"

Silvester Takes Silver Lining
  |  First Published: December 2010



The Halco Lake Monduran 2x5 BARRA event lived up to the tough fishery that gives Monduran its nick name of ‘Lake Misery’ with a total of 12 fish landed by 12 anglers in a 74 strong field.

Tournament winner Dean Silvester landed the event’s Big Barra of 116cm taking the honours over Kerrin Taylor by a mere 1cm.

Silvester’s outfit consisted of a Megabass Renlli 300 reel spooled with 35lb Unitika braid and 60lb Unitika leader matched to a Samurai 502 rod. His money bait was a Squidgy 110 Slick Rig in evil minnow with the tail dipped in chartreuse Spike It. Using a pair of customised forks heated on a butane burner, he adds scutes to the tail of the Squidgy soft plastic for extra tail action.

The key to this bait is the custom jighead made by Silvester. Using a Gamakatsu 7/0 heavy wire hook he attaches a wire stinger with Gamakatsu Treble 14, size 4. Then using a Do-It mould darter head pours a 1/2oz lead jighead encasing the stinger hook connection to the hook within the lead for extra strength. Finally a plastic rattle is attached to the shank of the hook for extra under water resonation.

Travelling in the Frogley Offshore I-Class Skeeter, Silvester was able to cruise to his location near the mouth of the Kolan Creek ahead of the other competitors. He had identified a weed point in the prefish that had the wind blowing on it and holding plenty of bait.

“Using the Humminbird 998 side scan function, I was able to identify barra swimming past the point, holding close to the bottom and amongst the weed,” he said.

Anchoring in 11ft and throwing to the point in approximately 4ft, Silvester used long wind assisted casts to reach the weed edges.

“I would begin to wind straight away near the weed then slow roll the retrieve so that the plastic travelled close to the bottom,” said Dean.

Losing a good fish on day one around a stump in the weed and his partner Dave Robinson landing a 91cm specimen, Silvester hoped that day two would be kind to him.

At around 1.40pm after an 11.30am start Silvester hooked the 116cm event winning Big Barra.

“At first it jumped and we thought it was 90cm+ so I went hard on it, only backing the drag off when it moved into deeper water,” he said. The 116cm Monduran beast scored him first place over runner up Kerrin Taylor by a 1cm, showing you are only one cast away from winning a tournament.

For more information visit www.australianbarra.com.au or ph ABT on 07 3387 0888.– ABT

PlaceAnglerTeamFishLength(cm)Cash

1Dean SilvesterGamakatsu1/101161400
2Kerrin TaylorMillerods/Shimano/Evinrude1/10115$900 + $600 Pro
3Tyson RobertsonWilson Fishing Australia1/10108700
4Daniel GrechRapala/JT Reel Repairs1/10103500
5Jon MillardRapala/JT Reel Repairs1/10100400
6Elaine SandersonTackle Warehouse Ladies1/1099300
7Jason WilhelmShimano/ E-Tec1/1095200
8Boyd ReadYoung Guns1/1094100
9David RobinsonGamakatsu1/1091
10Matt McArthurMcArthur Customs1/1082
Reads: 3430

Matched Content ... powered by Google