Set Up Day One Gallery
The 53 anglers who qualified for the Hobie® Bream Series 8 Australian Championship gathered tonight at the event site headquarters at Southport on the Gold Coast in Queensland to register for the tournament and attend the mandatory briefing.
Anglers guzzled down drinks with the compliments of Hobie Cat® and munched on pizzas provided by Mortgage Corp before Tournament Director Steve Fields got the formalities underway.
Steve gave a brief outline of the evening and introduced Jim Barrie from Hobie Cat who went over all aspects of the kayak anglers will fish from, the Hobie Mirage Pro Angler 14, including the new Hobie propulsion system, the reversible MirageDrive® 180, the Hobie XL Livewell and the Power-Pole Micro anchoring system.
Nick Hamilton-Smith from Lowrance then delivered a presentation on all aspects of the Lowrance Elite 5 Ti sounder, which is mounted on all of the kayaks that the anglers will use in the tournament.
Bob Findlay from Hobie Cat Media followed with a round by round outline of the 2016 season, highlighting the top three anglers in each tournament and disseminating some of the more interesting facts associated with the series.
Neil Carstairs from Mortgage Corp then announced the 2016 Angler of the Year (AOY), which went to Carl Dubois from Sydney in New South Wales. Carstairs presented an elated Dubois with a prize of $1000 from the mortgage brokerage company.
Steve Fields closed the proceedings by going over the schedule and some of the rules for the Australian Championships. Anglers then registered for the tournament, were presented with their championship jerseys and a welcome pack, and headed home to prepare for tomorrow.
The action starts at 7am Queensland time, with the Lowrance Navigation and Pre-Fish Day. Things are starting to get serious!
