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Tournament Kayak Fishing - Advice for beginners
- Category: Technique & strategies
- Published on Monday, 04 January 2010 20:50
- Written by Stuart Whitehouse
- Hits: 4940
So you went and purchased yourself a kayak at some point with a view to doing some fishing. Maybe you have just done so or maybe you have been at it for some time. It occurred to me that there were probably other people out there who are thinking, as I once did, "I wish I was a good enough fisherman to enter those kayak fishing tournaments and have a crack at some of those great prizes."
Well I have some good news for you... "You Are - or soon can be! " Let me tell you of my experiences and why I think you have a better chance than you may think at getting a place in the winner's circle. Let me first point out that I have only been kayak fishing for a little over a year and I have only been targeting bream on soft plastics, and other lures, for even less time than that. All the knowledge I have gained about catching those crafty bream has been from the generous people on the various kayak fishing forums available and from putting that knowledge into practice. I will go into more detail later.
My 1st yak tournament, in which I was only able to enter 2 of the 4 rounds, was the Hobie/ABT bream comp. This round was in the Mooloolah River. I entered for the experience and the chance to meet a few people I had chatted to on the forums and held little hope of doing any good. Conditions were pretty tough due to dirty water from the bucket loads of rain we had in the couple of weeks before the round. From memory, only about 6 or 7 people out of about 40 actually caught legal size bream. I should also point out at this point that this comp had a bag limit of two fish which had to be kept alive and healthy for the weigh in and had to be released in a healthy state. I caught nothing in this round as was the case with most people. The next comp was another round of the Hobie/ABT but this round was in the Nerang River and adjoining canals on the Gold Coast. I had the chance to do a pre-fish on the day prior to the comp with the winner of round one which was held in Sydney. I learned a lot from this guy. On the day of the comp I had my 1st fish 8 minutes in but it was undersize and was released. This lifted my spirits and my hopes but was to be the only fish of the day.
The Hobie/ABT only gives prizes for the top 3 spots, as with most sporting events and this may also put you off entering however, they also have some random draws. NB: I refer to the comp as it was run when I entered and the format may have changed by now. There is another comp which may tickle your fancy. Unfortunately, it is currently only run in Queensland. This comp is simply called the "KFT" (Kayak Fishing Tournament). There are a few distinct advantages to this tournament from a beginners point of view.
1/ They do mixed species comps as well as bream.
2/ They are a photograph and release comp so, no need for a livewell, just a digital camera.
3/ They award prizes to the top 10 so, more chances for you to win something.
4/ Even if you don't get into the top 10 there is a random draw and "everybody" wins something. No one goes away empty handed.
5/ Every entrant is in with the chance to win a kayak, in every round. Brand dependant on sponsorship of that event.
6/ Each round has it's own individual prizes so, you do not have to fish every round or qualify for a grand final. It's a great tournament of beginners.
Please do not misinterpret what I have said above as saying one comp is better than the other. They are both great comps and very well run and both have their own pros and cons. I am merely trying to illustrate that there are options available to you and that anyone, including beginners, can be in with a chance to win a prize. Let me now try to demonstrate that point. I will give my self as an example here as I have never thought of myself as a great fishermen. When the KFT guys ran a comp here on the Sunshine Coast where I live, I was able to scrape up the entry fee and enter all 3 rounds. Round one was in the Pumicestone Passage at the top end of Bribie Island near Caloundra. The launch point was at the boat ramp near the Caloundra Powerboat Club. This is right next to the entrance to the Pelican Waters canals. I spent the whole period of the comp in these canals and caught only one legal sized bream at about 11.30am. What chance do I have I thought. This fish, although legal, was only 24.4cms but it turned out that it was a quiet day and only 7 of us (out of about 35ish people) actually caught legal size fish. So here was little ol' me with this little bream and thinking I would be laughed at. (see photo below) 
This little fish put me in 6th place and won me a TT lure pack which consisted of 8 switchblade lures and 16 packets of jigheads with a retail value of about $250. One liittle fish!!! Who would have thought. Needless to say I was as happy as a pig in mud. Round 2 of this tournament was in the Mooloolah River a bit further north. This was a great arena to fish as it had multiple canal estates and multiple marinas, including a commercial marina with trawlers and longliners etc.. Big fish lurk here. This was another quiet day with about 13 of the 50ish (I think) entrants catching fish. Again, I only caught one fish. I was still doubtful of a prize as there were more competitors and this was a better fishing arena. I came in this time with a fish measuring 34.7cms. A much nicer fish than in round one but still not huge. This time, again with only one fish out of the tournament bag limit of 5, I came in 7th place and again won a TT lures prize pack worth about $250 at retail prices. Still thinking it was a fluke like round one, I entered round 3.
