Weekend Competition | 11th January 2020

As far as weigh-ins are concerned, the Angling Section’s show and tell on January 11 was a beauty. With eight boats vying for honours, some great catches at the weekend competition were matched with a heap of drama as relative newcomer Brian Arnett got his wires crossed regarding the time of the weigh-in.

Old-timers were heartened that new members to the section, Roy and Andree Simpson, provided an early highlight with some strikingly beautiful fox fish. Then rear-commodore fish and dive Neville Norkett and wife Dianne stepped up to the mark, with Di providing some nice break-sea cod, but not to be outdone, Nev handed in a whopping 1kg king george.

It didn’t stop there. Ray Wilson presented six species – king george (three), herring, pike, sand whiting (0.29kg, the heaviest) skippy and flathead for an impressive 86 points to win the day. His fishing partner Pat Keenan-Smith, who landed four species, won the mystery fish with a 0.23kg sandie. And Nev was awarded the catch of the day with his king george, just edging out Roy’s fox fish. All winners received $120 towards their House Support Scheme.

As the clean-up came to a close, and the posse of anglers headed to the bar to swap hard-luck yarns, up rocks Brian and his mate in Rock ‘n’ Roll. Field Day Officer Joe Venter made the sensible call to delay the start of the competition to 8am, with a 2.30pm weigh-in because of the gusty early morning easterlies.

Brian, though, misread the brief and figured that it was lined up at 2.30pm and that’s why he showed up at Shed 7 at 3.20pm. Ray broke the bad news to Brian that the award ceremony was done and dusted, prizes presented and the day was over.

It was a tough lesson because Brian pulled out a lovely 5kg mahi mahi from his esky that also contained a tuna, with both fish being taken in around 40m of water at the back of five-fathom bank. Brian took it all in good spirits, and he’ll be going twice as hard in the next competition, and be back at the ramp right on deadline!

Event report by Ray Wilson (thank you, Ray!)