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Awoonga BARRA Trophy Results & Story
#97 - 0--stevemorgan--Awoonga BARRA Trophy Results & Story--2010-08-21 18:34:07
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Boys take out the Awoonga Barra Trophy in a tough bite
On the 20th and 21st August 2020 the second round of the new ‘Barra Trophy' tournaments was held on
the renowned home of big barra, Lake Awoonga. 19 teams entered, all with the
desire to land a massive slice of chrome and muscle, also known as destroyers of
tackle and dreams.
With Lake Awoonga at 89% capacity, a far
cry from the 32% the lake was in last year's ABT Barra tour, it presented a new
arena for the majority of anglers. The condition of the lake could only be
described as pristine, with new weed beds forming, lots of newly submerged
timber and shrubs, and a massive increase in shoreline and fishable territory.
Baitfish were prolific, but water temps were lower than hoped, hovering around
the 20 - 21 degree mark, and steady. Recent captures by guides and locals on
the lake indicated the fish were there to be caught by anglers who persevered. - Session
One
After a lakeside briefing, the teams set
out at 4pm Friday in great conditions, with five hours to try and put a barra
or three on the brag mat. The first team able to achieve that was Team
Serrengetti, with Karl Rembacher on the rod, and Richard Price on the net. The
106cm fish was taken on a 110 Slick rig at 6.25am, and earnt Karl a Foxies
tackle pack for first barra taken in the tournament.
Back at the tag board, as teams returned,
several tales of lost fish were told, and just seven teams handed in their
folders, complete with their digital memory cards to record their captures. Six
of the seven teams had landed just one fish with just one team landing two
barra - Team Evinrude/Minn Kota consisting of AFC & ABT Barra champs Cy and
Kerrin Taylor. They stuck to a proven tactic fishing modified slick rig lures
across shallow weedbeds to take the Session One cash prize of $50 with two fish
for 198cm.
Session
Two
An early morning barometric spike, and
warming conditions, gave anglers renewed enthusiasm to tackle the five-hour
morning session. But again Lake Awoonga lived up to its reputation as place
where dreams are made and sometimes shattered, with only one team registering a
barramundi for the session.
Team Narangatangs consisting of Glen Smith and
Michael Weick took the honours and $50 cash for the session. With a feisty 86cm
barra that inhaled Micheal's Saruna, that become wedged inside its mouth,
eliminating the chances of it throwing the hooks. Earlier in the session, Glen
dropped a huge barra late in the fight, leaving him shattered as he'd also
dropped a big one in the previous session.
There was very little encouragement for
most teams in the morning session, although Dan Grech managed to lose a fish at
the boat, when the hooks came free on its final surge...
Session
Three
The final session again kicked off at 4pm
Saturday, and was extended by an hour to 10pm due to overwhelming angler
demand. This evening session proved just as productive as the Friday evening
session, with eight barra gracing the brag mat, and several more proving
elusive.
Team Scaleforce and the Nerangatangs both
made late charges for victory with two fish each, but the Taylor boys held out
all-comers by securing session 3 with two fish for 199cm.
Stats
19 Teams/38 Anglers
Session 1 - 8 Barra
Session 2 - 1 Barra
Session 3 - 8 Barra
Total - 17 Barra
Total Length - 16.09m
Average Length - 94.6cm
Big
Barra Ladies - Elaine Sanderson - 92cm. Only two
ladies took part in the Awoonga Barra Trophy, leaving Elaine and Katie
Sanderson to fight it out for the Big Barra Ladies Title from the same boat.
Elaine got her 92cm fish in the first session, and Katie was unable to land a
fish to challenge her for the title and the prize of a Pflueger Arbor Spin
reel.
Big
Barra Senior - Cy Taylor - 111cm. Cy was again on
fire, and actually landed the two biggest Barra for the tournament at 111 and
110cm. He fished proven big fish areas in the main basin. Other anglers hooked
fish that may well have challenged Cy, but he was able to put his on the mat
when it counted. Cy's efforts yielded him the Big Barra Senior title and a
Pflueger Patriach Baitcast Reel.
Champion
Team Catfish - JT Reel Repairs/Rapala - 2 Catfish.
The highly sought after title of Catfish Kings............went to Daniel Grech
and Jon Millard. They landed one each, with Dan taking out the largest at 42cm
to the fork. Several other teams registered one catfish each for the event. But
these boys took home the Foxies prize packs for their fine efforts.... well
done Dan and Jon!
