MegaBREAM Taree Results

[Steve Morgan]

Locals Cash in at Taree MegaBREAM Event

Popular local team Lamotte Craft/Waite’s Tackle pocketed $5,500 on their way to winning the inaugural MegaBREAM event, held at Taree on NSW’s Mid North Coast. Their cumulative bag of 19/20 live bream for 10.18kg illustrated a consistency that other teams lacked on what most described as a Manning river that fished very irregularly.
The MegaBREAM runs with a ‘skins’ format, where each day’s catch is treated as a separate event. This format favours exceptional daily catches rather than overall consistency, but Ross Lamotte and Chris Martin found that fishing consistently well indeed paid dividends.
The team concentrated their efforts in the Lansdowne River, avoiding the cooler run-off from the Barrington Tops that was running clear into the Manning proper.
“We’ve both spent a bit of time fishing the various BREAM events, so it was good to finally get a win under the belt,” 42 year old Lamotte remarked.
“I’m just stoked – it feels fantastic to be up on stage in front of all those people and to have your limit overtake the leader,” the identically-aged Martin agreed.
“We concentrated on the snags in the Lansdowne,” Lamotte explained, “Chris used a slow rolling retrieve while I used more hops and stops and starts. Both of us used Pumpkinseed coloured soft plastics – mainly Kalins 2” and Spring Grubs on 1/16oz jigheads.”
Aiding their finesse presentations was 4lb Fireline and light leaders.
“We caught 18 legal bream on that first day,” Ross continued, “so I got to upgrade three times. I’ve never had to upgrade in a tournament before, so that felt pretty good.”
Sunday skin winners, team ‘Grumpy Old Men’ from Queensland, illustrated what skins fishing is all about. After a dismal 1/10 catch on Saturday, they registered the only 10/10, 4.64kg bag on Sunday to bump the locals out of the skin’s top spot.
Their pattern, though, was decidedly chancy.
“We drove along wondering where to start for a while and finally stopped when Robbo had to answer a call of nature, so we started fishing there and started catching straight away. There was nothing really special about the country we fished in both the Lansdowne River or the Manning itself, but the pattern remained the same all day, “58 year old Peter Morgan explained.
Morgan and 43 year old Robinson ended up fishing secondary drop-offs that fell steeply from 8ft to 13ft, well away from typical bream structure. They shared the effective soft-baits – 2” Pumpkinseed Spring Grubs enhanced with Ecogear PowerCapsule scent. 4lb Fireline and 6lb leaders were par for the course.
“We fronted our own entry fees for this [$1000 per team] event, so it was really nice to cash in on that investment,” Robinson beamed while being interviewed.
And, for a while at least, all grumpiness – feigned or otherwise – was forgotten.
Unable to avoid the limelight, Chris ‘Slick’ Wright cashed in on the Big Bream, taking the $1,000, 1.24kg bream from the Pacific Highway’s bridge pylons in the main river on an avocado Squidgie.
When presenting the winner’s cheques, Taree Mayor Mick Tuck highlighted the value of the Manning to the local area. Events like MegaBREAM reinforce this worth.


Local Area Sponsors: Greater Taree Council, Taree Aquatic Club, Waite’s Tackle, Manning River Marine and the Dawson River Caravan Park.






SATURDAY WINNERS
1. Lamotte Craft/Waite’s Tackle 10/10 5.74kg $3,500
2. Forster Beach Caravan Park 10/10 5.00kg $2,000
3. Ecogear 10/10 4.88kg $1,000

SUNDAY WINNERS
1. Grumpy Old Men 10/10 4.64kg $3,500
2. Lamotte Craft/Waite’s Tackle 9/10 4.44kg $2,000
3. Graham Barclay Marine 8/10 4.00kg $1,000


CUMULATIVE RESULTS
Team Anglers Fish Weight Payout
Lamotte Craft/Waite's Tackle Ross Lamotte/Chris Martin 19/20 10.18 $5,500
Ecogear Lance Sulkowski/Jay Morgan 16/20 7.66 $1,000
Millerods Ian Miller/Chris Wright 14/20 7.52 $1,000
TT Lures Dan Stead/Craig Johnson 16/20 7.42
Motorama Springwood Marine Travis Davies/Trent Short 16/20 7.26
Graham Barclay Marine Max Frost/Andrew Howard 12/20 6.92 $1,000
Forster Beach Caravan Park Michael Metcalfe/Chris Metcalfe 14/20 6.78 $2,000
X16/Slider Mike Connolly/Kim Bain 12/20 6.14 MotorGuide
Grumpy Old Men Peter Morgan/Dave Robinson 11/20 5.22 $3,500
Bernie's Pet Barn/Breamin on DVD Paul O'Sullivan/Jesse Lomas 9/20 4.16
Starlo's Squidgies Steve Starling/Dave Seaman 9/20 4.10 Reef Jacket
Manning River Marine Kris Hickson/Martin Richardson 9/20 4.02
Angler Rods Craig Simmons/Steve Kanowski 7/20 3.28
Shimano1 Mark Dunphy/Josh Batterson 6/20 2.70
Shimano2 Mark Mikkelsen/Chad Rogers 5/20 1.94
Primal Prawnstars Jason Medcalf/Trent Butler 4/20 1.56 KeepAlive
Caloundra City Power Boats Tim Morgan/John Schofield 1/20 0.64
Marz Secret Weapon Tom Weiers/Dave Irvine 1/20 0.42

Big Bream – Chris Wright (Millerods), 1.24kg