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Howard Hauls on Hawkesbury
#104 - 0--bream--Howard Hauls on Hawkesbury--2005-04-09 17:30:11
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Under clear skies and spring like conditions a record field of 80 boats headed off into the Hawkesbury mist on day one to begin the second running of the E-Tec Hawkesbury River BREAM Challenge.
In a growing field of talent anglers, one competitor rose to the top to claim victory, and announce to the breaming community that he was back in winning form and ready for season 2005. - Andrew Howard the 38year Carpenter from Taree, lived up to the "horses for courses" saying, matching his excellent racking fishing abilities to the expansive paddocks of oyster racks littered throughout the Hawkesbury River system.
Delivering a 10/10, 5.67kg "full house" limit, to the scales Howard showed a clean pair of heels, relegating the fast finishing Matthew Kelly to second place, and thoughts of what might have been.
For Howard it was a long over due win, evolving from a well calculated game plan established during the pre-event prefish.
Spending his tournament time in the Bar Island area, Howard focused his attention on the oyster leases scattered through out the region. Searching and bombing the fish holding structure with a combined attack of soft plastics and hard bodies lures.
Concentrating his presentations to the flooded racks, Howard would present his soft plastic offering, swimming it across the top of the racks and into the path of the waiting and feeding fish.
"The retrieve was fairly standard", Howard explained.
"I'd tweak the plastic at the start to get their attention, then follow it up with a slow rolling retrieve. After that it was just a matter of hooking the fish, then getting them out", he further added.
For Howard the technique proved a successful companion to his long established hard bodied approach to rack living bream, which for the event involved a slow continual rolling retrieve over the flooded racks. The tandem approach produced the results, with Howard compiling a 2.43kg bag on day one and an outstanding follow up limit of 3.24kg on the all important second and final day.
For Howard the result not only made him $3000 richer but also provided with a much sought after berth into the 2005 Triton BREAM Series Grand Final. A reward he'd truly welcome following his surprising absence from the 2004 Grand Final.
When it came to tackle Howard's choice of diversity in lure offering was dominated by two distinct brands, namely Berkley and Ecogear. With his soft plastic choices alternating between the 3" Bass Minnow (colour-smelt), 3" Power Hawg (colour-watermelon), and the increasingly popular 3" Gulp Minnow (colour- pumpkinseed). His choice of hard body by contrast involved one lure, an Ecogear SX40 (colour- golden perch).
The remainder of Howard's tackle was lead by his rod and reel outfit comprised of a Millerod Bream Buster, 6'9" and Shimano 1000 Stradic when fishing soft plastics, and a Millerod Bream Brawler, 6'7", and Shimano 2500 Sustain when opting for a hard body presentation.
Howard's line choice, like many involved Berkley Fireline in 4lb (soft plastic) and 6lb (hard body), with his choice of leader being 10lb (soft plastic) and 14lb (hard body) Yamatoyo Razor flurocarbon. The other distinguishable strength in Howard's terminal tackle was his choice of jighead, with his much lover 1/16 oz Bassmaster jigheads providing him with all the confidence and pulling power he needed.
Second place boater and event runner up Matthew Kelly, like Howard proved that the racks were definitely the place to be for the weekend. Opting for a hard bodied approach, Kelly also focused his attention on the oyster racks in the Bar Island area of the Hawkesbury. Here he would cast his lure perpendicular to the boat, and across the racks, before retrieving it back across the trays and hopefully into the waiting mouth of a hungry bream.
When interviewed post event Kelly explained his approach and the mood of the fish he encountered.
"The most successful technique I found was when I cast the lure across the racks, at 90 degrees to the boat. The retrieve was just then a standard slow rolling wind back to the boat, swimming the lure just above the rack", he explained.
"The fish in most cases would materialise and take the lure just as it passed the edge of the rack", he went onto to add.
Kelly's lure of destruction was an Oar Gee Lil Rippa (colour- pink with black back), made famous, and discover by Kelly, by 2003 BREAM Grand Final winner Matt Fraser.
The remainder of Kelly's bream busting tackle included a 781 G.Loomis rod, Shimano 2500 Stradic reel, 6lb Fireline in fluro green colour, and 20lb Berkley flurocarbon leader. One small tinkering Kelly made with his tackle was the addition of Gamakatsu trebles to his lure.
For Kelly his performance was a great follow up his Big Bream title from the 2004 event, and delivered him not only $1500 for his fantastic performance but also a start in the 2005 Grand Final.
The non-boater division saw Sydney local and ABT regular Bill Parasiris capture his first title win. Paired with Kris Hickson on day one and Andrew Howard on day two, Parasiris utilised his talented boaters' ability to located fish to compile a tournament winning, 9/10, 4.66kg tournament limit.
Fishing deep, white water influenced banks on day one with plastics, and oyster racks on day two, Parasiris showed his adaptability and proficiency with different techniques to easily relegate Nicholas Navarro to second place.
Parasiris' assortment of tackle included a Chop Stix, 6'6", 2-5kg rod, Shimano 2500 Stella reel, 4lb and 6lb Fireline, and 4lb, 6lb, and 12lb Nitlon leader. For Parasiris the event not only provided him with his first podium finish at an ABT event, but it also saw him catch his first bream from an oyster rack. His inexperience at the technique was short lived, and in quick time he was a few fish up on his boater and pro division winner Andrew Howard.
The Go-So Big Bream title changed hands many times throughout the weekend before finally being claimed by Brendon Hughes for his outstanding 1.37kg specimen. Wrestled from the oyster racks of Moonee Moonee Creek the fish fell to a 3" Berkley Bass Minnow and was quintessential example of the bream on offer in the Hawkesbury River System.
The next event on the BREAM calendar sees the tour move to Western Australia for the Mercury Albany BREAM Challenge, on 16th and 17th April. For more information visit www.bream.com.au or phone Simon Goldsmith (07) 3268 3992 (b/h), 0427 32 64 64 (b/h).
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