ROUND One of the Stessl Family Bass Challenge was held on Somerset Dam over the weekend of January 17-18 in near perfect fishing conditions.

Eighty-three competitors battled it out for a share of cash and prizes, with Brad Turner taking out top honours using both fly and soft plastic techniques. Brad used Slider grubs to work his way to the top of the leader board on Day One, and then defended his lead using deep fly to bring in two 46cm-plus fish in Sunday’s session.

Toni Brandon from Nanango finished second, only 10mm short of Brad’s total. Toni accounted for all her fish by slow rolling baby bass Sliders rigged on 1/2oz Nitro jigheads.

Never too far down the leader board, Gavin Dunne in third position fished deep fly exclusively. On a weekend where most of the fly fishers struggled, Gav still found the quality of fish required to do well.

In the Junior Section, Lauren Sargent proved that it pays to be versatile by using both trolling and soft plastics techniques to score a convincing win. Lauren caught the majority of her fish trolling Blitz Baggers, but upgraded on several occasions with soft plastics.

Russ Teague landed the largest bass of the weekend with a 493mm fish, taken on a 1/2oz jighead. There was also prizes for the biggest golden perch, and these went to Wayne Blundell for the Seniors and Brendon O’Rielly in the juniors.

Round 2 of the Challenge will be held on March 15-16. For more information contact Gordon Turner on 0418 877 525.

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TOP FIVE

Biggest Bass – Russ Teague

Biggest Golden Perch – Wayne Blundell (snr), Brendon O’Reilly (jnr)