Final Results Yamashita Squid Series 2011, Fishing Fever Round 4

What started off a brilliant weekend with nice steady 10 knot winds and consistent overcast conditions for shallow egi fishing ended on a slightly more sour note.

  Day 1:
Teams all in water and accounted for, a quick inspection of boats and live wells and we were ready to roll, I always enjoy the friendly banter between the teams while rigging rods and setting up as it sets a nice competitive scene yet allows the friendly rivalry to flow between mates. Seven am rolls on and the teams are all called to the line and they're off, albeit at a nice and slow pace due to speed limits in the river but as soon as they hit the open water the white wash made it clear that throttles were open wide as boats dissolved into the rising sun on the horizon.

 

First team to come back in to weigh was team Victoriansaltwaterfishing.com, Dale and Paul had set the level high for teams to follow with a bag of 3 squid for a total weight of 4.235kg, at the time of the weigh in it was the heaviest bag weighed at a Yamashita Squid Series event and followed it up with a potential big squid winner of 1.720kg. After a quick chat with Paul Barton he informed me that the majority of the squid caught were landed on a Gan Craft Uo-Jya 3.5 Flushing Sardine and a Green colored River2Sea Gesola egi. With the benchmark set by the boys from VicSalt it was going to be tough going to go better.

The next team to come in close behind to guys from VicSalt were Evolution boats, they had done well to find some nice squid for the scale, however I sensed some disappointment from the boys as they handed me the weigh bag, sadly the boys had lost one of the squid on the trip back in and no matter what forms of resuscitation they tried they could not get the color back into the squid, conditions on the water were starting to get choppy and making the long trip south also means a long trip through chop to get back for a weigh in, they weigh a bag of 3 squid for 2.095kg but incurred a 750g penalty for a dead squid which brought their total to 1.345kg. Even with the penalty they were still in for a shot with a day to go and clearly they knew where some big were hiding. There was a small break between teams before they all started to come in one after the other. Most were averaging bags of 3 squid for around 1.5kg

The last 2 teams to come off the water were sure to mix things up a bit, rumors were milling about a couple of big girls in live wells that could cause an upset, Team mrfisho.com were first to present a bag a what a bag it was. Both Andrew Smith and Richard Greven had whopping grins on their faces as I took the bag off them, every one waiting with baited breath for the scales to settle and give us the verdict,  3 squid for a total weight of 4.520kg knocking Vicsalt off the top spot and breaking the recored set by Dale and Paul, a quick glance in the bag to weigh for big squid after weighing the 2 bigger version's they placed a weight for big squid with a 1.895kg again knocking Dale and Paul off the top in the Big Squid prize and set a new record for both heaviest bag and heaviest squid weighed in an egi event, with the new level set we sat and waited the arrival of the boys from Bigtime Megabass.
The moment had come with the black Coota Craft of team Bigtime Megabass sighted in the entrance of the Patterson river, a bit of anticipation from all as they did not know what the boys had in the well and Gawaine Blake and Dave Standing from Bigtime Megabass did not yet know what had been weighed, I took the bag from Gawaine and straight away from the feel of the bag I knew it was going to be a close finish. Bag on the scale a recorded weight of 4.960kg brought them up trumps, for the 3rd time in one day we had the record for the biggest bag broken. This left the boys placed in first for the event leading into day 2, i selected the biggest 2 squid from the bag for a look at big squid weight and put them on the scale and it does not get any closer than this, the biggest in the bag from Gawaine and Dave was 1.890kg just a poofteenth off the big squid record set by  Richard and Andy, 5g seperated them for big squid at the end of day one and lest than 700g separated the top 3 and with bags like this it was still anyone's win with some of the squid sizes we were witness to, great day 1 with records smashed all round. Both teams used a range of Megabass Dart Crews and UDSL's to get them over the line with a mention to the 3.5 Dart Crew in Madara Leaf Pink and Shimanami Tribal

