Summer of Love
Congratulations on the birth of baby girls for Daniel & Kylie late last year & for Richard & Sonia who weighed-in just before our last weigh-in.
I sit at my desk writing this trying to shed my Xmas cheer of ham, turkey & associated condiments & refreshments & would like to start by saying Happy New Year & congratulations to all the members & committee for the great calendar year that last year was; the camaraderie being far superior to that attainable at a big-ring tournament, club records being shattered several times, a successful presentation night & 3-way tournament & increasing numbers at the weigh-ins.
January Report
A few days prior to the competition I had a phone conversation with President Daniel in which he predicted the weather to be normal, meaning windswept & raining & his prediction turned out to be spot-on. In fact the weather & flood like conditions had Black Duck’s Chris Elliott babysitting a floating telegraph pole for several hours while he & his crew waited for emergency services to arrive. This time spent in the rain was unproductive fishing time & when the coastguard arrived & could not get a rope around the pole & subsequently gave the pole its free right of passage out to sea, the Duck & its crew returned to land knowing full well that they had served the community proud by putting their own lives at risk in order to protect the innocent public.
Meanwhile, deep at sea on the reef known as ‘never you mind’, ‘Jimmy de Fad’ was attracting kingfish & Sikaflex II skipper Andrew Wiseman & last minute passenger Mick Campbell were hauling them over the side with monotonous regularity much to the chagrin of de Fad. De Fad had already suffered the humiliating ignominy of not bagging a worm in the high-tide on the side of a vertical sand bank worming expedition arranged by Campbell a few days earlier. At one stage de Fad had to be told by the Sikaflex II crew that his heavy action rod had a fish on the end of it, which he then proceeded to drop due to tackle failure, the second hook of the weekend to snap in half. At the weigh-in de Fad declared that like Al Yendle & Toohey’s Reef, he is considering putting a fee on his fish attracting ability, Wiseman declared that Campbell, who out-fished his skipper 3 to 1, would not be invited onboard in future. Mick took out the points for Deep Sea with Andrew in second & Steve Pollock in third. Mick also beat his December posted Samson Fish record (1kg) with a new record (1.75kg). He also took out the whiting cup with a 0.685kg specimen.
Chris Stokes confirmed his position in the lead of the Estuary division with kingfish, bream & whiting. Daniel Elliot also confirmed his second place by coming second this month with bream & flathead. Ferri Hudijuno was third with a trophy leading flathead of crocodilian proportions (3.35kg) caught up at his secret spot off the wharf at Woy Woy. On the previous weekend, Ferri had put his rod down on the wharf to light up a smoke when the whole kit & caboodle was yanked into the river. Mourning the loss of his gear Ferri smoked his ciggie & contemplated the one that got away. Next thing you know the bloke on the sand just down from the wharf is onto a big one & when he drags up the fish, its actually got Ferri’s hook in its mouth & still attached to Ferri’s rod & reel which Ferri was happy to recover, the fisherman’s reward a reptile of similar size to the one that Ferri weighed-in on the weekend.
Kylie Elliot kept up her domination of the Ladies division braving the elements to weigh-in some bream, the Black Duck scoring well with Margaret Whiteman picking up second with bream & flathead, Michele Kerr taking third with bream.
Thomas Kerr continued his strong form weighing-in a great bream catch of a total of 1.62kg keeping him well out in front in the juniors. Blake Moses came in second with a nice bream.
The battle for the Open division honours looks set to be a beauty this year with Andrew Wiseman & Richard Timbs locked together on 61 points. Mick Campbell 42, has pegged back Daniell Elliott 46 points, Chris Stokes 39, is one out one back & ready to make his charge. Steve Pollock 26 is still well in the hunt & should not be ignored.
In the Boats, Sikaflex 11 leads Black Duck then Wild Wing.