An increasing wind greeted 80 anglers on Sunday morning 22 November for the opening round of the Gamakatsu Team Series (GTS). With 40 teams heading off to Pumicestone Passage and Moreton Bay in search of some thumping yellowfin bream.
Team Atomic Hardz answered the victory call and presented the weigh-master with five healthy bream that pulled the scales down to an impressive 3.26kg. Opting to run as far south as time and boundaries would allow, Steve Eldred and Dale Mullins threw the increasingly popular Atomic Hardz range of bream lures to fill their livewell, including a whopping 1.04kg blue nose bruiser that also netted them an extra $500 of cash and prizes courtesy of Damiki Tackle.
Second place was awarded to young guns, Team Kung Pow’s Nabeel Isa and Kendall Soo, and ‘Kung Pow’ they did! Fishing a stones throw from the start/finish arena in the Bribie Island canal system Nabeel and Kendall used their whole day to fill a quality bag and weigh down the scales with 2.78kg of bream.
Finishing a mere 240g behind second place, with only four fish was Team Frogleys Offshore. Frogleys Offshore director Paul Starkey and sales manager Jay Morgan fished with knowledge gained through a successful prefish, to weigh four bream for a total of 2.54kg. With their fish caught on a range of Atomic Hardz surface and sub-surface lures, in only a couple feet of water in and around Moreton Bay, Paul managed to coach a heavy 980g fish out of the rocky outcrops on only 4lb Unitika fluorocarbon. The fish stayed as Damiki Big Bream of the day until the last bag of fish was weighed, where it was pipped at the post by Team Atomic Hardz.
We would like to thank Team Frogleys Offshore as they decided to hand back the cash and prizes they won because of their association with the event and this enabled us to pay down the field, a great gesture for the support of the event and fishing in general from Paul and Jay, thanks guys.
The visiting anglers from Japan adapted very fast to Australian teams breaming, and finished seventh and eighth place and cashing prize checks in what will hopefully not their last GTS Bream tournament.
Anglers were well rewarded with round sponsors Bassday giving away almost $11,000 in cash and prizes and all teams receiving a tackle box of lures. Once again, Steve McLean worked his magic on the GTS BBQ providing anglers with free BBQ and cold drinks on their arrival back to the presentation.
GTS would like thank BASSDAY for their involvement in the Bribie Island Challenge, all the staff and volunteers and sponsors.
The next round is on January 10 in Forster, presented by ECOGEAR, and is sure to be a great day with more great prizes. – Bassday
Place | Team Name | Angler 1 | Angler 2 | Fish | Weight (kg) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Atomic Hardz | Steve Eldred | Dale Mullins | 5/5 | 3.26 |
2 | Kung Pow | Kendall Soo | Nabeel Isa | 5/5 | 2.78 |
3 | Frogleys Offshore | Paul Starkey | Jay Morgan | 4/5 | 2.54 |
4 | Fishbrain | Derek Paynter | Art Reinstra | 5/5 | 2.41 |
5 | Pflueger/TT | Stephen Wilson | Darren Borg | 5/5 | 2.35 |
6 | SAW | Will Lee | Mick Lee | 5/5 | 2.27 |
7 | Samurai Reaction | David McKenzie | Alex | 5/5 | 2.15 |
8 | Bassday | Tristan Taylor | Nomoto San | 5/5 | 2.00 |
9 | TeeJay | Tony Livermore | Jamie Lockyer | 5/5 | 1.99 |
10 | Baronoff Agencies | Alex Baronoff | Tony Vanrooy | 5/5 | 1.90 |