 

 

 Day 2:

I awoke early in the morning to a creaking sound coming from the veranda in my backyard, this meant one thing, WIND. I made a dash for the computer to check the weather observations and things did not look good, forecast was showing a 20knt NW wind not easing until the evening, knowing how brilliant Melbourne's forecasters have been in the last few months I would not make a decision until I could get near the water and see for myself, teams were all at the ramp awaiting the call on the days fate, I drove to the mouth of the river for a look see, I did not like what I saw. Upon my browse of the water I observed a direct westerly wind blowing approx 25knt straight down the river, with the rain received overnight there was excess water coming out of the Patterson River, this leads to one thing, the water was standing up at about 1.5meters and the chop was less than 3 seconds apart, beyond the mouth things were still approx 3/4 to 1 meter across the Bay. As I am not a competitor in the event I felt that it was not my choice to make and allowed the teams to decide on majority if the day would proceed. After speaking with all teams involved the decision was made unanimously to cancel the days fishing for the safety of all teams and the sanity of me. For some this meant a return to a nice warm bed while others it meant a trip to Western Port where a little more shelter is available in a westerly wind.
We scheduled the presentation for 1400pm at the ramp as advertised and went our own ways until the afternoon. Let me tell you some of the photo's I received from team members from Team Yamashita would have had Paul Hourmouzis and Eisuke Kawakami up there with some of the best, was good to see that it was not a totaly wasted trip from Japan for Eisuke.

Please see the chart below for the full results.

Was a bitter sweet event for me, some new teams involved who were all great sportsmen and the return of some old favorites to balance the field. The first time teams of Bushwood (Darren Mays & Paul Constantino), Megatron (Mark Kennard & Brian Rickard) and Evolution Boats (Jim Scown & Chris Doubleday) made it clear by weighing a full bag that it could have been anyones win had there been a day 2, was also to have Eisuke Kawakami over from Japan fishing with Paul Hourmouzis as team Yamashita.
These things don't run on their own and this event could not have happened if not for the help of the staff at Launching Way, Trevor and Lynette you are a credit to the ramp at Patterson River as are your staff, the guys Fishing Fever for supporting the round and allowing us to flood the shop with people on one of the busiest times of the night on Friday for the briefing and Yamashita for supporting the events though out the year it is an honor and a privilege to work with these people. Finally a massive thanks to the most important people, the competitors, spectators and volunteers, with out them we would have no events so a big thanks to all teams who entered and to Dan Stanilovic and Kim Stewart for their help.

Yamashita Squid Series 2011, Fishing Fever round 4 Carrum

What a perfect start to the morning, no wind no rain and most importantly every one present and accounted for, lots of banter and avoiding topics such as locations and tactics.

 Melbourne has really turned on the conditions in this round with the overcast conditions and low wind giving teams a perfect day for casting at squid, by the sounds of things most teams are heading due south to look for the all important big squid that have been elusive over the past few weeks in the hope of getting a big bag fast and early allowing them to upgrade when they can. From the start it looked like it was going to be a race as to who could get to the southern end of the bay and secure a good drift location in some tight patchy reef with advantage paid to team Bigtime - Megabass and mrfisho.com with twin Cootacraft Gunshots a known high performance vessel. At the end of the day though it may come down to the numbers and as we have seen in the past consistent bags will always place teams higher on the list. We wish all the teams well for day 1 and later in the day we will post the results of the first day weigh in.

Another bigtime morning

Spent another brilliant morning on Western Port with with the team on board Bigtime Fishing Charters, I have to admit first thing this morning I wanted to climb back into bed after only climbing into bed an hour before hand I was not feeling up to a 5 hour session on the water, so after hitting the snooze button a few times on the alarm clock I climbed out of bed jumped in the shower and headed to Hastings to meet up with the guys at 0500. Wind was a South West dropping, barometer was climbing at a rate of knots and things were looking better the closer I got, all of a sudden the motivation kicked in and thoughts were focused on squid.

