Πρώτο Παγκύπριο Πρωτάθλημα Ψαρέματος Λαυρακιού P.M. OUTDOORS

[admin]

[belluga]

Δυστηχως εν ηβρα ολους τους διαγωνιζομενους ειχε που ηταν χωσμενοι μες τες σπαλαθκιες αλλα ευκαλα αρκετες φωτογραφιες!!!

[C&R]

Nice photo

[sifu-nas]

Για αυτούς που δεν γνωρίζουν...το τι ψάρια κρατά ο Κούρρης...
Κι άλλη φορά να μάθω να έχω μαζί μου ζυγαριά

Φωτό: 01/05/13

beast!!! 3+

[caveman]

Δυστηχως εν ηβρα ολους τους διαγωνιζομενους ειχε που ηταν χωσμενοι μες τες σπαλαθκιες αλλα ευκαλα αρκετες φωτογραφιες!!!

Αμάν τι φώτο μου έβγαλες!!

[belluga]

Δυστηχως εν ηβρα ολους τους διαγωνιζομενους ειχε που ηταν χωσμενοι μες τες σπαλαθκιες αλλα ευκαλα αρκετες φωτογραφιες!!!

Αμάν τι φώτο μου έβγαλες!!

εχω ακομα δυο πολλα ωραιες φωτο με τουντο ψαρι Χαμπη!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[(CyBasser)]

Δυστηχως εν ηβρα ολους τους διαγωνιζομενους ειχε που ηταν χωσμενοι μες τες σπαλαθκιες αλλα ευκαλα αρκετες φωτογραφιες!!!

Αμάν τι φώτο μου έβγαλες!!

εχω ακομα δυο πολλα ωραιες φωτο με τουντο ψαρι Χαμπη!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ρε Δημήτρη, εχορτάσαμεν τον Χαραλάμπη ! Θέλουμε κι άλλες φωτό!!!!

[belluga]

DSC_1544.jpg (187.21 KiB) Viewed 8967 times

DSC_1540.jpg (274.41 KiB) Viewed 8968 times

DSC_1525.jpg (276.74 KiB) Viewed 8964 times

[belluga]

DSC_1513.jpg (248.13 KiB) Viewed 8964 times

DSC_1504.jpg (252.6 KiB) Viewed 8961 times

DSC_1503.jpg (254.16 KiB) Viewed 8957 times

[belluga]

DSC_1501.jpg (249.25 KiB) Viewed 8951 times

DSC_1484.jpg (263.88 KiB) Viewed 8946 times

DSC_1478.jpg (302.96 KiB) Viewed 8947 times

[belluga]

DSC_1476.jpg (220.04 KiB) Viewed 8954 times

DSC_1465.jpg (224.09 KiB) Viewed 8956 times

[(CyBasser)]

Υπέροχες οι φωτό... Θυμίζουν τις ζουγκλες που κτυπούσαμε!!!

[(CyBasser)]

Παιδιά! Ιδού το γνωστό report μου! Μακρύ αλλά με ανάλυση! Είναι στα αγγλικά γιατί θα δημοσιευτεί και σε αγγλόφωνα sites...
=======================================================

Well… the tournament at Kouris is now over. It was a tournament full of excitement, with an amazing array of contrasting emotions, both during the “training” phase, but, especially, on the actual competition day. As usual, here is my post-match report, though this time it will be in English as it will be posted to both forum and facebook, for the benefit of all anglers to read.

I knew from the beginning that Kouris would not be as easy as some of the participants expected, especially with the tournament being held in mid-May. I have to admit that I was worried, because I knew I needed a good performance from my favorite reservoir – a good performance that had to be obtained during a time period that Kouris could be quite tough. I knew I would need quite a bit of training, and that I had to identify possible winning patterns early, if I was to be in the top ranks. In addition, I knew that several of my competitors had a strong experience in fishing Kouris, and they would use that experience to their advantage.

