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Spyropolous Sets New Record on Derwent
  |  First Published: April 2011



Spiro Spyropolous stamped his authority on the Derwent River with a comprehensive wire-to-wire victory in the Rapala Derwent River BREAM Super Series, Mar 4-6 all while setting a new ABT record.

With weather ranging from single figure temperatures to light winds and sunny clear skies, Spyropolous adapted and conquered the varying conditions the best to compile a 15/15, 18.05kg bag to relegate Warren Carter (14/15, 16.96kg) to 2nd and a late charging Cam Whittam (15/15, 15.705kg) to 3rd.

To set the new three day limit in a Super Series event Spiro fished to his strength and the technique that he loves the best, twitching and ripping jerkbaits.

Fishing a long continual rock wall at Rosny, Spiro found the mother load of fish during the Thursday prefish, went straight there on day one and loaded up, catching his limit by 8.30am.

"The fish were there in numbers and nailing the lure like there was no tomorrow," said Spiro.

His approach involved electricing along the shore and making 45 degree casts tight to the water's edge then working the lure back with a twitch-pause retrieve. He had two go-to lures a Smith Cherry Blood 70 Deep early before the sun hit the water and a Smith Jade when the light intensity increased and the fish moved deeper.

The tandem lure approach delivered Spiro the biggest 5-fish bag (6.835kg) for the tournament on day one and two other bags that were no lighter than 5kg. Day two would prove a lot tougher though with a small higher tide leaving Spiro's rock wall largely high and dry.

"The water just didn't come up like it did the day before and I had to work hard to get the fish compared to the day before," said Spiro.

While he had his first four fish within the first 45 minutes the last fish of his limit proved hard to get and didn't come until seven minutes before the end of the session.

If day two was tough Spiro was worried that day three would be even tougher thanks to an even smaller predicted tide. His concerns would prove unnecessary with the Derwent River gun adjusting his technique and finding the fish and catching his limit in quick time.

While it took him 20 minutes into the session to find exactly where the fish were, once he did he had four in the well in 10 minutes. The fifth fish came soon after and Spiro found himself with the job done and only a nervous wait to see if anyone could run down his lead.

Back at the weigh-in site by 10am relaxing Spiro was more than confident that he had enough to hold off any challenges. The last angler to weigh-in Spiro needed only 4.69kg to take the win and with over 5.5kg in the bag his win was assured.

Setting a new Super Series bag record and completing a wire-to-wire victory Spiro confirmed that he is definitely the man to watch when the Daiwa BREAM Tour comes to the Derwent River.

The tackle he used to secure the win included two outfits, a 7'2" Smith Dancing Bream rod, matched to a Daiwa Exist 2506 reel spooled with 0.6 Varivas Egi PE and Varivas Ganoa Absolute fluorocarbon leader, while the other outfit was a 7' Smith prototype rod, Exist 2004 reel, spooled with 3lb fluorocarbon.

For event runner up Warren Carter it was a fairytale maiden trip to Tasmania with the 2010 Mallacoota BREAM Qualifier victor finally making the trip to Tassie after years of planning and longing to get there.

"All the rumors about how good this place is are absolutely true. Actually it's even better than what I was lead to believe," said Carter.

Carter fished near Rosy and Bellrieve and took a hardbody approach, throwing a translucent green with orange belly coloured Smith Panish 65 and working it with a text book black bream twitch and pause retrieve.

Fishing his way along the rocky walls Carter would throw his lure up onto the 2-4 feet deep flooded edge and work the lure back with the expectation of intercepting the fish that were actively feeding up in the shallows.

The approach excelled on day one with Carter weighing in a 6kg-plus limit while day two proved a lot tougher due to the smaller high tide.

It was such a grind that Carter returned to the weigh-in with only four fish in the bag, a short fall that would prove crucial in the overall result and perhaps denied him the event win.

Day three proved just as tough back on his rock walls and rather than settling to weigh in less than a full limit he headed up river in search of more fish.

"By 10am I new it wasn't going to happen to I headed up pass the Bowen Bridge and fished the edges around Berridale,” said Carter.

The change was just what he needed with Carter loading up on a string of kilo plus fish. Heading back to the weigh Carter thought he may have enough in his bag to be with a shot of knocking Spiro off.

With a 6.02kg bag hitting the scales Carter had done all that he could on the last day to catch the leader. With a 1.09kg gap between himself and Spiro it would prove the absence of one single kilo plus fish on day two that was the difference.

Former Tassie local Peter Mazey finished his tournament on a high winning the non-boater division with a 9/10, 8.815kg two-day limit.

Fishing with Tom Deer on day one Mazey fished a rocky point near the Lindisfarne startline and it was here that he picked up the first three fish in his bag before they moved location and fished Newtown Bay.

The presentation involved Mazey casting right up into the shallows, twitching it then letting it sit so the fish feeding in shallows had a chance to eat it.

On day two fishing with Kris Hickson the approach was more multi pronged with Mazey using the same retrieve but a trio of different lures, namely a Daiwa Presso, Smith Panish and a Zip Baits Rigge Deep 65. While the Presso was fished on straight through 3lb Yamatoyo fluorocarbon the Panish and Rigge were both fished on 4lb Varivas Egi PE mainline with 6lb Sunline FC Rock fluorocarbon leader.

The approach delivered Mazey his first full limit for the tournament, an impressive 5/5, 5.13kg. With his nearest challenged Mark Hayes a half kilo behind Mazey claimed his first non-boater victory in an ABT BREAM event.

Paul wasn't the only angler to share in the big bream prizes with Jim Xyga claiming the Rapala Big Bream Prize on day one (1.365kg) for the biggest bream caught on a Rapala lure, while Wayne Friebe claimed the day two honours with his 1.275kg bream.

Visit www.bream.com.au each day of the tournament for all the results, pictures and news. - ABT

Boater Top 10

PlaceAnglerFishWeight (kg)Payout
1Spiro SPYROPOULOS15/1518.050$4,450
2Warren CARTER14/1516.960$2,500
3Cameron WHITTAM15/1515.705$1,600
4Steve MORGAN15/1515.490$1,600
5Andrew KRUSHKA14/1515.110$1,100
6Patrick SULLIVAN14/1515.050$900
7Graham FRANKLIN14/1514.655 
8Justin CAUSBY12/1510.620 
9Steve STEER10/1510.525 
10Mark MANGOLD10/159.0850

Non-Boater Top 10

PlaceAnglerFishWeight (kg)
1Peter MAZEY9/108.815
2Mark HAYES9/108.320
3Mace BOYER7/107.155
4Andrew WALLACE7/106.980
5Lex COURT7/106.945
6Mark LAWSON6/106.665
7Jim XYGA6/105.425
8Dan STEAD6/105.085
9Angus COLLINS4/104.370
10Brendan TURRIFF3/103.690
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