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 anglers registered in the predawn conditions, sceptical of the river’s conditions after some heavy rain in the preceding weeks. But one team put this to the back of their minds and came home with the only 3kg+ bag of the event.

Team Yamba Bait and Tackle (Ben Lockwood and Mick Leavey) headed upstream to River Drive where they fished a 100m stretch of the river that was holding some good bream.

“We found fish up to 780g in the pre fish. We concentrated on the 2 – 4m depth using Ecogear VX 40mm and 2” Berkley Shrimps in molting colour,” said Mick.

The bite lasted about an hour which saw Yamba Bait and Tackle fill their 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 VXs 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 their original spot. This time they fished the deeper water of 4-8m, again using the popular metal vibration lures.

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 was 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 lures in contact with the bottom. The most productive lure for the day was definitely the Ecogear VX 40mm in colour 409. S-factor was also used to try and entice a few more bites. For their 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 places was father and son team, Green Machine, Paul and Jay Gillespie. Jay once again took top honours of the title of Kids Big Bag. The final qualifying spot was presented to Team Bush N Beach/Pflueger/Budds, Rob Kwiatrowski and Jason Seaton.

Once again with the support of the 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 honours went to Casino young gun Joseph Urquhart from Team Richmond, with a healthy 0.880kg specimen, landed on the hot new released Atomic Hardz.

Organisers would like to thank Evinrude ETEC, for their 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 18, 2009. Details available at www.gamakatsu.com.au . – GTS