The inaugural MotorGuide BASS Electric Convention – held at the Gold Coast’s Hinze Dam on September 18 and 19 – proved a hit with the 28 anglers who survived the qualification process and made it to the dam on the weekend. And although the fishing was the focus, with two skins-style sessions over the weekend, anglers were tested in other areas as diverse as accuracy casting and fishing knowledge.

Resulting from the weekend were several winners. 44-year-old telephone company manager Ian Galloway took the honours on the Saturday session with a two-bass limit, while Hans Jensen, from over the border, stole the show on Sunday with the top single-fish limit. Baden Sparrow and Spiro Zantiotis showed their skills with the rod on the casting course, and Dale Sinclair and Baden tied for top marks in the BASS Trivia Challenge.

Ian’s 2/2, 2.339kg limit was the biggest recorded in a Hinze BASS Electric event to date.

“Although I live at Jimboomba, I consider that Hinze is my home dam,” Ian said after receiving his bow-mounted MotorGuide electric motor as a prize. “I fish here maybe 30 times a year and it was pretty special to be able to top such a talented field here.”

Ian landed four bass during his session, all on the same lure – an Atomic 3’ Fat Grub in Pumpkinseed with green flecks that was rigged on a generic 1/4oz ball jighead.

He cast the lure quite close to shore and slowly rolled it out from the edge along a stretch of bank between two major gullies.

“If there was some weed or small sticks in shallow water, I started quickly and then slowed down as the lure cleared the structure,” Ian explained. “If the bank was clear, I kept the retrieve slow from the start.”

Ian’s morsel was delivered with the help of a Shimano 1000-sized reel, a Daiwa Heartland-X 2-4lb spin rod, 8lb Berkley Fireline and 10lb Vanish for leader. He fished the dam’s western arm, as did most of the competitors during the event.

Hans Jensen, however, had a more opportunistic way to win the Sunday session. After bagging a couple of nice – but not session-winning – bass on topwater lures early on, Hans found the going tough until he fished the back of a gully that he’d landed a saratoga in several weeks before.

Rolling a RevHead rigged with a Slider grub down the guts of a steep gully, Hans was beaten by two bass before he extracted the 1.21kg fish that he raced to the weigh master. The grub was exactly the same colour as Ian had used so successfully on the Saturday.

“It was a pretty steep gully that I was fishing in the western arm – the boat was in 30 feet and I was casting up to the edge,” Hand said. “I think the bass must have been sitting in snags in the bottom of the gully, because it raced out, smashed the lure and tried its best to get back there.”

He used a custom Samurai 002 spin rod with a Daiwa Laguna 2000 reel, 6lb Fireline and 15lb Platypus Super 100 leader to take the honours.

“I didn’t think I had a chance today after catching nothing on the Saturday, so it just shows what a difference a day can make,” Hans said as he took his MotorGuide Great White transom-mounted motor as booty.

ABT would like to thank the Hinze’s Australian Bass Association (ABA) for their efforts catering the event on the weekend. Over $1000 was raised for future bass stocking in the Hinze.

2005 will herald over 20 BASS Electric events scheduled in three states. For more information on becoming involved keep an eye out for the 2005 ABT Tournament Angler Guide (available January 2005) or call ABT on 0427 326 464. – ABT