EJ Todd Go Hard and Soft for Teemburra Win Team EJ Todd (Craig Griffith and Trent Short) 10/10, 623cm claimed victory in the final round of the 2013 BARRA Tour at Teemburra Dam, with the winning pair using a combination of hard body lures and soft plastics to catch their fish. Fishing a combination of points and backs of bays the pair focused much of their attention at the mouth of Teemburra Creek.
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“We’d fish Teemburra Creek before sunset, then we’d move to Middle Creek,” explained Griffiths. With Griffith throwing a Lucky Craft DD Pointer 100 most of the time and Short a 5″ Castaic swimbait the key was to find the right weed in each location to find the fish. “The thick lush, bright green weed was the key. The fish seemed to really key in on this,” explained Short. The retrieve for Griffith using the Lucky Craft involved casting the Pointer tight to the edge then slowing twitching and pausing it out from the edge. Once the lure was two metres out from the edge he’d crank the lure back and repeat. For Short the retrieve was slower and more direct. “I’d cast the lure into the weed edge then slowly draw it through the weed to it didn’t get hung up,” explained Short. The tandem approach paid dividends with the pair catching five fish on day one and another six on day two. The only team to catch their full limit for the event it was a switch bait approach that the paired used that they saw as their key to getting to fish. “If I got a bite on my hardbody, Trent would throw his soft plastic straight in there, and likewise if he got a bite on his soft plastic I’d throw my hard body in there,” explained Griffiths. “As long as we didn’t throw the same lure in most cases we’d catch the fish.” A calculated approach that delivered results, and delivered the pair the Teemburra event win and the 2013 BARRA Tour Team of the Year (TOY) crown. “I was a little disappointed with my barra tour last year, so to do well this year and to win the title fishing with Trent is very satisfying,” explained Griffiths. “I couldn’t have done it without the support of Trent and the guys at EJ Todd.” Team Nomad (don’t) Roam in to Second Place Willem Reichard and Ken Elliot from Team Nomad Tackle/Hydrowave (9/10, 496cm) finished second at Teemburra with the pair fishing a lily point near the mouth of Teemburra Creek to catch the majority of their fish. “We caught some fish in other areas, but it was definitely the point that gave us most of or fish,” explained Elliot. Anchored up in 5 metres of water and a cast length out from the point the pair would cast their lorikeet colour Squidgy Slick Rig 110 and 130 to edge, then flick it and rip it out of the lilies to get the attention of any barra. Day one was the standout at day for the approach with the pair catching a seven fish for the session, which included a 30 minute bite period when the fish were really active. “They bit their heads off just on dark,” explained Elliot. Day two proved a lot tougher, especially during the daylight hours, an increase in activity just on dark did however get things moving. “They bit once again as it got dark, and five minutes before the end of the session we lost a 75cm fish that would have given us our full limit for the tournament,” explained Elliot. Falling one fish shy of their full bag the pair finished in second place, their second runner-up position for the 2013 BARRA Tour and a level of consistency that saw them finish in 3rd place in the Team of the Year points race for the year. One of the most consistent teams on the BARRA Tour this year Reichard and Elliot will definitely be a team to watch in 2014. Big Barra Team Swamp Donkey claimed the Big Barra Prize at Teemburra with the team catching the prize winning 97cm fish on a bright yellow coloured Squidgy Slick Rig 130 at 4.30pm on day two of competition. Caught from a lily lined weed point 700 metres from the boat ramp it was the standout fish on the team’s catch card which also included a 94cm. Once again from the same weed point. Winning Tackle Rod- Dobyns Champion 705SF (Short), Reel- Shimano Calais (Griffiths), Daiwa 3000 Branzino (Short) Line- 30lb PE (Griffiths), 30lb Sunline Momentum PE (Short) Leader- 30lb FC fluorocarbon (Griffiths), 35lb FC 100 flurocarbon Lure- Lucky Craft DD Pointer (Griffith), french blue coloured 5″ Castaic Jerky J Swim rigged on a Hypohead with a Trokar size 5 worm hook (Short) Winning Ways Team EJ Todd saw two things as integral to their success, the switching of lures when they got bite and the use of their Hydrowave to keep fish active and draw them out of the weedbeds.
| Place | Team | Angler 1 | Angler 2 | F1 | L1 | F2 | L2 | TF | TL (cm) | Big Barra (cm) | Cash | Prizes |
| 1 | EJ Todd | Craig Griffiths | Trent Short | 5 | 289 | 5 | 334 | 10 | 623 | 94 | $800 | Spotters sunglasses, Austackle Prizepack, OSP/Squidgy Prizepack |
| 2 | Nomad Tackle/Hydrowave | Willem Reichard | Ken Elliot | 5 | 263 | 4 | 233 | 9 | 496 | $700 | OSP/Squidgy Prizepack | |
| 3 | Swamp Donkeys | Martin Brennan | Ryce Bullimore | 2 | 158 | 4 | 289 | 6 | 447 | 97 | $500 | OSP/Squidgy Prizepack |
| 4 | Triton | Rick Napier | Dustin Sippel | 2 | 148 | 5 | 294 | 7 | 442 | $300 | Squidgy Prizepack | |
| 5 | Power | Trent Power | Donovan Power | 3 | 138 | 5 | 271 | 8 | 409 | |||
| 6 | Rapala | Dan Grech | Jon Millard | 5 | 332 | 1 | 65 | 6 | 397 | |||
| 7 | EnS | Shane Sanderson | Elaine Sanderson | 5 | 306 | 1 | 63 | 6 | 369 | |||
| 8 | Dobyns/Rapala Street Team | Karim De Ridder | Luke Katsaros | 5 | 341 | 5 | 341 | |||||
| 9 | Dobyns/ Lucky Craft Lures | Colin Brett | Steve Lill | 1 | 65 | 2 | 153 | 3 | 218 | |||
| 10 | MTA Blue | Geoff Newby | Neil Wilson | 1 | 81 | 2 | 130 | 3 | 211 | |||
| 11 | 13 Fishing/Sebile | Peter Behrens | Nicholas Moore | 3 | 182 | 3 | 182 | |||||
| 12 | Snap-Dog | Aaron Dial | Cameron Johnson | 1 | 43 | 2 | 117 | 3 | 160 | |||
| 13 | Lowrance/Reidy’s Lures | Peter Price | Rex Berry | 1 | 47 | 2 | 110 | 3 | 157 | |||
| 14 | BTD Lures McArthur Custom Rods | Benn Durkin | Mat McArthur | 1 | 86 | 1 | 64 | 2 | 150 | |||
| 15 | Touchin’ Cloth | Adrian Osborne | Ben Willcox | 3 | 122 | 3 | 122 | |||||
| 16 | Tree Hugger’s | Michael Weick | Brendan Barnet | 1 | 50 | 1 | 67 | 2 | 117 | |||
| 17 | Barra Fever | Glen Smith | Keith Stanford | 1 | 64 | 1 | 51 | 2 | 115 | |||
| 18 | Whopper Stoppers | Keegan Hayden | Daniel Hurt | 1 | 78 | 1 | 78 | |||||
| 19 | We Fish | Grant Murray | Wayne Jones | 1 | 69 | 1 | 69 | |||||
| 20 | Blown Income | Darren Corr | Tamara Stanhope | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| 20 | Evolution | Greg Thomas | Jono Clark | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| 20 | Fishing Magician | Ash Sims | Georgette Elkins | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| 44 | 2740 | 39 | 2363 | 83 | 5103 | |||||||
| 62.27 | 61.48 |