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| Team Squidgy & Shimano Take Out NBC 2007 |
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PREFISH: Pre-fish started slow, we fished all the lower areas of the Parramatta river and lane cove river for all but a mixed bag of the wrong species, the water was extremely cold and clear, something with both do not fish confidently in.
As a result we decided to head to the upper reaches of the Parramatta river above Homebush bay, straight away we found several bream, though of no significant size but the right species none the less..
DAY 1: After several beers the night before the decision was made to fish the upper reaches and just keep casting and plug away. So that’s where we headed, Joel fished an 80mm wriggler in wasabi colour a little wider and deeper on a secondary drop off that we were marking fish on the Lowrance sounder, myself fished a hardbody to the shoreline to cover both areas.
It was obvious the 80mm wriggler was generating far more interest, probably due to the cold conditions, so I in turn follow suit and used a plastic, my choice a squidgy 50mm stealth prawn in wasabi. It was not long before several fish were in the Prostrike spa bath, then we cracked a little pattern and found quality fish in the eddy behind marker poles this is were the prawn came into its own. After upgrading several times our bag weighed a little over 3.7kg. Very happy.
DAY 2: We went with the same approach as the previous several unconverted bites early had me a little worried, we knew today was going to be a tough one. Day before was overcast, this day bright sunshine 20 knot winds and the barometer had fallen dramatically. Though we plugged away and managed to scratch up 4 fish, needing a 5th and battling the conditions and running fast out of time lady luck jumped on board, literally Megan the camera girl. She assured us that she was a lucky charm, fair enough my very next cast produced number 5. A tick over 2.3kg, not huge but it was a full bag on a tough day.
FINAL DAY: 200 grams of the lead had me itching to wack’em, we powered the Prostrike to the top of the Parra once more and proceeded to plug away, the bite was slow, but by 9 o’clock we had five in the well. Though 2 little scrappers in the well had to go if we were going to give the title a shake. The next hour and a half went to no avail, then I suggested we head back to where several of our quality fish had come from early in the morning, two casts later and a 600-700 gram fish graced the well and bye bye to one scrapper. Knowing we needed one more upgrade who should show up but lady luck once again (Megan), once again assuring me she was lucky and an upgrade was on the way. Several minutes later whack and a fish of about 800 grams hit the net, yahoo show me the money, at this stage Joel and myself were very confident yet very nervous. A smidge over 3kg on the scales and we had done it.
Well that’s about it, we would like to extend our deepest thank you’s to everyone who made this possible, Shimano, Squidgies, Toyota, Evinrude, Haines and all the sponsors of course Sportfish, Neil Ryan and everyone involved.
Mossy with the tank, to all who made the grand final and Mark, Simmo, Bill and Rich you guys did amazingly well on a tough weekend and I couldn’t imagine a better group of guys in the top three.
Cheers Chris (Cletus) and Joel
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