678 bream were weighed during the first of the Queensland BREAM Qualifying events, the Karee Marine Gold Coast BREAM Challenge.

With the lead changing several times during the final day, it was Michael Geary who eventually took home the major prize cheque of $2750. In his first event as a boater, Geary compiled a 10/10 bag for 5.91kg.

Geary used a Team Daiwa Cielo TDCEL631DSS titanium tip rod, matched with Daiwa TD SOL2500 reel rigged with 6lb Berkley Fireline and Yamatoyo 4lb Spinning fluorocarbon.

“I ran 8-10ft leader on this rod,” Geary said, “and used TT hidden weights and resin heads with 4” Berkley Turtleback Worms in pumpkinseed that I cut down to 3”.

Fishing the Sorrento canals in the Nerang River, an accurate cast was needed, right into the spaces between a boat and the pontoon to get the fish to bite.

“Once I had cast into the shade, I would let it sink and watch the line for any movement,” he said.

“If a fish picked up the plastic, I would let it take it for a second then strike.”

Proving it is best to fish till the end of the allotted time, Geary spent the last 25 minutes of the final day hitting nearby weedbeds with a combo of Ecogear SX40s (colour 309 and 338) and a Jackall Chubby. He upgraded twice using a Daiwa Certate Finesse outfit with 4lb Berley Fireline and 6lb Rockfish leader.

Leaping into second place with the tournament’s largest bag of 3.77kg was Stephen Wilson, taking his final total to 5.82kg for 10 fish. Wilson headed to the Jumpinpin Bar area for his fish, targeting a 100m stretch near the west side of Short Island.

Wilson used a G Loomis IMX HS 9000 rod matched to a Team Daiwa 2500 SOL reel spooled with 8lb Spiderwire Stealth and 8lb Berkley Vanish Transition leader.

Drifting along the bank in about 4-5m of water, he would cast at a 45 degree angle letting the 2” Berkley Shrimp on a 1/8oz Nitro Jighead sink to the bottom.

“The shrimp colour is new from Berkley and called nuclear chicken, but I like to call it funky chicken,” Wilson said.

“If the fish did not hit it on the drop, I would hop it back into deeper water. It was here I found the larger bream lurking,” he said.

Catching the ABT bug in his first tournament was Robert March taking out the Non-Boater division. March compiled a 10/10, 5.1kg limit, scoring himself a prize bag filled with sponsored goodies and a G Loomis rod, Daiwa Capricorn reel combo.

Fishing the Nerang canals on Day 1 with Kelvin Williams and the Jumpinpin area with Michael Mass on Day 2 proved to be no problems for March. He equipped himself with a Daiwa Heartland Z Special rod matched to a Shimano Stradic 1000 reel spooled with 6lb Berkley Fireline and 4-6lb Yamatoyo leader.

March found the bream took a variety of lures over the weekend including Berkley 3” Minnow Grubs (pumpkinseed), Berkley 3” Bass Minnows (watermelon) and Ecogear SX40s. Whilst fishing around pontoons hidden weight jigheads were chosen, however, in around 11m of water at the Pin, TT jigheads in 1/6oz and 1/8oz weights were used.

For more information visit www.bream.com.au or phone ABT (07) 3268 3992 (b/h), 0427 326 464 (b/h). – ABT

Boater Results

Non-Boater Results