Introduction
This year the Woods Float Open 2024 was fished on the Murray River at Abbotsford Bend just outside Mildura. The match this year was fished as an individual match over three days on the 2nd , 3rd and 4th February.
After major floods of 2021 / 2022 the river is starting to return to normal levels and flows. Unfortunately access to the match length isn’t the best but everyone took it very easy and there were no major problems (a big thank you goes out to Paul Scholes for his excellent towing services !). The Mildura Masters for 2023 was fished on the same stretch and the fishing was amazing with weights well above 100 Kg. It was hoped that the river would fish very similar.
The match this year was organised and run by the AFCAA President – Steve Smith. Steve did a fanstastic job of running the event and is to be congratulated. For those that have not run a large event like this it’s a lot of work. We would like to encourage anyone that is interested in helping to put your hand up and offer your help. The saying “Many Hands Make Light Work” is so true when it comes to delivering matches, just drop us an email and let us know your interest.
Not only did Steve do a terrific job in delivering the match over the three days. He has provided a great match report.
Match Report
Coarse fishing in Australia is often a battle of endurance and this event proved no different.
This year the event attracted 24 competitors from all around Australia and even New Zealand. The logistics of getting to matches in Australia is often very challenging. The following highlights the commitment and effort the competitors make to compete.
- Two competitors, Dave Huddleston and Gary Dallimore flew in from New Zealand, then had a six hour drive from Melbourne
- Steve Gosling and Ian Johnson flew in from Perth and had a four and a half hour drive from Adelaide.
- Sean Hay had an incredible two day drive from Perth (and two days home again).
- Richard Tuxford, Den Saunders, Chris Drawski, Andy Garcia, Stuart Deans and Ivan Mitchell drove twelve hours plus from Sydney while Chris Beavis, Les Markham, Adey Gore, Mark Turner and last year’s winner Allan Webb had a six hour jaunt from Melbourne.
- The Adelaide contingent of Stewart Eason, Paul Scholes, Neil Dunlop, Steve Sparkes, John Wilkes, Andy Moorhouse and Harry Whyte had a four-and-a-half-hour trip and with my home to the north of Adelaide I was the local boy with a tad under four hour drive.
These huge journeys just to fish a national competition is testament to the dedication of Aussie and Kiwi coarse anglers alike. And it’s not just this one competition, it’s every one we fish. So the venue chosen has to be able to produce some pretty outstanding results in order to ensure the attraction of national match fishing. Mildura and the Murray River does not disappoint.
Yes, its banks can be steep with a foot of dry, loose sand to plough through that makes setting and packing up akin to pre-season football training. It can be stiflingly hot, 44⁰ C of dry heat on the Sunday.
The access along the bank treacherous with roads resembling desert tracks. Not to mention the snakes and goannas. But the rewards are enormous.
Thursday Evening
The registration and draw for the weekend rotations were held on Thursday evening in the Mildura RSL. The match length was split into two zones and anglers drew for a rotation over the three days. Within each zone 4 mini sections were pegged each with 6 anglers. A special pool was organized for the heaviest weight for each of the three days. So, plenty to fish for.
However weather forecast was looking pretty brutal with 32 – Friday , 36 – Saturday 42 – Sunday.
The draw on Friday was at 07:30. In an attempt to miss the heat of the day, the draw on Saturday and Sunday was held at 06:30.
Friday – Day 1
The match length was almost three kilometres long, it’s a natural venue with plenty of bankside obstructions, and provided the four mini-sections of six anglers discrete areas with lots of space between sections. It was hoped that this would reduce the benefits of selecting the two traditional end pegs.
However, on the first day, Chris Beavis punished A1 and comfortably won his section, Ian Johnson won his from B, though was chased by Richard Tuxford, Den Saunders crushed C section almost doubling the second place weight from Adey Gore but while these clear cut wins were going on, a battle royale was happening in the last three pegs of the length.
Pegs D4, D5 and D6 produced 353 kgs (that’s 780lbs) of fish between them. Stewart Eason eventually ran out the section winner with 126 kgs, closely followed by Mark Turner and Steve Sparkes, both recording 100+kg weights.
