The weekend of the 11th & 12th of August saw 41 dedicated bream classic teams brave the unpredictable Warrnambool weather and take to the Hopkins River for the Hooked On Rods & Reels Sungold Milk Bream Classic. As this was the fourth and final qualifying round for the 2007 Humminbird Vic Bream Classic Series those anglers not yet to qualify for the Vic Bream Classics Grand Final along with the National Bream Classic Final were eager to get their invitation for a chance at October and November glory. Another great tussle that the Hopkins set the stage for was the crowning of the Club Marine Team of The Year Trophy and with Team SSBB and Team Mercury tied in first place going into the round it was going to be a tight affair.
Day one started just like any other Warrnambool day on the Hopkins with Strong winds and rain greeting the anglers. Not being surprised with these poor conditions the anglers were off using their best cold water strategies to get the bream to bite. For Team Alan Schwartz Ag Marine’s Dean Truman and Shane Hill this was to be a day that they will never forget. Choosing to head down river under the bridge and towards the mouth they decided that rather than cover a large area they would anchor up and wait for the bream to come past them. This turned out to be the best decision of the tournament as after 10.30am all hell broke loose and they started catching good numbers of bream and all were huge. Using a combination of Shimano Stella and Stradic 2500 reels, matched to Shimano Starlo Stix rods with 4lb Berkley Crystal and 6lb Rockfish fluorocarbon, the boys were basically casting and retrieving deep diving Jackal Chubby lures in the purple colour all around the boat. “We would basically cast the lure out crank it down to the bottom and then use a twitch pause retrieve all the way back and the bigger bream were smashing the lure on the pause” Dean said. When the boys came back in and up to the scales it was evident by the tails hanging out the top of the weigh bag that this bag of bream would be about as big as it gets and as the scales settled at 6.96kg the crowd erupted and a new Vic Bream Classic Record had been set. With that bag the boys easily took out the Saturday Berkley Round 1 Prize but better than that they were going into Sunday with roughly a 3.5kg break on second place. Barry Thomas and Graham Taylor from Team Hooked On Bream also set a tough act to follow on Saturday with the Eco-Gear Big Bream contender they weighed in that totalled 1.66kg.
Anglers awoke on Sunday to much different weather to the previous day in no wind, fog and freezing cold conditions, so much so that snow was reported to have fallen by anglers further up the river, a first for a Vic Bream Classics Tournament. All eyes were on the mouth of the river and who would make the move to secure the secret honey hole that Team Alan Schwartz Ag Marine had fished the day before. Numerous boats ventured down to the mouth but the bream weren’t playing. Dean and Shane tried hard to emulate their efforts from the previous day but to no avail and were forced to move on and search for the fish elsewhere. The nerves started to creep in when they had only managed to land one small bream on day 2 as they feared a come from behind victory by another team was a possibility, but this didn’t occur and with still over 2.8kg in front of 2nd place they were crowned the 2007 Hooked On Rods & Reels Sungold Milk Bream Classic Champions. The boys were wrapped with the win and Dean made a special point to thank all the sponsors of the event for the sensational 1st place prizes.
The Sunday Berkley Round 2 Prize went to Team Peach Tree’s Steve Vail and Jodie Baillie who weighed in a respectable 5/5 3.82kg bag which took them into 3rd position. The big story on day 2 was Team Tackle World Geelong’s Andrew Smith and Steve Stojanovski who blew the Eco-Gear Big Bream Prize out of the water when they weighed in a cracking bream at 1.76kg. Their impressive bag of 2 fish for 3.34kg took them from 28th place to 5th position and earnt them an invitation to the National Bream Classic Final at Port Macquarie.
Vic Bream Classics would like to formally congratulate Phil Smallman and Sing Ling from Team SSBB who finished in 2nd place at the Hopkins and secured them the well deserved Club Marine Team of The Year Award with their extremely consistent results throughout the year.
Record One Day Vic Bream Bag Anchors Hopkins Victory.
