Paul Malov fishing with his father Alex Franchuk have recently beaten 67 other teams from all around Australia, to take out the season ending ABT Bream Classic Championship which was held at Mallacoota on November 5&6 2013.
After a solid pre-fish, catching 6-8 legal fish and leaving a number of areas un-touched, due to previous experience and trying to carefully manage their spots, knowing how much pressure could be put on them over 3 days, a plan was set on the Monday night to target tea tree lined edges, rocky points, deep rock walls as well as the deep open areas of the top lake.
After the random draw at the briefing and a starting position of 63rd, we weren’t really sure where we were going to start, but luckily for us, a small area we wanted to target first thing in the morning was left alone and we were in there and fishing just after 7am. Alex was throwing an Atomic 2″ fat grub in Avocado and Green Gord colours and it didn’t take long until the first solid keeper was in the boat at 7:07am! Within the next hour another 2 solid keepers came in to the boat. A change of spots and by 8:30 we had our fourth fish in the boat, all on the 2″ Atomic fat grub. Our 5th fish for the morning fell to a slow rolled Atomic Crank 38 in Ghost Green shad, over a shallow muddy bank in 1m of water. 2 further upgrades followed and the bite had shut down by midday.
We were one of the last teams to weigh in on day and and our bag brought the scales down to a respectable 4.58kg for 5 fish, giving us a 70gram lead over our competitors. Feeling confident after the first day, we decided to follow the exact same plan on day 2.
On day 2, leaving in first place gave us some confidence, however our first spot really didn’t fire for the first hour. It was starting to be a real grind. With patience and persistence we were able to extract 2 solid keepers from our first spot of the day and started to run and gun our other key spots. At 10:30, I caught our kicker for the day, a cracking black bream which weighed 1.56kg on a lightly weighted 2″ Atomic fat grub.
With only 4 legal fish by 12pm, a decision was made to move out deep in the top lake and try to fill out our bag. After 4 or 5 moves, I was able to get our 5th fish in the boat which fell to an Atomic Metalz 1/8oz in Ghost Green Shad. As soon as that fish was in the boat, we decided to continue running and gunning our big fish spots in the hope of an upgrade.
With half an hour to go, we hooked 3 big yellowfin bream tight in some timber and lost all three…with our heads down, I was starting to wonder if those lost fish were going to cost us a high placing. With 15 minutes to go, we made a short move over to some likely looking timber. I put in a long cast, tight to some snags and quickly came tight to a big upgrade. We were able to release our 29.5cm fish and upgrade it with a 36 fork black bream! With some high fives we made a decision that was going to be the last cast of the day. Would it be enough? Time would tell. With a 2pm finish on day 2 and weighing in early, our bag of fish brought the scales down to a respectable 4.78kg! We were wrapped, but now the long wait was ahead of us to see if we could hold on to the lead.
As luck would have it, most teams found it hard going on day 2 and we were able to claim the win by a respectable 1.29kg. We are absolutely over the moon with the win and it was definitely a highlight of our fishing careers.
Key tackle used over the weekend: Samurai 201 and 203 rods, Daiwa reels spooled with Unitika Aorika II 10lb braid and 6lb Unitika Aiger flurocarbon leaders.
Thank you to Chris Seeto from lureandfly.com for some of the photos.
We are looking forward to the last event of the 2013 season and a big season in 2014!
Tight lines! Paul
Gamakatsu/Atomic leading after day 1
Leading after day 1 of the ABT Classic Championship
Day 2 weigh in – not sure if we have enough
Day 2 weigh in – taken the lead
Gamakatsu/Atomic wins the ABT Classic Championship
