Patrick Sullivan with one of Team Spirit of Tasmania’s 21 fish winning tally.
By NEIL GROSE | The first round of the 2009 Spirit of Tasmania Trout Classic was held on Great Lake in terrible conditions, with wind averaging 25knots and gust exceeding 40 knots.
However the wind was from a reasonably favourable direction, allowing all teams to find productive water in safety.
All 18 teams were on the water early, so by 6:50am there were rooster tails heading out of Swan Bay below the Great Lake Hotel and out into the main body of the lake.
Team Bigfin Sportsfishing with one of their 12 fish
All teams managed to find the fish early as the trout were obviously looking to feed hard before the brunt of the expected cold front hit.
Sure enough, most teams struggled to land fish after 10:30am with the exception of Team Spirit of Tasmania and fourth placed Team Juicy Isle.
Team Juicy Isle stayed in Swan Bay owing to their small boat size, and managed to tally up 10 trout totalling 514cm.
Third placed Bigfin Sportsfishing used the rough water capacity of their large boat to head north into Elizabeth Bay, which delivered them 10 fish before retreating to the shelter of Swan Bay where they notched another 2 nice trout.
Team BridgesBros fished the windswept shores to finish in second place.
Second placed team Bridges Brothers also erred on the side of caution, and after an initial foray around the Bee Hives decided to head back into relative calm water inside Swan Bay, where they completed their 12 fish haul.
But it was team Spirit of Tasmania consisting of Patrick Sullivan and Andy McCarthy that smashed the weather with a Great Lake Trout Classic record haul of 21 fish totalling 10.33 metres, winning the round.
Fishing mainly on the exposed shore along Becketts Bay between McClanaghans Island and Tods Corner, the boys found plenty of fish willing to play ball in the very rough conditions.
Their bag consisted of a 50/50 split between rainbows and browns – all fish taken on Berkley T tails in Black and Gold. Sullivan fished Pflueger reels and rods, while McCarthy fished with Howler custom rods and Pfluger reels; both used 1/8th and 1/16th ounce jigheads according to wind strength and shore depth.
For their efforts they took home two Team Daiwa Tierra reels and a $500 cheque, second place received an EcoGear prize pack and $200, third place a Berkley prize pack and $200, and fourth received a Berkley prize pack.
Biggest trout of the round was landed by Peter Garwood with a massive 60cm brown trout taken near the dam wall in very rough conditions.
We would like to thank our sponsors Spirit if Tasmania, Daiwa, Berkley, Ecogear and the Great Lake Hotel for their support.
I’d also like to thank Damien and Nick for their help checking boats, retrieving score sheets and with the final scoring.
A massive thanks to Jason Harris for the PA system as well – it certainly makes the whole event run smoothly.
118 trout were caught in total (58.6 metres) with an average length of just a smidge under 50cm. Very impressive results on a shockingly windy day.
The next round is on the 28th of November on Arthurs Lake – can Team Spirit of Tasmania make it four Trout Classic round wins in a row?
1 Spirit Of Tasmania 21
2 Bridges Bros 12
3 Bigfin Sportsfishing 12
4 Juicy Isle 10
5 Toad Lickers 9
6 Cranka 8
7 Specialist Outboard Service 2 7
8 Launceston Powder Coating 7
9 Bream It On 6
10 Specialist Outboard Service 5
11 Ecogear 4
11 Tackle Us 4
13 Rod & Range Sports 4
14 Strike Pro 3
15 Tasfish.com 3
16 Fishtas.com 2
17 Unique Breaming 1
18 Tomcat 0
Loading ...
You must log in to post a comment.