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Team Ever Hopeful Make History at Marlo

The first Rnd of the 2015 Atomic Vic Bream Classic Series had everyone excited as per usual, but not only because it was the first rnd of a new season, but because the first Rnd would see the introduction of a new tournament arena never before used in the Vic Bream Classic Series. The Maria Lures Sunline Bream Classic brought 48 teams of 2 anglers to the beautiful Marlo. With nearly then entire field only having fished Marlo a handful of times it was going to be anyone's tournament to win and for Team Ever Hopefuls Daryl Baird and Jason Sellings the decisions they would make would give them a very well deserved first up victory.

Everyone could have been mistaken for thinking that the Marlo Rnd 1 was being run in the middle of winter and not on the last weekend in January. With wind, rain much lower than normal temperatures adding an extra challenge for the anglers on this new mysterious location. The only thing that all the anglers in the field were sure of was that Marlo held some of the largest bream anywhere in Australia and landing them would be a victory in itself. For Team Ever Hopeful the decision was made that rain hail or shine they would head up into lake Karingal and try their luck on the flats. This proved to be the best decision they could have ever made as armed with Miller and G-Loomis Rods, Shimano Ci4 and Daiwa Reels spooled with 4lb and 3lb Berkley Nanofil and 4lb Berkley Vanish flurocarbon leaders the boys starting searching the flats for their first bream. It wasn't long before their Jackall Chubbies in Ayu and their Atomic Shad 40 in Muddy Prawn where being smashed by quality bream and with their bag before 8.30am their spirits where high that they were in with a real chance to press for the lead. As the boys headed to the weigh in they were up against a lead bag from Team Wirth Rods which went 4.46kg and as their bag hit the scales they fell just short of leading after day 1 with 5/5 bream for 4.44kg. The Jml Anglers Alliance Big Bream after Day 1 sat with Team MPW's Peter Marshal and Will Reinlt which was a cracking fish weighing 1.64kg.

Day 2 saw weather conditions starting to improve and the field was in high spirits that the bream would fire even more than Saturday and some quality bags would be landed meaning a top 10 charge from further down the leader board could pose a real threat to the lead teams. Following on from their Day1 success Team Ever Hopeful headed back to the same Lake Karginal flats and as had happened the day before it proved a great decision. "We started off by throwing muddy prawn and ayu chubbies on both days in around 2.5 feet of water with just a slow roll across the bottom adding a slight pause every now and again" Darryl said. The boys again had their bag by 8.30am and then spent the next two hours upgrading countless times. "Both days were quite windy, the water was murky but we still managed to upgraded many times however by 10.30am the fish had shut down, so we still preserved in the same area but could only manage to land smaller fish" Darryl said. It wouldn't matter that only small fish came after 10.30am as all the hard work had already been done by Darryl Baird and Jason Sellings from Team Ever Hopeful as with 5/5 bream weighing 4.33kg they took the lead and with 10/10 bream weighing 8.77kg they secured the Maria Lures Sunline Bream Classic win.

There were a number of teams producing some excellent captures on Day 2 and subsequently the JML Anglers Alliance Big Bream and the Maria Lures Best Bag were both crushed on day 2. Paul Malov and Alex Franchuk from Team Lowrance HDS took out the JML Anglers Alliance Big Bream with a horse of a fish weighing 1.67kg assisting them to move from 12th to 3rd position. The Maria Lures Best Bag was also smashed by David Harding and Stuart Carruthers from Team Edge Bite with 5/5 bream for 4.76kg rocketing them from 19th to 4th position, but the stars of the show where still Team Ever Hopefuls Darryl Baird and Jason Sellings who go down in history as the first team to ever win a Vic Bream Classic Tournament at Marlo.