We left the ramp right on 0500 and headed North up the port to our first point of cast, it took a little while but the squid came to the party eventually, they were not in big numbers but what they made up for in numbers they made up in for in size, although we got some nice squid either we are still waiting for a second run of big breeders to make there way into the Port, we have seen the same sort of numbers in Western Port this year but the average size of the squid has been lower than in previous years.

Slowly moving south we worked the whole west bank from Quail to Stoney in near perfect conditions, light wind, overcast with sunny patches, the customers started landing some nice squid so I put a rod down so I could take some happy snaps,  fried to bigtime Dave popped over for a bait session with his Couta Craft Gunshot, nice looking boats on the water and a real fishing weapon for those looking for a serious fishing boat, there is not much that these things can not take.

We finished up the day with some great squid taken on a variety of egi, my pick was Gan Craft 3.0 Hero and 3.5 Pink Head Shrimp, Gawaine was smacking most of his on a MegaBass 3.5 Dart Crew Caiyen Tribal, others were landned on Yamashita Natural 3.0 Jp's, and Yamashita Egi O Q's, mostly in Darker colors. Also a stand out for the day was a Gesola in black and white 3.5.

Although snapper season has well an truely started and plenty of snapper charters will be happening in the coming months Gawaine has assured me that we will continue to run squid trips through out the season and into the next season, great news for those still keen to learn a thing or 2 about squid and catching them.

Quick trip with Daz

I managed to get out for a quick session yesterday afternoon with a mate Daron, Daz has been squid fishing for years but has only recently grasped the more aggressive action needed to swim the egi as designed and clearly he has got it sussed. We started off heading to an area known for big squid at this time of the year but upon arrival it was clear that recent rain and big winds played a part in the water clarity with the water holding lots of sediment, we had a quick cast but it was made obvious in a short time that the water clarity giving approx 1 meter of sight below the surface was not going to assist in getting any big squid from distance, a short move to the Queenscliff area brought a similar conclusion so a trip back towards Portsea was called. he water was much clearer here but looking around we observed plenty of other boats in the area and no one had rods bent or were landing squid. Daron landed one half decent model around a kg but the water was fast as was the wind, thoughts of a location with slower water and better wind were at the front of our minds. A quick move to a location known to us both well and sure enough in a short time the squid turned on. I dont know how many we landed but there was enough for Daron to have a feed (I dont eat fish or squid) and plenty to go back to finish off what they were doing there in the first place, making more squid.

Last nights trip did do one thing, it helped with a bit of data I have been looking at on squid patterned spawning. The location we fished in the southern part of Port Philip Bay was a spot I have been going to a lot over the past few months, on previous trips I have noticed the size of the squid were smaller than on previous years for the time of the year we were fishing. The water temps have been warmer in the bay than previous years and although the squid were bigger in size in the past they were in less numbers. This year they appear to be smaller in size but in higher numbers in the same area. 2 months ago the squid we were catching were averaging the 18 to 25 cm size yet now the same area is producing squid averaging 35cm. It appears that the resident squid from 2 months ago have remained in the same area, from the squid kept as food when cleaning we noticed an abundance of females with egg's and some fertilized eggs. This would indicate that the squid were were catching 2 months ago were preparing to spawn in the same area and had done so as the water temp changed. This is a great sign of things to come as we know that at least one other spawn will happen in October as the water temp goes up a bit, we also know that squid were in spawn as early a June when some bigger male squid were caught with sperm packets ready to distribute. In the past we were of the belief that squid only spawn over a 2 month period yet from this years catches we have been able to show that it is now occurring over a 4 month period.

Why is this so important? as squid only live for between 300 and 350 days with the spawn spread out over a longer period the squid sizes will be of a higher average throughout the year with breeding taking place over a longer period. It also means that the concentration of spawning squid will be wider spread an less pressure will be on squid in spawn at particular times of the year. Here hoping for a bigger and better future for squid locally.

