TEAM AIRLITE WIN INAUGURAL AUSTRALIAN OPEN

AT an ambitious tournament held in the middle of Australia's largest city, Team Airlite, consisting of Bowral's Scott Towner and Penrith's Darryl Schroder, pipped a talented field to take the biggest pay cheque ever offered at a BREAM event. The BREAM Australian Open was held in Sydney Harbour, with the weigh-ins taking place inside the concurrent 4WD and Fishing Show at the Darling Harbour Exhibition Centre. This guaranteed large and excited crowds daily.

With the field narrowing from an original 34 boats down to a final-five for the Sunday Shootout, Airlite took the lead on the second day and never looked back. Their 15/15, 10.35kg three-day bag of bream won them $10,000 cash and vaulted them up the all-time BREAM Money Winners list.

Over half a kilo behind, Tyson Detheridge and Steve Starling (Full Boar/Squidgie with 15/15 for 9.78kg) bagged $6,000, while the Indoor Sunshop Team ($5,000), Sportsfish/Bing Lee ($4,000) and Berkley ($4,000) filled out the final five.

But the Open belonged to Towner and Schroder, with the pair landing 15-20 legal bream a day and their Saturday bag of 3.70kg being the biggest for the event.

"Fishing against the calibre of anglers here, just making the top five was a dream, but to win this event was absolutely awesome," an awestruck Schroder revealed after the excitement of the final weigh-in. It was his first BREAM event and will definitely not be his last.

His partner, Towner, has already qualified for the Quintrex National BREAM Grand Final, and was virtually speechless after carrying the $10,000 from the stage.

"What can you say … this is just amazing," he muttered.

Schroder attributed their win to the fact that they made a game plan and stuck to it - ignoring all other teams and competitors.

"We really used the tides, and they are pretty important when fishing the Harbour," Schroder added.
Indeed, Sydney Harbour shone as a BREAM venue, with 29 of the 34 teams weighing limits on the first day and 28 teams bagging-out on the second - a proportion unmatched in any BREAM venue nationwide.

Targeting bream in the Lane Cove river on the top of the tide and the eastern side of Goat Island on the ebb, Team Airlite utilised the incredibly popular Berkley 3" Bass Minnow in Watermelon/Pearl and rigged them on 1/16oz Bassmaster round ball and minnow heads.

Towner's tackle totalled a Shimano Stella Spin 6'6" rod, Daiwa Laguna 2000 reel, 4lb Fireline and a 6lb Vanish leader, while Darryl's tool was a Strudwick 6'6" BWS rod, Daiwa Luvias 2000 reel, 6lb Fireline and 5lb Gillies fluorocarbon leader.

Fishing floating pontoons and docks in the Lane Cove, Airlite would skip the Berkleys under the structure and hop the lure after it had only sunk a foot.

"Often the bream would be straight onto the lure as it splashed down, so we'd twitch the line to see if the fish were there. If not, we'd swim the artificial bait at 6' to 8' down for the remainder of the retrieve. We'd hardly let it hit the bottom," Towner said.

By the time the camera boat finally checked in on the guys on the final day, they already had a limit and were upgrading while all other teams had ones and twos.

Later in the final session, the guys upgraded several times again - this time on the eastern side of Goat Island - using the same lures and tackle.

"We'd cast to the foam on the edge of the wash along the rock wall and let the lure sink to the bottom before retrieving with a slow, shaking retrieve and this is where we landed some of the quality bream in our bag," Scott said.

With such positive feedback from this event, the BREAM Australian Open promises to be a permanent fixture on the ABT calendar. Check the 2005 ABT Tournament Angler Guide for a full round-up of the top five teams' techniques from the event.

THE TOP FIVE
1. Team Airlite (Scott Towner/Darryl Schroder) 15/15 10.35kg $10,000
2. Team Full Boar/Squidgy (Steve Starling/Tyson Detheridge) 15/15 9.78kg $6,000
3. Team Indoor Sunshop (Andrew Cowling/Russ Williams) 15/15 9.15kg $5,000
4. Team Sportsfish/Bing Lee (Mick Passau/Matt Taylor) 15/15 9.06kg $4,000
5. Team Berkley (Jesse Lomas/Ben Sandman) 15/15 7.59kg $4,000

Source: http://www.fishingmonthly.com.au