Team Austackle Shines At Abt Bribie Island Qualifier

Orca68 · #1 13-08-2012, 02:25 PM

TEAM AUSTACKLE SHINES AT ABT BRIBIE ISLAND QUALIFIER
In the 8^th and final ABT Bream qualifier for 2012, Team Austackle entered members coming from West Australia, Victoria and NSW as well as a strong Queensland contingent. Very strong blusterly south to south west winds on Friday pre-fish day and again on Saturday and Sunday meant that Moreton Bay was closed to all anglers for safety reasons and fishing was restricted to Pumicestone Passage which is notoriously hard to fishat the best of times. It is extremely shallow in places - even in the main channels - and many boats found themselves high and dry on sandbanks throughout the weekend for varying periods of time.

In the Non-Boaters section, Team Austackle absolutely cleaned up with Troy Hamiltion ( Victoria) and Bryce Beechey (NSW) finishing 1^st and 3^rd respectively. Both Troy and Bryce have now qualified for the Grand Final which coincidentally is also being held this year at Bribie Island. The standout lures for both of them were the Sakanas and Shinkus. These 2 lures accounted for around 50% of their fish with a varity of soft plastics catching the rest.

In the Boater division, Austackle angler Don Johnston( W.A.) - after getting a dreaded doughnut on Saturday - caught a great bag of 5 fish on Sunday to finish up in 11^th place. Austackles Heath Blaikie (NSW) caught 2 fish each day to finish up in 22^nd place. Don predominatly fished with our new 70mm Panikku Jerk Bait on the flats to get his bag of 5 after spending Saturday in the canals for no reward.

To put these results in perspective, some of the biggest names in Bream fishing finished well below the Austackle pair with last round Lake Macquarie winner Graham Franklin finishing 30^th, just behind Kris Hickson who finished 29^th. Steve Morgan finished 34^th and brother Tim ‘ The Bream’ Morgan finished 39^th. Greg and Chris Seeto finished 40^th and 41^st respectively and Shaun Chapman and Anthony Wishey finished 42^nd and 43^rd respectively.

On behalf of the whole Austackle team, congratulations to Troy, Bryce, Heath and Don on these great results and we wish you all the best in the Grand Final in November.

TROY HAMILTON IS SHOWN BELOW WITH 2 OF HIS WINNING BAG OF 5 FISH

Nugget · #2 13-08-2012, 04:41 PM

Well done mate, good effort on your team members.

BloodWorm · #3 13-08-2012, 05:30 PM

Well done guys. Some good results in very tough conditions.

All the best to the guys that qualified for the GF

Breamobsession · #4 13-08-2012, 05:40 PM

Well done fellas, all the best in future events

Dan Walter · #5 13-08-2012, 07:54 PM

Well done lads top effort!!

ShaneD · #6 13-08-2012, 09:47 PM

Wow, must have been a tough day, he doesn't look real happy!

Congrats on the win!

SD

Dodgy back · #7 13-08-2012, 10:15 PM

So..
How was team austackle's Prefish?
What did they learn at prefish to help them decide on where to fish?
Techniques etc etc lures used?
Was it a group thing and joint effort to help decide.?

What helped Don turn around the dreaded doughnut to fly home with a full bag?

I found it to be one of the toughest comps yet to fish. But I dont fish flats so that may have gone against me.

Orca68 · #8 13-08-2012, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dodgy back

So..
How was team austackle's Prefish?
What did they learn at prefish to help them decide on where to fish?
Techniques etc etc lures used?
Was it a group thing and joint effort to help decide.?

What helped Don turn around the dreaded doughnut to fly home with a full bag?

I found it to be one of the toughest comps yet to fish. But I dont fish flats so that may have gone against me.

Don used our new 70mm Panikku Jerk Bait on the flats. I did the prefish with him up at Caloundra on Friday and it was a total disaster as far as we were concerned. Most of our team were up there at some point on Friday and we all got 1 or 2 fish but nobody brained them.

The guys are far too competitive to share too much info about where to fish apart from general comments and to be honest i dont think there was much in the way of good intell to share around Friday night in any case. Don and I had a look around the Bribie canals friday afternoon and he decided to give them a go on Saturday but to no avail. Don was well and truly over getting beached on the sandbanks to go up to Caloundra again.

Don decided on Sunday morning to give our new 70mm lure a go out on the flats around Ningi and it worked a treat for him. Troy used Sakanas and Shinkus on the banks and drop offs up at Caloundra but also used Berkely soft plastics in the deeper channels up there. I think the rest of the team used similar stuff to Troy. Only Don used our new 70mm Jerkbait. I think a few of the team were quite stunned to see what he had been fishing with.

I first fished that area 35 years ago and i can honestly say i have never seen it so shallow and so many beacons out of whack. Something needs to be done bigtime about sorting out the main chnanel. We went aground 4 times in the middle of the channel on Friday and once for missing a green beacon! lol)

Shortytheyakker · #9 14-08-2012, 12:11 AM

Well done to all the Austackle guys on their placeing.

Very interesting that so many of the top guys never got better than 30th place, i have never seen that before,,

beechey · #10 14-08-2012, 12:12 AM

were you a non boater or boater dodgy back? I used the shinku all day on sunday and got my three fish over the flats, i was using the shinku as i would use a softplastic.

Dodgy back · #11 14-08-2012, 12:28 AM

Boater. i just fished canals at caloundra and bribie as I feel more at home in Canals. Didn't even catch a fish on Sunday

. I did try flats but that isn't my thing.

For a long time now Nabs has been telling me to start fishing flats, one day I might start to listen to good advice

beechey · #12 14-08-2012, 01:39 AM

the flats are the go imo, i think babs was the only boater who worked out the canals. congrats again nabs, you killed it! You will def be someone to look out for in the grandie!

Dan Walter · #13 14-08-2012, 02:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nabs

Its easy Mick. As some people found, all you need to do is follow someone.

Got the can opener out again Nabs? Lol

nabs · #14 14-08-2012, 07:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Walter

Got the can opener out again Nabs? Lol

Unfortunately, its always on hand...

fatboy · #15 14-08-2012, 10:30 AM

It's a shame that such a respected angler would follow some of the higher placed anglers from day one (who had a shot at winning) to their spots and cut in on their drifts. Not only did he have no chance of winning but dropping in on a drift with potential winning fish and burning them is just wrong. I mean these anglers put the effort in to crack a pattern and put themselves in a winning situation and a last placed angler comes in and ruins their chances and from the sounds of things its a regular occurance at comps with this person.

I know this because i also fished the same area for both days and he was never to be seen on day one!