Success Clinic May 26

Roman Mandyczowsky was a very popular angler on the Angling Section’s Success Clinic on May 26. One of the stalwarts of the trips out on the boat, Roman invariably is one of the better performed anglers. And the May 26 outing was no exception when eight anglers, under the control of skipper Martin Smith, nestled in close nor’west of Rottnest, on a nor’west drift.

Despite a forecast of stronger winds and a bit of a swell, conditions stayed comfortable for the entire day. The fishers were entertained early by the likely suspects — skippy, sweep, swallowtail and some undersize pinkies. Martin then tried some lumps a little further out, with more undersize pinkies being returned, and a small dhufish caught by newcomer Phil Giambazi, fishing with his son Andre.

Now while fish were caught by everybody on board, Roman proved the star attraction with five break-sea cod, and his technique was closely studied by the others. While the break-sea cod are caught regularly on the clinics, there was a curiosity piece that came over the gunwales. WA Fisheries say it was an “interesting” catch, the photo attached is a likely to be a male white-barred boxfish, also known as a hump backed box fish. Occasionally seen on offshore reefs of southern WA, but more so on trawling grounds of the Great Australian Bight. The flesh is also poisonous.

Event Report by Ray Wilson