Fishing Tales
White Sands Comp November 26 – 28, 2010.
The weather forecast leading up to event was looking pretty average with 20 knot NE for all 3 days. Not bad to catch a few fish but pretty average for comfort and keeping dry.
On board Blackjack we had my wife Leanne, youngest son Bradley, Jeff Melmoth, recent addition Chris Kearns and yours truly. After launching at Murray’s Beach we headed out for the Drum Canyons and set the spread with about 3km to go. I figured if any area would fire then the Drum Canyons would be the place. Weather conditions were excellent with just 5 – 10 kts and everything looked great.
The plan of Drum Canyons firing came undone around the first sched when a couple of boats called in Tuna with one going 5-5-5. After blaming the crew for insisting I go to the Drum Canyons we slowly worked an arch out wide and back towards the Kink. Around 10.30am the Jeff’s bibbed minnow went off and Leanne managed to beat everyone to the rod. She had obviously had some excellent tuition from the guys who fished with her on Bill Dunkley’s boat at the Bracken Bash, and skillfully palmed the rest of the crew aside in her dash to the rod. Not long later we tagged our first Yellowfin and we were on the board.
The crew appeared determined not to allow that to happen again but their resolve was no match as Leanne once again beat everyone to the rod for her 2nd Fin and at that stage we figured would be close to leading Lady Angler. Brad managed to jump on a tag a Fin a couple of hours later but finally the small 10kg outfit went off with an absolute scream and Chris locked horns with a decent Bull Mahi Mahi. Chris adopted the come hither approach which resulted in him gaining virtually no line in 20 minutes so we began to search the record books for the longest recorded fight with a 12 kg Dolly. After some serious ribbing, Chris stepped up the pace and presented Jeff with a perfect gaff shot that he managed to totally botch, almost losing the gaff, the fish and being faced with a long swim back from the shelf. In one desperate lunge he managed to salvage a hopeless situation by grabbing the sinking gaff and swinging the fish on board.
At the end of day 1 we were going okay with 3rd most Yellowfin and Heaviest Other Gamefish with Chris’s Mahi Mahi weighing 12.6kg on 10kg which we felt certain to take out this category.
Day 2 promised plenty but delivered little with few boats reporting fish and an increasing NE that was nudging 25kts at 3pm. At the weigh station that night there was one solid Big Eye Tuna weighed that went 78.4kg and effectively blew us out of the water with our tasty Dolly.
The final day was called off at around 9.30am as the seas were fairly substantial due to a black nor’easter that blew most of the night.
All in all an enjoyable comp and we will definitely have another crack next year.
Doug Read
CAPTURE
1. Most Meritorious Game Fish- Andrew Clark from Fishing World with a 32.8kg YFT
2. Heaviest Shark- Todd Morley from Run-a-muck with a 172.4kg Mako
3. Heaviest YFT to Paul Orchard from INXS with a 41.2kg YFT
4. Heaviest other Game fish to Josh Hay from Impulsive with a 78.4kg Big Eye Tuna
5. Champion Junior- Josh Hay from Impulsive
6. HIGHEST POINT SCORE BOAT- Run-a-muck
Tag and Release
1. Highest Point Scoring Male Angler to Cliff Lipscombe from Trust in Dreams
2. Highest Point Scoring Lady Angler to Elspith Finney from Double D
3. Highest Point Scoring Junior to Josh Hay
4. Highest Point Scoring Small Fry to Mike James from Illusion
5. Most Marlin Tag and Release Boat to Trust in Dreams with 1.
6. Most Sharks Tag and Release Boat to Grey Hounder with 7 (I think)
7. Most YFT Tag and Release to Angie II with 7
8. Highest Point Scoring Boat Grey Hounder
Total Tallies
171 Anglers
48 Boats
180 Species recorded
67 YFT Total
55 YFT Tagged
12 Captured
1 x 78.4 KG Big eye Tuna Pending Record for Junior on 37kg
Chris Kearns with his mighty dolly.
