Welcome to ABT! Australian Bass Tournaments is the company name, but we have evolved to be the leading provider of BREAM, BASS and BARRA tournaments in Australia. You have probably reached this site by seeing the results or coverage for one of these events somewhere in Australia.
And we are glad you’ve made it. Here is where you start your journey to being a tournament angler.
This website – abt.org.au – is the hub of tournament information, scheduling and results, although a lot of these are also shared on our social media platforms. The links for these are on the footer of this page.
We run tournaments for three main species. Bream of all species in the salt water, Australian Bass in rivers and impoundments on the freshwater and Barramundi in the lakes in Queensland. The marketing names for these are BREAM, BASS, and BARRA events.
There are two main types of events that we run. Draw events and teams events. Draw events, randomly match boat owning “boaters” with “non-boaters”. You’ll fish with a different person each day of the event. Teams events allow you to pick your own partner and fish with them.
ABT’s motto is “Who Shares Wins” and the draw format allows rapid learning – you’re often paired with anglers with a different skill set and level of experience and there’s no better way to learn than to see something first hand when you’re in the same craft.
There’s also two different ways that we get a result: (A) live weigh-in events and (B) catch-measure-photo-release events on the ABT Tournament Series App. Having these different ways of running events allows us to have results that may exceed possession limits on a particular waterway or work around slot limits and still be judged on a bag of 5 fish.
Both of these methods allow you catch plenty of fish if you can – it’s just that the biggest 3-fish or 5-fish count towards your final score.
Currently BREAM events run in Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania. BASS events are held in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria and BARRA events are held in Queensland’s stocked impoundments.
Keep an eye on the schedules on the website or the printed Tournament Angler Guide which is released every January to plan your events.
MEMBERSHIP
To fish an ABT event, you need to be a current ABT member. This costs $50 per year and membership runs out on Feb 1 each year. ABT Members also get a free digital copy of Fishing Monthly magazine each month. A free-code is distributed to active members via email each month.
Membership also allows us to easily communicate with you. We often sent text messages to event fields to remind them of briefing times or to alert you to any event changes that happen close to the event.
You can find the membership form under the ‘Forms’ tab on the above menu bar.
With this in mind, let’s take a look at the events species-by-species to let you know how to become involved.
>> Getting Started in BREAM Events
>> Getting Started in BASS Events