28th Yellowfin Tournament Report
June 1st, 2009The anticipation for this tournament was huge and the entries started rolling in early at a good rate from as far north as Coffs Harbour and southern Victoria. With 97 boats we were slightly down on last year no doubt because the weather was not looking too good which deterred some. We have a number of boats and crews who have fished this event for many years now and it is always fantastic to see them turn up again full of enthusiasm. It was particularly encouraging to have 19 juniors and small fry fishing including the NSWGFA Junior Team.
It is becoming a bit of a thing that we will have one day blown out and sure enough the “gale warning” expected was definitely in place at 4.45 on Saturday morning. Because of this we had to cancel fishing for the day which was disappointing and a few boats still went out. This is of course a worry as with a warning such as this I believe that all insurance is negated. Anyway we still had our free barbecue on Saturday night with the marquee full to capacity. It was a great night and everyone was confident that Sunday would be fishable.
The weather on Sunday looked good and we had the bulk of the fleet out on the water by 7.30. The first sked at 8.10 had a couple of boats fighting and a number of tagged fish. It was looking good! Throughout the day there were reports of tagged fish and a few captures. The outstanding capture for the day went to a small fry angler, Mehmet Huseyin and this was a Striped Marlin of 128kg on 24kg which is a potential record.
Our Sunday night Tournament Dinner was again a resounding success with more food than we knew what to do with. Everyone had their plates piled high and we had a marquee full of happy people having a terrific time.
Monday was again a good day and the majority of the boats were out there early. There were a few late starters no doubt because of that “bad chop” that they consumed the night before. Our trophy presentation was again well attended with a full marquee which is very satisfying and a great night was had by all. Members of Wollongong did particularly well I both capture and tag and release as you will see from the results that follow.
We are of course indebted to our sponsors for their support and enthusiasm. There were a number of them who actually fished the tournament. We also had the Managing Director of Honda Marine, Stuart Strickland with us and he drew the winner for the Honda motor. Stuart and Ante Cuk fished on “Strike Zone” with Alistair for a couple of days and Ante caught his first Marlin which he has been rubbing in to all in Melbourne since his return.
Thank you to all who participated and helped make this such a success and I hope we see you all again next year!
Sanchia Glaskin
Secretary Canberra GFC
Full results and some pictures are on our Tournament Page.
