Gregg Flett has taken out the season opening BASS Pro event at Lake Glenbawn Feb 26-27 with 6/6, 4.64kg. The security business owner from Newcastle took out the event by a mere 30g from runner up Ben Pepperall. In taking out the event Flett secured his second ABT Bass Pro win and made the best possible start to season 2011.

Flett spent the whole tournament fishing the main basin, specifically focusing on the humps out from the far end of the wall. He determined during the prefish that only fish below 40ft were biting consistently, however, on the event’s Saturday morning overcast conditions were prevalent and the majority of fish were suspended in less than 40ft. Ultimately it took three hours just to get a bite!

“I only got four bites for the session, two 31.5cm bass, one big yellowbelly and another fish lost in a tree. I was just happy to weigh in a limit and knew it would have also been tough for most other anglers. I was in fifteenth place, around 700g behind the leader but only 300g from fourth place. Knowing the afternoon would fish better I was keen to make up the difference,” said Flett.

The afternoon certainly delivered for Gregg and he found active fish in 80-90ft of water that were suspended around the 50-60ft mark and got a legal fish on his first drop. He would 
drop the lure to suspended fish and once they followed for around 10ft click the reel into gear and slow roll with most bites coming within the first couple of winds.

He landed six legal bass and a great 35cm kicker fish. He jumped from fifteenth to third place, but was still 1kg behind the leader.

“I hit the water on Sunday knowing anything could happen but realistically I was fishing for second place at best. I went back to the humps at the end of the wall and caught one legal fish before the wind really kicked in making it hard to stay on. I battled it out with the wind for two hours until it backed off for the last two hours of the session. I found the fish sitting tight to the bottom in 70-80ft of water with a couple also suspended around 50-60ft”.

He could only get bites after the plastic came off the bottom and again the bites usually came in the first few winds of the reel. He ended up landing another six fish for the session, which was just enough to place him in the top spot with only 30g to spare.

Gregg used a Kustom Fishing Tools Duffrod Basstix 1-4kg 7ft rod with 1000 size reel spooled with 3lb Power Pro braid and 3lb Yamatoyo Harris Fighter leader on Saturday. Knowing that he needed bigger fish, and not being able to afford any lost fish on Sunday, he went up to a Kustom Fishing Tools Duffrod Basstix 2-5kg 7ft with 1000 size reel spooled with 5lb Power Pro braid with 6lb Yamatoyo Harris Fighter leader. The lures used were a combination of Berkley 3” Minnow grubs in pumpkinseed and camo colours along with Damiki D Grubs in moebi and watermelon pepper rigged on custom painted TT 1/6oz size 1 jigheads.
 He paints his jigheads to match the plastics and uses glow paint on the chin for added attraction.

Flett bolstered his $4000 winnings by taking out first place in the Pro division ($770) and taking out the Club Marine bonus of $500. With over $5000 in prize money won at the event Flett has every reason to be confident heading to the next BASS Pro round at Lake St Clair.

Luke Parsons took out the champion non-boater title for the event with a respectable 4/6, 4.05kg.

Parsons, a carpenter from Agnes Banks, caught fish in each session to post his maiden win at his first ABT BASS Qualifying event.

“I fished with Ben Pepperall on the first day and Daniel Clancy on the second. On day one I fished a bay at the entrance to Boat Harbour. Fishing in water depths between 50-70ft deep I found fish suspended above the 40ft mark with the more active fish near the bottom,” said Luke.

Using a Berkley 3” Minnow Grub in camo colour rigged on a 1/4oz 2/0 hook handmade painted jighead, Parsons would vertically jig the lure to attract the attention of fish in the area. He trimmed the head and tail of the lure to maximise presentation and action. The retrieve was super slow.

Parsons’ outfit consisted of a 7” G. Loomis GL2 extra fast action rod teamed with a Shimano Stadic C14 1000 size reel spooled with 4lb Stren Microfuse braid and 6lb Berkley Vanish leader.

“A big thanks to my boaters Ben and Daniel and congratulations to my mates Gregg and Ben for their efforts. I look forward to travelling to other BASS Pro events in 2011 as a non-boater with an eye to becoming a boater in the future. The goal for the rest of the year is to remain consistent,” said Parsons.

The event Big Bass (1.94kg) was taken out by non-boater James Browning. Caught in the first session, the fish was never headed throughout the tournament and secured Browning the $500 prize.

“I was fishing with Anthony Thorpe on the Saturday session. We were deep jigging and I was using a hand painted 1/4 TT jigheads with a stinger teamed with Berkley Gulp 3” Grubs in camo colour. We fished a couple of spots in the main basin and I had one in the live well when we moved down to the dam wall about mid morning. Anthony was sounding around in about 60ft of water for schooled fish and he found a small school of active fish. Marking the site he drifted back and held the boat on them. After about three or four drops I was slow winding about a metre off the bottom when the fish started giving me tiny taps. I had time to comment to Anthony about getting tentative bites while the fish continued to give the lure tiny taps. This continued for about five seconds before the rod loaded up.

“The fish came up relatively easy for about 20ft and we were anticipating an average fish until it decided he was not happy and headed back down. The fish took about three big runs and eventually we had him in the net,” said James.

For further information check out ww.australianbass.com.au or contact ABT on 07 3387 0888 (b/h). – ABT

Boater Top 10

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Non-boater Top 10

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