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Reid rules title win
  |  First Published: May 2012



Forster lived up to its reputation as a diverse and fish-rich stop on the Daiwa BREAM Kayak trail. Thirty-five anglers revelled in the action to deliver 115 bream to the scales in the NSW State Title round of the popular tournament series.

Claiming the NSW champ title for 2012 was 37 year old Sydney Carpenter, Jason Reid. The Sutherland Shire breamer compiled a 6/6, 4.11kg limit to claim his maiden kayak win.

His win came via a multi-location and lure approach with the NSW State Title winner fishing a combination of flats, weedbeds, racks, and hardbodies and soft plastics to fill his bag each day.

“I started out early on the weedbeds (2ft deep) on day one fishing a Squidgy Lobby across the surface with a rip n’ pause retrieve,” said Reid.

The approach was spot on with Reid catching his first legal in less than an hour; he then swapped to the racks as the tide started to run-in with the objective of catching bigger more active fish.

“I knew the bigger fish would be in the racks, and I knew they wouldn’t start to fire until the tide started to run.”

His swap to harder structure was based around two lures: a Berkley Shrimp and an Ecogearaqua Bream Prawn, rigged just like the Squidgy Lobby before them, on a TT HWS jighead. The retrieve involved sinking the plastic in under the rack to where the fish would be sitting then retrieving it out with a flick and pause.

It was big fish that he wanted and that’s certainly what he got, with two fish over a kilo falling to the technique. The end result back at the weigh-in was 2.54kg bag. A sensational bag that had him heading into day two with an 830g margin over his nearest competitor, Jason Meech in second place.

With his heart set on a repeat performance of the morning before Reid was stopped in his tracks with a later tide stalling his plans to get stuck in early.

“I had to kill time [3.5 hours] so I headed up river and fished the flats with some Lobbies and an Atomic K9 surface lure,” said Reid.

His alternative approach paid dividends with Reid picking up his first legal at 10.30am, followed by his second and third in relatively quick succession. The third, his kicker fish in his limit went 36cm to the tip.

With a long 90 minute peddle back to the finish line ahead of him Reid pulled the pin at 11.30am and commenced the long trip home.

One of only nine anglers to weigh a full limit on the final day, Reid’s 1.57kg limit was more than enough to hold off his challengers including a fast finishing Andrew Death in second.

“This is only the second time that I’ve weighed in six fish at a two-day event. So to do that and win the event is a dream come true,” said Reid.

Andy Angles with New Technique

Event runner-up Andrew Death cashed in at the Forster State Title event courtesy of a new acquired technique, crankbaiting racks.

“I gave the technique a try during the Friday prefish and I picked up a fish pretty quickly, so I decided to stick with it during the tournament and it paid off,” said Death.

Fishing a series of racks near Tuncurry, Death’s approach involved throwing an Atomic Crank 38 across, along, and into the racks with the objective of annoying the fish and getting them to strike at the lure.

“The best responses came when I swam the lure with the current and bumped it into the rack while slow rolling the lure. When I did this I increased my chances of getting a bite,” said Death.

One of the other attributes of the technique was that it had had a level of predictability as to where the hits would come.

“More often than not they would hit the lure just as it passed the edge of the rack,” said Death.

The approach produced four legal fish for Death each day, his limit coming at 11.30am on day one and at 10.30am on day two.

Day two was the standout day with Death catching a 2.13kg bag, the second biggest limit for the tournament, and a bag that saw him leap from third place into second.

Fresh from a podium finish and with a new technique in his quiver, Death will be an angler to watch when the Daiwa-Hobie BREAM Kayak Series travels to its next stop on the tour at Tasmania’s Swan River, 28/29 March. Visit www.bream.com.au or www.hobiefishing.com.au for all the event and series information.

Hogs Breath Boss Hog

The Hogs Breath Boss Hog at Forster went to event runner-up Andrew Death. The Sydney breamer caught the $100 winning fish on day two on an medium running Atomic Crank 38 (muddy prawn) swum across the top of an oyster rack on a run-in tide.

Winner’s tackle:

• 7’, 1-2kg, Shimano Bream Raider rod, Shimano Sonora 2500 reel, 6lb Berkley Fireline and 6lb FC Rock fluorocarbon.

• 75mm Squidgy Lobby (grenade), 2” Berkley Gulp Shrimp (banana prawn), Ecogearaqua Bream Prawn (04), rigged on size 1, TT HWS jighead, and a 60mm Atomic K9 Walker (muddy prawn).

WinningEdge

“I’d put too much pressure on myself in the past to catch fish. In this event I wanted to just go out have fun, and hopefully catch fish. The more relaxed approach definitely seemed to work.”

Forster State Titles Angler Results

PlaceAnglerTotal FishTotal WeightPayout
1Jason REID6/64.11$770 + Prize Pack
2Andrew DEATH6/63.73$520 + $100 Big Bream + Prize Pack
3Jason MEECH6/63.20$340 + Prize Pack
4Nicholas MEREDITH6/62.68$220 + Prize Pack
5Scott BAKER5/62.63$190 + Prize Pack
6Luke KAY5/62.40$150 + Prize Pack
7Peter WOODS4/62.38$120 + Prize Pack
8Jim BARRIE5/62.35Prize Pack
9Greg SEETO6/62.21
10Mark THOMPSON5/62.01
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