After the first time in BREAM history a competition day has been cancelled, Brisbane's Tim( the Bream) Morgan carried his first day lead through to an emphatic victory at the Forster Quintrex BREAM Challenge. A culmination of the 2003 Quintrex NSW BREAM series, Forster provided 126 competitors picture-postcard conditions on the Saturday, followed by atrocious gale-force winds on the Sunday, forcing organisers to cancel the session for safety reasons.

Weighing a first day bag of five bream for 3.54kg, Morgan distanced himself from non-boater champion Josh Batterson (5/5, 2.86kg), Corrimal's Paul Weare (4/5, 2.76kg), Dave Welfare (5/5, 2.62kg) and Mallacoota event winner Kevin Gleed (5/5, 2.52kg.)

I would have preferred a win after two days of fishing, but I'm really glad that I'm not out there today - that weather's filthy, Morgan responded at the presentation ceremony when asked about the nature of the victory. And he's been knocking on the door of a win here for the last two years, running up to Andrew Howard in 2001 and Russ Williams in 2002.

Tim's patterns and tackle varied little from his last second-placing at the Clyde, the weapon of choice an Atomic 2 Fat Grub soft plastic in Brown Crawdad colour rigged on a Gamakatsu 1/16oz Round 25 jighead that he'd deliver on a Millerods Bream Buster, Shimano Sustain 1000 reel, 4lb Fireline and 8lb Vanish leader.

We concentrated on the dirty water line as it moved upstream on the incoming tide and fished the outside of oyster-lease washboards for the first couple of hours, Tim explained. "I'd use a long cast and most of the time, the jig would get bitten on the initial sink."

"After that, and as the tide rose more, I then moved to the natural banks opposite the leases and fished snags and natural structure in shallow water. The last two fish I upgraded came from oyster leases well
upstream, so I tried a few different patterns today and they all seemed to work," he continued.

"It's a pretty good feeling to take the BREAM All Time Money Winners lead off Steve Starling, too," he finished, as he found out that he'd surpassed Starling's tally with the $1600 winners cheque.

Non-boater division winner, 20 year old Environmental Science student Josh Batterson, managed a second placing overall by fishing a totally different pattern. With his boater partner, David Welfare, the pair landed approximately 75 bream from weedy, shallow water a maximum of four feet deep.

"Dave picked up the pattern from the WA BREAM anglers on the internet and it was great fun," Josh explained.

"We'd drift across the shallow water and sight-fish schools of bream with light line. Often the bream would school underneath aggregations of mullet. Light line and a finesse presentation was a must. A combination of hops and slow-rolling the lures got us bites," he said.

Josh's finesse tackle consisted of 1kg breaking strain Berkley Vanish fished off a G Loomis S842 spin rod and Shimano Stella 1000 reel. The deadly soft-baits were both muscadine Slider Crappie Grubs and bloodworm coloured Squidgies fished on a 1.5g Squidgie jighead. Josh fished them straight through to the 1kg line without a leader, due to the clear water.

Young Jesse Lomas added to his $300 tournament payout with the competition's biggest bream ­ a 1.54 kg beast typical of the fish that make Forster famous and easily the winner of the $500 www.sportsfish.com.au big bream for the weekend.

This event also decided the NSW team to fish the Quintrex BREAM National Grand Final, to be held in the Clyde River in October this year. Captained by NSW 2003 BREAM Angler of the Year, Tim Morgan, the other seven members currently include Trent Butler, Steve Starling, Kevin Gleed, Andrew Howard, Josh Batterson, Travis Davies and Chris Wright.

With the WA, VIC and NSW teams now selected, only the Queensland BREAM events remain to finalise the field for the Grand Final. BREAM events are NOT invitational and further enquiries can be made by calling Stephen Booth during business hours on (07) 3268 3992.

Local Area Sponsors: Great Lakes Tourism, Graham Barclay Marine.

Series Sponsors: Quintrex boats, Mercury outboards, Suncorp boat insurance, Fishnet, Squidgie soft plastics, Shimano, PrawnStar lures, Slider soft baits, Halco lures, Mako sunglasses.

Associate Sponsors: Pacific Composites, Compleat Angler, VMC, Berkley, Storm, Motor Guide, SeaLink.

THE TOP TWENTY

ANGLER FISH WEIGHT PAYOUT

1. Tim Morgan 5/5 3.54kg $1,600

2. Josh Batterson 5/5 2.86kg Pacific Composites Rod +Pack

3. Paul Weare 4/5 2.76kg $600

4. David Welfare 5/5 2.62kg $600

5. Kevin Gleed 5/5 2.52kg $500

6. Steve Starling 5/5 2.40kg $450

6. Andrew Howard 5/5 2.40kg $450

8. Trent Short 5/5 2.32kg $350

8. Travis Davies 4/5 2.32kg $350

10. Trent Butler 4/5 2.26kg $300

10, Leo O¹Reilly 3/5 2.26kg Mako Sunnies + Pack

12. Jesse Lomas 3/5 2.24kg $800

13. Mark Lawson 4/5 2.14kg

14. Chris Metcalfe 4/5 2.10kg

15. Lance Sulkouski 4/5 1.94kg

16. Chris Wright 4/5 1.86kg

17. Peter McWatters 4/5 1.84kg Shimano Reel + Pack

18. Michael Passau 3/5 1.68kg

19. Scott Bromly 3/5 1.66kg

20. Shayne Dyason 3/5 1.62kg

Big Bream ­ Jesse Lomas (1.54kg)

Pack = Sponsors pack of product from VMC, Storm, Slider, PrawnStar, Halco,Berkley.

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