LAST TOURNAMENT 

ROUND 5: HUMMINBIRD MANDURAH BOAT SHOW BREAM CLASSIC

SUNDAY 14 OCTOBER - MANDURAH OCEAN MARINA
Bright sunny skies, light Easterlies, and a multi million dollar flotilla greeted the 38 boats in this year's Mandurah Boat Show Classic, putting to end the usual run of grey skies and horrible conditions that competitors have met in previous events. However, despite perfect conditions, the Murray/Serpentine system was hosting its 2nd tournament in consecutive weeks and everybody knew things were going to be hard and some well thought out plans were put into place.

Back on his home ground Fishing WA's , Alex Griesdorf and partner Luke Ryan used his local knowledge to finish the year with a bag of 2 fish for 1.405kg, earning them a well deserved 5th place.

Weighing in 3 fish for 1.605 kilo and taking out 4th place Team Stratos's Don Johnson and Szarn Tink headed straight to the Serpentine River before working their way upstream with a combination of camo sandworm softplastics and a Forster special SX-40 hardbody. Back at the weigh-in Don reflected on his day by wishing he had started fishing at the top of the river where he eventually located all of their fish.

Having their best finish for the year the Fitzgerald brothers were only one of 3 teams to bag-out and weigh in 4 fish for 2.270kg. Fishing transparent vibes tight into cover meant the boys lost quite a bit of hardware while pulling of a well deserved 3rd for the Engel team . Richard has been a fantastic supporter of the Classic series for the past two years and I would like to thank him for his on-going generosity.

After a fruitless pre-fish up the Murray, team Trophy had decided to give the canals a crack and get a lure in the water early. Peeling off of the snaking line of boats on their slow journey to the river, Dror pulled a swiftie, heading into the first set of canals to shake of any following competitors before sneaking into the oldest of Mandurah's canal developments. Although starting out throwing snapbacks, the blowie plagues forced the pair to change to the more indestructible vibes. Early on in the morning, Dror even managed to successfully sight cast to a size fish hiding under their boat. Weighing in 4 fish for 2.545 kilo and taking out 2nd Dror and Nathan once again proved they are a very reliable pairing, with their worst finish an 8th and two 3rd's thrown in you can see why these guys are held in high regard around the bream scene.

Pro Nitro consisting of Chris Elliott and Leon Bettson also chose the Serpentine over the more heavily fished Murray River to secure a fantastic 1st place and a very cool pair of colour Hummingbird sounder/GPS units. Heading up to the Lake, they began fishing their way down stream until they attracted some action. Working the small stretch of River that was working, Team Pro Nitro caught all their fish on the tail half of 6 inch camo sandworms laced to 1/22nd jigs, after trying quite a few other plastics that didn't do the job. The water was so tannin stained that on more than one occasion they had to look hard in the livewell to see if they had their 4 fish bag, which was compiled by 9am before upgrading to a healthy 2.680 kilo by the end of the day. Leaving the top of the Serp by 12 for the slow trip back gave the boys enough time to change the water in the livewell so as the fish could acclimatise to the full salt environment back at the mariner. A very wise move as the whole field are trying to keep their catch in tip top condition.

The Joondalup Boat Shack Big Bream for the first time in the classic series was a draw between Nathan Gilders and Jason Doughty . Both anglers caught a 1.035kg bream to split the cash prize of $400, Rods been a great supporter this year helping out behind the scenes as well as giving away $1000 of cash over the year.

The HumminBird Mandurah Boat Show Classic is the last round of a 5 round series starting on the Swan back in March, 170 teams have participated in what has been a fantastic year supported by our many generous sponsors. We have also got roughly 8 teams heading over to NSW to represent W.A in this year's Classic Series Grand Final, fishing for a $45 000 Skeeter boat/trailer package.

This being the last round also meant we got to draw the Tracker Boats Australia, 175 Bass Tracker, in front of a huge crowd. Ron Burgess and his lovely wife Sandy, were primed and ready to give away one of their Tournament ready 175 Bass Tracker Pros kindly donated by Tracker Boats Australia. In front of a capacity crowd and with most of the 170 teams present, the tension built as our stunning barrel girl, Brit, drew the lucky ticket. With Ron working up the crowd into frenzy, the response he got when he read Dave O'Reilly's name out was fantastic.

Dave was an extremely happy guy who's enjoyment at winning the fantastic Tracker Boat was only matched by the poor fisherman that was going to sell Dave his old boat. Dave having only got into the top 5 once this year is proof that you only have to compete to win a great prize.

Thanks again to our very generous sponsors Tracker Boats Australia, Ranger Outdoor, Engel, HumminBird, Purefishing, Halco, Johnson Pumps, Jim Beam, Jiggy Jigs, Bluewater Tackle World, Joondalup Boat Shack, Innox, Club Marine, and Got One Woodvale, who continue to deliver quality merchandise that has enabled us to give away $110,000 in prizes, simply amazing. To the efforts of Craig LH and Timsy, along with T2 and ABT also a big thanks for the hours of unpaid work organising the events.

And finally, a big thank you to all those who competed in this years competitions. Your support of these events will mean their continued success, along with the contribution your entries make to the WA Fish Foundation. Looking forward to seeing all you guys back next year along with plenty of new faces to bigger and better things.

- Halsey

RESULTS

PLC	TEAM NAME	ANGLER 1	ANGLER 2	FISH	WEIGHT	BIG BREAM
1	Pro Nitro	Chris Elliot	Leon Bettson	4	2.680
2	Trophy	Dror Pietsch	Nathan Gilders	4	2.545	1.035
3	ENGEL	Richard Fitzgerald	Michael Fitzgerald	4	2.270
4	Stratos	Don Johnston	Szarn Tink	3	1.605
5	Fishing WA	Luke Ryan	Alex Greisdorf	2	1.405
6	Carn-Edge	Robert Berbick	Ellery Hatch	2	1.380
7	Berkley /Jiggy Jigs	Brad Yates	Dan Bonasera	2	1.215
8	Albutt	Jason Doughty	Paul Cleverly	1	1.035	1.035
9	Happy Hammers	Mick Burman	Wayne Archie	2	0.940
10	Jiggy Jigs / River 2 Sea	James Graham	TBA	1	0.860
11	BCF	Shane Morse	Shawn Saunders	1	0.705
12	Obsession	David O'Reilly	Andrew Herden	1	0.625
13	Skeeter WA	Tim Hodge	Murray Jeffrey	1	0.540
14	Marlin Boats	Brad Simms	Adam Pereira	1	0.495
15	Team Aw-Gee	Evan Locke	Fergie Ferguson	1	0.465
16	5 Star Entertainment	David Vrcic	Frank Vrcic