BYCAC - A Brief History
August 2004 Oxlease Lake
Just over 12 months had passed from the first thoughts of a national event, and after much preparation and planning the first official BYCAC was about to start on Oxlease Lake on the Linear Fisheries complex. It was the second week in August and nobody really knew what to expect in terms of how the event would go, or even if it would be a success and become an annual event. It had been decided that the peg draw would be made in line with the senior event, which would be an out of the bag draw for the eliminators, and the final would be done on a watercraft draw.
The week saw a mixture of hot weather and thunderstorms, and the fish didn’t really want to respond. The competitors in the eliminators had to be versatile and fish a mixture of PVA bags, Zig Rigs and surface baits in order to try to qualify for the final.
The final arrived and the draw was made; the finalists went to their respective pegs and prepared for a long, hard 48 hours. By now it was known the fish were moving quickly on the wind throughout the day, and would settle at the bottom end of the lake. This worked to the advantage of one of the lads, and by Friday evening he was well ahead of the rest of the finalists. As dusk fell the fish once again moved round the lake and settled in front of Greg Harwar’s swim.
Greg spent all night watching fish rolling in front of him, and every time he saw a fish he put a bait on top of it. By the Saturday morning Greg had taken the lead and his tactics of casting maggots to the rolling fish had paid off. Odd fish were being caught from around Oxlease but nobody could catch up with the leader. So 2004 ended with Greg taking the title and being crowned champion.