Top
Five Teams Results
5th - Rapala Street Team - Craig Griffiths and Daniel Roth Consistant performers, Craig and Dan took
out 4th in the Mondy Barra Trophy earlier in the year. In this
event, Rapala Street Team fished a bank up the back of the main basin, and had
a very frustrating first session losing a string of fish, and managing to boat
just one at 103cm that managed to put them into 5th position. They
were kicking themselves for dropping so many fish in the first session, as
subsequent sessions didn't produce the same action, and in a tough bite, they
could have easily found themselves higher up the leaderboard.
4th Team Serrengetti - Karl Rembacher and Richard Price
Camped out at the Canvas Cabin at Awoonga
Caravan Park was the inspiration for the team name Serrengetti. These boys
caught a couple of fish in the prefish and were feeling confident going into
the event. As it turned out, Karl's session one - 106cm barra was enough to put
these guys into 5th and take home an extra $300. The barra slammed
Karl's Slick Rig right at the boat, causing temporary heart failure for Karl,
before he came to terms with a fired up barra on a short leash and tight drag.
You'll have to ask him the story as it is a beauty, that I'm sure he won't mind
retelling. Fortunately everything held up, and the fish somehow made it into
the net, and proved to be enough to secure Serrengetti 4th place.
3rd The Nerangatangs - Glen Smith and Michael Weick As the name suggests, Glen and Michael hail
from Nerang and like eating bananas......Actually I'm not sure about the
bananas, but they have taken a while to overcome some bad luck in barra trophy
tournaments. In the Mondy event, Glen somehow managed to drop 11 barra and land
none. Following on with his poor tournament form, Glen dropped another two good
fish in the first two sessions of this event, before Michael boated the solo
barra from session two. In the final session Glen finally got his act together
and landed his first, then second Barra Trophy barra, elevating the
Nerangatangs into third on the scoreboard. The lure of choice for Glen and
Michael was the Saruna , a shallow diving hardbodied lure rigged to suspend.
The boys were working them on a prominent point, using some very long pauses to
entice the bites. The barra trophy tournaments are the first barra tournaments
these guys have entered, but they have been having a ball and are looking
forward to coming back for the ABT Barra Tour in November.
2nd Scaleforce - Justin Nye and Peter Cherrit These Hervey Bay based anglers are normally
more at home chasing Golden Trevally and longtail Tuna on fly, but love getting
away to Monduran and Awoonga to test their skills on mighty impoundment barra.
Fishing out of Justin's new Galeforce boat, that shares the same name as the
team, Justin and Peter fished consistently well to secure a second place result
and $600 cash.
Their chosen location was a weedy bay up
the back of New Zealand gully. They tried fishing the shallows during the
prefish, but continued to spook fish, so their tactic was to sit in the deeper
water at the entrance to the bay, targeting barra that were moving in and out
of the weed beds.
They positioned the boat in around 16feet
of water and targeted fish from the edge of the weedbeds in around 8 feet of
water, right out to the deeper areas of over 20 feet.
Using the new Minn Kota I-Pilot, Justin
raved about the ability of the Spot lock feature, which uses GPS technology to
hold location.
"The Spot Lock was awesome, no need to stuff around with the
anchor, and it just held us in the exact position we wanted to fish."
The pair
fished Slick Rig 130s in Drop Bear colour, straight out of the pack, with no
mods. Their outfits consisted of Loomis and Egrell rods mated to Shimano
Chronarchs spooled with 30lb Bionic Braid. Black Magic 60lb fluorocarbon was
the leader of choice. Justin and Peter were stoked with their result, but also
disappointed to have a lost a big fish in session three, that might have made a
difference to the results.
Awoonga
Barra Trophy Champions
Team
Evinrude/Minn Kota, Cy and Kerrin Taylor The talented Taylor Brothers took home top
honours and the perpetual barra trophy, in their first Barra Trophy Event.
Fishing out of their now-famous, little yellow tinny with a 40 hp Etec, Cy and
Kerrin fished two distinct spots for the tournament, a shallow weeded bay and a
deeper bank up the back of the main basin. Alternating between modified 110
Squidgy Slick Rigs and Stiffy Twitch baits rigged with Owner trebles to
suspend, Cy and Kerrin fished the majority of their sessions on anchor, using
the prevailing winds at their back to make long casts to the weed edges.
Their outfits consisted of Millerods
Camofish Salty barra rods, matched to Shimano Curado reels, spooled with 20lb
fins braid and rigged with 80lb Jinkai
plus mono leaders.
