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Seeto’s breakthrough win
  |  First Published: March 2012



Scintillating Seeto


Ian Seeto landed a full bag of 15 bream for a very nice 10.11kg on his way to Victory at the Daiwa BREAM Australian Open.


The key technique was crankbaiting. Early on in each session the water was very clear, but as the tide turned it became dirty.

Seeto commented that “First thing each session I targeted boats, marinas, pontoons, jetty’s and poles while waiting for the tide to rise. As the tide rose I then hit rockwalls, shallow edges and points. Later in the morning through to the end of the session I targeted boats, mangrove edges, rockwalls, points, pontoons, bridges and drop offs.

“In the morning I fished around Balls Head Bay, Balls Head, Birkenhead Point, Balmain, and Woolwich. After mid morning I moved to the Parramatta River Bridges, rockwalls, mangrove edges, drop offs, rocky points, pontoons and poles. I stayed in these areas as long as there was current flow.

“I was tuning crankbaits every cast to suit the structure. To have the lure banging against the structure was a key, especially on pontoons, poles, marina, bridges and rockwalls,” said Seeto.

Also important was getting the crankbaits tight into the mangroves. The fish were willing, but only if they didn’t need to head too far from cover. Seeto relied heavily on the accuracy of Daiwa Interline rods. It’s no use having the right lure if you can’t put it where the fish are.

“Many anglers retrofit their lures with different hooks and I retrofitted my crankbaits with wide gap Decoy trebles. It’s a confidence thing and I believe it helps my hook-up rate,” finished Seeto.

Babekuhl storms to second


Russell Babekuhl completed a full bag of bream on his way to 9.51kg for the tournament, leap frogging some very talented anglers on his way to second place.

The technique for the whole tournament was simple for Babekuhl: 4lb Triline leaders with lightly weighted camo Crabbys rigged on 1/50oz Torpedo Heads and 1/32oz Nitro heads, on size 2 hooks.

It was a simple case of less is more said Babekuhl.

“I would cast the Crabby alongside wind affected boats, marinas and wharfs and let it slowly sink with no added action and watch the line closely for a take,” said Babekuhl.

“The fish always took the lure on the drop. 


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Each day I started in the Parramata River and as the high tide came in each day a move was made east of the Harbour Bridge.

“I would then target fish that were taking advantage of the high water and were up higher in the water column feeding on natural rock walls.

“Pitching the Crabbys tight into the shadow pockets produced several upgrades and many undersize fish over the 3 days of the tournament,” finished Babekuhl.

Morgan cranks into third

Steve Morgan completed a unfilled bag of 12 fish, but with two Big Bream in those 12 fish, he amassed a healthy 9.22kg to take out third place.

Morgan said “I caught nearly all of my weigh-in fish on crankbaits - mainly Atomic Hardz Deep 38 in GGB and a PML honey coloured Ecogear SX40 (long cast).

“I found big bream on moored boats on stickbaits in practice, but these fish disappeared during tournament time.

“The time I spent trying to reconnect with these fish was prime crankbaiting time, and I adjusted too late, that's why I failed to weigh a limit on Day 1 and made the necessary timing adjustments on Day 2 and 3 to weigh good bags.

“Like all crankbaiting, I do it on fluorocarbon lines – 3lb and 4lb Yamatoyo Spinning Fluoro in this case. Following the fish up the banks as the tide rose was the key. You couldn't fish the bait too shallow.

“On the first day, both fish I weighed came off the bridge pylons in the upper Parramatta River.

“The big bag on Day 2 was from the stretch of river between the Putney Ferry and the Gladesville Bridge, while the Day 3 bream were landed under docks between the Gladesville bridge and the Harbour Bridge.

“The kicker on Day 3 came from a rocky point in the eastern Harbour on a topwater Bent Minnow,” finished Morgan.

Daiwa Big BREAM

Steve Morgan took out day one and two with bream of 1.25 kg and a 1.47kg respectively.

Michael Colotouros (1.32kg) took out the final session big bream honours.

Steve Morgan said “I caught three kilo-plus bream in three days - 1.25kg, 1.47kg and 1.13kg. The Day One Big Bream ate an Atomic Deep Crank on the Ryde Bridge on 4lb line. The 1.47 ate an SX40 on 3lb on the rock bar behind Searle's Monument and damaged the line on the rocks. I had to be extremely patient and fight the fish for around 10 minutes in open water”.

Seeto’s Tackle

Lures:

Daiwa Gekkabijin Yonagi 5S in Genei Shirasu colour.

Atomic Crank deep in Muddy Prawn colour retrofitted with decoy Y-S25 trebles size 14.

Atomic Crank mid in Muddy Prawn colour retrofitted with decoy Y-S25 trebles size 14.

Jackall Chubby deep in Brown Suji Shrimp colour retrofitted with decoy YS25 trebles size 12.

Rod:

Daiwa Interline TMZ-I 662 ULFS rods

Reel:

Daiwa Caldia 2000 reels

Line:

Team Daiwa Ades 3lb spinning fluorocarbon





7. Ian Seeto says…

I didn’t have any more than two casts at structure where I had seen fish or had fish follow. I wanted the aggressive reaction bite. If the fish weren’t interested the first two times, I moved on. This enabled me to fish quickly and cover more ground and find the aggressive feeding fish.

8. 2 x fact boxes of the top 10 boaters with the following headers:

Note: The following logos need to appear against the angler names in the result factbox below:

AnglerSponsor
Ian SEETO lureandfly.com
Russell BABEKUHL Berkley
Steve MORGAN Fishing Monthly Magazines
Michael COLOTOUROS Daiwa
John BALCOMB Dinga.com.au
Chris SEETO lureandfly.com
Greg SEETO lureandfly.com
Shaun CHAPMAN Pflueger
Scott BUTLER Simrad
Wayne REED DuffRods/Tacklepower
Kristoffer HICKSON TT Lures
Graham FRANKLIN Atomic/Evinrude
Wal BALZAN Shimano
Wayne ROBINSON Dobyns Rods
Dean HAMMOND Pure Fishing/Pflueger

Top 10 Finishers

PlaceAnglerFishWeight(kg)Payout
1Ian SEETO15/1510.11$3,600
2Russell BABEKUHL15/159.51$1,800
3Steve MORGAN12/159.22$1200
4Michael COLOTOUROS15/158.91$1200
5John BALCOMB15/158.76$1,200
6Chris SEETO15/158.24
7Greg SEETO13/157.90
8Shaun CHAPMAN14/157.72
9Scott BUTLER15/157.26
10Wayne REED13/156.99
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