The major funding raising activity for the Mackay Area Fishing Stocking Association (MAFSA), the World Sooty Championship saw 87 keen anglers hit the water for the three angling session tournament and a chance to do battle with Eungella's infamous sooty grunter.
For event winner Daniel Grech it was a continuation of his hot tournament form with the 21 year old Engineering Cadet from Mackay claiming his second World Sooty Championship crown thanks to his 6/6, 2519cm limit.
Tied on points with event runner up David Certfield (6/6, 2519mm,) Grech claimed victory on a count back with the 2010 champion once again opting for deeper water lipless crankbait to fill his tournament limit.
Fishing standing timber in 40-50 feet of water Grech keyed in on the smaller trees as the go-to locations, a pattern in contrast to the generally held big tree best fish thought process.
"The bigger trees generally hold the best concentrations of fish, but they become the obvious places to fish and get hit hard", explained Grech.
Hitting the denser of the smaller trees Grech focused on the top ten feet of the water column, casting his lure through the alleys and gaps in the timber and working the lure back with a slow rolling retrieve.
"The best retrieves were the ones where the lure swam past as much timber as possible, the more timber it went past the better your chances were of getting a fish", explained Grech.
Using a trio of lipless baits, Grech started out with a 6cm Rapala Clackin Rap in copperhead colour, before upsizing his lure size to a Daiwa TD Woofers in gold and a Megabass Vibration X, also in gold, to seek out upgrades.
"Gold toned lures were one of the keys to success. You'd catch them on other colours, but not with the same level of consistency, nor the bigger fish", explained Grech.
The tackle he used to muscle the fish out of Eungella's forest of timber included a Daiwa Steez Machinegun Cast Type 2 rod, matched two a Daiwa Steez 103 reel, spooled with 20lb Sunline PE and 40lb Black Magic leader.
"The Machine Gun is weighted more like a barra rod but in Eungella you need it to be able to muscle the fish out of the timber", explained Grech.
With only a handful of fish lost to the timber it's an approach that only requires a look at the scoreboard to determine its worth.
Claiming his second event win in only three years Grech becomes the first person to have won the tournament twice.
"I love sooty fishing and I love Eungella especially, to win this event twice in a field full of very talented anglers makes it that much more special", explain Grech.
Hot on Grech's heals was 33 year old Fitter and event runner-up David Certfield of Collinsville. Opting for a deep bite like Grech, albeit somewhat shallower, Certfield fished a timber strewn weed edge in about 20-30 feet of water near the island in the middle reaches of the dam.
"My fishing partner and I found the weed edge with our Lowrance HDS sounder and it was here that we spent most of the tournament fishing the weed edge and the standing timber scattered along it", explained Certfield.
Using a combination of lures, including a 3/8th oz TT spinnerbait, Cotton Cordell Super Spot, and Rapala crankbaits and Clackin Raps, Certfield varied his retrieve between a slow and steady slow roll and a rip n' burn.
"We found in the morning the fish wanted an aggressive retrieve, and in the afternoon after they'd been hit a bit that wanted something a bit more subtle and less in your face", explained Certfield.
The horses for courses approach paid dividends with the Sunday morning session the standout delivering him five fish for the session and ultimately his best event result to date.
The biggest fish for the tournament waited until the last ten minutes of the final session on Sunday to make its presence known, with Peter Price landing the 476mm fish on a chatreuse coloured 1/2oz TT Vortex spinnerbait in about 20-25 feet of water.
"With fishing getting tougher as the tournament progressed, we went deep and started targeting the biggest nastiest trees we could find", explained Price.
It was a cast past the tree and wound back through the timber, bumping the structure as it went that the big fish bit. Eating the lure just a couple of metres under the surface Price's initial thought was that it might be a barra.
"It powered away and I thought oh no this could be a barra, so I was relieved when it came into view next to the boat and showed itself as a sooty. To come so late in the session and then turn out to be the biggest fish for the tournament topped off the weekend", concluded Price.
For the field of anglers it was one of the most product events to date with 230 fish weighed in for the event and an impressive average length of 362mm highlighting the quality of fishing on offer at Eungella.