Osaka Tackle Show

Tickets are done hotel is booked and Japan will never be the same again, I will be taking both my DSLR camera and the HiDef Video camera so I can share some of what I experience in Japan and Hong Kong at the Hong Kong egingu club, the Osaka is the show that predicts most of the new trends in fishing world wide and give an indication of whats to come, as its the first major Fishing Tackle Trade show in the world it has become the flagship tackle show for most companies introducing new products into the market. It will not be all business for me as I plan on doing a bit of fishing while there, although February normally comes with a touch of snow and some freezing cold wind, not sure how my standard uniform of Crocs and Shorts are going to go but I will give it a dip and see.

For those interested in the next couple of months we are expecting a visit from our good friends from Japan, the guys from Gan Craft are coming back to do a series of talks throughout Australia, I will be joining them on the tour from Sydney to Melbourne and then to Perth. I am sure with the response the guys received during their last visit they will be just as welcomed the same upon their return, for those who missed it last time round we should have dates and locations up soon so keep your eyes on the dates that will be available here and on www.australianegitournaments.com.au

For those not yet aware we have a couple of egingu clubs in Australia and believe it or not one on the Gold Coast, I am going to hit up the Gold Coast again in a few weeks to meet some of the club members and see how the club works.

I have been invited to go to the Bass Straight Game Fishing Club to do a squid presentation in the near future will post dates when available and we are going to again do some on water clinics as we did earlier, for more information on the on water clinics please contact me via email paul@australianegitournaments.com.au or on the phone 0417590547.

I was fortunate enough to spend an evening at the Greenvale Angling Club in Melbourne's north west on Wednesday night to talk all things squid, great club with plenty of interest, was great to have heaps of questions asked especially by the kids in the group, always good to see the kids getting right into the swing of things and keen to learn all things fishing, gives us all but in particular the recreational fishing industry a bit of hope for the future. I also shared the floor with the guys from That's Fishing TV who shared the ins and outs of the TV program how and when it all happened and the trials that they go through making the show, they also parted with some info about Western Port and the rigs they use to catch what they catch for more info on thats fishing go to www.thatsfishing.com.au. We were all made to feel very welcome by every one, big thanks to Ray Caruana for the invite on behalf of the club, Gan Craft for supplying some give away's for every one and most of all the members for their open minds to the ins and outs of fishing with out them there would not be a club to talk at.

Eric & Brian with me at the Greenvale Angling Club

The next club we will be visiting will be the Bass Straight Game Fishing Club at Hastings so stay tuned for details, most clubs are happy to see visitors at the clubs and are a great way to keep in the loop with all things fishing and great for families so for a small price membership fee's are worth every cent. Lets face it who doesn't like to sit around and talk about fishing.

Yamashita Squid Series 2011 Shimano Sydney Harbour Round Results

Day one kick off

After an unfortunate chain of events we lost 4 teams the day before competition but the event still went ahead with some close results.
Day 1 saw the teams all heading different directions early in the piece with teams using various areas and fishing differing techniques. Both Yamashita and Yamashita 2 took advantage of an early weigh in so as not to risk loosing their catch from early in the morning, this ended up assisting Yamashita 2 with their lead going into Day 2. All teams landed their bag of 3 squid for weight recording.

Key allocation

Day 2 was not so much different with and teams scattered to similar areas as day 1 with the exception of Team Sunline who traveled up past the Harbour Bridge to try something different, this risk sadly did not pay off with the teams fishing the southern reaches of the harbour landing their bags in fairly quick succession with the opportunity of upgrades through out the morning.

