South Australian competitor Tom Deer with some of the marvellous St Helens bream

Marvellous conditions greeted the 25 starting teams in round one of the 2010 Spirit of Tasmania Bream Classic series.

After a fun filled Howler Custom Rods briefing, where Tim Colgrave won the Howler Custom rod, valued at around $300.00, teams soon filed off to their respective dens.

In cool and overcast conditions and light winds, the teams snaked their way slowly to the end of the 5knot limit before dispersing to all corners of Georges Bay.

With tides suiting the flats style angler, many teams headed for shallow water to fill their five fish limit.

During weigh in it soon became apparent that this was going to be great day, with 18 out of 25 teams recording a five fish limit, and only one team bringing donuts to the scale.

Some quite large bream were weighed in, with several contenders for the Tackle Us Big Bream amongst them.

Weights include the bream bags, so all weights are 495grams heavier than actual weight.

Second placed Plinio Taurian and Tim Hodge from Team Ecogear/Nitro at the presentation

Day One
Tim Farrell held the Tackle Us big bream lead with a cracker at 1.93kg (including bag).

Team Roz Homes and Construction won the Strike Pro encouragement award for Day One, which includes some hand picked Strike Pro Reaction Baits and some Strike Pro hardbodied lures.

Team www.tasfish.com/Bigfin of Mike Stevens and Leroy Tirant fished the flats extremely well to hold a 650gram lead after the weigh in was completed for day one.

Most teams were tight-lipped out techniques and locations for the first day’s session, keeping their powder dry for day two of round one of the Spirit of Tasmania Bream Classic.

Day Two
Day two of the first Spirit of Tasmania Bream Classic round saw a continuation of the consistent fishing from day one.

Teams set off in a constant drizzle, with Team Tasfish.com – Bigfin leading the pack out onto Georges Bay to protect their 650gram lead from day one.

All boats made the most of the run-in tides and overcast conditions to try and capitalise on the shallow water bite in the early stages of the session.

While some teams felt that the fishing was tough, all teams managed to bring fish to scales, including some thumping contenders for the Tackle Us Big Bream. Some teas reported catching over 60 fish for the two days, which is awesome fishing in anyone’s book.

212 bream were weighed in over the two days between 25 teams, which will certainly make competitors for the ABT qualifier in March very happy indeed.

Third placed Team www.sportsfishtasmania.com of Leigh McKenzie and Patrick Sullivan weighed in a 10 fish bag of 9.97 (including bag), and caught most of their fish on hardbodies fished over the flats in quite shallow water. Event though fish were coming to the hardbodies, McKenzie experimented with soft plastics for very little result.

Second placed Team Ecogear/Nitro used the same sorts of tactics, and hunted out the bigger bream for the top bag for day two. Plinio Taurian used Ecogear hardbodies lures to take plemty of great sized bream, while team mate Tim Hodge’s bag was compiled with Zipbait Khamsin Junior hardbodied lures fished in 1m of water on the flats.

However it was Team www.tasfish.com – Bigfin that held their day one lead to take out round one of the Spirit of Tasmania Classic.

Round one winners Team www.tasfish.com/Bigfin Mike Stevens and Leroy Tirant explain the finer points of their solid win

“A few things we put in place were – a plan that we stuck to; Lucky Craft lures – worked a treat, plus a shallow Stiffy Prowler. A Push Pole held us in position without having the noise/vibrations of the electric going; ipilot installed on the Minn Kota.” Mike said.

“The ipilot is awesome – we had about the first one in Australia thanks to Leroy and BLA supplying it on Thursday. They are GPS based and will repeat a track you have fished on and hold you in position using the spot lock/anchor feature – regardless of current, wind and so on” said Mike Stevens at the presentation.

Together with a range of hardbodies from Lucky Craft, and a Prowler Stiffy Minnow, the team cemented their reputation as the ones to beat in this year’s in this year’s Spirit of Tasmania Bream Classic Series.

Tackle Us Big Bream
The Tackle Us Big Bream was caught by Andrew Kruska with a thumper of 2.12kg (including bag), which less the bag weight would have come in around 1.6kg. Each round sees Tackle Us at Kingston providing a $200 voucher for the winner of the Tackle Us Big Bream.

Teams now prepare for the second round on the Swan River in mid April.

Many thanks to all sponsors: Spirit of Tasmania, Squidgies, Daiwa, Ecogear, Pure Fishing, Tackle Us, Howler Custom Rods, Tasman Door Centre and Warwick and Sally Medwin for their super-generous donation of 2x $100 fuel vouchers for each round.