Andy Garcia was fishing this tough venue for the first time and did incredibly well to grab a Section B third place while Adey Gore landed a scale perfect specimen of 10.25 kilos on the feeder.
The small fish encountered in early November were mostly gone, either through natural attrition or rapid growth. The average size had increased to 300 grams and through clever feeding the successful anglers were landing much bigger fish. The difference between winning a section and coming nowhere was finding the plentiful numbers of bigger fish – and fast ! Most anglers fished top two plus one or even just a long top kit, the drop off was very close in, and the bravest were swinging big fish to hand.
Saturday – Day 2
Day 2 was going to be hotter and due to nudge 40⁰, but that didn’t slow down the fishing any. This time it was A2 and Ivan Mitchell that won the first section.
Once again Steve Sparkes gave valiant chase to a big weight but had to be content with a section 2nd place. B section was surprisingly close and it was Andy Moorhouse who showed a glimmer of his old self winning the section, beating a day 1 winner, Stewart Eason, into second.
Down in C section, Den Saunders was grabbing his second section win and the victory was given further importance because he had beaten Chris Beavis into second place, thereby gaining a crucial one point lead over one of his nearest rivals.
Once again though the action at the end of D section was difficult to ignore and Ian Johnson gained his second section win with a venue record breaking 140 kgs. That’s a kilo of fish every two and a half minutes. So, at the end of day 2 we had Den and Ian on two points and Chris and Stewart on three with all to fight for on a long, hot Sunday.
Sunday – Day 3
To say that the draw is important is an understatement, but Sunday kind of went against that.
Den and Ian were both drawing in Zone 1, that’s mini-sections A and B, so probably A1, or possibly A2, were the targets. Well Den drew midsection in B, not a particularly fruitful peg while Ian drew A4 so had to contend with A1 and A2. These were filled with Mark Turner and Chris Beavis who were both still in the running and two very accomplished anglers.
To add to the drama, Stewart, who was sitting on three points, drew D6, the in-form peg. Drama of a different kind was produced in section C where Richard Tuxford held off a spirited challenge from Ivan Mitchell to win the section with a new venue record of 141.45 kgs feeding 28 cans of corn to dwarf Ivan’s very credible 113kgs. Ian’s massive record weight from yesterday had lasted only 24 hours.
Down in A section Ian put up a valiant fight but just couldn’t match Chris Beavis’ stonking 103 kilos on A2 to give him the crucial section point.
On A1 Mark picked up second place to push Ian into third spot. Up in D section Stewart was not getting it all his own way either. Sean Hay, the long-distance driver from Perth, was taking the section win and with his WA colleague Steve Gosling grabbing second, it meant Stewart had to be content with a section third.
Everyone was waiting on the section B weigh sheet for Den’s result and Mr Reliable did not disappoint, collecting his third straight section win and a clean sweep. Mind you, Kiwi Gary Dallimore in the peg next door gave Den a real scare and was narrowly beaten into second place in section.
Results / Presentation
The final result was ; Den Saunders in first place with a perfect three points, Chris Beavis in second with four points , Ian Johnson in third with five points and Mark Turner in fourth with six points, narrowly beating Stewart Eason and Richard Tuxford. Special call out for Chris Beavis who has not seriously matched fish for quiet a few years, he certainly made great return for second place
The presentation was held at the Mildura RSL and was attended by 23 of the 24 contestants which was wonderful to see.
After everyone’s journeys home there would have been some extremely tired anglers.
But I don’t think anyone is complaining, as the River Murray once again showed herself to be a fantastically prolific natural venue. More than three and a half tonnes of fish had been caught, its mind-boggling stuff ! Thanks to all the participating anglers for making the 2024 Woods Floats Open an absolutely fantastic event.
Match Winning Video
As many of you know that Dennis Saunders has a YouTube video channel on which he has a large number of really top videos. Many are great if you are just starting coarse angling and provide some great insights.
For this match, Dennis Saunders has made a special video of the fishing over three days. This video shows in detail the methods and approach that Dennis used to produce a perfect score of 3 points for a total of 227.46 kilos . Congratulations Dennis on a great win and a great video. The link to this video is below :
Australian Federation of Coarse Anglers Association 