The final mid round of the Gamakatsu Team Series (GTS) for 2014, held at South West Rocks on August 4, started off with great expectations of this new venue. The 18 teams and 4 kayakers had mixed hopes after the pre-fish; some were very confident in finding the fish and others were still thinking of what to do in the morning!

The water was very clear and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so anglers were expecting the fish to be spooked easily. GTS as usual had heaps of giveaways for anglers and the public alike, and on top of the regular prizes they decided to up the ante and provide a Lowrance HDS7 Touch sounder to a lucky draw winner. It was won by team Berkley/C’ultiva who couldn’t believe their luck, but back to the results…

The winning team, Carpet Court/Cranka Lures (Mike Nelson and Grant Manusu), caught a fantastic bag of 4.01kg and were also able to claim the biggest bream of the day, weighing in a huge 1.29kg. The team had few days of pre fishing to get to know the area as they hadn’t been there before, and as it turns out those few days were definitely not wasted – they picked up a little area that no one else seemed to get on the day. While being next to a few other boats at the mouth, they found a small rise on the bottom and found that there were eddies in the water column and the larger fish were hiding in this small little bottom change.

Mike and Grant used soft plastics and made sure that the jigheads were heavy enough to get down before the current could take the lure away from where the fish were feeding in their little honey hole. This was the most important part of their tactic which paid off and claimed them a total of $1200 in cash and prizes. On top of the very large bag with their smallest fish being 32cm to the fork, their kicker fish was a cracker, weighing in at a cracking 1.29kg. The Big Bream also got them a Samurai Reaction rod.

Team Berkley/C’ultiva, consisting of Vaughn Lewis and Todd Riches, came in second place with another great bag of 3.12kg. The boys earned over $700 worth of cash and prizes, as well as the lucky draw of the Lowrance sounder, and they were two very happy guys! The team started off on the walls throwing fat grub style plastics on 1/6oz and 1/8oz jigheads. This landed them a lot of fish and had them a bag of fish within the first hour of the tournament.

The bite went quiet so they decided to  head up to Jerseyville. After ultra clear water and not many fish they decided to come back to the walls at the mouth of the river in the dirtier water with the run-out tide, where they picked up five or six upgrades at the end of the session that topped off their day. It was a very soft bite and the team found that it was very important to match the jighead size with the speed of the tide. The team were using Pflueger Patriarch rods and reels with 3lb leader on their braid.

Coming in third place with another impressive bag of 2.91kg was team Ecogear/Yamatoyo Taree. Rodney O’Sullivan and Zac O’Sullivan decided to go down to the front to the walls first thing in the morning gradually catching their bag. They used Bream Prawns in the king prawn colour and were matching jighead sizes to the current to make sure they made it down far enough to where the fish were biting. They found that using the Gamakatsu single lure hooks for stringers ended up being key in catching a lot of their fish.

The kayakers today couldn’t have asked for better weather to be out on the water, but in the end it was too good and too clear. Additionally, on top of a large running tide they found it hard to fish in some locations, and the racks and other areas that they got out of the current weren’t producing fish in the clear water.

Bob Walters took out the field by catching the only fish of the day weighing 0.51kg. He caught it at the abandoned oyster racks close to the start using an Atomic Crank 38 deep in muddy prawn colour, and found that using light leader was key as the water was so clear.

The day ended on a high with almost every team getting a prize pack as well having a tasty beef burger put on by Skeeter boats Australia. Lots of members of public came for the weigh-in and it made for a fun time with everyone happy with the day’s results. A big thank you goes out to the sponsors, especially Gamakatsu and the round sponsor Lowrance. For more information visit fishingcomps.com.au/gts/. - GTS