Brendan Turriff shows young Stephanie how good these bream are

Team/total fish/total weight (includes bream bag)

• www.tasfish.com – Bigfin 10/11.27
• Ecogear/Nitro 10/10.57
• www.sportsfishtasmania.com 10/9.97
• Cranka Pro 10/9.31
• Tasfish.com 10/9.18
• Bream It On 10/9.07
• Club Marine 10/9.00
• Unique Breaming 10/8.97
• Lyndcraft Boats 10/8.90
• Strike Pro 10/8.79
• Bigfin 9/8.39
• St Helens Bait & Tackle 8/8.32
• Butcheri 10/8.09
• Tasmanian Fishing and Boating News 10/8.03
• Pellow Saws & Mowers/3BNF 10/7.91
• Tackle Us 10/7.01
• Rejects 10/6.94
• Sitting Ducks 8/6.58
• Launceston Powdercoating 7/6.50
• Spirit of Tasmania 7/6.32
• Spot On 7/5.93
• Breams ‘R’ Us 7/5.91
• Impact Painting 6/5.01
• Justin Breambalake 3/3.32
• Roz Homes and Constructions 1/0.96

2009 winners Leigh McKenzie and Patrick Sullivan of team sportsfishtasmania.com

Saturday will see the beginning of the first round of the 2010 Spirit of Tasmania Bream Classic Championship to be held at Georges Bay, St Helens.

The Bream classic championship is held over three rounds, the first in St Helens and corresponding rounds on the Swan River at Swansea in April and the final round on the Derwent River in May.

For the first round, a record 26 teams have registered to take part, each vying for maximum points to increase their standing in taking out the overall Bream classic championship.

Anglers will use soft plastic and hard body lures to tempt the bream, and the team to finish with the heaviest bag of 10 fish at the end of the two day event will be named winner of the round. The team with the most accumulated points after round will be crowned 2010 Sprit of Tasmania Bream Classic champions.

Tournament organiser Neil Grose expects a highly competitive field for the first round: “2009 ABT qualifier winner Steve Steer will be fishing in a team, and I expect they will be very competitive, particularly as the bream fishing in Georges Bay is at its best this time of year.

“Last years tournament came right down to the final round, with the winning team finishing seventh in the round however emerging victorious in the overall tournament by less than 10 points, which has really set the precedent for this years competition.”

The fiercely contested 2009 Classic saw team sportsfishtasmania.com taking line honours. “There are a lot of new teams this year so the competition will be red hot, and we’ll have our work cut for us” said sportsfishtasmania.com team member Leigh McKenzie.

“Georges Bay is quickly becoming one of Australia’s premier Bream fisheries, and I think that will help even out the playing field, so it will be interesting to see which team will come out on top this year” said McKenzie.

Bream fishing is fast growing sport in Australia and tournament organiser Neil Grose expects this trend to continue “Bream fishing as a sport has an emerging profile in Australia and it’s great to see more people get behind it and participate in Tasmania”

“What’s great about the classic is it caters for a wide variety of people, there are no restrictions on age or gender, anyone is welcome to participate” says Grose.

“This year we’ve received entries from south Australia and Victoria as well as the local Tasmanian anglers which is a testament to the quality of fishing here in Tasmania.

“Furthermore anglers will be fishing from high speed fishing boats designed to get the teams to the best spots first, so that on top of the big live bream tank at the weigh in area, the Georges bay event will also be great for spectator viewing.”

The first round of the Bream Classic begins Saturday, February 13 with anglers launching boats at 7am from the St Helens foreshore, and returning for weigh-in of a five fish maximum bag at 2pm where caught bream will be held in a tank for spectators to view prior to release. Winners will be announced on Sunday, February 14 at the conclusion of the day tw- weigh in.

Winners will receive prizes from event sponsors Daiwa, Spirit of Tasmania, Shimano, Pure Fishing, Ecogear, Howler custom rods and Takle Us Kingston.

Inland Fisheries Service (IFS) and Anglers Alliance Tasmania (AAT) have completed the Anglers Access project on the River Leven.

This project is building on the success of similar projects completed on Brumbys Creek, Macquarie River and the Huon River and is proposed for other rivers including the Derwent, Tyenna and Meander rivers.

