The Gamakatsu Team Series Round 1 North sponsored by Unitika was run at the Gold Coast last month.

The conditions were very hot, quite and still for most of the day with a bit of breeze coming towards the afternoon.

Team Gamakatsu Atomic took out the event with a great bag of fish and also only just missed out on the big bream prize as well. With Unitika being the naming sponsor they sent down a box of braid to make sure that every angler got a spool of Unitika Aorika, which is the top of the line braid from the company.

Zac and Nigel Skyring from Team Gamakatsu/Atomic came in with an awesome bag weight of 2.72kg to take first place. Fishing the outside of Soverign Island in the early hours of the day with Atomic Cranks and Semi-Hardz produced the duo with a small bag not yet big enough to take out the day. They headed to the Coomera River as the tide slowed down to look for upgrading fish.

“Using the lack of run from the tide to drift Semi-Hardz Minnows under pontoons and boats, giving them a twitch-twitch pause action seemed to entice these bigger fish,” the boys said. This technique paid off for the rest of the day, landing two big kicker fish around the 36cm mark.

“We used the Samurai Reaction 302, most people use lighter rods around the Gold Coast but we have found that using heavier rods we are able to pull these solid fish away from their structure reducing the amount of bust offs we used to have. One of the keys to our success was using the right gear, Samurai rods, Unitka braid, leaders and fluorocarbon straight through allowed us to cast further and feel more. Coupled with Atomic lures, we had every box ticked to win the tournament”.

The Mako big bream prize was one by Ashley Bryant Kitchens, it was caught in the southern reaches of Moreton Bay. Using a slow roll technique with hardbodies was the key to catching this fish. The Mako big bream was an impressive 890g and scored the team a pair of market leading Mako sunglasses.

Finishing in second place was Team Ashley Bryant Kitchens consisting of anglers Ashley Bryant and Rob Booker. They weighed a good bag of 2.54kg for only 4 fish!

Ashley and Rob made the trip to the southern end of Moreton and fished any shallow reef, rocky points and flats they could find. In the first hour they had a lot of trouble getting away from species like snapper, estuary cod and golden snapper. After the first hour they decided to keep plugging and stick to the game plan hitting the key areas as the tide dropped.

The stage of the tide on each particular location was the key to success, producing the fish in a small amount of time in each location before it shut down.

“With two hours to go we had our fifth fish in the net. It unhooked itself bounced twice on the deck before landing over the side of the boat,” Bryant explained. At this stage they knew the accident might be costly. Only under size bream where landed from then on until the 25-minute run back to the weigh in.

At the weigh in they unfortunately found out that the fifth fish would have placed them easily in first place.

Ashley and Rob mainly used Diawa tournament specialist bream 762ML coupled with Shimano stradic ci14 2500 and Sunline super braid 5. On these outfits they used what has fast become the number one estuary lure in Australia, the Atomic Hardz Crank 38 deep, in colour Ghost Green Shad.

Rounding out the top three was Luke Rogan and Peter Bostock from team Sniper. They weighed in their 5 fish for 2.48kgs.

They too made the run up to the southern end of Moreton Bay and fished flats, rocky points and shallow reef. By 8:30am they only had a couple of fish and everything was quite. They made the decision to move spots, which ended up being one of the keys to their success. The move saw them start to catch fish again and fill their bag, plus add a couple of upgrades.

Like first and second place, they chose to use Atomic Hardz Crank 38s and also some Pontoon 21s. They threw these lures on Yoshi rods coupled with Daiwa Steez reels. 

A huge thanks goes out to the series sponsor Gamakatsu and the naming round sponsor Unitika. For a full list of sponsors and any up and coming tournaments go to www.fishingcomps.com.au/gts and remember to “Support the sponsors that support your passion!” – Frogleys Offshore