Metung 2007 Report
Posted: July 23 2007 10:00pm
©2008 Vic Bream Classics
Comp
Pos
|
Team
Name
|
Angler's
Name
|
Rnd1
Fish
|
Rnd 1
Weight
|
Rnd2
Fish
|
Rnd 2
Weight
|
Total
Fish
|
Total
Weight
|
1
|
Alan Schwartz Ag Marine
|
Dean Truman
Shane Hill
|
5
|
6.96
|
1
|
0.56
|
6
|
7.52
|
2
|
Team SSBB
|
Phil Smallman
Sing Ling
|
5
|
2.28
|
3
|
2.44
|
8
|
4.72
|
3
|
Peach Tree
|
Jodie Baillie
Steve Vail
|
1
|
0.46
|
5
|
3.82
|
6
|
4.28
|
4
|
Westside
|
Drew McGrath
Troy Hamilton
|
5
|
3.30
|
1
|
0.72
|
6
|
4.02
|
5
|
Tackle World Geelong
|
Andrew Smith
Steve Stojanovski
|
0
|
0.00
|
2
|
3.34
|
2
|
3.34
|
6
|
Team Humminbird
|
Shaun Clancy
Wayne Friebe
|
2
|
2.32
|
2
|
0.84
|
4
|
3.16
|
7
|
That’s Fishing-The Grubs
|
Stephen Theodore
Ken McCoombe
|
4
|
2.60
|
1
|
0.54
|
5
|
3.14
|
8
|
The Sludge Wormers
|
Peter Howell
Mick Kaksa
|
3
|
1.36
|
3
|
1.20
|
6
|
2.56
|
9
|
Team OZ Plan
|
Darren Evans
Dan Bowman
|
2
|
1.18
|
2
|
1.28
|
4
|
2.46
|
10
|
Bite Me
|
Tony Schroeder
Steven Terbos
|
2
|
2.32
|
0
|
0.00
|
2
|
2.32
|
11
|
Team Yellow
|
Nick Glenn
Barry Johnson
|
5
|
2.32
|
0
|
0.00
|
5
|
2.32
|
12
|
Haines Hunter
|
Eric Tattersall
Bryden Wilson
|
3
|
2.24
|
0
|
0.00
|
3
|
2.24
|
13
|
Kakadu
|
Chris Kelly
Graeme Steel
|
2
|
1.52
|
1
|
0.52
|
3
|
1.84
|
14
|
Sign FX
|
Tom Deer
Richard Braund
|
2
|
0.94
|
2
|
0.90
|
4
|
1.66
|
15
|
Hooked On Bream
|
Barry Thomas
Graham Taylor
|
1
|
1.66
|
0
|
0.00
|
1
|
1.24
|
16
|
No Idea
|
Mick Cleaver
Jason Way
|
1
|
0.64
|
1
|
0.60
|
2
|
1.10
|
17
|
Reelmen - S.E.M.A.S
|
Doug Phayer
Dany Torgersen
|
1
|
0.48
|
1
|
0.62
|
2
|
1.06
|
18
|
Uk-lyptus
|
Clyde Hulme
Ralph Norman
|
2
|
1.06
|
0
|
0.00
|
2
|
1.04
|
19
|
Team Gulp
|
Jarrod Healey
Dean Granger
|
0
|
0.00
|
1
|
1.04
|
1
|
1.04
|
20
|
Bream Wizards
|
Paul Ford
Stuart Ford
|
1
|
1.02
|
0
|
0.00
|
1
|
1.02
|
21
|
Jelly Fish
|
Anthony Scullino
Janell Jewel
|
1
|
0.52
|
1
|
0.48
|
2
|
1.00
|
22
|
Team Daiwa
|
Mark Gercovich
Stuart McKinnon
|
2
|
0.94
|
0
|
0.00
|
2
|
0.94
|
23
|
Wirth Rods
|
Greg Wirth
Hugh Wirth
|
1
|
0.86
|
0
|
0.00
|
1
|
0.86
|
24
|
Colac Tackle Supplies
|
Steve Parker
Warwick Hamer
|
0
|
0.00
|
1
|
0.70
|
1
|
0.70
|
25
|
Top Enders
|
Romeo Prezioso
Carl Di Toro
|
1
|
0.66
|
0
|
0.00
|
1
|
0.66
|
26
|
Anglers Edge
|
Brian Pelle
Nick Mace
|
1
|
0.62
|
0
|
0.00
|
1
|
0.62
|
27
|
Team Mercury
|
Stuart Buckingham
Steve Joy
|
0
|
0.00
|
1
|
0.46
|
1
|
0.46
|
28
|
Aus Community Finance
|
Roger Thornton
Nick Antoniou
|
0
|
0.00
|
1
|
0.46
|
1
|
0.46
|
29
|
Bream Busters
|
Alex Papas
Nick Antoniou
|
1
|
0.44
|
0
|
0.00
|
1
|
0.44
|
30
|
Team Fishtales
|
Andrew Mostert
Vicki Ferrari
|
0
|
0.00
|
1
|
0.44
|
1
|
0.44
|
31
|
Smack That
|
Brad Hodges
Mike Hodges
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
1
|
0.44
|
1
|
0.00
|
32
|
Lure Only
|
Martin Fellows
Tran Thai
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
33
|
Whatever
|
Philip Knight
Gillian Knight
|
0.00
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
34
|
Ray & Annes Tackle
|
Tom Hahn
Bryan Johnson
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
35
|
12 Apostles Helicpoters
|
Chris Allwood
Trevor Hirst
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
36
|
Fishaholics
|
Max Saunders
Kevin Plozza
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
37
|
Team Doma
|
Damien Domagala
Zig Domagala
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
38
|
Team Mako
|
Scott Westbury
Gary Lockyer
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
39
|
Hank Hunters
|
Mark Smith
Lucas Smith
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
40
|
Sayishma
|
Sunny Nadan
Ian Mingee
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
41
|
Game Plan
|
Byron Blain
Jordan Trusty
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
0
|
0.00
|
