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Team Minn-Kota Prove Why They Are Team of the Year in the Humminbird Bream Classic Invitational.

The last weekend in November saw 46 teams of the best bream anglers that Australia has to offer head to Nelson on the Glenelg River for the 2013 Humminbird Bream Classic Invitational. With pre-fish success for most teams not eventuating a call was made to make the minimum legal length for the tournament be 29cm tip length to enable more fish to the weigh in. This proved very helpful for some teams but for team Minn-Kota's Cam Whittam and Warren Carter it was never going to be needed with some quality fish coming to their boat as they charged towards victory and the 2013 Hummnbird Bream Classic Champions Crown.

Day 1 saw anglers wake to picture perfect conditions but while very comfortable for the anglers concerns were that maybe too good for the bream to bite. For Team Minn-Kota it was going to be the same Nelson plan for them and a trip straight to the front was on the cards. Taking with them in their arsenal of gear to wage war on the Glenelg River bream population was for Cam = 10 pound Sunline Castaway braid,3 & 4 pound Sunline FC Rock Bream Special Fluoro leaders, Daiwa Certate 2506 reels on Loomis TSR 862 rods and for Warren = 14.5 pound Varivas Avani Eging braid with Varivas 4 pound Absolute Fluoro leaders, Shimano Stella 1000 & 2500 reels on Loomis SR 842 and Shimano T-Curve Flight series rods. "We fished the estuary both days and concentrated on areas less than 1m in depth the whole time. All areas were broken bottom that consisted of sand/mud with weed or rocks. We didn't fish open sand with any success. Saturday saw a 35,33.5 and a 30.5 forker in the well by 7:40. Only one more fish was boated, a 34 forker at around 1pm. Both of us fished slightly different retrieves as the fish were very tentative and non-committal for most of the day. Longer pauses than we would normally use seemed to be the key combined with twitches and different speeds of lure retrieval. We couldn't say we had another legal fish on to round out our bag but had a lot of short takes in the last two hours" Cam said. Even with only 4 fish in the well it was enough to hand them the lead over Team The Old Boys as they weighed in 4/5 bream for 3.23kg.

Day 2 produced even clearer warmer conditions for the anglers with one major difference which had hopes high of a good bite and that was the wind was starting to pick up potentially bringing the bream on. "To start Day 2 we had two small legals by 8am and then things really slowed down and became grind. Using a combination of Cranka cranks and new crabs, shallow Smith Camions and Panish 55s we continued to drift different areas to try and find fish which resulted in another 2 legals by around 12pm. We decided to fish the windward side of the estuary from 12pm which paid off in the end. Four solid fish found their freedom by pulling the hooks in a 15 minute window and we thought we may have squandered our opportunity to win. Fortunately Warren boated our fifth fish which had us both relieved. Although still ruing the lost fish we had 1.5 hrs to go we knew we still had a chance to win. Three more legals which were all upgrades had us crossing our fingers as we knew the "The Old Boys" had a bag and it would be close at the weigh in" Cam said. Close it was at the weigh in with numerous teams jumping up the leader board to challenge for first but it wasn't all the top ten making a move as sitting back in 32nd position was Team Chemically Sharp who weighed in a cracking bag of 5/5 bream for 3.54kg moving them 18 places up the leader board handing them the Aus Tackle Monster Movers Prize including the Eco-Gear Big Bream Prize for a cracking 1.55kg bream they had in their bag. Making a move from 10th to 3rd place with the Maria Lures Best Bag for the weekend was Team Berkley with 5/5 bream for 3.71kg. With all these quality bags coming to the scales there were some nervous moments to see if the 5/5 bream for 2.89kg that Team Minn- Kota had weigh in early would be enough. With only The Old Boys left to challenge for the lead it all came down to one last bag and as The Old Boys bag hit the scales they settled and stopped on 5/5 bream for 3.00kg exactly giving them 8/10 bream for 5.93kg but just not quite enough to catch the 2013 Club Marine Team of the Year's Team Minn-Kota's Cameron Whittam and Warren Carter who weighed 9/10 bream for 6.12kg handing them the 2013 Humminbird Bream Classic Championship.

On accepting the 2013 Humminbird Bream Classic Champions Trophy Cam and Warren thanked the following sponsors that made their win possible. Minn Kota/Humminbird (BLA), Sunline (EJ Todd), Tonic sunglasses, Smith Lures, Varivus, Shimano Australia and Aussie Angler in Greensborough. If youd like to be a part of the 2014 Humminbird Bream Classic Series log onto www.vicbreamclassics.com.au for all the info and entry forms or call Bill Hartshorne on mobile: 0409 823 070