MAFSA would like to thanks all those involved in the event including event sponsors, The Meng Group, Andergrove Store, Team Toyo, North Jacklin', Nashy's Compleat Angler, Tackle World Mackay, Barra Pro, Reef Marine, BCF Mackay, Opposite Lock and ABT, event volunteers and all anglers. For information on next year's event stay tuned to www.australianbass.com.au .
| Place | Name | Length (mm) |
| 1st | Grech Daniel | 2519 |
| 2nd | Creffield David | 2519 |
| 3rd | Breadsell Craig | 2437 |
| 4th | Bilney Russell | 2374 |
| 5th | Lovern Arthur | 2360 |
| 6th | Coghill Dean | 2319 |
| 7th | Rethus Mick | 2302 |
| 8th | Butler Paul | 2298 |
| 9th | Mundy Paul | 2293 |
| 10th | Inskip Wade | 2276 |
| 11th | Trigg John | 2271 |
| 12th | Dalton Jarrod | 2239 |
| 13th | Hollingsworth Byron | 2160 |
| 14th | Price Peter | 2108 |
| 15th | Grech Mark | 2094 |
| 16th | Baulch Ivan | 2031 |
| 17th | Cameron Jason | 1914 |
| 18th | Sanderson Katie | 1751 |
| 19th | Morgan Patrick | 1738 |
| 20th | Ebzery Brook | 1519 |
| 21st | Black Simon | 1437 |
| 22nd | Collins Andrew | 1354 |
| 23rd | Zammit Joe | 1312 |
| 24th | Goldsmith Simon | 1306 |
| 25th | Hurt Daniel | 1299 |
| 26th | Krieger Marcel | 1288 |
| 27th | Carpenter Tony | 1209 |
| 28th | Neve Steve | 1149 |
| 29th | Schneider Ray | 1145 |
| 30th | Ebzery Robert | 1101 |
| 31st | Cox Glen | 1077 |
| 32nd | Saward Nick | 1061 |
| 33rd | Birkett Craig | 1030 |
| 34th | Cox Tim | 1016 |
| 35th | Fry Pat | 1001 |
| 36th | Roberts Brad | 995 |
| 37th | Grima Charlene | 957 |
| 38th | Hurt Keith | 839 |
| 39th | Bulfin Robert | 820 |
| 40th | Dinsdale Cec | 782 |
| 41st | Williams Joshua | 766 |
| 42nd | Bell Steve | 698 |
| 43rd | Dorbyshire Prentice | 660 |
| 44th | Schusser Andrew | 640 |
| 45th | Black Andrew | 633 |
| 46th | Ward Adrian | 430 |
| 47th | Chew Andrew* | 385 |
| 48th | Qualischefski Kerry | 380 |
| 49th | Barnes Peter | 370 |
| 50th | Breadsell Dennis | 358 |
| 51st | Brook Alex | 340 |
| 52nd | Schneider Nancy | 340 |
| 53rd | Bloomfield Darcy | 337 |
| 54th | Vella Barry | 336 |
| 55th | Smith Peter | 335 |
| 56th | Taylor Colin | 330 |
| 57th | Qualischefski Matt | 321 |
| 58th | Abell Presley | 310 |
| 59th | Chew Paul | 310 |
| 60th | Buddle Phil | 307 |
| 61st | Roberts Gus* | 304 |
| 62nd | Skennertin Cory | 304 |
| 63rd | Schusser Beau | 303 |
| 64th | Ward Marcus | 302 |
| Birkett Grace* | 0 | |
| Brook Robie | 0 | |
| Bulfin Joshua | 0 | |
| Chew Jodie | 0 | |
| Day Keith | 0 | |
| Egan Wayne | 0 | |
| Friis Peter | 0 | |
| Gow Cameron | 0 | |
| Hultgren Shane | 0 | |
| Jerks Mitchell | 0 | |
| Jerks Paul | 0 | |
| Lindle Belinda | 0 | |
| Lipp Dale | 0 | |
| Martin Cody* | 0 | |
| Martin Matt | 0 | |
| McGarry Bill | 0 | |
| McMurtrie Kevin | 0 | |
| Nicholson Jayme | 0 | |
| Nicholson Steve | 0 | |
| O'Brien Talina | 0 | |
| Rogers Jay | 0 | |
| Sutherland Bob | 0 | |
| Taylor Mark | 0 |
