More stores and more casting

Mr Hiraiwa at Anglers Bait World

Started off nice an earlyish, Adrew Wilson from Gladiator Tackle and I picked our guests up at about 845 and headed off to visit some stores, started in Coburg at Anglers Bait World where I had recently done a squid talk, the store owners Vince and Mitsul were great hosts as the guys browsed through the store, while we were visiting the store a delivery arrived with a box of Gan Craft jigs to top up the shelf. We also found magazine articles and full page ads for Gan Craft. With a little bit of shopping to be done we finished up an headed for the Caravan Super Centre. This was not only the frst visit here for Gan Craft it was also my first ever visit to the store. Was great experience with lots of stock on the shelves and some of my old faves in the bream lure and rod area. Alan from the store has a good grip on everything in the shop and was a nice bloke too. I will be popping back into the store again in the future when I am in the area, it is a long way from me but I am sure I will be driving past from time to time.

ads in mags

We then ventured over to Hoppers Crossing to catch up with Michael, last year we did a talk at this store so was good to get the guys over to again catch up with Michael, smiles all round and plenty of shopping to be done again, maybe the boys will need to buy some more luggage to get the tackle home from all the store visits. We all know that entering a tackle shop with a wallet can be a dangerous exercise as we will always find something knew we want. I then snuck away for a tick as we had some one who was away from there family and friends and trying to enjoy their birthday, Yuach our friend from Japan turned 30 yesterday so a cake was in order for some small celebrations, with short notice we also arranged some chocky and beer for the evening.

something looks familiar

Big drive now to Hastings in the hope of some successful egingu with Gawaine from Bigtime Fishing Charters. On the way we stopped in at Gone Fishing at Carrum Downs to again catch up with the staff that were so helpful on their last journey. Danny and the boys were great and coffee's were made all round while chatting and browsing through the store. No surprise more shopping also. Gone Fishing started only a few years ago and has tripled in physical size and have multiplied their stock many times over, a very successful store in its short existence.

Mr Hiraiwa, Alan, me and Mr Kake

A quick trip past my place to pick up some fishing gear and a stop off to get some fishing and chips for the guys we were on the way to Hastings, not a lot to report here, after the rain the water temp was 19.5 degrees and the water dirty so egingu was going to be tough. It proved so tough that no squid were landed in the short time we had on the water, sadly the guys have been here now for 3 days and no squid yet, we will have to see what eden turns on for them.

Yuach Birthday Cake

Birthday beer and chocky

mmmmmmmmm Cake

Egi browsing

Michael and the guys looking at pics

nice day to be on the water

Don and Mr Kake at Gone Fishing

Coffee boats and tackle, this is why we smile

Mr Hiraiwa (Gancha)

Store Visits and Casting

Mr Hiraiwa and Mr Kake

Today after letting our friends have a sleep in we met with them in the  city and headed off for a bite to eat. We stopped at the Burvale in Burwood for a feed and watched with interest as the waiter brought a giant Wagyu Beef Burger to the table for Yuki. Yuki is the smallest of the group and the look on his face was priceless when this giant burger hit the table. I also had the big burger it went down a treat. We then headed east and visited a few stores including Compleat Angler Ringwood and Hook up Bait and Tackle. Like all tackle junkies there is always going to be something on the shelf that takes our interest and some items that are designed for Murray Cod fishing here in Australia look like they may find a spot swimming around some of the Large Mouth Bass dams in Japan.

Mr Iwamoto

We then made our way to a dam that had been stocked with Bass, Yellas, Cod and Trout in the hope of getting the boys a few fish, sadly we have experienced some heavy rain in the past few days so upon arrival we noticed the water was a dark mud color, using a fluoro spinner bait we only had about 3 inches below surface visibilty. I knew it was going to be tough and tough it was, lets just say we had plenty of casting practice today which was good because my baitcasting skills are terrible.

We finished the day off with a Chinese Banquet in South Yarra before unloading all of the luggage that had arrived today along with the guys fishing gear a most welcome delivery, we will do it all again tomorrow with store visits and a trip to Hastings where we will venture out with Gawaine Blake from Big Time Fishing Charters for some red hot egi action (touch wood) and then maybe a few snapper.

I even managed to get a cast in

Swimming a few lures in overflow current

Cracking Selection of big baits

We welcome the Gan Craft Crew

Was a great privilege to spend some time today with our friends from Japan, the Crew from Gan Craft, Mr Hiraiwa, Mr. Kake, Mr. Iwamoto and Mr. Kitagawa.

After a long journey on a plane with a couple of stops along the way there is no better way to enjoy the Melbourne sun than sitting outside a Chapel St cafe sharing a cold beer with mates. Although it was a coke for me and a coffee for Mr Hiraiwa. If there is one thing in this world than can work through any language barrier its talking about fishing over a beer. It was good to chat with those who have previously visited and also to meet with those who we have been waiting to hang with. 

A drink in the afternoon also brings a hearty appetite so after a stroll along Chapel St browsing through the shopping precinct we made plans for a feed, off to the Spaghetti Bar known as Chapellis. The waiter was great and thought a bit of aussie food was in order so along with the bread dinner rolls came butter and Vegemite, an aquired taste even for many Australians was interesting to see the reaction of our friends from Japan.

