Ipswich’s Charles West reined supreme in the 2nd BASS Electric Major with the Haswing sponsored tournament pro fishing a deep water approach to secure victory in the Haswing Lake Moogerah BASS Electric Major, 2 August.

Keying in on a strong pattern and the location to fish during a prefish the day before, and the week before the tournament.

“I found fish the week before but they weren’t overly big. So I went out the day before the tournament hoping to find some larger fish. I was lucky and picked up a couple of bigger fish in the 30 minutes,” said West.

With his tournament location locked in, West went straight to his deep water spot, a 61’ deep area located between the lake’s two boat ramps.

“The fish were not far from the flooded river, and appeared on the sounder anywhere between 30’ and the bottom [61’],” said West.

With the fish holding super deep, West used a heavy lure approach, throwing both a Keitech Fat Swing soft plastics rigged on a 1/2oz jighead, and a 19g Jackall Mask Vibe. His deep technique involved sinking his lure all the way to the bottom then retrieving it with a dead slow retrieve.

“I cranked the Mask super slow, working it just fast enough to get the lure to vibrate. The Keitech I could work even slower due to the fact that the soft small paddle-tail needs little movement to get it to wiggle,” said West.

West picked up his first fish 40 minutes into the session; it fell to a Mask Vibe. Despite fish continually moving through the area and constantly appearing on his sounder West struggle to catch another fish.

“They were incredibly flighty, and despite there being plenty of fish and bait in the area they wouldn’t bite,” said West.

Three hours after catching his first, West finally picked up his second fish. This time falling to a slow rolled Keitech. No further fish or bites followed for the session.

Weighing in a 3.05kg bag, West in the end claimed a comfortable win, securing a 550g win over his nearest challenger, Christian Manolea.

Springwood’s Christian Manolea secured a podium finish at Moogerah with the BASS Electric pro fishing a deepwater soft plastic approach to claim second.

Locating the fish with his sounder, Manolea fished the 60-65’ depth range close to the lake’s northern boat ramp, with a technique that was typical deepwater soft plastic fishing.

“Most of the fish were suspended at around 30’ so I’d sink the plastic to the bottom then slow roll it back through the suspended fish,” said Manolea.

His go-to lure was as a 3” Keitech soft plastic rigged on a 3/8oz jighead. Picking up two undersize fish early it wasn’t until 9.30am that Manolea put his first fish in the well.

“They were hard to get to bite, you just needed to stay confident, and wait for them to eat,” said Manolea.

Weighing in a 2/2, 2.51kg session Manolea won a $300 Haswing voucher, prize pack, and secured a free entry into September’s Bluefin Boats BASS Electric Convention. – ABT

Winning Tackle

Mask Outfit

Keitech Outfit

Winning Ways

West picked up his first on Jackall Mask vibe then changed to a finesse presentation when the fish really shutdown. Fishing a soft plastic and fishing 4lb fluorocarbon straight through.

Flow-Rite Big Bass

Colin Linton claimed the Flow-Rite Big Bass at Moogerah, with the Brisbane basser securing the $100 prize with his 1.69kg fish caught near the ski zone flats on a vertically presented camo coloured Berkley Jigging Grub.

Results

PlaceAnglerFishWeightPayout