By Paul Malov
The first round of the Victorian Bream Classics series for 2014 kicked off last weekend down in the heart of Melbourne. Anglers took off from Williamstown and could fish anywhere in the bay, as long as they got there by boat and followed all other tournament rules. Some teams traveled as far as Geelong, the Werribee river and even Queenscliff to try to tempt some big black bream.
After a tough pre-fish around the boat hulls in Williamstown and the Yarra/Maribyrnong rivers on the Friday, a roll of the dice based on past experience, we set off and fished one of the smaller rivers that flows in to Port Phillip Bay on both days of competition. After a 40 minute ride, we arrived at our destination. Fishing bridges, pontoons and drop offs, dad and I used 2 lures all weekend. The main lure was the 40mm Atomic Semi Hardz sinking minnow and the other was the 2″ Atomic Fat grub rigged on a Gamakatsu Round 25 jig head (1/22 oz weight).
The sinking minnow was fished around bridge pylons and deep jetties and wooden posts and the 2″ Fat Grub was thrown when the sun was up high in the sky and the bream became extra flighty and spooky – a super stealthy presentation was required.
The most effective Atomic Semi Hardz colours that weekend were the Muddy Prawn and Ghost Gill Brown and for the 2″ Fat Grubs, it was the Brown Crawdad and Old Penny.
Both lures were fished the same way. We would make long casts, tight to structure, let the lure sink on a semi tight line, feeling for any bites as the lure sunk through the water column. Once the lure was on the bottom, we would give it 2 short hops of the rod tip and let it sink back down to the bottom. Continuing this retrieve all the way back to the boat.
When we could see fish chewing high in the water column, we used a slightly more aggressive retrieve and ensured the lure stayed higher in the water column and the strike zone – where the fish were holding!
It was our first 10/10 limit at the Docklands event which we were stoked about. It also gave us 4th place finish to the event and a solid start to another “Team of the Year” campaign. Fingers crossed we can keep this up for the rest of the year and hopefully get a win or two in the coming events.
Final results can be seen here: https://vicbreamclassics.com.au/articles_docklands_2014.html
See you all at Mallacoota. Tight lines
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- Paul Malov waiting to weigh in the teams’ bag of bream
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- 2 solid black bream caught on Atomic Semi Hardz
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- The crowd checking out the Gamakatsu Atomic Skeeter