Looking forward to another week or so with the guys from Gan Craft both here in Melbourne and in Perth, talks/seminars are scheduled for 14th and 15th in Melbourne at Fishing Fever in Mordialloc and Nothside Angler in Campbellfield contact the stores for more details. Media inquires can contact me on 0417590547.

The Vegemite

 

 

The Vegemite grin

Yamashita Squid Series 2011, Gan Craft Round 5 Eden NSW

Yamashita Squid Series 2011, Gan Craft Round 5 Eden NSW

This round of the national squid series is a charity event where all proceeds go to the group Beyond Blue, men’s mental health initiative program called ‘The Shed’.

The Shed is one of the many mental health strategies that Beyond Blue have initiated targeted at men and their mental health.

This round is still a qualifying round with the normal $1000 cash prize for 1st and other prizes awarded down the line, qualification for the Grand Final and Lowrance Team of the year points will still be awarded, what makes this event different is that Australian Egi Tournaments will not ask for any entry money, however, each team will be given an    envelope at the event briefing where a donation to the amount of the teams choice will be placed in the envelope as a donation to Beyond Blues ’The Shed’, no questions will be asked about the amounts and no minimum amount is expected.

For entry forms and competition rules please go to www.australianegitournaments.com.au, for teams entering that wish to lodge forms on the briefing evening please email me with your team details paul@australianegitournaments.com.au. All media or competition enquiries, please    contact Tournaments Director Paul Carter 0417590547 at any time

Event Briefing and registration will take place at the Eden Amateur Fish Club Clubhouse

At 2000pm on Friday the 1th November 2011, we will be on site from 0700 to take late entries, please bring your fishing licence with you and all entry details

Williamstown Sportfishing and Game Club Talk

For the first time ever I last week ventured down to the Altona boat ramp, although tame I can see where it would get crazy from time to time, this is the location of the  Williamstown Sportfishing and Game Club who share the Hobsons Bay Angling Club rooms. This area is known to many as the Snapper capitol of Victoria and is also know for its many accessible location to big squid a little further south. Have been to plenty of clubs in the last 6 months doing squid talks and have heard heaps  about the stereotypical angling club stale environment, can I say I have yet to see it and this club is no exception to the rule. People from all walks of life and age in a setting overlooking the bay at Altona made for a very comfortable setting both for me and the members of the club, although not too comfortable as no one fell asleep during the talk so something must have been right. Had great feeback from members at the club and again it was great to get pounded with questions from all members at the club, it means that people are genuinely interested in what we are doing and heps of people taking their gear out to chase squid waving rods around like harry potter casting spells. I never tire of these talks I meet some brilliant people and have the chance to inspire others to go out and try some of what we talk about. Big thanks to Williamstown Sportfishing and Game Club for the invite I look forward to visiting the club at another time in the future.

Anglers Bait World Coburg Seminar

Was great to be invited by the guys at Anglers Bait World in Coburg to conduct a squid seminar in the store, Anglers Bait World is a relatively young store that started off as a bulk bait supplier to the northern and western suburbs of Melbourne and has progressed into a well stocked store with a great bunch of regular customers.


Traditionally people from this neck of the woods are from a demographic that do not freely embrace new information or techniques, was suprised to see how many people turn up to see what the big deal was about. After a few snags from the BBQ put on by the store all seats were full and it was standing room only time to get things under way. People were fixed on the projection screen while small clips from around the world showing egingu techniques.

The staffed kicked it off with a very warm welcome and a head swelling introduction and then we got down to squid. I really enjoyed this one with lots of questions and comments from all and I look forward to the next time I visit the store, the people were very kind and full of compliments again glad that people are getting something from our talks.



Big thanks to Vince and Mitsul for the invite and to all that made me feel welcome. Was great to put some names to facebook faces and to catch up with people from some of the angling clubs that I have visited over the years doing both egi and soft plastics talks. Also thanks to Gladiator Tackle for donating a few Gan Craft Egi-Jya and Uo-Jya egi to give away. As always its a big buzz to see the kids smiling at the end of the talks when they have a few new toys to take home.

For those interested in visiting the store they can be found at :
Cnr Gaffney and McDonalds St
Coburg North VIC 3058

Phone: (03) 9350 2130

Talking Squid at the BSGFC

Last week I was fortunate enough to spend an evening with some real seasoned fisho's at the Bass Strait Game Fishing Club in Hastings, was a nice intimate chat with about 35 people present talking all things squid before they held there annual family day 'Squid Off' always good to talk with people keen to understand new techniques and styles and also hear the stories of some of the monster squid that have been caught both in Western Port and offshore in Bass Strait. Had heaps of time up my sleeve on this one so I was able to do a full presentation with video and practical demonstrations on how a good egi compares with a cheap one. Big thanks to the club for the invite and Dale McClellend and Daron Proudloc for the help getting all my crap out of the car. This club is one that if any one is considering doing any game fishing in Victoria they should be a member of, looking at the members here there is a lot of game fishing experience in their members and massive amount of records held by club members, so if you are considering getting into game fishing or are a seasoned game fisho who is looking at meeting with other game fisho's that have plenty of experience give em a bell at secretary@bassstraitgamefishingclub.com or check out their website http://bassstraitgamefishingclub.com.

Color selection chart

Clint attempting to pull apart a Gan Craft Egi-Jya that has been used and me pulling apart a new out of the box egi with ease

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.