Awoonga greeted all anglers with an extremely tough bite. The Awoonga Pro-Am was the first ever barra event using a random pairing and shared length format designed to enable the sharing of skill and knowledge between both anglers. In the end only one fish hit the brag mat of joint event winners, Kerrin Taylor and Scott McAuley. Click through for full results.
Kerrin Taylor and Scott McAuley took to the new format like ducks to water, using the shared length format to work together and work out what presentation the barra wanted. With only one fish for 101 cm, the pair shared the winnings. In the end it was Taylor who managed to latch on to the winning fish. The tackle used to land his quality Awoonga barra was a Millerods high roller rod teamed with a Shimano Chronarch reel spooled with 20 lb fins braid and 80 lb Black Magic leader.
The pair targeted a back bay in the New Zealand gully area, casting their lures into the broken weed. The team noted they rotated through 20 – 30 lures before catching the winning barra on a Rapala X-rap 12 in purple albino colour. Taylor fished this lure with an aggressive twitch and pause retrieve, tempting the barra out of its slumbering mood. “We had fish swimming past the side scan all the time which made us confident that we could get a fish. It was a nice feeling to have another angler to work with and ultimately share the spoils”, explained McAuley.
With all anglers walking away with a new range of skills and ideas, the series stays at Awoonga for the upcoming 3 x 3 event. This event will be sure to sort the men from the boys with three sessions over two days and a tough bite on the cards.
| Place | Angler | Status | F1 | L1 | F2 | L2 | TF | TL | Cash | Prizes |
| 1 | Scott McAuley | 1 | 101 | 1 | 101 | $275 | Prize Pack | |||
| 1 | Kerrin Taylor | Pro | 1 | 101 | 1 | 101 | $275 + $400 1st PRO | Prize Pack + Big Barra prize pack | ||
| 3 | Peter Price | Prize Pack | ||||||||
| 3 | Fred Jacobs | Pro | Prize Pack | |||||||
| 3 | Cy Taylor | Pro | Prize Pack | |||||||
| 3 | Craig Jarvis | Pro | Prize Pack |