GTS Rd 6 - Nelsons Bay

40 teams rolled up to take on the Hobie Kayak round of the Gamakatsu Teams series at Port Stephens on Sunday. The weather was less then favourable with showers predicted all day but thankfully little to no wind. Port Stephens lived up to its reputation of being a big bream fishery and produced some top quality fish and a couple of really nice bags.

Team Hook'n In consisting of Peter Clark and Chris Curtis who are both new to tournaments obviously had a spectacular day on the water in their first tournament, using local knowledge and some helpful hints from the boys at local tackle shop, Tackleworld Port Stephens saw them in pole position to string together some good fish. 

 The pair chose to throw plastics all day working both deep and shallow rocky outcrops around soldiers point to amass a very respectable bag of five fish tipping the scales to 3.63kgs. Chris and Pete also weighed a fish for big bream. It weighed 990 grams but wasn't quite big enough for the prize.

They both used Shimano Raider rods and Daiwa reels to work 2 inch shrimps on a 1/16th jighead down these outcrops to tempt these solid fish. When interviewed they were both obviously ecstatic with their win could not believe how it all came together for them. Adding to this excitement was over $1400 dollars worth of cash and prizes for one days fishing with a mate! Both Pete and Chris wanted to send out a special thanks to the boys at Tackleworld Port Stephens for giving them all the helpful hints, gear and a couple of their spots to fish.

Finishing in second place and also having a great day on the water putting together an excellent bag of five fish weighing in at 3.14kgs was team Lowrance/Evinrude, consisting of Mark Healey and Adrian Neoh. This pair are no strangers to tournament fishing but had their work cut out for them as in stark contrast to the winners, they have never target bream on this waterway and thought they would give it a go.  They utilised their prefish day to familiarise themselves with the waterway and to try and put to together a game plan for the tournament day. The pair worked out that there were plenty of fish but quality was an issue.

From the prefish they worked out that the better fish were holding around the rockbars and racks in the Soldiers Point area. Team Lowrance/Evinrude fished this area plus the entrance to the Karuah River and through nothing but hardbodies the whole time.  Mixing it up between Ecogear and Cranka lures Mark and Adrian suspended their lures right beside the racks to attract the bites. Although this method was very successful it meant that the fish were very close to the racks and resulted in a lot of good fish destroying their 6lb line and taking a number of lures with them! With around a dozen legal fish for the day the were more than happy with their pay day of over $800 in cash and prizes.

The Samurai Reaction big Bream for the event weighed in at 1.24kgs and was caught by Team Nundoobah Retreat/DLM angler Dave Seaman. The fish was caught on a surface walker around the wreck at Corrie Island. Dave spotted a prawn being harassed on the surface and lunched his Sammy at the spot it was happening with a short walk then a pause the lure got smashed and the fight was on. Being lucky enough to get the fish away from the structure straight away, it was a matter of netting it and collecting the $450 Samurai Reaction rod.

This wraps up another round of the Gamakatsu Teams Series with a special thanks going to Hobie Kayaks for sponsoring the round. Thanks also goes to Samurai, Atomic, Mako and Shimano for supplying a lot of prizes and crowd giveaways. The next round is part of the Northern leg and is at the Gold Coast in QLD.

For a full events list go to www.fishingcomps.com.au

Round 6 Photos Here

Updated 3/6/12