Over the September 13-14 weekend, St Georges Basin was the venue for round 13 of the Hobie Kayak Bream Series from which two anglers qualified for places in the 2014 Hobie Kayak Bream Series Grand Final presented by Daiwa. The top two finishers also won places in the Hobie Fishing World Championships held in Amsterdam in October.

On the morning of day one the competitors pedalled off from the Power-Pole starting line in overcast conditions, which began to clear later in the day. Anglers were chasing bream with a bag limit of three fish to be brought back to the Berkley Bump Tub. As the day one session came to a close on the calm waters of The Basin, the impressive field of 48 anglers began to accumulate and throw their final casts around the Atomic Launch site at Palm Beach.

Fishing throughout the day was fairly tough. Around half the field still bagged their three legal bream but upgrades were scarce in most locations across the tournament arena. For most competitors the fish were on the bite early but became more timid as the light began to break through the clouds and conditions became calmer.

At the end of the weigh-in, James Kilpatrick from Belmont in NSW was leading the field with a 2.92kg bag, comfortably ahead of the 2.24kg bag of Brett Crowe from Vincentia in NSW and Kane Terry from NSW whose 2.22kg bag placed him in third with a day to go in the tournament. Jason Lambert from NSW was leading the Hog’s Breath Cafe Boss Hog Big Bream with the biggest fish of day one, weighing 1.61kg.

Anglers were faced with vastly different conditions on day two, with clear blue skies and temperatures ranging up to 22ºC. An unpredictable, cold wind picked up from an almost calm breeze at the starting line to a fluctuating 20km/h breeze blowing from different directions around the arena throughout the day.

After two long days on the water and with all anglers safely back at the tournament location, bags were placed on the scales for the final weigh-in. After waiting for confirmation from the tournament director, Kevin Varty from Nowra in NSW snared the major prize for the event. As well as a hefty cheque and an excellent sponsor prize pack, his two day aggregate bag weight of 4.03kg won him a place in the Hobie Kayak Bream Series Grand Final in WA and a position on the Aussie team to compete in the Hobie Fishing World Championship [see separate report in this issue]. Second place went to Brett Crowe, who also won a Grand Final and World Championship spot, and Jason Meech from the Central Coast in NSW took the third place cheque and sponsor prize pack.

Kevin Varty has been tournament fishing for the past three years and competes solely in kayak fishing events. The round 13 tournament victory was his second tournament win. After his day one standing of sixth place and almost 1kg behind the leader, his plan of attack for day two was simply more of the same. Varty felt that there was no need to change what had worked for him on day one, and the plan of sticking with a consistent approach brought him home with a win on one of his local waterways.

“Today I just decided to follow the same plan I had on day one because I did pretty well yesterday,” he explained. “I was always going to stick to about 15ft of water and throw Z-Man GrubZ which was just the right combination for me on the first day.

“It was all pretty basic stuff but it worked when there was no wind and grey sky yesterday, and when there was a lot of wind and sun today. I just kept throwing GrubZ for most of both days and that’s all it took. I did get two good upgrades today though, while I was using an Ecogear blade.”

Brett Crowe, competing in only his second Hobie Kayak Bream Series tournament, netted a full bag of bream on day one but only brought home two fish on the second day of competition giving him an accumulated weight of 3.95kg. This was short of the tournament winner by a mere 35g, and gave him an advantage in weight of 170g over third place finisher Jason Meech.

Crowe, who sat in second position as he set off on the final day, peppered the same couple of hundred metres from 7:30am. He cycled through a number of soft plastics, and at 11:25am he thought his chances of stepping on the podium were slipping away. Then he pulled out the old school Squidgy Lobby in dusk. It barely hit the bottom and… bang! A 1kg+ bream.

“On day one conditions were reasonably good and I had two fish by 8am,” Crowe said. “I found them on plastics in 12ft of water. To get the third fish I had to go searching and use my knowledge of The Basin and target areas I knew other people hadn’t been to. I got my third fish by 10:30 and quickly upgraded to just under a 1kg bream about 10 minutes later. That put me in second place at the end of the first day.

“On day two I found the wind to be a hindrance. Some people like it, but I don’t. I had my first fish which went 1.18kg at 11:30am and I caught that on a dusk coloured Squidgy Lobby. At 12:30pm I got my second fish, also on a dusk Lobby. Try as I might, I wasn’t able to get any more, but that big fish was enough to get me across the line and keep me in second place.

“Now I’m really looking forward to the opportunity and the challenge of fishing foreign waters in the Hobie Fishing World Championships in Amsterdam.”

Sydney angler and tournament 19th placegetter Jason Lambert bagged the tournament’s biggest fish. His 45cm bream, caught on day one, weighed in at 1.61kg. Jason happily took home the Hog’s Breath Cafe Boss Hog Big Bream cheque after beating other challengers who also weighed in excellent sized fish.

Lambert netted his winning bream at high tide, on a now very rare Pontoon 21 Crackjack 38 Shallow while very slow rolling along weedy flats around the western end in The Basin. On the strike he thought he’d hooked a big flathead as his winning bream smashed the Crackjack, which now has bite marks from the aggressive fish.

The next event will be the Grand Final in Mandurah, Western Australia, held over November 22-23.

Thanks go to Chris Purnell and the team from Totally Immersed Watersports in Nowra for providing dealer support as well as a BBQ and drinks at the tournament. Like all the events in the series, this round could not have gone ahead without the great support of Daiwa, Berkley, Atomic. Lowrance, Rhino-Rack, Strike Pro, Austackle, TT Lures, Yamatoyo, Ecogear, Power-Pole and Hog’s Breath Cafe. - HKBS