Power Charges To Victory Team Power (Trent Power/Donovan Power) took out the first event of the 2013 BARRA Tour, the Peter Faust Evening Event. Team Power’s tournament limit of 9/10, 925cm saw them secure a comfortable victory and provide the perfect start to their 2013 ABT tournament season.
Power Charges To Victory
Team Power (Trent Power/Donovan Power) took out the first event of the 2013 BARRA Tour, the Peter Faust Evening Event. Team Power’s tournament limit of 9/10, 925cm saw them secure a comfortable victory and provide the perfect start to their 2013 ABT tournament season.
Team Power located fish during the prefish day with a number of proven locations sounding good numbers of barramundi. “The fish were there and responding to a Stiffy Bony Bream lure”, explained Trent Power.
In the first session Team Power traveled to a clearing near the old power lines where they fished a point next to an adjacent gully. Trent Power explains, “We targeted a section of bank around 50 meters long casting to a lilly edge in water from 2-4 meters deep. We had a concentrated bite window between 2.30 to 4.30 pm when we caught most of our fish (3). We then checked out adjacent weedy flats and the old creek line before returning to our key area. The team’s session one total of 5/5, 503cm had them sitting in second place and poised to challenge the leader.
On day two Team Power returned to their key location, but were unable to find any fish. They moved to a nearby location, Pandanus Bay, which had two branching arms with a flat in between. The team moved further up the creek for no fish before moving back to the flats. A quiet spell almost prompted a move, before their first fish of the session was caught and landed. A decision to stay at the location was rewarded with two more fish coming before sunset.
In a final throw of the dice the team headed to fish the main basin. Donovan Power explains what unfolded, “We were fishing around 250 meters from the buoy line with plenty of other boats. We were marking plenty of baitfish and barramundi in the area. The soundings indicated that the bait was holding in 20-30 feet with active barramundi sitting underneath. Surface activity indicated that the fish were active. I was casting out and slow rolling the lure when I got a hit with twenty minutes to go. The barramundi went 117cm and was our final fish for the session”.
The team’s key lures were a 130mm Squidgy Slick Rig in black gold and white. Both were rigged on Area 51 jigheads. “During the day we used the black/gold and at night switched to the white”, explained Trent Power.
Trent Power explains the pattern, “The key areas were small in size with adjacent rivulets nearby. Whilst we sounded fish in the deep they weren’t feeding. The majority of the fish we caught were barramundi sitting tight to the edges”.
Nomad Tackle/HydroWave secure second place
Team Nomad Tackle/HydroWave caught 8/10, 781cm to finish in second place. Leading after day one the team found the fishing harder on day two and was overtaken by a fast finishing Team Power. Ken Elliot and Willem Reichard share their experience, “We had a good prefish where we caught fish and identified our key locations. We had 3-4 areas where we could focus on depending on the prevalent wind direction and amount of traffic in the area”.
On day one the team headed to a shallow bank near the existing powerlines. The bank had an adjacent deep channel proving the team with multiple options. The team employed their HydroWave to activate the baitfish in the vicinity. Reichard explains,
“The HydroWave is a patented electronic sound device that emits the natural sounds of bait fish and predatory fish feeding on them. Together the sounds produce an instinctive response in nearby predatory fish. The predatory fish can hear the sounds and feel the vibrations of the sound waves in the water.
We used the Australian freshwater edition and toggled through the settings toggling between bony bream passive, freshwater shrimp and Red claw/yabby. We set the HydroWave on a 30 second sound loop on ½ volume setting”.
The barramundi were active with the team noting they would move through in groups of two and three. Between 3pm and 4pm a distinct bite window occurred with the team capitalizing and landing four fish. Reichard explains the team’s approach, “We would look to constantly mix up the presentations with one team member using a different lure to the other. This would be either a hardbody or larger lure. The key lure for the session was a 130mm Squidgy Slick Rig in black/gold colour rigged on a ½ oz Area 51 jighead. The retrieve was a slow roll punctuated with hops. All our hookups were solid with the fish hitting the lure aggressively”.
Team Nomad Tackle/HydroWave led the field after the first session with 5/5, 521cm. With an average fish size of 104.2cm the team were confident they were in the right area and anticipated a good day two session.
On day two the wind direction changed. Despite this challenge the team decided to stick with their successful day one plan. Even though there were fewer bites the team cottoned onto an important bite trigger. Elliot explains, “Occasionally surface activity would erupt around the boat. The key was to quickly cast to those activity areas to get a bite. It was really about being in tune with what was happening around you”.
In all the team secured 3/5, 260cm which secured them overall second place and valuable Team of the Year (TOY) points.
The outfits of Team Nomad Tackle/HydroWave consisted of a 7′ 8-14kg 13 Omen black rod teamed with Daiwa Certate 3000/Shimano Sustain 4000 reels spooled with 20lb Powerpro braid and 80lb Black Magic tough trace.
