The headline story from Round 2 of the 2026 Hobie Fishing Series Australia at Marlo on February 21-22 was Joseph Gardner's win on 6.15 kilograms of bream. The tactical story inside that headline was Brendan Pieschel's second-place run on effectively a single lure across both days.
Pieschel fished a PRO LURE Clone Prawn on a 1/30oz Bait Junkie jig head almost exclusively, ignoring the jerkbait bite that dominated earlier reports.
"I just could not get a bite," Pieschel told Bream Fishing Project host and 2019 Hobie Kayak Fishing World Champion Andrew Death. "So I paddled to a spot that I'd seen the fish started working a probably 50-metre section at bank that looked fairly active and very quickly I think by the time I got there, it probably took me about 30 minutes to get three fish."
The method was repeatable — a tight cast into reed beds, a pause, a twitch, a double hop.
"Because we knew they were eating prawns, I was just flicking really light and deep into the weed beds, letting it sit down, giving it a pause for a bit, and just a quick double hop out of the reeds. Then it seemed to just come along and smack it in the shallow water between about half a metre and probably a metre depth."
Day one gave him 2.37kg, enough for 17th overnight. Pieschel's read of the leaderboard was where his second-place finish was effectively written.
"I'm sitting 17th. So I'm thinking I just want a bag to kind of hold top 20 for a year's points more than anything. I just kept working the bank and I thought I'll be here for an hour and if I can get two or three fish in the hour, we'll see what happens then."
"I got to my spot and I didn't see a person for a while. So, it was really good to get there and just have a break for a minute because I was a bit bugged."
Gardner's winning bag and Pieschel's silver medal were separated by 220 grams. Ben Hanscombe's third at 5.84kg was built on a pre-competition scouting trip.
"Couple weeks before the comp, just before the ban, went down on a random Saturday for bit of a look around in the boat," Hanscombe said. "Got some really nice fish, which would have been handy comp week. Worked out a few zones where to fish or to check out for pre-fish."
Other notable results from the round: Patrick Burn won the Anaconda Big Bream with a 1.4kg fish. Evan Leonard claimed Monster Mover with 2.71kg on day two after a day-one donut. Riley Wheelan took the Youth division. Beth Harris won the Women's division. Lindsay Pri won Masters at 4.95kg, which also finished seventh overall.
Pieschel, closing out his interview, made it clear he does not plan to rush back.
"That is a heartbreak place. It broke you. Yeah. I don't know if I'll come back there for a while. Need another year to recover, I think."
The series now moves to Tasmania for Round 3. Gardner carries Round 2 momentum. The rest of the top ten carry their year's points into what Pieschel himself predicted would be "a lot better" fishing.