Yamashita Early Weigh in

Team Sunline day 2

Team Yamashita 2 early weigh in

Tidal complications for weigh in

Weigh in area

Results

Final 4

Winners Eisuke Kawakami and Nick Martin (Yamashita)

Runners up Bryan Todd and Stuart Reid (Team Yamashita 2)

3rd Glenn McDonnell and Dominic Costanza

Great couple of days had by all, big thanks to EJ Todd, Shimano and Gan Craft for supporting the event and Berkley for providing the Berkley Big Squid prize and the 4th position prize. Also  a big thanks to Dan Stanilovic for making the trip up from Melbourne to help with the event, Maddison Graham for getting her feet wet and helping teams get their bags up to be weighed and Kim Stewart for keeping me honest and recording all event weights and details.

1st prize was $1000 Cash
2nd prize was a $900 Shimano Prize Pack
3rd prize was a $600 Yamashita Prize Pack
4th Prize was a $250 Berkley Egi Master Pack

Eyes ahead now to the next Melbourne Event

Yamashita Squid Series Shimano Sydney Harbour Round 3

Well after many setbacks from double booked venues to a sad fatality of an entrant we have been able to get every thing running just nice for the NSW Shimano round, Woollhara Council who looks after Rose Bay came to the party and gave us permission (all be it an expensive one) to hold the event in Lynne Park at Rose Bay, this event will see another chapter of the Yamashita squid series kick off this weekend.


We have had to scale back the marquees to 2 and boats weighing in will be beaching alongside the Aquahire building, now all we need is the wind to be nice and presto every one will have a blast with some going away with some great prizes including the $1000 first prize.

Big thanks to the folks at EJ Todds who have been brilliant and the Woollhara Sailing club for the use of their facilities over the weekend.

For those heading to the event for far away please have a safe trip and I look forward to catching you all at the briefing tomorrow night.

If any one is still contemplating entering the Tournament we are still taking entries up to the briefing start time of 2000 at the sailing club.

SUAF productions presents

Some great video work by Richard Greven, came up a treat from footage he took while out on Big time Charters last weekend, gives an insight into the info that we provide on the tutorials that we run

Catching squid Bigtime

Another weekend of squid tutorials on board Bigtime Fishing Charters with skipper Gawaine Blake, the squid catching was excellent with over 190 squid landed for the day, was a touch disappointed with the overall size of the squid with mantle sizes averaging between 18-22cm, this is however a good sign for our trips in the coming weeks as the squid will double their size approx every 4 weeks so the squid we were catching over the weekend will be up to 44cm in a months time, this also gives us a goo indication of when the main portion of squid spawn will take place. Although we will still be active in the fishing for squid during that time but will be releasing a lot more of the big girls that come on board to finish the spawn cycle. Its also important to understand that squid only live for a short period of about 1 year and die a very short time after so keeping the big girls in the water to fishing their business is paramount. For further information about the Squid tutorials please contact Gawaine Blake from Bigtime Fishing Charters 0411 103 367 or book online. For those booking from overseas please contact me on 0417590547 with your arrival dates and quote egikuma for bookings. Blog photo uploader is struggling this morning so will upload some images a little later on this afternoon.

On water sessions with Big Time

Its big squid time folks, I will be conducting some on water clinics on Sunday coming aboard Big Time with Gawaine Blake, for bookings and info contact Gawaine from Big Time Fishing Charters on 0411 103 367, these seats wont last so be quick to get on Bigtime.

 Also check out the Big Time Fishing Charters web site by clickin on the Big Time banner on the right of screen, he has some great shots of some squid action on there and we hope to add to it this weekend.

Egi Seminars

Folks we are now again opening up the calender to start a new lot of egi seminars at tackle stores in Victoria and SA, these educational nights seem to be popular and book fast in stores so if you want one at a store near you then ask the host store to contact us to book a night in, we only have 9 available dates left in August and September so be quick as the other 4 filled in one day after a sales rep mentioned it to the stores. Will also make these dates available to Angling Clubs as we have done in the past.

I can be contacted at any time on mobile 0417590547 or email ecofreak@bigpond.com