BETS2010 Round One – Hawkesbury River 24th January

After much anticipation the 2010 Berkley Evinrude Team Series kicked off with Round One on the Hawkesbury River and as the rain came teeming down the cracking seventy boat field assembled on the Pittwater foreshore.

Whilst there was no hiding from the drizzle, there was also no hiding the enthusiasm of the 140 anglers as they took to the water, many with a plan of attack and no doubt all with an eye on securing a good round to go towards qualifying for the Grand Final. The impressive payout structure thanks to the generous contributions of the event sponsors was also motivation to fish hard and reap the rewards.

Heading off into the vast waterway it was likely the productive flats at Palm Beach would be first stop for a number of boats and pretty soon over a dozen teams had positioned themselves in an area affectionately know as  “The Carpark”.

Team Fat Grubs of Scott Brown and Scott Kelly had travelled from south of Wollongong to compete and their journey not only continued to The Carpark but stopped there! Fishing with Pflueger rods and Berkley Crystal Fireline the two Scotts’ quickly found fish and as they had no firm game plan in mind decided to stay. Using Powerbait Bass minnows in a variety of colours the team fished water around six to ten feet deep with 1/20th hidden weight jigheads and 4lb leader, allowing the fish to come to them.  Scott Brown noted “We lost a lot of lures to pike and leatherjackets but good bream would come along so we just hung around and took the good fish when we could”. This easy going tactic saw Team Fat Grubs return with a cracking 4.37kg bag, claim top spot, a huge cash and product payout and most importantly 100 points towards a Berkley Evinrude Team Series Grand Final placing.

In contrast Team Fishing Monthly Magazines stuck to their game plan of avoiding everyone else and headed far up in to the Cowan Creek system. Coming off the back of their Australian Open win in previous days Tim and Steve Morgan looked a little tired as they headed off but their intention to just relax and have fun clearly paid off.  Fishing Tiemco Cicada surface paddlers around rock and fallen tree structure the boys fished braid and heavy leaders around the 9lb mark to “stop being towed home!” Steve used a Daiwa Interline Tournament Master-Z and Daiwa Steez reel and Tim a Megabass Destroyer rod and Shimano Stella 1000 as the muscle and a slow shaking retrieve saw over 30 legal fish landed, the pick of the crop giving Team Fishing Monthly Magazines a 3.91kg bag securing second place. In a repeat of his 2009 Berkley Summer Series placing Steve commented “It was excellent fun to have such a great topwater bite in a tournament”.

Ben Turbott of Team Windsor Bait and Tackle set a great foundation for himself and teammate Aaron Horne when his first cast of the day returned a cracking 1.2kg bream. Fishing the flats and boat hulls in Pittwater the team built on a fantastic start and presented a great bag to the weigh master, the 3.80kg collection landing them third place, again a repeat of their top effort in the previous year. As a little icing on the cake Ben’s opening fish was never bettered and saw him take out the Bing Lee Big Bream award, a Canon digital camera for snaps of the next corker to come on board.

So with that the Berkley Evinrude Team Series 2010 is off and running. The top seven teams in this round have secured a place in the ABT Classic Grand Final towards the end of the year and the race is now well and truly on for the $10,000 Berkley Evinrude Grand Final prize. With the points allocated from this round its time to consolidate in Round Two on Sydney Harbour come 14th February.  Get your entries in early as it promises to be another huge field!

Many thanks to the anglers for such a great turnout and of course many thanks to the sponsors of this event, Pure Fishing Australia, BRP Australia as Evinrude E Tec, Engel Fridge and Freezers,  Rock Energy Drinks,  Bing Lee, BluEye Eyewear, Lowrance Sounders, Minn Kota, Jarvis Marine Skeeter Boats, Windsor Bait and Tackle,  Otto’s Tackle World,  ABT and Fishing Monthly Magazine.

See you on the Harbour!