Greg Lewis secured his fifth win of the 2011 Daiwa-Hobie BREAM Kayak Series with victory in the QLD State Title event at Redcliffe, July 2-3, 2011.

Coming from 6th on day one Lewis mowed down a talented bunch of Queensland locals to take victory in a nail biter.

Lewis, the kayak king, was fishing North Reef at Scarborough both days to catch his fish. Day one was an all hard body affair with Lewis fishing a slow rolled deep Atomic Hardz Crank 38 in ghost gill brown to catch his fish. The approach delivering him his limit by 10.30am and eight fish in total for the session.

“It was classic crankbait rock fishing. Bounce and work the lure through the structure and wait for the rod to load up with an angry Redcliffe bream”, explained Lewis.

The approach produced a 1.535kg bag on day one and had Lewis sitting in sixth place heading into the second and final day.

Positioned 650 grams behind leader Taylor and the fishing only predicted to get harder with the calming conditions and increased fishing pressure on day two it was going to take a Herculean effort to peg back the lead, especially considering Taylor’s Redcliffe reputation.

Day two proved a lot tougher with Lewis fishless until 10.30am.

Keeping in mind what Steve Morgan said to him the day before “more big fish come from the North Reef area than anywhere else on the Peninsula” Lewis decided to stay, remain patient and wait for the bites to come. And he didn’t have to wait too long.

“The wind swung around to the north, the conditions changed and the fish started biting,” said Lewis.

No longer using the hard body approach of day one Lewis swapped to something a bit more finesse, a 1/20oz Nitro jighead rigged new penny coloured Berkley Gulp Shrimp fished close to the bottom with a slow lift and jiggle.

“I just wanted to keep the lure on the bottom and work it through all the gaps and cracks that are littered throughout the reef,” said Lewis.

The approach delivered Lewis his first fish just after 10.30am, and an hour and half later he had filled his bag and upgraded all three fish at least once. The only setback being when he dropped a fish overboard while he was upgrading a fish.

Weighing in the biggest bag for day two by nearly 400g, any downgrading Lewis may have done never came close to jeopardizing his win.

The tackle he used to rack included a Millerod Bream Brawler rod, Shimano Stella FD 1000 reel, spooled with 10lb Unitika Egi PE, and 4lb (soft plastics) and 6lb (crankbaits) FC Rock fluorocarbon leader.

Post victory Lewis was still in shock on what he’d just done. He’d achieved a perfect season, 500 points out of a possible 500 in the Angler of the Year race.

“Simply winning one event is a great feeling, but to win five is more than I could ever of dreamed of,” said Lewis.

For event runner-up Tristan Taylor is was the event that got away with the Brisbane Dentist stumbling on the final day. Like Lewis Taylor fished North Reef and focused most of his attention on the area near the white channel marker.

Day one saw Taylor use a two pronged approach, fishing ghost gill brown coloured deep Atomic Hardz Crank 38s over the top of bombies and a combination of muddy prawn colour Atomic Semi Hardz SH40 and soft plastics at the base of the bombies.

Day two was a lot harder, and while Taylor managed to catch his limit by 8.30am, all he could manage to find were small fish. The big ones were nowhere to be seen.

In the end the difference between Lewis and Taylor was a meager 30g: A mere sliver of a bream, or the same weight as a packet of 1/4oz jigheads. One more small upgrade and the result may have been different, Taylor may have claimed his first kayak win and denied Lewis his perfect season.

The next event of the Daiwa-Hobie BREAM Kayak Series sees the tour head to southern NSW for the St Georges Basin round, August 13-14. Visit www.bream.com.au or www.hobiefishing.com.au for all the event information. – ABT/Hobie