Gold Coast Grand Slam

[matt fraser]

This weekend just gone saw the running of inagural Gold Coast Grand Slam, held from Paradise Point. The aim is to weigh in your best bag of five estuary sportfish, to catch five different species in a session is a Grand Slam. There was a Saturday afternoon session and a Sunday morning session. Ten teams turned out for the low key affair and some sensational fish were caught.

I wasn't in the comp, but on Sunday morning I took out young Elliot for a fish, and we had a great session. After releasing a 39cm cod and a 42cm flathead, I thought, hey we might start keeping our fish (in the livewell) and see what sort of bag we can get.

Elliot got a PB 28cm jack, his second ever. Then I got a 61cm flathead, which went into the livewell, followed by a 50cm GT, next was an undersized bream for me and an undersided cod for Elliot, followed by a 37cm cod for Elliot. Three species down, the young fella was catching on real quick. Next fish for him, fought very strangely, and I didn't know what to call it for, maybe a Trev, but then this red fish appeared. As I left the net in the car, there were a few nervous moments before we got it aboard. Would you believe a 46.5cm Jack! Elliot was stoked. We got a few pics then set about getting our fifth species. The target now was bream.

All the fishing up till now had been using 10 & 14lb fireline with 20lb leader using 1/6Oz 1/0 jigheads and the lime tiger 4" Gulp minnow. But we put the big gear away and picked up the 4lb fireline/6lb leader bream outfits, we had about an hour before we had to stop fishing and head back to set up the weigh in.

Easy we thought! but not, we fished some natural banks for at least half an hour with several bites but no fish landed, so we headed for some moored boats and got onto action straight away. I got a just-undersized bream and Elliot got done on a pylon, before I eventually got a 26cm Bream. Grand Slam!! We got another bream, but not an upgrade before we headed in.

Some teams weighed in impressive bags, and some struggled, but a good weekend was had by all. Team G.Loomis weighed in a Grand Slam in session one, then four species in session two, to win the comp with a total over the two sessions (including bonuses) of 10.92kg

Our bag of five fish weighed in at 5.29kgs and Elliots Jack went 1.585kg

Cheers,

Matt

[sarg]

Looks like alot of fun impressive fish from all. How do the trevs go in the live well and jacks too.

Andrew

[flickflack]

Matt

after chatting to a few of the guys it sounds like it went really well, congrats on the first one and well done to Hornie and his dad. Recon we will have to keep an eye on them in the next Summer series.

Cheers Rod

[matt fraser]

Cheers Guys,

All the fish went well in the livewells, they all swum away in good conditon.

The GT I got actually swallowed the jig quite deep and I had to unhook him by putting the pliers through the gills to remove it with minimal damage. I didn't expect him to recover. But he was fine, he spent three hours or so in the livewell and smam away very strong.

Mick also got a GT very early, and was worried how he would go all session, but he was fine as well.

Matt

[yellahunter]

great catch matt, certainly a nice mixed bag.

pm sent

[devocean]

Mate that is awesome. I live in NQ and i would love to do that canal style fishing

[gregdeeth]

great work looks like an exciting tournament

[indy]

Nice fish there guy's well done

[the gecko]

Looks like fun. where was this comp advertised?

Andrew

[geoff72]

great catch mate

[matt fraser]

Andrew,

It was a pretty low key event although iIt was advertised in QFM and on the bream and fishingmonthly websites. Next year I will also make sure I organise to officially advertise on Ausfish. There is another Grand Slam on at Noosa on the 10th & 11th March.

Next summer we will do a bit more advertising and make it a bigger and better event, as there is plenty of interest in this tournament format. Its a bit different to the bream comps or flathead classic both of which have a big following in their own right. We will probably run one on the Tweed as well.

I'm loving this style of fishing at the moment, catching some great mixed bags!

Cheers,

Matt

[ffejsmada]

Matt, How do we find out about the Noosa event? Thanks mate.

[84mick]

It that ALL??? come on I could have done better then that! lol Na just joking. That is an impressive catch there mate!

Mick.

[84mick]

Sorry I forgot to ask, Is it only catch and release?

Cheers, Mick.