Vic Bream Classics Home

One thing Australian sports fans love is an underdog and seeing someone raise to the occasion and take on the big guns and win. It doesn't matter what the sport but it gets everyone's competitive juices flowing and is great for any sport. The 2014 Vic Bream Classic Grand Final held on the 29th and 30th of November delivered just that with unknown Team Bring It On's Alan Lister and Darren Murphy taking their little green Poly Craft and producing a fantastic 2 days fishing in a tough bite at Mallacoota Inlet to come from 7th on Day 2 and claim the Championship victory.

On Day 1 of the competition anglers awoke to a beautiful day with little wind and clear skies but there was early concern that with the still clear conditions the larger bream may not bite and for many teams this was the case. For Team Bring It On they headed off well down the field in 43rd position on Saturday in their little green poly craft as the rest of the field blasted away in much faster boats. With most of the field dispersed Aland and Darren made their way up to the top lake in the hope to get a bang early. Using a combination of Shimano T-Curve and Zero rods matched to Shimano Stradic Ci4 reels spooled with 4lb Shimano Power Pro Bite Motion braid and Sunline FC Rock 3 and 4 lb fluorocarbon leaders, they tied on a range of lures including Jackall Chubbies, Eco-Gear SX 40's and Berkley 65mm hardbody minnows and got to work. "We worked very hard on the Saturday but didn't get our bag until 1.30pm. We fished locations that had the depth we were after with the classic rubble, gravel, shell, sand mix type bottom that Bream seem to prefer all over the main area of the top lake. Along with using the hardbodies we had to mix it up a bit with softplastics like Zman Grubs and large Marukyu Crabs to grind out our 5 bream bag on the Saturday" Darren said.

After toughing it out and finally landing their 5th fish at 1.30pm the Bream It On boys had to head back to check in and line up to weigh in. As they placed their bag on the scales it showed 5/5 bream for 3.65kg which is previous years would have had them sitting down the order in around 25th position but Saturday proved difficult for all teams and their 3.65kg had them sitting in 7th position over night. "With most of the gun teams sitting outside the top ten we knew that Sunday would be a challenge to hold our position in the top ten as were knew the top teams would come home hard on day 2" Darren said. The overnight leaders after Day 1 were Team Plonkers Mick Kaksa and Ben Shuey that weighed in the leading Maria Lures Best Bag of 5/5 bream for 4.04kg and amongst the bag they also set the bar leading the Eco-Gear Big Bream with a quality fish at 1.18kg. With a weather front coming through overnight things were about to change for the better throughout the system.

Anglers hopes were high as they prepared for the start on Day 2 as the weather was much more favourable with overcast conditions and some scattered showers around hopefully bringing the thousands bream anglers saw on Saturday but couldn't catch on the bite. As Team Bring It On headed off to try and stay in the top ten they couldn't have imagined how this day would turn out for them as Sunday was about to turn on some great fishing for them. "On Sunday although we knew there were loads of fish in the bottom lake, they just would not bite so we went back up to slog it out in the top lake. We had a couple of fish in the well at 8 30am then we were very fortunate to hit a hot bite between 9 and 10am. The wind picked up and it began raining. We had our bag by 9.15am and then upgraded at least 6 times. We had double hook ups constantly. We caught approximately 20 competition legal fish that is 28cm to the fork and probably another 20 Fisheries legal and undersize fish throughout the day. The fish were not packed up in one certain area, we drifted over a huge distance during the bite and caught them all the way and fortunately no one was even near us to see it happen. We had the place to ourselves as the last boat near us left 1 minute before the bite started "sorry you guys". I guess it was just the perfect day to have been sitting tied 6th place overnight so the bag was not wasted, instead it shot us to the top, to our utter amazement" Darren said. Shot them to the top it did as when they placed their 5 bream bag on the scales the weight pushed closer and closer to 5kg and rested on 4.93kg which propelled them from equal sixth to outright 1st place and earned them the 2014 Vic Bream Classic Championship Victory. Another highlight of the Day 2 weigh in was the Eco-Gear Big Bream of 1.36kg landed by Lewis Holland and Corey McLaren from Team Rod Battlers.

With Alan Lister and Darren Murphy from Team Bream It On having their first top ten finish and taking victory in the Grand Final it just goes to show that everyone is a chance of success in the Vic Bream Classic Series. All eyes are turning now to the 2015 Atomic Bream Classics Series and Rnd 1 The Maria Lures, Sunline Bream Classic at Marlo on the 31st of Jan and 1st of Feb which will be a huge event so log onto www.vicbreamclassics.com.au and get your entry in.