Some say that a smaller field makes competition fishing much tougher, with the regular spots not getting pressured. However this proved no obstacle for Steve Eldred and Simon Vaughn of Team Atomic Hardz/Eureka who backed up last year’s win to take home the first Dash for Cash in 2010.

A crisp autumn morning with light southerly winds and plenty of cloud cover greeted the field of 17 boats and the day had all the makings for a haul of bumper bream. With boundaries stretching from the reaches of the Nerang River up to Moreton Bay the teams had plenty of room to spread out to find their bag. Team Atomic Hardz/Eureka returned to their trusted grounds in Moreton Bay where they found the big fish last year. Once again the island hopping strategy proved to be successful, working the shallow flats with Megabass Dog X Juniors in Bone Medina and Atomic Baby Cranks saw the boys bag 5 good bream for 3.64kg. They reported a great day’s fishing with plenty of bream in the net which saw them upgrade throughout the day.

Michael Horn and Ben Godfrey of Team Sunline/Maria proved you don’t have to go to the bay to get a good bag of bream. The pairing worked all their favourite spots around the Casino and the Nerang River fishing the new Maria Deep Crank to accumulate a bag of 3.285 kg. The fish were reportedly not found in large numbers so the team kept on the move picking up a fish and then moving on for the next.

You would think having local fishing guide Thomas Seebach of Coastal Sports fishing as a team mate would give you a huge advantage in seeking out the local bream spots, however team Megabass/Coastal didn’t need to rely on it bypassing the local waters to fish the Southern Bay. David McKenzie and Thomas worked Atomic Baby Cranks around the island flats to return with a 3.2kg bag. The Big Bream was taken out by Aaron Sharp and Robert March from Team Atomic weighing in a kilo plus bream, and thanks must go to TT Lures for their support donating a $500 TT Lure Pack for Big Bream.

Hard body lures were the successful lure amongst the field and while most teams talked about it as a tough day’s fishing with fish being very tentative to bite, 12 out of the 17 teams returned to scale with a full bag of 5 bream.

Unfortunately a clash with a number of other events and tournies saw the team numbers down on last year’s event however we expect the field to increase for the next comp on June 27. The payout of this comp is dependent on the field and we would love to see greater numbers join for a day of ‘spawn bite breamin’ in June.

Well done to Steve Wilson for his organisation of a great fishing event and thanks to the Gold Coast Sports Fishing Club the home of The Flathead Classic (Sep 29-Oct 2 2010).