The pair got just five bites for the 16
hours of competition fishing, and managed to convert four of those, once again
showing everyone the depth of their talent. The key was fishing their lures
close to the weed and jiggling them along to entice the bites. If the lures
fouled in weed, they were ripped hard to pop them out of the weed, then they
continued the retrieve.
Cy recalls that they were very lucky to
land one of their big fish as it jumped into the side of the boat at the end of
the fight, smashing the bib off the Stiffy bait, but somehow the hooks held and
the fish was landed. Indeed it was Cy who had all the luck this tournament,
relegating Kerrin to net boy for all four fish. I'm sure Kerrin will be looking
to reverse the stats in the barra tour.
The boys enjoyed the Barra Trophy
tournament, and a happy to see more barra events being held throughout the
year.
Thank
you to the competitors Thank you to all the teams that came and
had a go. It was great to see teams put the effort in a tough bite. There was a
great sociable atmosphere at the comp, and some great sportsmanship shown by
all teams, particularly Team Rovex who went back to camp, from the briefing, to
retrieve a battery operated white light, for a team who was having trouble
getting theirs to function correctly.
Our
hosts at Lake Awoonga Caravan Park, Ryan and Kylie were terrific in organising
things on the ground, prior to and during the event. Including, cooking up a
mighty breakfast, on the Sunday morning, which was very well received. They
also donated two prizes of 2 nights accommodation at Lake Awoonga Caravan park
which were well received by the lucky winners.
A
Big thank-you to the following sponsors, Pflueger, Shakespeare, Berkley, Foxies, Storm, The Tackle Warehouse, Barra Madness, Halco, Plano, Lake Awoonga Caravan Park, and Labmaps.
| Team | Placing | Fish S 1 | Length S 1 | Fish S 2 | Length S 2 | Fish S 3 | Length S 3 | Total Fish | Total Length | ||
| Evinrude/Minn Kota | Cy and Kerrin Taylor | 1 | 2 | 198 | 2 | 199 | 4 | 397 | $1,000 | ||
| Scaleforce | Justin Nye and Peter Cherrit | 2 | 1 | 94 | 2 | 191 | 3 | 285 | $600 | ||
| Nerangatangs | Glen Smith and Michael Weick | 3 | 1 | 86 | 2 | 185 | 3 | 271 | $400 | ||
| Serringetti | Carl Rembacher and Richard Price | 4 | 1 | 106 | 1 | 106 | $300 | ||||
| Rapala Street Team | Daniel Ross and Craig Griffiths | 5 | 1 | 103 | 1 | 103 | $175 | ||||
| We Fish | Grant Murray and Wayne Jones | 6 | 1 | 99 | 1 | 99 | |||||
| Team Berkley | Trevor Burgess and Nathan Reid | 7 | 1 | 96 | 1 | 96 | |||||
| Tackle Warehouse Ladies | Elaine and Katie Sanderson | 8 | 1 | 92 | 1 | 92 | |||||
| Teaser | Brooke Ebzery and Isaac Fenech | 9 | 1 | 80 | 1 | 80 | |||||
| Team Predator | Matt Martin and Glen Sweeny | 10 | 1 | 80 | 1 | 80 | |||||
| Team Fish Head | Patrick Morgan and Jarred Dalton | 11 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Hammaz Hardbodiez | Kyle Hammer and Brad Hurdy | 12 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Top Tackle | Darcy James and Arthur Willmott | 13 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| I'm on Lures | Simon Black and Andrew Black | 14 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Team Rovex | Gary Leather and Shane Anderson | 15 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| JT Reel Repairs / Rapala | Dan Grech and Jon Millard | 16 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Gin Gin Hotel 1 | Rob Wood and Ben Durkin | 17 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Gin Gin Hotel 2 | Tommy Wood and Jari Sannholm | 18 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Rum Pigs | Trevor Cassidy and Cameron Golighty | 19 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| Barra Snr | Cy Taylor | 111cm | Pflueger Patriach | ||||||||
| Barra Ladies | Elaine Sanderson | 92cm | Pflueger Arbor | ||||||||
| Catfish | Dan Grech | 42cm fl | Foxies Pack | ||||||||
| Barra on Storm | Grant Murray | 99cm | $300 Storm/Rapala Pack | ||||||||
| Barra on Hollow Belly | Trevor Burgess | 96cm | $250 Berkley Pack | ||||||||
| Session 1 | Evinrude/Minn Kota | 198cm | $50 | ||||||||
| Session 2 | Nerangatangs | 86cm | $50 | ||||||||
| Session 3 | Evinrude/Minn Kota | 199cm | $50 | ||||||||
