Cameron Whittam claimed first place and $1800 in the first event for the 2007 Ford Ranger BREAM Series, scoring the only 10/10 bag for the weekend of 6.38kg.

Second place went to Wayne Friebe (9/10, 5.04kg), third (Mark Gercovich, 8/10, 4.30kg) and fourth to Stuart McKinnon (8/10, 3.88kg).

In the Non-Boater section, Brad Hodges took out first place (7/10, 4.94kg), second place went to Anthony Scullino (4/10, 3.46kg) and third place to Jordan Trusty (7/10, 3.44kg).

Brad Hodges scored the largest bag of the weekend (5/5, 3.78kg) on Day 1 and used a combination of an Ecogear SX40 in colour 306 and Berkley Camo worms rigged on a TT 1/20oz jighead hopped down rock walls. Including lots of pauses in the presentation of his SX40, he found the bream taking the lure aggressively.

Anthony Scullino took out the hotly contested Go-So $500 Big Bream on day two whilst fishing with AFC star Darren ‘Dizzy’ Borg. The bream scoffed a SX40 smeared with the popular ‘Dizz Gizz’ scent.

Andrew Mostert and Jordan Trusty tied for the big perch prize both with 1.2kg specimens. Each received a meals and accommodation voucher courtesy of the Nelson Hotel.

“I did not expect a win,” said Cameron, “but I have fished this system a couple of times now and felt confident it suited my angling style.”

Searching out bream on the prefish, Whittam found that there were not many fish past Taylors Strait and this is where he spent the majority of the competition.

Using two outfits, both consisting of a G.Loomis IMX SR842 rod and Daiwa Certate Finesse 2506 reel spooled with 4lb Berkley Crystal Fireline, he was able to quickly swap to another colour lure when he believed it was necessary. Attempting to match the area’s baitfish, he chose Ecogear SX40s in colours 306 and 344, a brown colour that landed 39cm and 36cm to-the-fork fish on the important Day 2 session.

Throwing the lure hard up against the cliffs on Day 1 he claims to have caught as many as 60 fish for the day, including 20 legals. On Day 2 he found the fish that little bit deeper and says that he doesn’t like casting coloured lines with hard bodies and this chose the Crystal Fireline.

“It was also the first time I have tried the 4lb Siglon Rock fluorocarbon that EJ Todd is now bringing in. It held up well and I would now recommend it”, Whittam said.

With so many anglers throwing SX40’s on the weekend it was only fitting that the Victorian Ecogear distributor was also amongst the fish. Wayne Friebe used a variety of colours including 304, 309, 338 and 339. Moving along the rock bars of Taylors Strait in 1-2m of water he found an aggressive stop-start action the best retrieve for the tentative fish.

Similar to Whittam, Friebe chose to use G.Loomis Dropshot DSR 820 rods with Shimano Stella 1000 and 2500 reels spooled with Berkley Crystal Fireline in 1 and 3 pound, finished with a leader of Yamatoyo 4lb.

A successful weekend both fishing and weather wise, 247 bream were weighed in at the Nelson Hotel for a total weight of 121.5kg, and an average size of 490g per bream.

The second qualifier for the 2007 Ford Ranger BREAM series now travels to Walpole on Feb 10 and 11.

If you want to read more or check out the 2007 calendar log onto www.bream.com.au. We hope to see you at an event somewhere around Australia this year.

Boater Results

Non-Boater Results