Round 5: Mandurah, Western Australia

The Getaway Outdoors and Camping Kayak Series kicked off with the Hobie® Round 2 event held on the Murray River in Mandurah. Anglers were greeted with hot Grannys pies, sausage rolls and quiches and cups of coffee and tea to fight off the chilly but perfect weather as they prepped their kayaks before the 7am start from The River Resort starting location. Bringing his 2014 form and coming out on top and in a dominant display on the water was Shane Owens. Shane’s bag of three fish weighed in at a healthy 1.970kg to easily eclipse 2^nd spot by over 450gms. Shane made the choice to head down river to the Murray Canals for the day where he targeted the various boats and jetties littered throughout the system, whilst only landing six or seven legal fish for the day the three that hit the scales were all 6-700gm fish with his biggest weighing in at 770gms and just missing out on the big bream mark of 840gms. Before launching Shane made the decision to stick with his vast range of plastics for the whole day which he did to great effect, he stuck with TT jig heads resisting the temptation to go heavier he found the 1/20^th worked a treat for him. Shane rods of choice were his 7ft Gladiator Cyborg 2-4kg and his 7ft Gladiator Elite Industries 2-4kg, these rods were matched with Daiwa Freams and Daiwa Luvia reels. Each reel was loaded Daiwa TD Sensor braid in 6lb, whilst attached to the end was Nitlon leader in 6lb and 7lb. Shane thanked his sponsor Gladiator for all the fantastic gear that keeps him on the water and helps him with his consistent results. In second place with another solid bag of thee fish weighing in at 1.515kg was Kepler Weber. Kepler made the choice to head upstream just past Ravenswood where he came across a nice patch of fish. Kepler worked the snags and banks that littered the area and consistently caught fish, with roughly 10 legal fish finding their way into Kepler’s kayak helping him to consistently upgrade throughout the day. Kepler also had the Big Bream hot seat to himself for most of the weigh in before finally being eclipsed by the 1^st and 3^rd place getters. The plastics that made the difference for Kepler were Zman 2.5” grubs in motor oil and Hooked on Plastics 3.5” paddle tail in opal shad, and these were all rigged on Squidgy 1.5gm size 2 jigs. Kepler used his 6’6” Azusa 601 1-3kg rod matched with a Shimano Stella 1000FE, the reel was loaded with WX4 in 6lb whilst his leader of choice was Nitlon DFC in 5lb (which is very brave considering the ground he was fishing). In third place with a fantastic bag of two fish at 1.415kg was Joe Franco, Joe made a similar decision to Shane and headed for the Murray Canals for the day. Whilst targeted bream around the jetties and boats and also the drop-offs with hardbodies , and it would have been about 8.40am when casting his Damiki Disco Crank parallel to the bank that it got crunched. The Carmen Red colour was certainly appealing to something and after a couple of surges Joe was unsure as to whether a small mulloway had been enticed, but much to his delight it was a healthy blue nose that breached the surface and found its way into the net. Joe’s 2^nd fish came on a Pontoon 21 Crack Jack 38mm also in Carmen Red, proving that throwing a hardbody lure all day certainly got results, although not enticing the numbers he managed to entice quality and if Joe had found a third fish around the same weight as either of the first two then he would certainly have given Shane a run for his money. Joe rods of choice were a 6’6” Daiwa Black Label V2 in 1-3kg and a 6’10” Pfleuger Patriot on 1-3kg, the rods were matched with Daiwa Ignis 2003 reels with Daiwa TD braid in 6lb, his leader of choice was Untika in 6lb. The disappointment of not filling his bag with a 3^rd keeper was soon put to rest when Joe’s beast hit the scales at 840gms and knocked Kepler off of the Big Bream hot seat, Joe then had a bird’s eye view of the last bag of the day to be weighed in (it was the eventual winner and 2014 KAOY). So it was not surprising to see Joe produce a little smile when Shane’s biggest fish fell 70gms short of the magic mark. Joe thanked his sponsor Pontoon 21 for the quality lures that helped get the results on the day. A huge thanks goes out to all of the sponsors for the fantastic prizes they have provided for the Series, this includes Getaway Outdoors and camping for sponsoring the Series, Hobie for being the round 2 major sponsor, Engel, Tackle Tactics, JML, Shimano, Compleat Angler Nedlands, Getaway Outdoors, Tonic Sunglasses and Dimiki/Pontoon 21 for all the fantastic product that filled the top ten prize packs. A big thanks also goes out to Grannies Pies for supplying all the yakkers with a feed before they hit the water as well as the River Resort guys for the fantastic location.