IF 2017 is remembered as having the worst weather ever, then the 25th Club Marine Trailer Boat Fishing Tournament in 2018 will be remembered as having the best prizes ever. Port Stephens started off scarily with torrential rain on Thursday afternoon and then just got better and better and better as the weekend progressed.
This year, one of Australia’s oldest and most successful ski boat builders, Lewis Boats, joined us to display and launch their new range of family fishing boats. I had a good look over them and they represent exceptional value…well worth considering for your next boat. Our friends at Marine Rescue had a good safety display on‐site over the weekend and our friends at Shoal Bay Fishing Club ran a top tournament.
And the fishing was great. To enter and compete in the tournament is very easy, but to win it extremely difficult. The rules allow for 14 species, with only the top 3 fish in each category to count for points. This means the gun anglers all shoot for having a top 3 fish in a number of categories, ensuring long hours of effort.
2017 Champion Angler Mathew Godfrey (1st tailor and teraglin, 2nd snapper) stepped up to the plate and smashed the ball out of the park by knocking local guru Paul Lennon (1st and 2nd flathead and 2nd tailor) out of first spot with 13 points versus 11 points.
Similarly, in the Juniors, 2017 Champion Junior, Amy Falko, showed a clean pair of heels to a strong field of junior anglers. This year, Amy (1st bream, 3rd flounder, 1st kingfish, 1st and 2nd mulloway, 2nd and 3rd snapper, and 1st tailor) won convincingly with 33 points from Ava Mayne (1st and 2nd drummer and 1st luderick).
Species winners and place getters won prizes from Blue Bottle Marine (Fish Chiller Bags), Club Marine (insurance discount vouchers), Frogleys Offshore (Samurai, Atomic, and Gamakatsu tackle), Mako Eyewear (Mako sunglasses) and Shimano Australia (Shimano tackle, Environet, and PowerPro line).
There were also loads of lucky draws throughout the tournament including prizes from the above sponsors plus a full range of the newly launched Lowrance Hook2 sounder plotters from small to the $2000 plus 12” screen models. Local alloy & stainless specialist AliStain offered custom gaffs and slimy tubes, Bay Boat Sales provided service discount vouchers, BOAB Boat Hire offered boat hire packages, Life Cell Marine kindly provided some of their world beating LifeCells, Port Stephens Beachside Holiday Parks and Winning Holidays offered competitors holiday packages. Also, any species prizes not won were lucky drawn.
Notable senior catches this year included a cracker 1.35 kg bream by Craig Astley and a 1.26 kg specimen by David Wood. These are big bream by Port Stephens standards and both were in beautiful condition. Similarly, Paul Lennon’s 4.97 kg flathead was a perfect fish. Simon Pandelis’ 3.37 kg flounder, Paul White’s 18.75 kg kingfish, and Ben Doolan’s 8.15 g snapper were all top fish.
The Juniors were nibbling at the seniors heels. Amy Falko caught a nice 1.04 kg bream and 11.70 kg mulloway, Ava Mayne a 2.10 kg Drummer and Tyrese Flood a 6.33 kg snapper. The battle of the sexes was well and truly alive this year with the girls pipping the boys in many species.
For full results visit the Hall of Fame HERE. Hope to see you again in 2019.
