Gamakatsu Summer Series
Tweed River 09/12/08
 
A warm summertime bite greeted 86 anglers in 43 teams for Round 1 of The Gamakatsu Northern NSW Summer Series.

The day was tough with a typical Tweed River December bite, fish were scattered throughout the river system and quality fish for hard to come by. But at the end of the day it was Team Nitro Marine / Megabass / CD Rods that found a big enough bag to take home the winners purse of $1200.00. Throwing Megabass Baby Griffon shallow running crankbaits hard against the edges in less than 5ft of water, Tristan Taylor and Darren Crowley landed the size Bream needed to cash a prize cheque and earn them selves a spot in the ABT Teams Grand final held on the Clarence River in November.

Tristan Taylor and Darren Crowley caught 3 legals in prefish and had no idea where the big fish were holding, so on tournament they fished deep plastics (3" gulp minnows/ 2" shrimp in mouldy cheese/ lime tiger/ new penny colour) for first 5 hours for a total of 2 legals and -40 jigheads. Then moving to the canals with the Megabass Baby Griffon (NC Tanago colour) Team Nitro Marine/Bassday/Megabass put 1 more legal in the well.

In the last half hour a move to try the rockwall on the Fingal side of the river near the mouth was made.

‘"The tide was running out hard and the water was crystal clear. We could see the bream right up on the rocks in 1-5ft of water. You had to get the cast to hit within an inch of the bank to run the lure down the rocks and past the bream otherwise they spooked in the clear water. Finally we cracked a pattern that worked with just enough time to capitalise. We used the Megabass Baby Griffon (NC Tanago colour).’’ Tristan used 6lb Unitika braid and 6lb Yamatoya FC leader on a Composite Developments Blue Rapid 7'6" UL rod and Daiwa Tierra 2500 reel . Darren used 2lb Fireline and 4lb Yamatoya FC leader on a Berkley Dropshot 6'9 rod and Shimano Stradic 2000 reel. ‘’We caught 7 legals in the last 20 minutes, upgrading all of our previous fish and making it back to the tag board with 1 minute to spare. We couldn’t believe what had just happened! ‘’

Rounding out the qualifiers were Team Nitro BJS Mossops in 2nd with 5 fish for 1.905kg, 3rd spot went to ABT Bream Grand final winner and AFC qualifier Ben Godfrey and his teammate Scott Butler of Team Nitro Bass Boats / Eletia Energy Drinks finding 5 bream weighing 1.77kg. The final qualifying position was filled by Ballina local Mick Corbett and Jake Stewart of Just Brimin Around with 1.72kg of fish.

 In a fishery renowned for sub-legal fish Big Bream was going to hotly contested. Thomas Alexander of Team Not So Slow held sat in the hot seat a good portion of the weigh-in only to be defeated by 15g to Team Berkley/Lowrance’s Steve Wilson. Steve fished the mouth of the Tweed River looking for quality fish, and that’s what he found. Using a 2” Berkley Shrimp, Steve waited for the tide to slow and hopped his plastic deep in the gin clear water, taking home $500 in cash and prizes for his efforts.

With loads of prizes and 16 lucky draw prizes over half the field walked away with cash or prizes. There was a free BBQ and drinks at the presentation and weigh-in with the camera boat handing out ice cold drinks on the water, a hit amongst anglers.

Round 2 sees the series move to the Clarence River in Iluka on January 20th, followed by the Mighty Richmond in Ballina.

Position	Weight (kg)	No Of Fish	Team Name	Angler 1	Angler 2	Big Bream	Prizes
1	2.165	5	Nitro Marine Marine / Megabass / CD Rods	Darren Crowley	Tristan Taylor	0	$1,200
2	1.905	5	BJS Mossops	Arthur Hatzipetrov	Peter Herbst	0	$600
3	1.77	5	Nitro Bass Boats/Eletia Energy Drks	Scott Butler	Ben Godfrey	0	$350
4	1.72	5	Just Brimin Around	Michael Corbett	Jake Stewart	0	$300
5	1.595	5	Attackin Ball	Cameron Ball	Nabeel Isa	0	$250 (Split)
5	1.595	5	Sportys	Ben Bigs	Tyson Robertson	0	$50 + $175 Prizes (Split)
7	1.53	4	Side Winder	Simon Saint	Darryn Love	0	$50 + $120 Prizes
8	1.52	5	DJ Marine	Davud Karadag	Josh Cerevny	0	$50 + $120 Prizes
8	1.52	5	Eco Gear	Gav Dunne	Dave Young	0	$50 + $120 Prizes
10	1.465	5	Bassday 1	Steve Eldred	Peter Kelleher	0	$50 + $120 Prizes
11	1.445	3	Not So Slow	Gene Ward	Thomas Alexander	0
12	1.33	2	Berkley/Lowarance	Steve Wilson	Ebony Wilson	0.845	BB $250 + $275 Prizes
13	1.285	4	Attack Boats	Drew Griffith	Nick Whyte	0
14	1.245	3	Snyper	Heath Blaikie	Brook Blaikie	0
15	1.165	4	Disco Marine	Darren Borg	Jason Disson	0
15	1.165	4	Port Marina Bait and Tackle	Anthony Nyberg	Dean Seaborn	0
17	1.035	3	Team Champion	Greg Duffield	Dean Wilson	0
18	1	3	Bush & Beach\4BC	Anthony Wishey	Ben Collins	0
18	1	3	Logan River Marine	Corey Tarr	Jay Morgan	0
20	0.91	3	No Fun-Kin Idea	Gary Palmer	Les Tselepy	0
21	0.885	3	Fire and BreamStone	Warwick Cregan	Mark Holman	0
22	0.88	3	Team Native	Cameron Watts	Anthony Duff	0
23	0.83	3	BIAS Boating	Gary Fooks	Elliot Fooks	0
24	0.735	2	Bream Reapers	Mick Wright	Ben Cronk	0
25	0.695	2	Green Machine	Paul gillespie	Jay Gillespie	0
26	0.635	2	Max Breambo	Dan Cupitt	Drew Rhoades	0
27	0.585	2	Aqua Signal	Mark Lawson	Stephen Kanowski	0
28	0.535	1	Bush N Beach / Berkley / Suncorp	Chris Britton	Mal Barker	0
29	0.485	1	Bassday 2	Dean Silvester	Joe Allan	0
30	0.46	1	Hot Sauce	Maurice Blachman	Nick Hansen	0
31	0.405	1	Dads In Rehab	Josh Carpenter	Guy Carpentar	0
32	0.385	1	BP Broadwater	Scott Angel	Dan Miller	0
33	0.36	1	Fillet and Release Angling Team	Tony Thorley	John Thorley	0
34	0.35	1	Fish Brain	Artie Reinstra	Matthew Bacic	0
35	0.31	1	Black Porpoise	Paul Starkey	Jock McPherson	0
36	0.295	1	Team Atomic	Aaron Sharp	Robert March	0
37	0	0	Bad Heads	Peter May	Dale Mullins	0
37	0	0	BBT	Leigh Dalby	Sefton Bergman	0
37	0	0	Blue Acres	Steve McDonald	Brad Smith	0
37	0	0	DILLIGAF	Rod Shorten	Scott Cane	0
37	0	0	Green Hornets	Mick Leavey	Ben Lockwood	0
37	0	0	NFI	Tolga Kayas	Jade Masters	0
37	0	0	The Brothers Bream	Dave Fletcher	Darren Fletcher	0