Trip Reports
My KFT Round 2 Result
- Category: Trip Reports
- Created on Monday, 08 November 2010 17:21
- Written by Stuart Whitehouse
After gaining 2nd place overall in last year's series of the Sunshine Coast KFT (Kayak Fishing Tournament) I entered series two this year being confident of getting into the top 10 again. Too confident perhaps.
This year saw a couple of changes to the format. The addition of a random draw wild card fish where the biggest of that species wins a $100 BCF gift card, and the spreading of prizes from the always generous sponsors from the previous top 10 to the now, top 15 place getters.
Round one saw me feeling somewhat devistated with no fish and no place after having been very confident of catch after a successful prefish the week before. Round 2 was postponed due to the ludicrous amount of rain prior to the day and the aweful forecast and strong wind warning for the day. The day was rescheduled for the same location but on the date that was originally set aside for round 3, November 7th.
Again I started the day feeling somewhat confident at gaining a place on the podium, having had a very successful prefish and getting 5 fish in under an hour, although they were all undersized I at least knew they were there and where to find them. My friends Doug and Joel and I made for the southern canals and I fished all of my favourite pontoons on the way up to the marina at the far end of the main canal. All of these "favourite" pontoons usually produce a good fish, or at least, plenty of interest but not this time. I never got to the end and eventually I spotted Doug working his way back so I turned around and drifted with the now, fast running, outgoing tide and had a bite to eat.
I was doing a good 3 to 4knots with wind and tide behind me and was back to the main river in no time at all with a full belly and ready to fish some more. By now it was mid morning and I was still without a fish. All I had caught by this time was a baby trevally that thought it was moby dick. I had plenty of hits on both softplastic and hardbody lures but no solid hook ups. I avoided the commercial marina where all the longliners and trawlers are moored because in the prefish that I had done with Doug and Joel it was pretty empty and fish were scarce. The private marina with all the recreational boats was my next target but I could not get to the places I had caught fish earlier in the week as the empty berths were now full.
The current was chugging along at a savage rate by now. It was a big tide at about 2.5 metres and had come up from quite a small low, so a lot of water had to move. I made my way upstream toward the start point with a couple more spots in mind to try before the weigh in. Since the KFT is a photograph and release tournament it's really a measure in. For those that are unfamiliar with this event, you are given a measuring board upon registering and it has a number that is allocated to you. You must photograph the fish on your measure board and write the details on your scorecard. Length, time of capture, and lure used, ie; 2" gulp shrimp in peppered prawn colour, or ecogear SX40 in gold or whatever.
At the weigh in (or measure in) you hand in your score card and memory card from your camera and hand back your mearsure card and key tag. Everyone is issued with a keytag with a number that matches your measuing board. The idea being that when you come back, fish or no fish, you hand your tag in and it gets hung on a numbered board. This way, they (the organisers) can tell at a glance if they are missing anyone. Then we all wait around and chat while they tally the results. Anyway, back to the fishing.
Having had no success at the places that went well earlier in the week, I was heading back toward the starting point. On the way I tried a couple of spots, one of which was the fuel wharf near where Australia Zoo keeps there whale watching boat. The bottomg of these old pontoons is very well encrusted with oysters and a very likely spot for bream. Lots of shelter from the sun under the pontoons and the wharf itself. My 1st cast at this spot landed perfectly about an inch off the oysters and with the current moving I left the bail arm open and gave my soft plastic gulp shrimp time to sink out of sight.
The line started to run a little quicker so I closed the bail arm, wound up the slack and wham! I was on to a solidly hooked fish. Phew, no donut for me this time thank god. It must have stayed side on the the current or something as it felt nothing like a bream, just a steady pull, no head shake, just a hard and steady pull. I pedaled out in to deeper water and dragged the fish, and my delicate 2lb line away from the oysters and after a minute or two I had netted what was to be my 1st and only fish of the day at 10.50am. It went 28.3cms to the fork.
I must also mention for those unfamiliar with this tournament that for a bream to be of legal size it must be 25cms to the tip of the tail but this tournament goes by the older size limit of 23cms. There are two reasons for this. The 1st reason is that we are not keeping the fish, it is photographed and released. The 2nd reason is that we measure to the fork in the tail and not the end of the tail which means it would probably still be a legal fish at 23cms to the fork anyway. My fish, at 28.3cms to the fork was certainly not a big fish but it wasn't too shabby either, and was definately a contender, remembering that last year a fish of 24.4cms got me into 6th place.
That was a tough round too when you consider that it was not a full round at only about 36 participants but also that there were only 7 of us caught legal size bream in that round. So here I am, having bombed out in this year's round one, and having a fish which, this time round, would definately put me in the running, and about an hour and a half to try and get more fish befor the 12.30 finish. Penalties applied for being back late.
I tried a few more spots without success and headed back to the starting point. On handing in my card and tag etc.. I found out that there were not only a few people who had caught the bag limit of 5 fish but that there were loads of people with just one fish to weigh in. Oh crap I thought. This round was fully booked and had the maximum "60" competitors. All I can say is, I am glad they increased the prize winning places to make it the top 15 instead of 10, otherwise I would have lost again. The 1st 13 places were taken by people who had caught 2, 3, or 5 fish.
There was only room for 2 single fish places. Starting at the bottom at 15th place, was a guy with a fish measuring 25 point something cms. I think I must have been grinning like a cheshire cat at hearing that as I knew .... I was in! 14th place gave me a Berkley prize pack worth about $100 or maybe more.
It consisted of;
- a Tackle Management Systems Bag,
- a spool of 4lb fireline,
- a pack of 2 bigeye blades,
- a pair of braid scissors,
- a pack of nitro jigheads,
- a pack of 2" gulp shrimp and
- a pack of 3" split tail hollow belly powerbaits.
Yakass member Slim (Peter Bostock)also took a place and a prize for his two fish, one of which was about 32cms but not quite big enough for the biggest bream prize. Good on you Slim. It was great to catch up with Slim, Biggles, and so many others. I am looking forward to Round 3 at Noosa which is now on November 28th.
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