Trans Tasman comp and Australian nationals

Another Australian nationals over here for the year and I can say it was once again a very enjoyable weekend. Meeting up with plenty of old friends and even met up with a few new faces that have joined the match fishing scene here in the land down under. We really don’t have enough of these types of events here and they always make me want to return back home the next week such is the similarity to the Irish festivals back home
The last 2 nationals I have fished here have been held on the Murry river at Mildura which is an 11 hour drive from my residence in Sydney but this year the event was hosted by NSW and was held on lake burley Griffiths in the nation’s capital Canberra and only a short 3 hour trip for me
The venue itself is huge manmade water and was originally a river which was dammed and flooded. This year the annual trans Tasman comp which is a 16 man aussie team vs. 16 kiwi team was also held on the venue in the same week. Next year this event returns to new Zealand . Each nation’s teams are selected thru their own different club champs or qualifiers and I had qualified thru the Sydney’s Coarse fishing club qualifiers which was held over 5 different club matches on this venue. Four different sections are selected for the nationals and this year’s entry was 13 teams of 4 anglers.
Each section varies a little in both depths and fishing. The first section, A section which is on the banks of the national gallery averages 9 ft deep and can be a little weedy in spots but also can be busy with people sight seeing and tourist and is also a section I have never drawn on here yet. B section is the deepest section to fish and a few swims are 17 ft right at the edge but can really throw up good weights when the fish are there, C section is a much shallower section but good in that most of the pegs in this section are all the same depth and it is fair and even. D section is a deeper section again and has a few snag pegs on it but once again when the fish are there can produce big weights and also has some big lumps in there. I have now fished this venue in about 10 different matches here as our club in Sydney travel here for a few 2 day matches during the year plus we have the NSW open and teams of 4 event in November also held on this so am starting to get some idea of some of the pegs .
The trans Tasman event was fished on Wednesday and Thursday, with Friday being a rest day then the nationals on Saturday and Sunday as the organizers want all sections also to be fished so it helps get some grub in for the nationals. The draw for the international event was done so that 4 anglers from each team fished each section with a pair together then a blank peg and another pair and so on .End pegs were left out and one section had 10 anglers in it (5 from each team).
My first day draw put me on B6 which is more than likely the deepest peg on the venue and can be good if the fish are there but a long 6 hours if they aren’t and also a section I have never fished in before. The weather was nice on the first day but a little on the windy side, in fact so windy I just set up 2 feeder rods and 2 pole rigs to fish at between 9 and 10 m where I had 16 ft of water and set one rig on a top 5 (4 gm) and another on a top 6 (2 gm) so I could search around the swim as the tow picked up. Even thou the venue is a lake it has concrete walls all around it and the old river bed runs thru it there can be quite a tow on it when the wind gets up so much so you would think you are fishing a river on there sometimes so I didn’t bother with a waggler or slider today, I had them in my rod bag made up if needed but doubted I would. All we fish for on here is carp although the last few times on here red fin perch have been showing up in numbers on some pegs and can be a life saver if the carp don’t feed. My rigs on the pole are all on .22 main line with .18 and .20 hook lengths to kammy animals 12’s and 14’s. The fish here go nuts when hooked and aren’t hook shy plus most of the time on here you don’t catch here for 6 hrs steady but more for the last 3 so I like to have no nonsense rigs ready to go .Often when the fish start to feed on here you can put 30 to 50 kgs together in the last 2 hours
Today I was using my old trusty black magic with Preston 19 h elastic and would almost be fishing to hand with the depth I had.

my peg on day 1...B 6

I started on the open feeder while steadily feeding my pole line and had to wait 2 hrs for my first bite and had a carp about 3 lbs on hair rigged double corn. Nobody around me was catching but had heard the lower end of the section was catching well so all I could do was keep feeding and hoped they would eventually turn up. Third hour and I added another 3 pounder to his buddy in the net but wasn’t getting much signs of fish. The Aussie a few pegs away then had a few fish on the pole so I upped my feed a little on that line and went in on it with 2 hours to go. I had plenty of indications straight away and despite feeding heavily, with a bait dropper, dumping big pots of corn and not feeding I had a frustrating 2 hours. I managed to get 13 more out but foul hooked and lost 8 more
They just didn’t seem to want to stay on the bottom in that depth and I could not get a bite by shallowing up but eventually got a routine of feeding heavily with ground bait and corn, drop my rig in, drop another small ball in and one or two would follow it down
I ended up with 15 fish for 34 odd kgs and had 2nd heaviest weight on the day but was 2nd to a kiwi who had 45 kgs on the end of B section also

eventually I started to put a few fish together at the end of day 1.......