The first and foremost for me would be to identify areas with good fishing potential close to the starting point as I am not exactly in the best physical condition. Well known productive areas such as the Kryos River entrance, or the famous “Crocodile Bay” were written off for me. I would need more than one hour to go to either of these spots from the road, and taking into account the need for extra time for my return with the associated tiredness in the heat, that could cost me almost three hours of precious fishing time. In addition, I expected that some of my competitors would also choose Croc Bay, and this would provide extra pressure on me, as the ones who might go there would do so much faster than I would.

After doing my homework (checking maps, Google Earth including historical photos, my own extensive databases with results from 2006 and 2007 when we used to go often there with Vyron, Denis, and Dmitri, and photos I took during the extremely low waters of 2008) I chose four areas to concentrate my practice and training. Area 1, right below the starting point, was well known to me, but I knew it was affected by heavy angling pressure. Area 2 I knew could provide me with a winning bag of bass, but I was worried because it was well known to several of my competitors, including Vyron, Yiannis, and Dmitri. In addition, my 2006 and 2007 data showed that while Area 2 gave me quite nice results during March and April, it fizzled out by May. That was with much lower water levels, but still it was a two-year trend. In both those years, after late April it was Croc Bay which was consistenly giving quality bass, but as I mentioned above, it was beyond my walking range. The bay between Area 1 and 2 also had potential, but I knew that any bass would be restricted to shoreline cover as the depth at the current water level is close to 20 meters at mid-bay! Area 3 had extensive shallow areas fully loaded with brush, and had deeper water at its borders, again with considerable shoreline brush. This seemed a better choice, but its easy accessibility meant that it could draw a crowd during the tournament. Finally, Area 4 was a bay I never fished before, that seemed isolated enough to be a good candidate for excellent fishing, but I had first to find which was the easiest way to get there, and then if it really held good potential. With my work and family schedule, I knew I would have four to six training days during April and early May to test the selected areas and to find the winning patterns!

Kour101a.jpg (140.43 KiB) Viewed 8627 times

My training started on a cool windy day of late March, right when we could hear reports of ten-bass afternoons. I tested areas 1 and 3, and the expanse between them. My results were poor, with only three bass, though all were eligible. All three were caught on a spinnerbait.

Next practice was on a sunny afternoon on April 9th, at area 2. Well, in four hours of fishing I landed at least 16 bass, the biggest of which was 2.220Kg, and all were more than 36cm. The interesting thing was that only spinnerbaits and t-rigged weighless 6”soft stickworms gave me fish. I tried many other favorite techniques with no results. Even with the stickworms and spinnerbaits they were distinctly color sensitive. To my surprise, there was no interest whatsoever on topwaters.

On April 16th I visited again Area 2, during / after stormy conditions. As expected, fishing was tough, but I again managed several bass that needed a completely different approach – creature lures in the bushes and lots of patience.

On April 25, I went for a long day at Kouris. My initial idea was to test Area 4. I had tried to locate access routes from the asphalt road on my previous outing but they were all quite difficult with thorny bushes, so on this day I decided to see how accessible it was from the shore. On my way there, I stumbled on a tiny corner of the shore which was a veritable jungle (Area 5). At that point I met with Yiannis who told me he had lost some lures there and moved on. I decided to test this little cove. Soon I was landing bass after bass, all from 38cm upwards. I also lost a giant there which I estimated between 3 and 3.5Kg (it spit out the lure just as I was about to lip her). Like at area 2, again the bass seemed to be both lure and color sensitive, accepting only 6 and 7 inch stickworms t-rigged weighless. Now I knew I had found a potential hot-spot with a good pattern.

Ar5a.jpg (250.72 KiB) Viewed 8620 times

My final practice was on May 1st. I spent three hours on Area 2, catching a single 34cm bass, and not seeing any others. This seemed to prove the observations of 2006 and 2007, and could be explained by the seasonal move of bass to deeper waters. I caught a couple of good bass (41cm) in the bay between Areas 1 and 2, and then explored again the shore between areas 1 and 3, catching some additional bass to 43cm. As there were other competitors around on that day, I decided not to go to my newly found Area 5, which in my mind was gaining strength as my “winning” area.

