Americana Outdoors E-Magazine - September 2019

to sting the honey hole. But some persisted for too long. Fortunately, they caught no fish, so the damage to the bite during the championship days was minimal. Well before daylight, onWednesday July 24, the vibe around the event site was one of excitement and anticipation as anglers prepared for the start of World Championship Day One which was presented by Daiwa. The sun rose and re- flected off the high-rise buildings around the Gold Coast, as the world’s best kayak anglers massed for the official start of the world championship. As anglers respectfully stood in their Hobie PA14 kayaks the Australian National Anthem was played. A countdown began and off the fleet blasted, Worlds 8 was on! The ac- tion at the start was fast and furious with a lot of barging and contact around the turning buoys. The intensity was well up on the two pre-fish days and shouts echoed across the water as the field split evenly to the north and south. Once again, the trawler fleet was the early target for ten to twelve anglers. Finn Sloth (DEN) was among that group. Like on both pre-fish days around twenty minutes from the start he became the first international angler to land a Yellowfin Bream (31cm) in the championship, while much closer to the start an Australian had already bagged two. Many of the anglers from across the world, who had never previously targeted bream, did quite well, with just two days of pre-fish to learn to adapt to the new species and to the unfamiliar light tackle. Seven anglers from outside of Australia managed to get a full bag of three bream, while all of the Australian team had full bags. Seven unfortunate anglers battled it out for the Lowrance Donut Award for catching no fish. A heavy con- centration of Chinese and Brazilian anglers got amongst the donuts. Most of those anglers had caught bream but disappointingly they were under the competition legal length of 26cm. The dubious honour and first recipient of the award was Patrice Gotti from France. Gotti had caught plenty of fish, but they just didn’t measure up to size. There were a number of large breamcaught weighing over a kilo and it was just a matter of grams that separated them. In the final count down the largest fish landed weighed in at 1.06kg and was caught by Felix Frey from Sweden. Frey, a Pike specialist, was thrilled to receive the Power-Pole Big Bream trophy, which was presented to him at the Hobie Kayak Europe Dinner that evening after the haunting indig- enous sounds of the didgeridoo had reverberated around the room.

The sunrise on Day One of the Tournament shines bright silhouetting anglers full of anticipation and nerves .

Finn Sloth (DEN) brings in a Yellowfin Bream amongst a pack of anglers and media.

Eric Harrison (USA) grins while posing for a media photo with his recent catch - a baby tarpon.

Felix Frey (SWE) shows off his Bream weighing in at 1.06kg winning the Power-Pole Big Bream Trophy.