Retired bass fanatic, 57 year old Col Wiley from Cudgen in NSW, inched out second place by 20 grams to take out the second round of the Yamaha BASS Electric series. Moved to an overflowing Clarrie Hall dam due to unfishably low water levels in the scheduled Toonumbar impoundment, competitors battled for a Wildcard entry into the 2003 Yamaha BASS Pro Grand Final.

Col's Bass

Col's Lures

CJ's Bass

CJ's Lures

In an event that will go down in the record books for its uniformally small bass, Wiley’s two bass, 1.28kg limit surpassed Craig Johnson’s 1.26kg haul while Ben Sandman (2/2, 1.16kg), Matt Fraser (2/2, 1.14kg) and Glen Casey/Mike Weger (2/2, 1.06kg) tied for fifth place. Indicative of the event’s closeness was the fact that Col and Craig also shared Big Bass honours, both with 660g fish anchoring their catches.

Wiley’s bag came from a combination of two patterns. First he fished the top with a Mar-ee Mimic cup faced popper.

“I like to fish these lures quite quietly,” Col commented, “after splashing them down, I shake the tip a few times to work it in the spot, then I’ll twitch it out of the strike zone. Most fish hit the lure in the first few feet of the retrieve.”

Col’s other secret weapon was an AusSpin Twin Spin spinnerbait, 3/8oz with gold Colorado blades and a chartreuse skirt. Col fished pockets in the semi-submerged terrestrial weed to upgrade his limit on this lure.

“A lot of the time the bass would hit this lure as I dropped it in the pockets between the weed clumps, so it was visual and exciting fishing,” Col added.

His outfit of choice was an ABU Morrum Braid Collection 6’6” spin rod teamed with a Daiwa Regal-Z 2000 reel spooled with 12lb Fireline and a 20lb Platypus Super100 leader.

“This was my first ABT event, and I’m looking forward to getting organised and maybe taking up that BASS Pro Grand Final Wildcard entry for October,” Col concluded.

Craig Johnson announced his return to competitive bassing with a well laid plan and a solid second placing. After compiling an easy limit by fishing small but plentiful schooled fish in 25 feet of water at the top of the dam on a chartreuse Atomic Paddle Tail rigged on a Nitro 1/8oz Bass Bullet jighead, CJ changed tack to target bigger fish and upgrade.

He did this with a Bassman 1/4oz four blade buzzbait rigged with a shortened skirt and clacker.

“The buzzbait helped me fish those snaggy pockets that you know the fish are in, but are difficult to fish with other types of lures,” Craig explained, “I saw the 660 gram bass boiling on baitfish in this snag and had four casts at it before it crunched the lure. After that it was a simple matter of using the locked drag to pole the fish out of the rough stuff and into [more] open water.”

“I wouldn’t have used a lure this big except for the fact that the guys fishing on the Saturday had good success on them – especially with bigger fish - so it was all or nothing,” he added.

Craig’s plastic tackle was an 6’6” Angler 781 1-2kg spin rod with a Daiwa Regal Z 1500 reel spooled with 4lb Fireline and a 20lb Vanish leader.

“The schooled fish really responded well to a finesse technique that Mark Lawson taught me last year,” CJ added, “I’d use tiny, one inch hops – four or five in a row – and then let the lure sit on the bottom for a few seconds. A lot of the time, the bass would take the lure off the bottom and run with it. More vigorous techniques weren’t working as well on the day.”

Many anglers were expecting winning limits in this event to be more than doubled by single fish weighed in at next weeend’s Somerset BASS Pro event and took advantage of the ban on practice fishing there this weekend to enjoy their day at Clarrie Hall.

Enquiries about all BASS events can be directed to Steve Booth on (07) 3268 3992 during office hours.

Series Sponsors: Yamaha, Stessl, Belco, Shimano, Suncorp, Motor Guide, Halco, Slider, Mako, Fishing Monthly Group.

Associate Sponsors: VMC, Berkley, Pacific Composites,