Age: 40
Location; Lake Macquarie
Occupation; Retired Policeman
Tournament results;
Results 2011
3rd place : Lake Glenbawn Bass Pro
Results 2010 :
Winner ABT Bass Pro Grand Final
2nd place; Lake St Clair Bass Pro
2nd place : Lake Glenbawn Bass Pro
2nd place : Lake Macquarie Bream Pro
2nd place: Gamakatsu Forster Bream Event
3rd place Forster Mega Bream
27th Somerset Bass Pro
2 top 15 finishes Hawksbury/Taree Bream Pros
NSW Bass Angler of the year 198/200 Points
Results 2009
Winner Lake Macquarie Bream Super Series
6th Lake St Clair Bass Pro
Winner Lake Glenbawn Bass Pro (Non Boater) Damn mechanical failures
18th Abt Bream Grand Final Syndey Harbour
Previous Years
Winner STC Bream teams event Sydney Harbour
3rd place Australian Bream Open Sydney Harbour (weighing heaviest 5 fish limit in ABT history for yellowfin bream 6.18kg)
A number of other wins in NSW pro bream events
Background:
I started fishing at age 6yrs .I fished on and off until early 20's when I purchased my first boat. Started chasing Marlin and sharks and other deep sea species before dedicating most of my fishing time to catching monster jewfish in Newcastle harbour. Personal best jew 37kg. About 6 years ago was introduced to lure fishing for bream. After a while learning the bream on lures thing I started fishing competitions. Two years ago met and become good mates with fellow pro staffer Gregg FLETT. Fletty taught me how to catch bass. After learning more about bass and how to catch them I started fishing bass comps. Entered first bass comp and come 6th in Abt Bass pro at St Clair. I started to spend more time bass fishing, however, still managed to squeeze in a few bream comps. I love to compete against the best anglers in both species. I personally set the bar very high and put a lot of research and time into my home waterways to maximise my chances of winning when i enter an event.
Future Ambitions :
To capture the No.1 Bass angler ranking by the end of 2011. Remain focused on the individual events except for teaming up with Fletty to compete in the 2011 Bets bream series and hopefully do well. I am really looking forward to trialling some of the new Damiki and pontoon 21 lures soon to be available.
Favourite Arenas:
Bass : Lake St Clair
Bream : Lake Macquarie
Current Boat : 20'4" BASSCAT Cougar FTD powered by 250hp Mercury Pro XS. I am currently upgrading the boat to a new Basscat Puma FTD 20'4" with a 250hp pro xs
Rods : Fully customised Duffrods by Steve DUFF mainly 7 footers
Reels: Diawa Steez 2508
Diawa Certates 1003 and 2000
Diawa Zillion baitcaster 6.3 to 1 ratio
Quantum baitcaster 7.0 to 1 ratio
Lines : Rovex Viros in 6-20lb
leader : Sunline rockfish FC
Jigheads : TT tournament jigheads
Favourite Lures : 75mm tukun surface lure in phantom colour (bream and bass)
Monster miki any colour (deadly on bream around
structure)
Napjaru 60mm lipless crankbait in phantom colour
(bass)
Vault 42mm and 55mm blades in green and black iwashi colours (bream and bass)
Pontoon 21 crackerjack suspending in ghost gill colour
Favourite techniques : Bream - Fishing oyster racks with surface lures with locked drags (make em or break em)
Bass - fishing topwater around shallow edges and spinnerbaiting heavy tree lined
cover
Biggest Bream on a lure : 2.7kg 53cm fork length (watched it eat a soft plastic in one foot of water in Lake Macquarie)
Biggest Bass : 2.9kg on a Napjaru lipless crankbait in phantom colour at grahamstown dam
The most enjoyable thing about fishing is to be able to go out on the water and leave the pressures of life behind for a few hours and just doing what I love to do catch fish.
Gallery
Wayne's Fishing Pics
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Articles
Hints & Tips with the Pontoon 21 Crackjacks (article and pics by Wayne Reed)After having purchased your new tiger coloured pontoon 21 crackerjack. The first thing you need to do is to swim it in a swimming pool. Throw it in and try as many retrieves as you can with the lure to see what retrieve really does the lure justice. After having done this I will then go out and try it on the lake.
As there are four colours in the tiger range when going out for a fish choose a colour suitable to the light conditions to start. Overcast dull days i will choose the brown. On a bright day I will choose green. after having spent a lot of time using the new tigers i have come to the conclusion on what i see is the best way to use them. firstly on yellowfin bream.
Yellowfin bream in the colder months prefer the lure dead slow rolled. maybe one or two pauses in a cast no more. The biggest thing is to have the lure bouncing on the bottom making noise. this is the single most important thing to do when retrieving a hardbody lure for bream bar none. The bream slow down a little in the colder months and you need to slow it down as well.
In the warmer months the bream become a little more aggressive and therefore a slightly different retrieve is required. I tend to rip the lure down slow roll it for half a dozen turns and then give it a couple of short sharp jabs of the rod and back into the slow roll. The yellowfin bream will smash the lure as it pauses or as it is being slow rolled. Do not hesistate to make 2 or 3 real quick turns of the handle towards the end of the retrieve. It is surprising just how many fish follow the lure and only grab it when you increase the speed of your retrieve.
With black bream slow rolling with a lot of pauses will do the trick. just mix up your retrieve until you find the one they want. Each day can be slightly different.
The best gear i have found to throw the crackerjacks on has been a 7 foot 1-3kg rod with recoiled guides and 3lb flourocarbon straight through on a 1000 size spinning reel. The best two straight through flourocarbons on the market are FC sniper and yamatoyo spinning fluoro.My preference is the sniper. Personally i use a 7 foot fully customised X series platinum Duffrod built on an 842 slow action blank. You need a rod that bends from the reel handle.
The main reason for this is once you have hooked a fish there is a lot less likelihood you will tear hooks out. I use the 3lb straight through for other reasons as well. When casting braid and leader across a shallow flat the braid actually casts a shadow on the water and continues to throw a shadow until you have finished your retrieve. Stealth is a big thing when fishing shallow water. Fishing hardbody lures on light fluoro carbon in shallow water is a really fun way to catch bream. Best tip is be patient and keep slowly moving along the bank. Make sure your boat is stationery when you are casting and retrieving.
Big bream shy away from a moving boat even if you have raised their interest with a lure. Being very still is a the key to fishing flats. Any movement a bream detects on his flat will make him run and hide unitl you are gone. Don't let him know you are there in first place and you will catch fish. Finally I have never really been a hardbody user. Since experimenting a lot with the crackerjacks and tiger colours I have come to realise it is one of the most effect ways to catch numbers of bream quickly. In a tournament situation you couldn't ask for much more than a quick limit of bream. The tigers will do just that.
Wayne Reed
