
2.72
|
17
|
Dead Ducks
|
Daryl Baird
Bradley Lestrange
|
3
|
1.76
|
1
|
0.92
|
4
|
2.68
|
18
|
Boat Owners Australia
|
Stuart Buckingham
Steven Joy
|
2
|
1.16
|
2
|
0.84
|
4
|
2
|
19
|
Dwyer's Toyota
|
Daniel Rickhuss
Jason Smith
|
2
|
1.78
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
1.78
|
20
|
S.E.M.A.S
|
Doug Phayer
Ben Phayer
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1.28
|
1
|
1.28
|
21
|
Game Plan
|
"Byron Blain
Jordan Trusty"
|
1
|
1.22
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1.22
|
22
|
Team Oakdale
|
"Martin Fellows
Tran Thai"
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
1.04
|
1
|
1.04
|
23
|
Team Montrose
|
"Steve Wheeler
Gary Lockyer"
|
1
|
0.98
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0.98
|
24
|
The Rank Outsiders
|
"David Morris
Jack Morris"
|
1
|
0.92
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0.92
|
25
|
Team SSBB
|
"Sing Ling
Phil Smallman"
|
1
|
0.84
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0.84
|
26
|
Mad One's
|
"Mark Cribbes
Dean Gamble"
|
1
|
0.74
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0.74
|
27
|
Fish Tales
|
"Andrew Mostert
Vicki Ferrari"
|
1
|
0.74
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0.74
|
28
|
A.C.F
|
"Roger Thornton
Anthony Scullino
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0.72
|
1
|
0.72
|
29
|
UK-LYPTUS
|
"Ralph Norman
Clyde Hulme"
|
1
|
0.66
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0.66
|
30
|
Timmo & Fuzz
|
"Tim Atkins
Steve Ferlazzo"
|
1
|
0.64
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0.64
|
31
|
Cabo's
|
Mark McWhinney
Guy Smith"
|
1
|
0.6
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0.6
|
32
|
Team Berkley
|
"Shane Dyason
Phill Jones"
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0.48
|
1
|
0.48
|
33
|
Rock Ape's
|
"Josh Van Heek
Paul Sheean"
|
1
|
0.44
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0.44
|
34
|
Team Mack Attack
|
"Barry Thomas
Graeme Taylor
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
35
|
Bluey's Hunting & Fishing
|
"Mick Pressnell
Paul Taylor"
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
36
|
Missing Links
|
"Andrew Wallace
Darren Spurling"
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
37
|
Team Anaconda
|
"Mat Virgato
Rob Verzin"
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
38
|
Team Castin
|
"Mick Horne
Tom Horne"
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
39
|
Team Alpine Country
|
"Bruce Robinson
Brett Geddes"
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
40
|
First Time
|
"Bill Boyton
Andrew Dorman"
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
41
|
Southern Star
|
"Cameron Whittam
Matt Campbell"
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
42
|
Derelicts
|
"Rod Beveridge
Cathryn James"
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
43
|
Team Coota
|
"Jason York
Will Reinelt"
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
44
|
V Squared
|
"Victor Matousi
Vince Defazio"
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
45
|
Squid Lips
|
"Adrian Calafiore
Bryden Wilson"
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
