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Team Tyre Power - Jig Pro have the Traction to Overtake the Competition.

The weekend of the 26th and 27th of November saw the top 50 teams that had qualified from the 2011 Humminbird Bream Classic Series head to Mallacoota to battle it out for the big one, the 2011 Humminbird Bream Classic Championship. With every team having to earn their spot to fish in the invitational, to say that the competition would be fierce was an understatement. With Mallacoota having the quality fish and the anglers having the skills made for unbelievable results over the weekend. With 45 of the 50 teams weighing in 5 bags on day1 and considering a bag weighing in at 4.07kg was only good enough for 20th position after the first day, teams would have to fish at their absolute best to have a chance of taking out this event. For Team Tyre Power Jig Pro's Dean Gamble and Mark Cribbes the moons would align and they would produce two of their best days competition angling at the perfect time to hand them the championship.

Mallacoota may have had the quality fishing but it definitely turned on the worst weather anyone had experienced in recent times in a Vic Bream Classics tournament. With Day 1 dishing up almost 90mls of torrential rain and up to 60 knot wind gusts the early signs didn't look promising. The rain was so heavy that one angler reported getting so wet in a down pour that his automatic PFD went off, a first in any Vic Bream Classics tournament. Thankfully for the field someone had forgot to tell the bream that the weather was ordinary as they relished in the wind and rain and absolutely chewed their heads off.

For Team Tyre Power Jig - Pro their first 2.5 hours fishing on Day1 set a strong foundation for them to build on as they had their full bag by 9.15am. "We started out on Day 1 at the Eight Foot Bank and Baker Bight area fishing edges. We landed our first legal a 39cm fork black bream in first 10 minutes of competition, but after no more fish came from this area we moved to Harrison's Chanel to fish the flats until the tide started to come in. We fished in about 1 metre of water using a combination of Camostiks, Takeda Fireblades and Rantall Custom Rods matched to Suteki and Daiwa Certate Reels spooled with 4 and 6 pound Takeda and Unitika braid with 3 and 4lb Yamatoyo and Takeda Millenium Flourcarbon leaders" Dean said. Using a variety of lures on the flats including Sakana DD40F in Ghost Browney, Jackall Chubbies in Brown Suji, Atomic Cranks in Muddy Prawn and Berkley Gulp 2 inch Banana Prawns rigged on 1/48th Jig-Pro jigheads the boys managed to land some quality fish in this area securing their 5 bream bag."After getting our 5 bream in the well early we moved into the green water and managed to upgrade for the next 2 hrs catching a fish about every second cast" Dean said. Even with such spectacular fishing and a 5 bream bag that weighed an impressive 5.13kg the boys from Tyre Power Jig-Pro still didn't have enough to hold the lead on Day1. This honour went to the 2011 Club Marine Team Of Year Champions Team Minn Kota's Warren Carter and Cameron Whittam with a slightly more impressive 5 bream bag for 5.15kg. With everything Team Minn Kota touched turning to gold in 2011 the signs looked ominous that they would have the skills to hold off the field on Day2, but with under a kilogram separately 1st and 16th place it was still anyone's championship to win.

With such a strong bite at the Harrison's Chanel area in the last few hours of Day1 Team Tyre Power Jig-Pro decided to head straight to their honey hole in the hope that the fish would still be there. When Mark landed a 32 fork Yellow Fin Bream on his first cast of the morning the boys knew it was game on. The boys spent the next few hours drifting along the same stretch of water picking up enough legal fish to fill their bag but not the size that they felt they needed to take the victory." After getting our bag we anchored in what we thought would be a great upgrade spot but after fighting the wind and waves for only one more undersized fish we decided to move out to the channel. With only about a 4kg bag we knew we needed a few more quality fish to keep us in the hunt" Dean said. The move really paid off for the boys as they spent the remainder of the session upgrading fish to what eventually turned into a 5 bream bag of 5.02kg giving them 10/10 bream for a total weight of 10.15kg. Immediately after Team Tyre Power Jig- Pro had weighed in, all eyes turned to Team Minn Kota who needed 5.01kg to take the victory. As Team Minn Kota approached the scales the tension was building the scene was set and as the bag hit the scales the weight jumped up over 4kg then slowed and stopped at 4.27kg, it wouldn't be enough Team Tyre Power Jig-Pro were the 2011 Humminbird Bream Classic Champions. Along with the honour of being crowned the 2011 Humminbird Bream Classic Champions the boys won a swag of prizes including $8,000 in cash and BLA Vouchers, Engel MT45 Fridge Freezers, Spotters Sunglasses, Eco-Gear, Atomic, Bassday, Shimano and Flow-Rite product and to top it off as they boys used Atomic Cranks to help them secure the win they scored 2 Samurai Reaction Rods thanks to Frogleys Offshore's Samurai Reaction Rods bonus program.

Taking out 2nd place in an exceptional run at the lead was Team Gatty's Jason and Marc Gatt who smashed the Atomic Bassday Best bag prize with a day 2 bag of 5/5 bream for 5.20kg taking themselves from 9th to 2nd position. The Gatt boys nearly also stole the Eco-Gear Big Bream Prize when one of their day 2 fish pushed the scales to 1.47kg, but it just wasn't enough to pass Team Bluey's Bait & Tackle's Matt Leach and Robert Harvey who on Day1 weighed in a thumping bream that pushed the scales to 1.49kg and winning them the Eco-Gear Big Bream Prize.

The 2011 Humminbird Bream Series was an exceptional year of tournament angling with great results across all venues. If you are interested in this style of fishing then grab a friend and jump on the www.vicbreamclassics.com.au website to down load an entry and get involved. The first round of the 2012 Humminbird Bream Classic Series is from Docklands on the 4th and 5th of February so get in now and secure your teams spot. For more enquiries please call Bill Hartshorne Tournament Director on 0409 823 070