If variety is the spice of life, then there was an abundance of life at the Angling Section’s two-in-one competition on March 6.
With the King George Competition running in conjunction with the usual March comp, there was a healthy roll call of local species on display at the weigh-in.
Competition was earnest with two $600 top-of-the-range Shimano spinning reels on offer for the male and female who nailed the heaviest king george, while the monthly comp had two target fish – a baldchin and flathead – along with the normal overall winner’s prize.
There were also prizes for juniors who caught a king george in the comp sponsored by NGT Logistics (rear commodore Nev Norkett’s company) and Compleat Angler and Camping World in Rockingham
With a weigh-in pushed back to 4pm, several anglers called stumps early because they were pooped after starting at 6am. Others milked every available minute of competition time – and that’s almost 600!
Anyway, there was an expectant buzz around Shed 7 when the anglers appeared in dribs and drabs to present their catches.
A sneak preview into the eskies revealed some nice baldies, a fat flattie, a lovely pink snapper caught by Andrew Engelbrecht, who also had a king george which measured over 50cm, some break-sea cod, fox fish, and Bert Zuideveld’s geordie which went just shy of 50cm.
A sliding door moment came for both Andrew and Bert, because either of their geordies would have taken out the top prize, but neither of them had entered that comp which included a tasty, and plentiful, roast dinner at the club at 5.30pm that night.
In the wash-up, the target fish were rippers, with Kelly Tann claiming the House Support Scheme’s $100 for the baldie while Andrew Robinson’s mighty 1.6kg flathead was a clear winner.
Marcus Sucur and Hamish Robinson both collected prizes in the junior section for showing up the oldies by each catching a king george.
Craig Thomas had a day out in this Big Day Out. His 0.54kg king george won him the Shimano prize, and he also blitzed the field with seven species, including five 15-pointers, for an impressive total of 97.96 points. On current form, Craig would need to be struck on the head by a meteor and forget all his prized spots, for him not be win the angler of the year crown this season.