The weekend of the 22-23 March 2014 saw 60 teams head to the mighty Mallacoota inlet for the 2014 Engel East Gippsland Bream Classic.

Being the first regional leg of the 2014 Vic Bream Classic Series all teams were keen to get away to a good start and put some all important Club Marine Team of the Year points on the board to help secure them a spot in the Grand Final to be held back at Mallacoota in November this year.

With such a talented field assembling for the tournament, it was anyone’s guess which of the top teams would be crowned champions. However this weekend would prove different, as a new team would emerge to claim their first Vic Bream Classic victory and send a strong message to the rest of the field to watch out for them in November.

As the named suggests Team You Never Know would prove that anyone has a chance to put in a dominant performance if they do their homework and have the ability, which is exactly what they did leading from start to finish and taking victory in fine fashion.

Day one saw teams awake to calm overcast conditions with the slightest drizzle – just perfect to fill their bags early. For Team You Never Know, Dale Pattison and Dwayne Nielsen, it was a blast off the start line but a very short trip as they focussed their morning session in the bottom lake and wasn’t long before the decision paid off.

“We spent the first two hours of the day fishing shallow flats in the bottom lake in search of some quality bream using the Eco-Gear MX48s all in the natural colours – they seemed to get the most attention. To get the fish to bite we found that a shaking retrieve worked the best for us and was the main method that would finally entice the bream to smash the lure,” said Dwayne.

Using a combination of Shimano T-Curve Tournament rods, Shimano 2500 Stella and Twin Power reels, spooled with 8lb PE Braid or 4lb Fireline Exceed Braid attached to 3-5lb fluorocarbon leaders, the boys set about filling their bag relatively quickly off the flats in the bottom lake.

Getting five bream in the bag early was a great start, but anyone that fishes a tournament in Mallacoota knows that getting five bream isn’t a huge achievement, it’s always size that sets the men from the boys. The team knew exactly this and after a good 2 hour session on the flats had died off they knew they needed to change take to upgrade the bream they already had in the well if that had any chance of completing with the other quality teams in the field.

“We decided to head up into the top lake and focus our attention on fishing edges and deeper drop-offs to try and land some of the bigger kilo-plus bream needed to be competitive. We used Berkley Gulp pumpkinseed Turtle Back Worms and Juro 3” minnows on super light 1/40oz TT hidden weight jigheads to flick the plastic tight into heavy cover on the edge to temp some of the bigger bream and also fished Cyber Vibes in the deeper water, which worked really well,” said Dwayne.

After a solid but challenging session to find the bigger fish the You Never Know boys approached the scales and weighed in 5/5 bream for 4.60kg just giving them the lead on day one above Team Berkley’s Brad and Mike Hodges who weighed in 5/5 bream for 4.58kg. Also hitting the scales on day one was the Eco-Gear Big Bream, which was a cracking 1.44kg black bream weighed in by Kyle Pettie from Team Tanglefoot.

Teams woke on day two to beautiful conditions ready to hunt down the leaders and the Eco-Gear Big Bream. For Team You Never Know they were well a where that they would have to fish at their best with the ever-consistent Team Berkley hot on their heels if they would secure victory.

With a cameraman on board filming their charge there were some very tense moments early in the day as they plugged away to land their 5 bream before looking carrying out the same strategy of heading up into the top lake to upgrade their bag after a morning flats session.

“We knew we had to keep focussed and keep searching for the bigger fish. It was a really tough tournament for Mallacoota standards as the bigger fish just were very hard to find,” Dwayne said. After another solid session the boys managed to weigh another great bag of 5/5 bream for 4.13kg giving them a total of 10/10 bream for 8.73kg and the 2014 Engel East Gippsland Bream Classic victory.

The victory didn’t come without a small scare as charging from 23rd position was Team Gamakatsu Atomic’s Paul Malov and Alex Franchuk who stole the Maria Lures Best Bag away from Team You Never Know with 5/5 bream for 4.65kg, but that could only push them to 4th position, safely leaving Team You Never Know securely in the top spot handing them the victory.

Next round of the 2014 Vic Bream Classic Series will see the field travel to the Glenelg River in Nelson for the 2014 Hobie Bream Classic. If you want to be part of the action or come down and spectate, log onto www.vicbreamclassics.com.au for all the details or follow us on Facebook.

PlaceTeam NameAngler's NameFishWeight (kg)