Big Barra The event Big Barra (118cm) was caught in session two by Geoff Newby (Team MTA Blue). Newby explains, “The fish was caught at 2.10pm from below the existing powerlines. We were anchored in six feet casting back to a lilly edge in 2 feet of water. I was using a medium paced retrieve when the fish hit the lure (130mm Squidgy Slick Rig in Black/gold colour). The fish gave some fight, breaching a couple of times before coming to the boat. Fortunately my stinger hook was effective as it was hooked in the lip. Very exciting and happy to catch it during a tournament”.
Winning Tackle Rod: 6’6″ 6-8kg Shimano Raider rods Reel: 4000 size Daiwa Certate/Shimano Symetre Line: 30lb Fins braid Leader: 60lb YGK fluorocarbon and 80lb Surecatch leader.
Winning Ways “We took the opportunities when they presented themselves. We were confident in the locations we chose. Understanding why areas were holding fish and knowing enough locations with similar characteristics made the difference. We could identify areas that weren’t as heavily pressured and the fish would respond accordingly. This all came about due to time and experience on the water.
Also having a smaller boat (3.75m/25HP) proved useful around trees and small creek areas. Being maneuverable is sometimes the difference between catching and losing fish”.
| Place | Team | Angler 1 | Angler 2 | F1 | S1 | F2 | S2 | Fish Total | Length Total | Big Barra | Cash | Prizes |
| 1 | Team Power | Trent Power | Donovan Power | 5 | 503 | 4 | 422 | 9 | 925 | $800 | Spotters sunglasses, Austackle Prizepack, OSP/Squidgy Prizepack | |
| 2 | Nomad Tackle/Hydrowave | Willem Reichard | Ken Elliot | 5 | 521 | 3 | 260 | 8 | 781 | $700 | OSP/Squidgy Prizepack | |
| 3 | EJ Todd | Craig Griffiths | Trent Short | 5 | 478 | 3 | 255 | 8 | 733 | $500 | OSP/Squidgy Prizepack | |
| 4 | Snap-Dog | Aaron Dial | Cameron Johnson | 2 | 157 | 5 | 477 | 7 | 634 | $300 | OSP/Squidgy Prizepack | |
| 5 | Team Triton | Rick Napier | Dustin Sippel | 4 | 403 | 2 | 208 | 6 | 611 | |||
| 6 | MTA Blue | Geoff Newby | Neil Wilson | 4 | 352 | 2 | 205 | 6 | 557 | 118 | OSP/Squidgy Prizepack | |
| 7 | 13 Fishing/Sebile | Peter Behrens | Nicholas Moore | 3 | 303 | 2 | 219 | 5 | 522 | |||
| 8 | Tree Hugger’s | Michael Weick | Brendan Barnet | 3 | 285 | 2 | 197 | 5 | 482 | |||
| 9 | Whopper Stoppers | Keegan Hayden | Daniel Hurt | 3 | 268 | 2 | 194 | 5 | 462 | |||
| 10 | Rapala | Dan Grech | Jon Millard | 2 | 180 | 2 | 167 | 4 | 347 | |||
| 11 | Dobyns/ Lucky Craft Lures | Colin Brett | Steve Lill | 2 | 191 | 1 | 113 | 3 | 304 | |||
| 12 | Touchin’ Cloth | Matthew Zahl | Ben Willcox | 2 | 185 | 1 | 109 | 3 | 294 | |||
| 13 | BTD Lures McArthur Custom Rods | Benn Durkin | Mat McArthur | 3 | 282 | 3 | 282 | |||||
| 14 | Dobyns/Rapala Street Team | Karim De Ridder | Luke Katsaros | 2 | 184 | 2 | 184 | |||||
| 15 | Fishin Magician | Ash Sims | Georgette Elkins | 2 | 181 | 2 | 181 | |||||
| 16 | Barra Fever | Glen Smith | Keith Stanford | 1 | 93 | 1 | 93 | |||||
| 17 | EnS | Shane Sanderson | Elaine Sanderson | 1 | 92 | 1 | 92 | |||||
| 18 | Swamp Donkeys | Martin Brennan | Ryce Bullimore | 1 | 55 | 1 | 55 | |||||
| 19 | Master Cabinets | Glen Boys | Mark Lochwood | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| 20 | Second Chance | Justin Land | Curtis Land | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| 21 | Team Lowrance/Reidy’s Lures | Peter Price | Rex Berry | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| 22 | We Fish | Grant Murray | Wayne Jones | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| 23 | Evolution | Greg Thomas | Jono Clark | -30 | 0 | -30 | ||||||
| 48 | 4566 | 31 | 2973 | 79 | 7539 | |||||||
| Ave | 95.43 |