Round 3 was supposed to be still further north in the Maroochy River but it had not been fishing all that well so the organisers decided to have round 3 at the same location as round 2. Mooloolah River. I think there was about 55 entrants in this round. I was very aprehensive in this round as everyone knew who caught what and where and on what tackle in the last round. Yet again I came in with one fish and learned that this time, over 20 people had caught legal size fish. My single fish this day measured about 27.3cms. I had caught one at 35cms the previous day. grrr.
With over 20 people having fish to weigh in and with rumours of a fish over 40cms being caught, as well as 2 or 3 people having caught their bag of 5... my hopes were low again. The plus 40cm fish turned out to be a grunter bream and was not allowed as the target species was yellowfin bream. So here I was again with one fish, not huge, over 20 people with fish, and I still got in. Yep, 9th place and this time the prize was a Jervis Walker 18lb sw electric motor with a spare prop and a spool of platypus monofilament line. It was a gratefully received prize butI had no use for it so I sold it for $100 + postage.
Most of the fish caught in each round were caught on berkley gulp soft plastics although some were caught on sx40 style hardbody lures and some were caught on blade style lures. My two biggest ever bream were caught on 2lb braid with a 4lb flurocarbon leader using a berkley gulp 5cm baby shrimp in the peppered prawn colour. Both times it was using a 1/40th ounce hidden weight TT jighead (part of prize) and the soft plastic was presented as a dead bait. Each time it has been on an outgoing tide and thrown upcurrent and allowed to slowly sink and drift with the current under a pontoon where it was quickly pounced on by a bream. My 2nd biggest bream gave me the biggest fight. I thought I had hooked moby dick. I have also been lucky enough after placing in the top 10 three rounds running to get a sponsor for the next KFT. Anything can happen. An interesting little fact is that by the time a bream grows to the legal size of 23cms (in Qld.) that is has reached the ripe old age of 5 years. No wonder they are so crafty.
So what advice do I have for those who would like to have a crack tournament fishing? Firstly I would say that the old saying "you've got to be in it to win it" applies. I entered all 3 rounds of the Sunshine Coast KFT and got into the top 10 in all 3 rounds and netted nearly $900 in prizes. I am far from being an expert. I never seem to catch more than one or two legal size bream in an outing and as I have said above, I only caught one fish in each round and look at the result. I would strongly suggest that you give it a go. I would suggest you spend some time on the forums and try and find out who is catching most of the fish you want to target and quiz them about it. You will find that the majority of people on the forums are quite helpful and are only to willing to share their knowledge. Put some time into putting the things you learn into practice and above all, be patient. It took me many fishless trips before I got my 1st bream on a soft plastic.
Please let me pass on the following tips that I have learned from others on the forums and from my own experiences in relation to bream. Bear in mind also that every bream fishermen will have different advice to offer. Take all advice and try it all and find out what works best for you however, once you have found a technique that continually works for you, don't let that stop you from continuing to experiment and try new things. I fish for bream with 2, 4 and 6lb but have caught the majority on 2lb. Let me try and summarise a few things I have learned that may help you...
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