A.B.T. Tourno Bribie Island???

[choppa]

i'm curious to hear if anyone attended the ABT Tourno on Bribie over the weekend either as a participant or spectator??

Eco Gear once again were the sponsors of the event,, and actually released their new colors on 2 of their lure selections,,, something that is normally held off until the AFTA turn out,,,

(I'm not sure if the above actually occured,, i for one did not hang around long enough to even walk pass their display,, which was actually a very small mezzanine with a couple of other tackle guys next to them)

i thought firstly that this tourno would have at least been advertised bigger and better than that of 2009,,, Bribie newspapers did not even know about it,, Spinnaker tackle did,, which is to be expected,, as they were the MC of the event,, but not a lot of the general public did??

to see the boat ramp at spinnaker chock a block is not unusual for a sunday,,, and with 50% of the local business taking their Ecca holiday on the Monday in lieu of Wednesday certainly placed a strain on some the fisho's patience at the ramp,,, BUT NOT ONE BANNER,,, advertised the ABT???

i find it hard to compliment these guys who organised this tourno,,, to say they could not do any worse than the 2009 event is an understatement,,, because they did in my mind,,, the only real numbers that i saw at the event were members of the ABT,,,

sponsorship costs $$,,, i wonder if the event will return in 2011,,,

choppa

[robersl]

Hi Choppa
I did not even know it was on myself but did see a boat heading back up the highway on sunday arvo spoke to a mate that went out sunday lunch time to use a bit of old fuel up and said it was very busy at the ramp and a lot of the comp guys were rude in the way they passed boats ect on the water

shane

[matt fraser]

G'day Chopper,

I fished the ABT Bream on the weekend, and had a great time. The weather was great, and I caught my limit of bream for a change.

I took the family up and stayed at Bongaree Caravan park, along with quite a few other ABT breamers. It was a very sociable and friendly comp. I believe the ABT event injected a fair bit into the bribie economy, and anglers came from as far as W.A.

I've been doing these comps for a few years, along with other comps. The crowds were virtually non-existant other than ABT members and a few of their families. The location wasn't great for the crowds, but worked well for anglers.

ABT runs dozens of bream/bass/barra/flathead events each year and are pretty polished at what they do. They probably do let themselves down a bit in the local promotion department. They have tried all sorts of different things in the past, such as the big reef science tank, and booking very public weigh-in locations. But these things cost money and take time to organise. Which in many cases has been not returned in crowds or promotional opportunities.

They also have to cater to the competitors, as they are the ones that pay the dollars to enter, and keep the ABT wheel turning. They are also the ones that spend a lot of money on boats and tackle, and drive an important sector of the fishing tackle and boating industry. A sector that has taken a big hit with the GFC, so ABT are doing the best they can do with less sponsorship dollars floating around.

I realise the ABT competitors made things a little more difficult for other boaties at Spinnaker sound boat ramp for about half an hour on Saturday and Sunday. But considering there were 35 extra boats in a tight area, I believe most of the ABT guys tried to do the right thing and stay out of everyones way as much as possible. A lot of us actually launched at Bongaree and travelled over to the start, to alleviate congestion at Spinnaker.

Ecogear went out of their way to promote their lures to the competitors with a goody bag given to each competitor at the briefing, which included a shirt, two lures (value $40ish) and brochures. They did a lot more than some event sponsors do. I'm sure you would have seen a lot of the competitors wearing the yellow shirts at the presentation.

So yeah, the crowds and local promotion was poor, but I believe it was a well run event from a competitors view.

If anyone wants to have a go, its pretty easy and cheap to enter as a non-boater and have a go. I guarantee you'll have fun, learn a bit (probably a lot) and meet some top people.

I reckon it will be back in 2011. In its second year, anglers are starting to suss the passage out a little more. Its a different bream fishery to many other locations, its actually a very large arena and very diverse. Its got huge flats, natural banks, canals, Redcliffe Reef and even the Brisbane River if conditions allow.

I hope its on again, I had a ball!

Cheers,

Matt

[choppa]

matt,,, thanks for your reply,,, and please do not read my post as a dig at the competitors,, as i am aware of the guys who did participate,, and also off the outcome for the weekend,,, its a case of the only advertising that i can find on this event is actually on the ABT website,,

i for one was actually going to join this year and be one of the mad buggers fishing,,, but with work commitments i was unable,, (i still have the ABT entry form pinned to my corkboard here at work)

i'm just bewildered that for such an event to take place (especially on Bribie) that no prior local advertising was put in place,, The ABT website promoted this tourno and actually invites the public to come along and have a good day out,,

i also have had the benefit of being at Mallacoota,, and Lake Mcquarie events as a spectator only,, these in comparasion just seem to be a bit more polished and public friendly,, perhaps i'm placing to much disappointment on my own back yard event when comparing these

its just a shame that when you look at where the event is held and the amount of fisho's that would have loved to attend the event and meet a few of you guru's from the local and neighboring suburbs,,, bugger all were aware of it

always next year i 'spose

choppa

[alleycat]

I fished the area and saw the abt boats getting around, im pretty envious of the stable platform they have to fish from, i also had not heard the event was on, i think the boys would have had to work hard for thier fish as in the last 2 months i have caught 20 flathead for every bream caught in my trips..

