The first round of the 2015 Atomic Vic Bream Classic Series had everyone excited because it was the introduction of a new tournament arena never before used in the Vic Bream Classic Series.

The Maria Lures Sunline Bream Classic brought 48 teams of 2 anglers to the beautiful Marlo. With nearly the entire field only having fished Marlo a handful of times it was going to be anyone’s tournament to win. For Team Ever Hopefuls Daryl Baird and Jason Sellings the decisions they would make would give them a very well deserved first up victory.

Everyone could have been mistaken for thinking that the Marlo round 1 was being run in the middle of winter and not on the last weekend in January. The wind and rain made it much lower than normal temperatures adding an extra challenge for the anglers on this new mysterious location. The only thing that all the anglers in the field were sure of was that Marlo held some of the largest bream anywhere in Australia and landing them would be a victory in itself.

For Team Ever Hopeful the decision was made that rain, hail or shine they would head up into Lake Karingal and try their luck on the flats. This proved to be the best decision, as armed with Miller and G.Loomis rods, Shimano Ci4 and Daiwa reels spooled with 4lb and 3lb Berkley Nanofil and 4lb Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon leaders, the boys starting searching the flats for their first bream.

It wasn’t long before their Jackall Chubbies in ayu and their Atomic Shad 40 in muddy prawn where being smashed by quality bream and, with their bag before 8.30am, their spirits where high that they were in with a real chance to press for the lead.

As the boys headed to the weigh-in they were up against a lead bag from Team Wirth Rods, which went 4.46kg. When their bag hit the scales they fell just short of leading after day one with 5/5 bream for 4.44kg.

The JML Anglers Alliance Big Bream after day one sat with Team MPW’s Peter Marshal and Will Reinlt, which was a cracking fish weighing 1.64kg.

Day two saw weather conditions starting to improve and the field was in high spirits that the bream would fire even more than Saturday and some quality bags would be landed. This meant a top 10 charge from further down the leader board could pose a real threat to the lead teams.

Following on from their day one success Team Ever Hopeful headed back to the same Lake Karginal flats and as had happened the day before it proved a great decision.

“We started off by throwing muddy prawn and ayu Chubbies on both days in around 2.5’ of water with just a slow roll across the bottom, adding a slight pause every now and again,” said Darryl.

The boys again had their bag by 8.30am and then spent the next two hours upgrading countless times. “Both days were quite windy, the water was murky but we still managed to upgraded many times. However by 10.30am the fish had shut down, so we still persevered in the same area but could only manage to land smaller fish,” said Darryl.

It wouldn’t matter that only small fish came after 10.30am as all the hard work had already been done with 5/5 bream weighing 4.33kg. They took the lead and with 10/10 bream weighing 8.77kg and secured the Maria Lures Sunline Bream Classic win.

There were a number of teams producing some excellent captures on day 2 and subsequently the JML Anglers Alliance Big Bream and the Maria Lures Best Bag were both crushed on day 2.

Paul Malov and Alex Franchuk from Team Lowrance HDS took out the JML Anglers Alliance Big Bream with a horse of a fish weighing 1.67kg assisting them to move from 12th to 3rd position. The Maria Lures Best Bag was also smashed by David Harding and Stuart Carruthers from Team Edge Bite with 5/5 bream for 4.76kg rocketing them from 19th to 4th position, but the stars of the show where still Team Ever Hopefuls Darryl Baird and Jason Sellings who go down in history as the first team to ever win a Vic Bream Classic Tournament at Marlo.

Next round the 2015 Atomic Vic Bream Classic Series head to Metung for the 2015 Club Marine East Gippsland Bream Classic. For all the details and entry forms head to www.vicbreamclassics.com.au or call Bill Hartshorne on mobile 0409 823 070.

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