The second day saw me draw C 2 which is a peg I have fished twice before. It’s a lot shallower with the original river bed being a long way out from the bank. I had almost 6 ft on the pole at 12.5 mts , about 7 ft on the waggler at 30 mts and about 8 to 9 ft on the feeder at 50 mt. I have often tried feeding closer in swims on the pole on this venue but they never seem to produce fish maybe with the exception of a perch or 2. I cupped in a little ground bait and corn on my 12.5 m pole line at the start and went straight out on the feeder while loose feeding some corn on the waggler. With a light wind today on my back I expected the first couple of hours to be quiet and C section is always hard the first day or two till the fish start to move in on the previous days bait. Despite the angler next to me getting 2 fish in the second hour on the feeder I didn’t have a bite. I went out on the pole with a worm to avoid blanking and got my perch. Then tried the waggler and had a quick 2 fish in a row but then nothing. I then pulled out of a fish on the feeder before it went quiet again. That was it till the last 2 hours when once again a few fish turned up on the pole and in the end I had totaled 17 carp and 2 perch for 20.90 kgs and another section second despite losing a few again, mostly foul hooked again

C2..my peg for day 2 of the internationals

The results in the end meant the aussies gave the kiwis a good hiding despite the kiwis having 3 section wins on day 1 and 3 wins on day 2. I also happen to finish 3rd overall in the individual results and even earned myself a few beer vouchers from the little pool that was ran over the 2 days
We all stay in cabins on a campsite close to the venue which has a local bar and restaurant within walking distance so every night down there is full of beer and craic
This year we had a few new anglers recently move to Australia and it was quiet a mixture of nationalities in there as more anglers turned up on the Friday to fish the nationals
There were people from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, and Holland travel from all over their new homes in different parts of Australia fishing the weekend. Myself, one of the kiwi’s Peter Williams (originally from Wales) and a new resident to Australia from Scotland Paul Joyce also had a little Celtic cup pool running.
Our own team for the nationals is all from our own club in Sydney here, Danny Brown, Neil Dourish, and Shaun Redmond with Shaun being up here since Tuesday also fishing the international days and Danny and Neil getting up on Friday. I didn’t have a fish on Friday and just spent the day chatting to a few guys fishing on a stretch of the lake there and set up a few rigs for myself too. There is a draw for sections for each team’s angler on the Friday at the bar but you may also place your angler if your team wishes to do so.
We decided to place ourselves as I have yet never fished A section and both Danny and Neil had good results on it last year. I have mostly fished D section and have done ok from it the last few times as it is mostly a feeder section and sometimes requires a lot of feeding ground bait over the top of the feeder which is a style of fishing I enjoy

We weren’t too sure how the venue would fish after the rest day as usually it gets a bit harder on here after two days of fishing but hoped the carp would be feeding with a day off. Danny was off to A section, Shaun to B and Neil choose C section
The weather wasn’t what we wanted on Saturday with little wind and then I drew peg 11 which wasn’t what I really wanted as the lower numbers tend to produce fish earlier and if a good angler gets on there it can be hard to catch up later
To cut along story short the whole venue fished hard mostly I think as there was little wind which is always not good on here plus we had a storm front move in towards the end which produce enough rain in the last 20 minutes to make the whole lake rise about 2 inches which is a lot considering the size of the water. Storm drains appeared in the wall on some pegs flowing in the lake so hard you could trot a stick float in
In the end I tried the pole and slider with out a bite except for my blank saving perch I got on the first hour on worm before deciding to concentrate on the feeder for the last 3 hours and putting in a ball of ground bait every 5 or 6 minutes which eventually paid off with 5 carp for just over 7 kgs for 4th in the section. The section was won with 17 kgs (including a 10 kg fish) and as I had thought the lower numbers produced the goods
Neil section also fished hard but he had a 3rd with just under 5 kgs, Shaun’s B section turned out to be a real struggle around his pegs and he finished last but with 5 anglers all having just 1 fish each was unlucky to have the smallest. Danny on section A, had 9 kg of perch on corn for the first 3 ½ hrs before some carp turned up and weighed in 19 kgs for 4th in section also. So after day one we weren’t too far off as most teams had good and bad results and 6 teams were all within 5 points of each other
Day two and after some beers the night before we decided to fish the same sections and hoped we got a decent draw in some sections as most had proved to be peggy and fish just in pockets but also hope the extra water that went in would get some fish feeding as it usually does on here plus we had a bit of wind as we drew our pegs on the bank.
I really hoped I would draw peg 1 or 2 in D but was so what hope full when I pulled out 3. Neil had drawn my C 2 peg from Thursday match and also had fished it before in a club match but Danny and Shaun both had tough enough draws in there sections