[Peter4]

Congratulations to Matt Fraser who not only competed in the tournament, but also managed 2nd place as well....

Onya Matty!

Regs

Pete

[legsy11]

bush and beach and qfm are the only place i seen it advertised and agree that there would be plenty of interest from peolple if the sponsors/adverts made it a more family friendly event.
i think they need to make it clear that you dont have to be a pro or tackle company rep to have a go.
maybe,and there might already be, they could have an amateur winner as well as pro?
advertise this more in the local rags as the pros will come no matter what.
just a couplle of ideas...

p.s try having the comp around early october/november which is when i think the passage fires for bream.

[stessco]

great job for getting second it would have been unreal!

[Fishbait]

Anyone have figures on the winning sizes - length and weight of of the fish caught? Poor form the papers here didn't advertise the event - that's why they had no spectators to support the event. Here's some bream I got on Saturday arvo at Ningi anyway. Caught 9 bream and 2 flathead that afternoon. Cheers, Darren

[LostNearBribie]

My brother fished it and came 15th. He was using our 4.5m tinnie.
No $60K boats here and he beat plenty, better than half the field.
Most of the bigger (faster) boats fished down around Scarby reefs etc.
Bro got all of his fish within 15 minutes of the start line.
We all catch good bream around here, but catching them within the time limit, which is never early morning or late arvo, on lures only, is a bit harder than it sounds.
You also have another person in your boat, or you in their boat, fishing against you.
I did a pre-fish with him on Friday and landed a couple of good bream, but only two.
Got a nice Snapp though so I was stoked!

Fishbait the average weight for a bag of 5 on the weekend was 2.5kg.

Check Bream.com.au

[matt fraser]

G'day Chopper, I agree with you, any local promotion would have helped the crowds, or maybe got a few more local entries.

Alleycat, a lot of anglers, myself included, are fishing as light as 2lb line to temp the bream to bite. Sunday was very calm and clear on the flats, I actually saw most of the bites I got - and missed...

Thanks Pete, you'll have to have a go at one of these as a non-boater. The Gold Coast round is on 24- 25 Sep, run out of Horizon Shores.

Legsy, I will talk to the right people at ABT, and see if they can take some of this info onboard. Time of year, is a tough one, as it has to fit into the ABT calender. Maybe they could swap Gold Coast and Bribie dates over?

Thanks Stessco, nice to crack a pattern, I've had a couple of very ordinary results previous to this one.

Well done Darren, good catch. The biggest bag of five for the weekend went 3kgs, Only seven of the 34 boaters managed 10/10 fish for the weekend, so it was pretty tough. If you got over 4kg all up for the weekend, you made the top five.

Lost near bribie, the good thing about the Bribie event is that you don't need a big boat, there were lots of tinnies in this event. Most of the big boats that went to Redcliffe struggled. You are dead right about fishing being much tougher in tournament conditions. The pressure of lots of boats, over three days (including pre-fish day) certainly makes them very lure shy!

Just to clear up the Boater/Non boater thing for those interested. When you enter you nominate as either a Boater (Pro) or Non boater (amatuer). On the friday night at the briefing, you are randomly paired up. So that each boater gets a different non-boater each day, and vice versa. This keeps things above board, and makes sure anglers get to meet and fish with different anglers.

The Boaters are competing against boaters, for cash prizes only. The Non Boaters are competing against the other Non-Boaters in a seperate division, for rods, reels, sunglasses, lures, line etc.

Its a system, that allows someone to rock up with a couple of rods and lures and go out fishing for a couple of days for way less than you would pay a guide. As non-boaters progress in their skills and knowledge, many become boaters, and do very well.

There are some young (and old) blokes out there non-boating, that are way better anglers than some of the boaters. But aren't in a financial position to get a boat just yet. Its is a lucky dip who you draw to fish with, and it can definitely make a difference to your results, but that is just the luck of it.

I've met some great people at bream comps, and I'm yet to draw a bad partner.

Cheers,

Matt

[nabs]

I fished the comp aswell. The lack of crowds was really noticable.. But I do think even with a big crowd, that it would have been a tight squeeze. Not much room around the presentation area.

I really love fishing the Bribie comp, always do well there and its a great area to fish. Especially if you love fishing the weed flats as much as I do

Well done Matt, from what Arthur said it sounded like you two had a great day on Saturday and both came back with impressive bags. Just a shame he couldnt back it up, im not complaining though!

Cheers

Nabeel

[loophole]

Congrats on the win Nabeel!

Crowd wasnt all that big I came up from Brisbane to watch a few mates weigh in.. some one stated before that the abt boaters have no respect for other people ( What the fuzz) ?? I know from fishing the waterways myself who is more likely to slow, When fishing that particular flat, drop off, rock wall or pontoon..

[leelee]

Nice work there Matty and well done to nabs for another NB win.

Well done to all the guys who finished in the top ten.

I was penciled in to fish the comp this year but the house took a little longer to build then expected.

Next year for sure.

Chees

Lee

[matt fraser]

Yeah, nice work Nabs, and congrats on being the No.1 ranked Non-Boater, very consistant.

Saturday with Arther was a great day, we had a ball on good bream. We lost more good bites than we landed, and still got good bags. He choked up a storm on Sunday though, and left the door wide open for you.

Hope you can make it next year Lee.

Cheers,

Matt