After a week of flooding rains and threatening winds, a big field of 53 teams ventured out to fish the waters of the Gold Coast.

While the bulk of the field headed north, first place getters, Team Integrated, went against the grain and turned south to the Nerang River to pull a winning 5/5 bag of 2.610kg. Trent Mander and Nathan Sewell, long time fishing mates, proved an effective team moving up and down the river to cover as much ground as possible. They stuck to the new Ecogear VX35 lure for the whole day.

In second place, and sitting second in the series is Team BJS Mossops with 5/5 fish for 2.305kg. Peter Herbst and Arthur (Boxy) Hatzipetou took the long trip north to the Southern Bay and their favourite shallow spots and waited for the tide to run in. Using Tiemco surface lures in a variety of pale colours a ‘walk the dog’ presentation nailed their bigger bream.

Leading the series with 198 points is Logan River Marine’s Cory Tarr and Jay Morgan. After first place in round one, they secured third place by returning to the rocky flats near Russell Island. Berkley Gulp Saltwater Shrimp in molting was their favourite lure for the day.

The Big Bream was brought in by Team Atomic’s Aaron Sharp and Robert March. They also won the unofficial prize for the largest boat in the field – a 7m offshore boat. It still didn’t help them get back from the Bay in time though. Their 0.925kg monster bream was the biggest summer bream we have seen for some time. Even with the late penalty they still lead the field to take home the BLA prizes.

Prizes were paid to tenth place and, as this was the E-TEC classic, the top performing E-TEC owners were well looked after with Evinrude products. – Gary and Elliot Fooks