Records tumble at
windamere ayc round
By STEPHEN BOOTH
In a show of dominance Team Day Release (Josh
Kopp/Michael Collison/Andrew Pulbrook) claimed
victory over an exceptionally talented field by
breaking the all-time AYC 10 fish record with a haul
of 50.76kg of golden perch over a day and a half of
fishing.
Day Release’s victory was an amazing feat as no
team in the history of AYC had even come close to
topping the magical 50kg mark. Just think on that
for a minute. The team got over 110lb of yellas and
they weren’t the only team to top the old fashioned
100lb mark either! In fact, the Top 6 teams all
weighed over 100lb of goldens and I’m still shaking
my head at that!
Day Release used a variety of techniques and
lures to score their fish in this lure casting only
competition. But at the centre of their bag of tricks
was the Zerek Fish Trap 95mm vibe in colour MM, a
clear bodied, UV active chartreuse colour lure that
was their go-to upgrade lure. Mick said this lure
accounted for all of their upgrade fish, including a
beast of 5.9kg or 13lb in the old scale.
But, like most tournament golden perch anglers,
the team modified their lures by adding assist
hooks in place of the trebles that come with the
lures. Mick Collison said he makes his own assist
rigs with the Mustad 92553 Octopus hook in size 4.
The reasons for making his own are pretty simple.
Mick wants to be able to customise the assist
rigs to suit the particular lure he is retrofitting
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and by doing this customisation is able to reduce
the incidence of tangling and fouling of the assist
hooks during use. It’s a stroke of genius and also a
great example of the difference all the 1% actions
make to an end result.
The Fish Trap was fished on a 7’ 4kg baitcasting
outfit to allow Mick to cast and then retrieve the
lure properly. His main focus was to cast the lure
at that point where bottom visibility disappeared
– about 8 feet – and work the lure back along the
slope to the boat.
The retrieve is interesting in itself with the team
doing a series of shakes, small hops and wriggles
of the lure to make it appear almost crayfish like,
or at worst, an injured baitfish flipping around the
bottom. The fish would hit the lure at any stage
of the retrieve so you had to be on your game to
notice the takes.