The project has focussed on providing access to the various stretches of the Leven that typify the diversity of this renowned fishery including:

• The tidal section particularly along Lobster Creek Road from Allison Bridge (Golf course) to the Pump house
• Dial Ranges that provides access to the river within State Forest and offers a day walk fishing experience
• The renowned Gunns Plains area that focuses on easy wading over riffled runs and pools
• The Loongana area that offers the opportunity to capture a wild rainbow trout amidst stunning scenery
• Stiles, signs and other infrastructure such as pedestrian bridges, steps, gates and electric fence insulators have been installed to provide improved information, amenity and access for anglers.

The IFS/AAT project has focussed on developing and identifying access to locations where there is scope for shore based angling or wading.

These locations are identified on the access brochure that is available via the IFS website as a downloadable PDF file (River Leven brochure). A printed version will be distributed early in the New Year and will be available from major tackle shops or by contacting the IFS on 1300 INFISH.

Significant funding has been provided from the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry Recreational Fisheries Community Grants Program however the project would not have been possible without the cooperation and assistance of numerous private landowners, Central Coast Council, Mersey NRM Services and Forestry Tasmania.

Negotiations continue to further improve access – updates will be provided on the IFS website as they occur.

For further information on Anglers Access contact the Project Manager, Neil Morrow on 0438 279 421.

An officer from Tasmania's Inland Fisheries releases salmon into Lake Meadowbank. (ABC News: Jonathon Gul)

More than 1,000 trophy-sized Atlantic salmon have been released into southern Tasmania’s lakes and dams, in time for the Christmas catch.

Lake Meadowbank, Craigbourne Dam and Brady’s Lake have all been stocked with the fish, which have been donated by three salmon companies from their surplus breeding stock.

John Diggle of the Inland Fisheries Service says the salmon weigh about four kilograms.

“A lot bigger than people normally catch in their lifetime, you might catch one fish like that in the wild but these artificially reared ones and released, you know it’s an opportunity for people to catch a big one,” said Mr Diggle.

Inland Fisheries says it will release another 800 smaller salmon into Craigbourne Dam next week.

Anglers over the age of 14 will need a licence to catch the fish.

Here is a handy reference to the Draft Plan and the AAT’s issues with it.

Download AAT issues with draft Plan.

Download South Esk River Water Management Plan.

Download a view on the South Esk and the Midlands scheme from Hydrologist Dr David Leaman:

Midlands Water Scheme [PDF 374Kb]

Remember deadline is December 18 2009.

UPDATE: The closing date for South Esk comment has been extended until the 18 December 18 2009.

The South Esk Draft Management Plan has been released and input from anglers is invited. We urge all anglers and clubs to look at the plan on the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment web site.

Anglers Alliance Tasmania will be making comment but the number of submissions received from anglers will have a direct effect on the future of the plan and so your input is vital.

We suggest that you pay particular attention to:

• Science recommends a no take level of between 100 and 160 megalitres but the plan is reducing this to 40 megalitres — a drop of at least 60 percent against the evidence.
• Ground water considerations are not entailed which may be a significant concern given the monoculture forests in the headwaters of the system.
• The trial period is 10 years!
• The abstraction of water is a very poor balance when water legislation gives the environment a surety level of 2 and irrigation a level of 5 and over.
• Given the amount of abstraction being suggested this would appear to be at severe odds with both the environmental aims and social objectives of the Plan.

We appreciate that such matters are a demand on your time but you will have only a single chance to air your views on the future of this important river system.

IFS and AAT have been implementing the Anglers Access projects on the Macquarie (above) and Huon (left) rivers during 2009.

The projects have involved negotiations with private and public landowners, completion of access agreements, riparian works including willow removal and installation of stiles, fences, water troughs and signs.

With all the ‘on the ground’ work now essentially completed the final stage has been the development of the Anglers Access brochures for distribution in both hard copy from major tackle shops and via the IFS, Fishing Tasmania and AAT websites.

The brochures are now available and will be distributed to tackle shops. Alternatively you can contact the IFS on 1300 463 474 or email infish@ifs.tas.gov.au and we will send you a copy.

The Huon brochure identifies access points between the seaward limit at Castle Forbes Bay to the Huon Track upstream from the Tahune Airwalk.

The Macquarie brochure focuses on the area between Longford and Ross and includes a section of the Lake River.

Anglers are reminded that these projects would not have been possible without the cooperation of private landowners and that the basic principle of Anglers Access is: ‘Access is a privilege not a right – if in doubt ask.’

Anglers must observe the access signs and where access is not specifically identified assume that they must seek permission from the landowner.

Download the new Macquarie River Brochure. [PDF - 1.7Mb]

Download the new Huon River Brochure [PDF - 1.6Mb]