Strike Pro Round 1. Bemm River, Victoria 2019

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Day 2 Weigh-In

Day 1 Weigh-In

The 2019 kayak angling season began with 101 anglers pedalling off in glassy conditions, in Strike Pro round one of Hobie Kayak Bream Series 11, on Saturday January 12, at Bemm River in Victoria.
Anglers powered away from the Power-Pole starting line just on 7:00am. A light NE wind wafted across Sydenham Inlet before an expected SSW change was due somewhere between 10:00 am and 11:20am. The field split into several groups with a fairly, even mix of those heading to the north (Bemm River entrance and Mud Lake), south (Siberia), west of the start line (Bob’s Bay) and to the East towards Mahogany’s.
While most of the field was struggling to find patches of Bream, a dozen or so competitors had bagged out (3 fish in the live well) by 9:00am. In the light conditions everyone was waiting for the wind to break up the surface on the mostly glassed out waterway. The north side of Mahogany’s was producing most of the fish and eventually, the flats began to work well as the wind came up.
Conditions were slightly irregular with the water level in the river and inlet extremely high. The normal edge bite was not present with the waterline was some 100 metres further into the scrub than usual. Lures that were working early were Daiwa Double Clutches, Laydown Minnows and blading the deep water with vibes. Some success had been seen on soft plastics like Damiki Paddle Tail shads and GrubZ.
At the end of the day 77 anglers presented fish to the weigh-master with over 180 Bream caught, averaging 630g. In the running for the Atomic Big Bream was young Photi Kaoullas from Victoria (Vic) with a nice black bream weighing in at 1.14 kg. 17 anglers were sitting above 2 kilos with the leader Ben Thompson (Vic) on 2.67 kg.
Day two was shaping up to be a cracker of a day with a light easterly breeze and overcast skies greeting anglers at the start of the session. The north side of Mahogany’s produced most of the fish on Saturday and “the Flats” were where most of the fish were caught on Sunday.
There was a very early morning bite on the flats due to the high cloud coverage and wind. Some anglers had a great start putting fish in their live wells very early on, one within 3 minutes of the start. As the day wore on the wind picked up. The official forecast was mixed across different sources. When it came in, the wind hit Bemm harder than expected, increasing to an average of 16.7 knots with gusts much higher still. Most anglers handled the conditions well, and the harder the wind blew the bigger the fish, that were caught, were getting. While there was slightly less fish caught on day two, in the heavy conditions, the average size of fish was slightly bigger.
Total Legal Bream Caught Over Two Days: 342
Total Weight: 226.10kg
Average Weight of Bream: 660g
PETTIE HOOKS ANOTHER WIN
The eventual winner of the tournament was Tony Pettie from Traralgon in Victoria. Pettie had also won this event back in 2017. He outlined how he took on the Bemm “Blacks”, to collect a cool $2820 in prize money.
“On day one I fished the deeper water out from the red markers near the middle of the lake in 2.8m using Hurricane Vibz 37 in Camo Crab colour & Hurricane Sub Grub in Spawn Worm colour. In the glassed-out conditions I had caught my three Bream by 8:15am. I then managed to upgrade three times throughout the day and at weigh-in they went 2.25kg, I was sitting in 9th place”.
With the water colour change overnight, the overcast skies and the cooler conditions Pettie was able to catch about twelve legals on day two, with the average size bigger than day one.
“On day two, I had a similar plan to the first day of the tournament and I used the same lures. I started fishing at the start of the drop off and managed 1 bream on my second cast. The Hobie media boat turned up, and I hooked and landed my second bream and had my third by 7:25am. At 9:30am when the media boat turned up for a second time, I landed a 1.1kg bream. When the nasty, easterly wind started about 10:00am, I began to land some nice fish and upgraded four more times. I tried to stay out in the rough conditions but eventually gave up and came in early with a reasonable bag of fish”.
“At weigh-in my bag went to 3.10kg. That was enough to put me in 1st place”.
Rod: Hurricane
Reel: Daiwa Aird-X
Line: 6lb
Leader: 4lb FC Rock
Lure: Hurricane Vibz 37 in camo crab
WRIGHT WINGS HIS WAY TO SECOND
For the second-place getter, Nathan Wright, from Victoria, it was a tournament like no other. He had never fished Bemm River before and “just winged it” on the new waterway. Over the two days of the event he used exactly, the same approach, mainly throwing TT Slim SwimZ in motor oil. It was also his first ever Hobie tournament, and when he first registered for the tournament online, he had to make the choice of whether to take the “First Time Entry” option, and not pay the entry fee. However, in doing so he would have to forgo any prize money he may possibly win. Luckily, Wright made the “Right” choice; he decided to pay the entry fee which placed him in the Open Division along with the other anglers vying for prize money. That wise decision ended up allowing him to go home with sweet $1470 of prize money in his pocket. The Hobie – Bemm River combination paid off!
Rod: Daiwa Infeet
Reel: Daiwa Luvias 2506
Line: 6lb
Leader: 4lb
Lure: Slim SwimZ in motor oil
ATOMIC BIG BREAM
The largest bream caught over the two days of each round is known as the Atomic Big Bream. At Bemm River the $100 cash prize went to Mitch King (Vic) for his 1.39kg Black Bream.
MORTGAGE CORP MONSTER MOVER
The Prize Pack for the angler who improved the most over the two days, the Mortgage Corp Monster Mover, was Alex Whitehead from South Australia. Whitehead weighed in no fish on day one, and then brought home 2.64kg on the second day of the tournament.
DIVISIONS
Youth Division (16 – under 21 yrs)
Kayle Rattenbury NSW 6 fish for 3.75kg

Women’s Division
Ruth Beeby VIC 4 fish for 3.01kg
Master’s Division (60 – 64 yrs)
Gary Hanson VIC 5 fish for 3.39kg
Grand Master’s Division (65 and over)
Tom McLean NSW 6 fish for 4.12kg
Pro Angler 17 Tandem Division (Teams Event)
Jamie Bowden & Tammy Arnold 4 fish for 2.22kg
First Time Competitors Division
Lachlan Gammie SA 1 fish for .5kg
The next round will be Mortgage Corp round two at Mallacoota in Victoria on March 2-3.
Thanks to Strike Pro, Daiwa, Lowrance, Power-Pole, Gerber, Atomic, Mortgage Corp, Tackle Tactics, Pro Lure, Cranka Lures, Lurefans, Hobie Polarized and JML.