The well known issues with the cancellation on May 13th meant that I remained 18 days without practice. I had some tough decisions to make. I was pretty sure that water temperatures would have risen, making bass more active, but that also meant that maybe I would need to resort to summer patterns. Yet my 2006 and 2007 data seemed to indicate that summer patterns took place only after mid-June. My other worry was the water level, as now it had now started to decrease steadily. I prepared based on my observations of 2006/7 and on my recent outings, bringing along some additional stuff “just in case”.

And the tournament day arrived. I took with me one of my baitcast setups, and a spinning 8 1/2ft Heavy / Fast Action rod with a 5000 reel. A quick look from the start point proved that the water level was about 1 meter below May 1st’s level. Right away I decided to go to Area 5, with Area 2 as a back-up. To my surprise, no-one moved towards that direction! By 12.30 I was ready to cast. Conditions were favorable for using my baitcaster setup, I started with a 6” soft stickbait of the color I expected to work. Second cast, first fish! It took forever to get it out of the jungle, but it was a nice 41cm specimen. After a couple more casts I decided to use a faster lure, switching to a spinnerbait. Within minutes, the second bass was on, definitely bigger than the first. To my disappointment, the bass shook off the spinnerbait about 3 feet from the shore. It was between 45 and 50cm. Two casts later another bass on the spinnerbait. This one I brought to less than two ft from the shore, and yet again it got off!! And it was possibly bigger than 50cm! Darn!!!! I was a bit upset, yet at the same time I felt very confident as my plan seemed to be justified. Both bass were unhooked during jumps they made while I was trying to manouvre them around shoreline bushes, so I decided it was safer to use the stickbaits which generally got me more solid hookups, especially on the baitcaster gear. By 13.20 I got another bass on the stickbait which went 40.5 cm. But from that point on, things started to get quiet.

AA1a.jpg (251.78 KiB) Viewed 8620 times

Around 2pm, Marios PA came around. The psychology game started: Me: “Did you catch?” Marios:” I caught some”. “I also caught some.”” How many?”” I can’t tell you but the smallest was more than 40cm”.” Aha!.” I was really wondering what Marios had caught, but I had to play it cool. I kept alternating between the stickbaits and the spinnerbait (basically I would lose the stickbait to the bushes every 4-5 casts and I would tie on the spinnerbait, cover the entire cove, tie a new stickbait, and so on). Around 2.30 I caught yet another bass on the spinnerbait, right after Marios told me that he wasn’t sure if spinnerbaits were working! I was determined not to lose this one, which though appeared a bit smaller than the two I previously lost. The bass started to jump in plain view in front of us, and when I felt I had full control it got loose! Darn! This time it did not get unhooked, the braided line was broken and the bass got off with my spinnerbait!!! Real spinnerbait curse!

Marios moved back towards area 3, and I found myself alone again. Time was moving, and my treasure hole seemed dried up. I started experimenting with techniques I had confidence, nothing. I tried jerkbaits, topwaters, buzzbaits, wacky stick-baits from 4 to 7 inches, t-rigged weighed and weighless stickbaits from 4 to 7 inches, t-rigged creatures and worms from 4 to 7 inches, even 6” floating worms on the surface. Nothing. As if the lack of bites was not enough, the wind died out, and I soon realized that even at the edge of my casting range I only had about 5 to 6 feet of water – it was shallower than I expected. Time had gone to 4.30. I had two hours to catch fish. I was worried because I felt that maybe things were different at other areas and other people might had caught 50cm+ bass limits, while I only had two bass to show off. The results at Area 5 seemed to indicate that my back-up plan to go to Area 2 would not work. An alternative plan started to play in my mind – since spinnerbaits seemed to work, maybe I could just start to walk on the shores, beating them with spinnerbaits, hoping for occasional bass. Yet, on the other hand, the amazing underwater structure lying underwater in front of me could at any time fill with the quality bass I had discovered there three weeks ago. And all that mental gymnastics without knowing what was going on elsewhere!