It was very windy when we were setting up so I again went with just one pole rig incase it calm later in the day but set up a few feeder rods to fish at 40 m. I went in on a worm first to get a perch which I didn’t have to wait long for and then onto corn or some dead maggots but ended up pulling out of 2 carp in the first hour after finicky bites. They normally rip the rod from your rests here and give you such a drop back to have to really reel fast to keep with them. One of the new anglers recently moved here from the UK young Dan Hull had drawn the flier D1 and had 5 or 6 fish in the net all ready, peg 2 which my welsh “Celtic cup” opponent also had drawn also had a few in the net. The second hour didn’t go much better as I was getting the odd liner but only had one decent bite and 1 fish in the net, Dan meanwhile on peg 1 was catching steadily on the feeder. Word on the bank was that all the other sections were also fishing hard but all our team had a fish at least so had avoided a blank so far. The third hour flew by me and still the odd liner was all I was getting while peg 1 continued to sack up. I tried a few floating maggots on the hook and had a fish straight away only for it to come off then the same with the next 2 and then hooked either a small carp or perch and had about 10 turns on the reel when it stopped and slowly started to move away like I had hooked a sub…! ..it move slowly for about 20 seconds in a circle before it snapped me off….I can only presume it was a Murray cod which are a native fish here and make a 40 pounds pike look like a mini beside an 18 wheeler truck. They are huge and regularly grab feeders as you reel them in. It must have been keeping all the carp huddled up in peg 1 because after that I started to get more liners and eventually after keeping balls of ground bait going in started to get a few fish together. I switch to a method feeder for the last 45 minutes and it would sit still hardly once it hit the bottom but had to just wait for the tip to fly around
In the end I had 7 fish for 13 plus kg and again a section 4th but young Dan fished a nice tidy first match for him in Australia to get 26 fish for 55 kgs and a section win. Well done Dan. Our team blew out badly on the second day and the venue never really fired up as it usually does. Danny really struggled on A section on his end while the other half of the section fished well, Neil had a 10th on C and Shaun finished 7th on B section
Overall we finished 8th but still had a good time and it always good craic when we all stay there

13 odd kg on the last day....too little too late...

it's not all sun down here...the rain came in the last 15 mins on day 1 of the nationals........

The winning team this year is team Queensland with is Mal Connop, Kevin Butler and only moved here 3 months father and son duo Adey and Dan Hull who finished 1 point ahead of national regulars Melbourne gold and Woods floats coming third. I bet their 14 hour drive home won’t seem as long for them now.
My welsh opponent Paul Williams, along with winning our “Celtic cup” pot went to win the individual with a section 1st and a 2nd over the two days. Me, I finished 8th overall which I was happy with out of 52
I have 3 more club matches here and then it’s off to Finley for a new 2 day event we are hold on a new venue we found recently here. It’s a six hour drive from Sydney but is pretty central for most the anglers in all the other parts too like in Melbourne, SA, etc
There is a lake and irrigation canal both having carp, but the lake also has tench, large wild gold fish and perch so will be interesting to fish for something different for a change
Also here are a few more pictures mostly from day 2 on different sections which I had a friend there take while he was walking around

Tony Howard on his way to 3rd overall on A section , Day 2

Alan Woods on day 2...rumour has it along with making good floats here in Oz , he is now making new feeders that you dont need hooks on your rigs.

He hooked into a fish only for it to snap his hooklenght but then went on to foul hook a carp on the dorsal fin as he retrived his rig and netted it.....and went on to finish 2nd overall !

Welsh kiwi Peter Williams on his way to a section second on day 2 and 1st overall in the individuals...not to mention his "celtic cup" champ title

Just imigrated Adey Hull adding another to Team Queensland 's winning net, I bet their 14 hour drive back didn't seem as long on the way home....

......there are also some more pics on here too...

http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d136/irishangler/canberra/