Avalon Beach RSL Fishing Club

It gives me great pleasure to welcome all fishing club members to the new year & hope that it will be a healthy & prosperous one for all. I would like to take this opportunity to mention some of the more memorable events so far this season.

First I would like to thank Richard Gunn of Gunn Software for repairing the site & allowing us to add photo’s once again.  

The Keiser bending one over

The season started with perennial bridesmaid Andrew Wiseman bursting of the blocks & smashing all before him scoring 150 points more than his closest rival Chris Elliott & taking the overall points. Unfortunately since then his personal scores have plummeted. It is interesting to note that his boat Intensive Care is currently in front on the boat score tally.

He may have suffered the same curse as Hammerhead skipper Troy Preston did when new chum Grant Callaghanventured out on his first competitive foray. With anchor set & time to bait up, Grant, man in charge of food for the day asks the skipper to put the bait on the hook for him as he doesn’t want to have smelly hands whilst preparing the gourmet. The skippers face reddened but this incited a laugh from the crew. The skippers red face turned to one of sheer unadulterated horror when Grant offered the first course, Bananas! Sad to see that since then the once productive boat is now hardly troubling the scorer.

Late in July the annual awards night toook place & a good time was had by all. Congratulations on all who helped make it once again a highlight of the season & to all those that won awards & prizes in the raffles. It was interesting to see Chris Stokes win the two lovely rods that he bought in from a generous donor. And what about the Bob Elliott Big Band (Soft Plastics)? For a rag-tag bunch of fugitives they certainly punched out a couple of hilarious numbers. Who’ll ever forget timeless tracks like ‘Fishy-I-O’ & ‘The Cagey Andrew Wiseman Bagged out Again on Bream’.

The biggest news to come out of July though was the record smashing effort of assistant weigh-master Dave Kerr who landed a monster  9kg snapper. This fish also took the Snapper Cup.

Record Snapper

Lisa Spinks bested Di Currer & Elarna Spinks in the Ladies division. Tim Jackett won the Estuary. Joseph Pichler stood alone on the victory dais in the Land Based division.

August saw Oliver Lloyd not for the first time make a goose out of his old man Jimmy de Fad. Always threatening to fish but rarely committing, Oli weighed-in a bumper crop of bream, the biggest, at time of print tentatively holding the trophy. When de Fad claimed that he had let Oli use the better light gear, he proceeded to catch a big one on the ‘useless’ heavy gear that his dad was using. Oli took the Land Based points ahead of James Lloyd.

Justin Appleby took the Morwong Cup with a 1.1kg fish. Di Currer led the Estuary division.

August also saw the much anticipated launch of ‘The Gravy Train’. A solid fibreglass, long wheelbase hull with a highly responsive 115 horse power donk with 130 litre fuel capacity to go all weekend without refuelling, Gravy was a very proud captain indeed.

He was first spotted floating in distress & out of fuel of Avalon Beach at about 12pm Sunday by Intensive Care. Fortunately the resourceful skipper of Hammerhead, Troy Preston was nearby with a siphon pump & a spare 10 litres of fuel. At approximately 1pm he was found bobbing around out of fuel off Avalon Sailing Club by Apples skipper Justin Appleby who towed the hapless Sinclair back to the ramp at Bayview. Fortunately it was roast beef for lunch carefully watched over by the assistant to the assistant who wasn’t far behind the assistant.

Gravy accepting fuel from the well prepared Piffo

I doubt that will be the last tale told concerning the colourful assistant bbq cook & his boat.

September saw the 3-way with Timmy Jackett, Mark Boyle, Jack Murphy, Les Sommberg & Hing Han leading our club at the dais. Abbey Sinclair & Eve Appleby led the way for the juniors. Tim Jackett took the Drummer Cup with a 2.62kg specimen.

October saw Mick Beck return to the podium as he had done in August to take the overall honors. Dave Montague & Tim Jackett also had had good showings.

Mick Beck in a familiar pose.

Let it be noted that October was also the month that Bob McIntrye join the club & went straight to the top of the Land Based leader-board also taking the Ludrick Cup, Paul Sinclair was close behind, both bagging out on Ludrick. Lachlan James pipped Abbey Sinclair in the Juniors.

November saw the very consistent Tim Jackett take the honors again with Ross James & Dan Elliott scoring well. Dave Montague took the Kingfish Cup weighing-in at 4.425kg. Elarna Spinks took the Ladies points on her own. Keeping it in the family Liam Spinks got the better of Elarna Spinks in the Juniors.

Justin Appleby returned to form fishing out of Intensive Care. Nick Harley & Mark Boyle scored well in the Deep Sea. Lisa Spinks won the Ladies as did Liam Spinks in the Juniors.

Rob Deane, a returning member didn’t muck around & straight away took out the Land Based division with a classic mix of drummer & ludrick. Bob McIntyre shuffled back to 2nd position for the month but has a strong hold on the division at the halfway mark. Paul Sinclair is keeping in contact at this point.

The Estuary division saw Tim Jackett take the points & a share of the lead with Chris Stokes.

Congratulation to Dave & Danielle for weighing-in a 3kg Bianca.

Prize Catch

Good luck to all fishing on the weekend & see you at the weigh-in where the much anticipated new BBQ may be unveiled as well as The Keisers new vessel.