Gamakatsu Teams Series
Round 2 30/11/08
Evinrude Etec Richmond River Event

Pictures

Round 2 of the Gamakatsu Team Series, sponsored by Evinrude ETEC, descended on the riverside town of Ballina. Held in conjunction with Ballina’s annual “Riva Fest”, this round was sure to be a huge draw card for local anglers and spectators alike.

68 weary anglers registered in the predawn conditions, skeptical of the rivers conditions after some heavy rain in the preceding weeks. But one team put this to the back of there minds and came home with the only 3kg + bag of the event.

Team Yamba Bait and Tackle (Ben Lockwood and Mick Leavey) headed up stream to River Drive where they fished a 100m stretch of the river that was holding some good sized bream.
“We found fish up to 780g in the pre fish. Here we concentrated on the 2 – 4m depth of water using Ecogear VX 40mm and 2 inch Berkley shrimps in molting colour.  The fish seemed to be active early with the second cast of the day producing a 1kg specimen, (which somebody forgot to weigh in for big bream!)”  The bite lasted about an hour which saw Yamba Bait and Tackle fill there bag, but needing 2 upgrades to have a decent bag.
Mid morning Mick and Ben decided to head down river to find some clean water.
“We fished a section of water below the ferry where the clean water from the incoming tide met the dirty water. Here we threw Ecogear VX’s and landed two 30cm fish that we needed to upgrade our two small fish.”

The bite soon shut down here so the boys decided to head back up river to there original spot. This time they fished the deeper water of 4-8m, again using the ever popular metal vibration lure.
 “In this last session of the day we really had fun catching heaps of fish with Mick catching 7 fish from seven casts but unfortunately having no more upgrades.”

The technique used most of the day was to cast up current and let the lure sink to the bottom. Once on the bottom the lure just hopped off the bottom about 2 feet and let sink back down. Most of the strikes came on the pause. The majority of the fish were down deep therefore it was important to keep our lures in contact with the bottom.  The most productive lure for the day was defiantly the Ecogear VX 40mm in colour 409. S-factor was also used to try and entice a few more bites. For there efforts Team Yamba Bait and Tackle took home $1000 cash + 2 pairs of Blue Eye Sunglasses and $200 of product from Gamakatsu and Atomic.

Rounding out the top 3 placings was the ever competitive, father and son team, Green Machine, Paul and Jay Gillespie. Jay once again took top honors of the title of Kids Big Bag. The final qualifying spot was presented to Team Bush N Beach/Plueger/Budds, Rob Kwiatrowski and Jason Seaton. Once again with the support of our sponsors Evinrude ETEC, Blue Eyes, Gamakatsu, Atomic & Bassday most of the competitors walked away with at least $160 worth of product with 15 random draws at the presentation and also for the crowd there was $1000 worth of Evinrude Safety gear given away.

Big Bream honors went to Casino young gun Joseph Urquhart from Team Richmond, with a healthy .880kg specimen, landed on the hot new released Atomic Hardz.

Organisers would like to thank Evinrude ETEC, for there support of the Gamakatsu Team Series, Ballina Shire Council, Ballina Lions Club and the entire Riva Fest committee. Round 3 heads north now to the Gold Coast, on January 18th.

Position	Team Name	Angler 1	Angler 2	Weight	Big Bream	No Of Fish	Prizes
1	Yamba Bait and Tackle	Mick Leavey	Ben Lockwood	3.04	0	5	$1000 + $500 Product (Blue Eyes, Gamakatsu & Atomic)
2	Green Machine	Paul Gillespie	Jay Gillespie	2.75	0	5	$500 + $400 Product (Gamakatsu & Atomic)
3	Bush n Beach Plueger Budds	Robert Kwiatrowski	Jason Seaton	2.595	0	5	$200 + $400 Product (Gamakatsu & Atomic)
4	Bream  Reapers	Mick Wright	Ben Cronk	2.555	0	5	$150 + $400 Product (Gamakatsu & Atomic)
4	Plueger/TT	Stephen Wilson	Darren Borg	2.555	0	5	$150 + $400 Product (Gamakatsu & Atomic)
6	Big River Bait and Tackle 2	Brenton Smith	Darren Painter	2.49	0	5	$70 + $350 Product (Evinrude Etec, Gamakatsu & Atomic)
7	Aquamates	Peter Cashman	Chris Lonne	2.47	0	5	$70 + $350 Product (Evinrude Etec, Gamakatsu & Atomic)
8	Big River Bait and Tackle	Brett Young	Mark Mulligan	2.465	0	5	$70 + $350 Product (Evinrude Etec, Gamakatsu & Atomic)
9	TT Megabass	Jay Perham	Tristan Taylor	2.25	0	5	$70 + $350 Product (Evinrude Etec, Gamakatsu & Atomic)
10	Striker	Chris Horne	Ben Pilch	2.24	0	5	$70 + $350 Product (Evinrude Etec, Gamakatsu & Atomic)
11	Breamd as Bro	Mark Holman	Authur Cregan	2.06	0	5
12	Team Tender	Shane Jarrett	Scott Lane	2.055	0	5
13	Salt and Pepper	John Mills	Gary Palmer	1.985	0	5
14	Ballina Marineland 2	Ken Fitzgibbon	Robert Berdin	1.85	0	5
15	Bassday/Sportys Fishing	David McKenzie	Tony Moore	1.85	0	5
16	Gimp and Shrimp	Glen Sturrock	Andrew Taylor	1.76	0	5
17	Ballina Marineland	Mick Corbett	Jake Stewart	1.685	0	5
18	Buckleys Chance	Nellie Buckley	Nicholas Buckleys	1.59	0	5
19	Team Lobby	James Ison	Aaron Litterland	1.51	0	5
20	Fillet and Release Angling Team	Tony Thorley	John Thorley	1.29	0	4
21	Team Richmond	Joseph Urquhart	Craig Urquhart	1.22	0.88	2	BB $250 + $250 Products (Flow-Rite)
22	Dilligaff	Rod Shorton	Leigh Dalby	1.115	0	4
23	Port Tackle Team Cajun	Neil Chegwidden	Ross Lamonth	0.72	0	2
24	Swanno	Aaron Swanson	Glenn Swanson	0.67	0	2
25	Kbreamn	Karen Berry	Gill Neziz	0.62	0	2
26	Whipett	Steve Clarke	Jack Clarke	0.6	0	2
27	Atomic	Aaron Sharp	Rob March	0.54	0	2
28	BP  Broadwater	Scott Angel	Greg Byrne	0.41	0	1
29	Woftam	John Lansell	Tracey Brown	0.34	0	1
30	Fat Boys	Mick Bruggy	Tom Bruggy	0	0	0
31	Green Boat	Greg Burke	Brad Donald	0	0	0
32	Latte	Steve Ebeling	John Williams	0	0	0
33	Team Gemtek	Robbie Lynn	Zach Lynn	0	0	0
34	Wildfish	Davud Karadag	Josh Cerveny	0	0	0
Total				49.28		117	Average Fish 421g