Baker Bags out for Walpole Hobie Win

Victorian Hobie BREAMer Scott Baker claimed his first win on the Hobie BREAM Kayak Tour with victory in the inaugural WA round of the series held at Walpole 13-14th February.

The lone WA round of the 13 qualifying round series say eight keen anglers hit the water each day with a mixture of interstate and local anglers reveling in the fish rich conditions on WA’s famous flats fishery.

Victory for Baker was courtesy of his day two bag (3/3, 1.71kg), with the Victorian having a quiet opening day before dialing in on the fish on the day two to once again see Greg Lewis (3/3, 1.665kg) relegated to second place.  

“The fishing was red-hot on the second day and I had my bag by 7.45am”, explained Baker.  

Fishing the mouth of the Frankland River Baker used the ever popular Berkley Gulp Sandworm (camo) to fill his well, casting the offering close to the edge before deadsticking it and waiting for the bream to eat it.  

“It was a dead simple technique, flick it in, let it sit, wait for them to run, then strike”, explained Baker.  

While Baker only fished a small ten metre stretch of the bank it delivered him a constant stream of fish, catching 25 legals and 8 upgrades for the session.  

“There was plenty of fish there and they were aggressive, grabbing the lure with gusto then running off with”, explained Baker.   While satisfied with his maiden round win Baker was perhaps more relieved to have qualified for the end-of-season Grand Final.  

“I’m just happy to qualify for the GF, it’s the biggest event of the year and I was beginning to think that I might miss out on it”, said Baker.  

Claiming his second runners-up prize in two weeks was seasoned Hobie breamer Greg Lewis. Pipped at the post last week at Adelaide, Lewis felt once again the pain of letting another victory slip through his fingers.  

“I’m disappointed to see it happen again, but that’s tournament fishing as they say”, explained a reflective Lewis.  

Fishing the mouth of the Walpole Inlet Lewis targeted the rocky edges casting a Lucky Craft Pointer 65 up into the shallows before working it back with a twitch-twitch-pause retrieve. “It was an aggressive darting retrieve that saw the bream nailing the lure as it sat motionless”, said Lewis.  

A quintessential black bream response to a jerkbait style retrieve that delivered Lewis 30 fish on day one and an even better 40 on day two.  

“The number of fish in this place is impressive, when the big ones are on this place would be hard to beat”, explained Lewis.  

While Lewis added to his career earnings with his second place he just missed out on picking up another $100 on day one with the Boss Hog. Robbed 50 grams for a late penalty Lewis’ kicker fished slipped from 0.55kg to 0.50kg in weight, handing WA breamer Brett Ozzanne the day one prize with his 0.54kg fish. Ozzanne’s only fish for the day it was a great start to his Walpole weekend.  

Lewis wasn’t to be outdone on day two with his 0.89kg kicker fish securing the $100 prize. Falling to his custom coloured Pointer 65 is was redemption for his miss opportunity on day one.  

In total 40 fish hit the scales for the two days of competition with the tournament average of 451grams testament to the quality of fishing on offer at the venue.  

The next event of the Hobie BREAM Kayak Series sees the traveling series hit tassie for the single day Scamander round, 28th February. For event information and rules visit www.bream.com.au .  

Photos here..

[View with PicLens]