WA BREAM CLASSIC SERIES…ROUND 4

Matilda Bay Foreshore - Sunday 24th August 2008

Matilda Bay foreshore at 7am on Sunday August 24 was no time and place for shorts, sunnies and sunscreen, with the light breeze promising an icy ride to the first fishing stop. Optimism was a bit hard to justify for this last qualifying heat of the WA Bream Classic series, as reports from the Swan and Canning over the previous couple of weeks had been well short of glowing. While the river was starting to clear following a couple of weeks without significant rain, judging the effects of the winter flush on where the fish were likely to be was going to be a bit of a lottery.

Interestingly, as it turned out, fish were caught pretty much along the entire reachable length of the river, from Blackwall Reach right up to Midland Brick. Among the more productive stretches were Riverside Drive, behind Burswood Casino and "somewhere" at Nedlands. There were no easy answers though and only 16 teams from a field of 34 boats managed to present something at the weigh-in.

There were the usual stories of big fish lost, but not much in the way of undersize bream to at least fill the morning with some sort of action. Still, good anglers will find fish, even when the going gets tough and Dror Pietch and Nathan Gilders, fishing as Team Trophy, showed just what they can do when they remember to get back to the weigh-in on time. Their bag of four bream, weighing 2.545kg, was enough to take out first place and win for the boys a pair of brilliant 60l Engel fridge/freezers.

Other teams that managed to land their maximum of four keepers included Peter DeGroot and Toby Richards from Challenge Batteries (third place), Jeremy Middleton and Szarn Tink from Bream Ladens (fourth place) and Steve Yarwood and Andrew Manson from Grab a Grannys (fifth). Sneaking into second place with a bag of three fish weighing 2.125kg were Shane Lynton and Muzz from Team Black Ops, thanks in no small part to Muzz's 1.11kg beauty that went on to take out the Big Bream prize of $400.

The big fish took Muzz a little by surprise and he momentarily thought he was snagged-up as he jigged his way along the Narrows pylons. As the fish moved into top gear, Shane took one look at the curve in the rod and suggested Muzz must have been using his "bendy stick". He was probably never so glad to be so wrong, because Muzz confirmed at the weigh-in that he intended to share the prize money.

As series organiser Dave Tims pointed out, The Narrows is an amazing fishing spot and produces the best fish of the day in these events more often than not.

"A tough day at the office" was the universal assessment of the morning, but crews can take heart that at least the weather should be warmer for the last event for the year, when the series grand final takes place over October 11 and 12 during the Mandurah Boat Show. With first prize worth $10,000, you can bet that qualifying crews will be pulling out all stops to have everything right for that auspicious weekend.