NOWRA’S Kevin Varty will fly the Australian flag next month when he heads to Lafourche Parish, Louisiana (US) to compete at the 2016 Hobie Fishing World Championships.
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The 46-year-old kayak bream tournament fisherman started fishing with his dad and uncle, targetting kingfish and tailor around the southern headland of Jervis Bay.
“Around 2009, I switched from fishing with bait to using lures and then in 2011, I bought a Hobie Pro angler kayak and started to fish in bream competitions.
“In 2014,I won the St Georges Basin round of the Hobie Daiwa bream tournament which qualified me for the Australian team for the fourth Hobie fishing world championships in the Netherlands.”
The Hobie Worlds, run from December 4-11, is a competition for kayakers from all over the world to compete against each other at different locations. At the events, Hobie supply kayaks to ensure a level playing field.
“In the Netherlands, we had three species to target- pike, zander and perch,” Verty said.
“I managed a couple of good pike that were 76cm and 95cm along with a 36cm perch and managed to take out third place and bronze for Australia.”
This time around, the qualifying procedure changed, meaning anglers had to fish at least three qualifying rounds from six and the eight highest scores from three rounds made the team for the sixth edition of the Hobie Worlds.
“My qualifying rounds consisted of a second place at Bemm River in Victoria, a first place at Scamander in Tasmania and a much lower placing at Forster NSW but I scored enough points to make it into the team,” Varty said.
“At Louisiana, we will be again be fishing for three species - redfish, speckled trout and flounder. This will be my first time fishing in the US and I’m expecting to face the same challenges as in the Netherlands.
“I have no experience with these species, so during the three official pre-fish days, I will be covering a lot of water and casting a lot of different lures to try and figure out a bite pattern. I’ve also done some Youtube research and had a look at Google maps just to get some idea what to expect.”
To get Varty to the US, the team at Compleat Angler and Camping World, Nowra are running a raffle competition.
“I am very excited to be heading abroad again and without the help of Compleat Angler, I just would not have been able to compete at the rounds needed to get me into the team.”
To enter the raffle, either head into the Compleat Angler and Camping World Nowra store or visit their Facebook page.