I decided to stick to Area 5. Time was running out, and had the “roving spinnerbait” pattern fail, I would be thinking that maybe had I stayed in my area bigger bass might have moved on. More importantly, I did not know how many competitors moved between Area 5 and the start and how much pressure did the shoreline had, while I knew that Area 5 had only been used by me. I was also hoping that topwaters would eventually come alive. The fact that a slight breeze started again gave me high hopes. I did work my area carefully and thoroughly, changing techniques. Time zipped to 6.30 with no bites, and I made the move back, stopping for occasional casts at promising areas of the shoreline.

By 7pm I was going up the hill to the start area. By that time I had heard that most anglers did poorly, and there was uncertainty if anyone had even caught a limit. I also heard that several bass in the 25-29cm range were caught. Hmmm. By the end of the day I was amazed that two medium sized bass had given me no less than the 5th place, having been beaten only by competitors who moved either towards Croc Bay or the Kryos River!

Looking back, I feel that I performed well, but the more I think about it, the more I believe I should had made the move at 4.30. At the time the wind had picked up, and had I moved towards deeper water I might have found one or two bonus bass ready to attack the spinnerbait. The peninsula between Areas 3 and 5 had the correct ingredients, but I was slow to make the move. Of course nothing guarantees that I would have caught bass had I moved, but it seems that the key was the deeper water. This brings some doubts as to whether the area I chose was the best one. I have to admit that when I first fished the area on April 25, I thought it was deeper than it actually was. Apparently, when I arrived there on Sunday I found active bass that had moved there from deeper water to feed, but it seems that they moved out by 2.30pm. Area 5 seemed to have a steeper gradient than Area 2, but still not enough depth. Vyron did fish Area 2, and proved that the pattern of the bass moving off the “beach”by late April still holds as he only had a decent bass from there.

My main disappointment was the three bass I lost on the spinnerbait. The first was hooked only by the trailer hook, but the second was hooked both by the main and trailer hook, yet it managed to throw the hooks. I did a good strike with both bass, and although they were caught quite far out I never felt they were not securely hooked. My main problem was on manouvering them over the thorny bushes of the shores, and I had very limited space to move. I really needed my swimbait setup with 80lb braid or 30lb mono to horse them out of the jungle. I’m glad I did not catch my fish on the spinning setup, I would probably loose even the two bass on the stickbait. As for the last bass that broke my line, the line did break a considerable distance from the hook, so it apparently had been hurt during one of the previous fights.

Bottom line? I am generally happy with myself, but I believe I could do better. I did manage to control well the psychological pressure, not succumbing to panic tactics or to hopelessness when bites dried out. Could have I made better decisions? Possibly. Most importantly, I should have had a more “solid” back-up plan in case Area 5 did not perform (my back-up was to go to Area 2, but having seen how even the deeper Area 5 performed, it proved the wrong back-up plan). Competitive bass fishing has so many variables, but it seems that first and foremost it needs solid planning…

Here I have to say “THANKS” to the organizers (CFAA and especially Yiannis), the Main Judge (Evanthis), the two referees (MariosK and George Delis) and to my bass fishing buddies, especially my “Partner” Phivos and Marios PA for endless discussions!!!

Cheers until Dhipotamos!

[C&R]

Thanks Roland for the report. Another solid performance. Well done and keep it up!!

[(CyBasser)]

ΟΥΠΣΣΣ!
ΣΥΓΧΑΡΗΤΗΡΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΣΤΟΥΣ ΝΙΚΗΤΕΣ!!!!!
Dima, Φοίβο, Λούη και Γιάννη, Συγχαρητήρια για την ωραία απόδοση σε μια τόσο δύσκολη μέρα!!!!!!!!