ABT Trout Classic Event - March
*This is also posted in Freshwater Reports
The ABT affilliated Trout Classic was a great event.
Conditions were quite tough, and Andy and I were finding it hard to get a decent drift in our Quintrex Hornet hire boat. WE persisted with plastics first up - but with no taps in the first hour or so we decided to move on. We wasted some time trying to find a sheltered spot out of the wind (and swell!!) which saw us turn around and come all the way back to where we initially started!!
We found a semi-sheltered spot and dragged out the long wands - we persisted with some loch-style fly fishing for the next couple of hours with zero result which proved costly. Tangles became quite frustrating too!!
We decided to get back on the SP's and finally found a method and plastic that worked for us. As we were free drifting (quite fast!), I found that a quick wind and a couple of fast rips through the water column produced a couple of taps which resulted in aggressive hook up's and unfortunate losses As soon as this happened, Andy jumped on board with the same technique and plastic which resulted in our first fish shorlty after 11am - just when a donut was looking certain! Phew!
Andy ended up catching the next couple of fish also, while I dropped another - STRUGGLING!! We drifted towards some trees as Andy yells for his net-boy again "Yep - got another one!" I'm thinking Jeezarz!! I reached down to grab the next with my lure still in the water and tap, tap - I'm on too!! Double hook up - Yeeeeeooooow!! We were finally starting to make our bag look respectable.
I managed another fish shortly before "weigh in" at 2pm hich finished our tally at 6 fish. Two of these fish were between 51-53cm
This is the first comp to be afflilliated by ABT and the event worked well. The comp required us to photograph the fish on a brag mat with out team tag, with a digital camera then release the fish to recovery- and hand in our media cards at "weigh in". We also had to fill in a sheet on what time, where, and what you caught the fish on. We caught all our fish on Reaction Flirt Worms - in 2 different colours = Dirty Sanchez and Watermelon/Red.
Big congrats go out to Neil and Nicole Grose who organised the event, My Team mate Yapper(Andy) and to Active Angler for their great support. It was also a fantastic opportunity to meet and see some real pros in action, catch up with some great Tassie blokes and get on the piss afterwards with some loooooose action and singalongs!!
Well done to the guys that smacked all the Trout too!!
