The Official Report

[Guest]

What a great day out with the Fishraiders once again !!!!

This was our fourth year in a row at Cook Park at Sans Souci and these events attract a top bunch of people who are such a pleasure to organise these events for.

Some were regulars and some were first timers and everyone who attends gets to meet all the other great fishraiders on the Site.

After a heap of organising from the Admin team it was time to head off in the wee hours to set up for the social, with Swano, Smitty, Hodgey and Mako, Cat-as-trophy and Dusky all getting there really early to set up the BBQ AREA and official registration possie.

The day started out beautifully with overcast skies and little if no wind and we had high hopes that the wind would stay away, but alas the southerly came through just after 6 am

It didnt matter as the members and their guests flooded into the area ready for a feed from our expert BBQer Andrew (Mako) ably assisted by the other helpers. We had just purchased a new Fishraider BBQ and it worked a treat.

Swano bought along a great gazebo to keep the rain off and it looked terrific all set up, we even had members of the public trying to purchase sausage sandwichs from our professional team.

Cath and Donna were registering and marshalling plenty of members and the tally for the day 90 plus members attending.

The weather gods didnt dampen the raider spirit and all and sundry headed out in search of the mostly elusive fish, tough conditions with 20 knots of wind.

Some really nice fish were brought back to the measuring tent and whilst not a lot of fish were caught, it was nice to see the members all get behind the eventual winners.

The Junior members provided some top flathead with a good showing by the seniors as well.

First to bring a fish to the table was Lizard Boy with a very nice 55cm flathead and his dad Poddy Trapper a fine trevally of 38cms a good start.

The day rolled on with a smattering of fish being measured and then Fishhead breno came up the beach with a big fish box full of water and a big flathead swimming inside which measured 67cms and was quickly measured, hoisted up for a nice photo then released unharmed back into the bay, good effort indeed.

The day was nearly done and no other fish species were recorded outside the targetted species and Davemmm said he had a nice whiting in the boat and I said "go get it" and he said "its too far to walk back". I commented that it was worth $100 buxs and he trotted off to grab it. The whiting measured a creditable 35cms and was winning for 10 seconds when Higgs bought in two nice tailor and one measured 37cms to pip Dave by 2cms, sorry Dave but your raider spirit once again shone through and you took it like the true gentleman you are.

The food and drinks were being consumed at a great rate of knots and everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

The eventual winners of all the catagories are as follows.

Senior Flathead 67cms....Fishead breno

Junior Flathead winner 55cms....Lizard Boy

Senior Trevally 38cms...Poddy Trapper

As there were no Bream captured, Admin awarded runners up awards as well.

Senior runner up Trevally 31cms....Pike

Senior runner up Flathead 63cms...Pike

Junior runner up Flathead 43cms ..Jonathan Mak

There was a non species targetted prize for the biggest fish.

The eventual winner was a 37cm Tailor ....Higgs

Runner up was the desperately unlucky Davemmm...35cm whiting.

Now for some pictures of our great day on the bay.

Now to thank all the sponsors and helpers on the day.

Firstly there are now 3 new GOLD MEMBERS.

Swano and Smitty and John(Dogtooth) who supplied 2 x100 litre eskies full of ice. That was a big helping hand John, thanks mate.

Congratulations you three.

Cath, Dusky, Hodgey and Rzep for all your efforts on the day and Cath you are one of the "go to" people for our socials and Admin appreciate all your hard work on the day.

Our sponsors Global Tackle, Seriously Stainless and Huett Marine for your generous contributions for our social winners.

Thanks to Mike and Dimitri from Global Tackle for setting up their stall and helping raiders with all tackle options and discounts.

Now for our BBQ extraordinaire Mako MATE YOUR EFFORTS ARE TRULY HERCULIAN MY FRIEND and without you, your van and your tireless work on and behind the scenes we could not have survived without you.

We owe you a huge debt of gratitude once again..

Now for the lady who drives all the Socials.

Mrsswordie has busted her butt every single time we have one of these events and it is testament to her great organisational skills that everything runs like clockwork.

Well done Honey !!!!!

Regards Swordfisherman

[brendong]

Swordy,

What a great day it was yesterday....we all loved our Bacon and Egg rolls and quick catchup with some of the Raiders before setting off to battle the elements so to speak....We kind of had an inkling that Lizard Boy's Flatty might be strong enough to take out the juniors but I thought if someone could brave sitting in Trevaly Alley with a berly trail they might have knocked my Trevaly off which I picked up on 2 inch shrimp in New Penny off Towra. Lizard Boys flatty fell to a 5 inch jerk shad in Blue Pepper Neon also taken at Towra....(As you can see we are both big fans of the Gulp/ Berly brands and are stoked Pure Fishing guys are now part of the FishRaider community)

Really sorry we had to get off the water a 9.30 am, would love to have caught up with a few more raiders at lunch time....but we figured at least coming for half the day was better than not at all, so sorry again for not being able to attend the presentation.

This event really highlights the dedication and passion the FishRaider Administrators, Moderators and Members have for their beloved sport of fishing and in particular www.fishraider.com.au. You guys are all legends and great people and should be congratulated far more often than us members remember to do so....congrats on a great day it was awesome...

No doubt we'll be there again next year too as I'm sure Lizard Boy will want to try and defend his title....

[tide'n'knots]

what a great day once again! I brought my girlfriend rosetta along to this social and everyone made her feel very welcome and in no time flat she had made friends with donna and later in the day fionna (mrs reggie the rabbit) she even caught a couple of flathead before the wind picked up too, although only small ones unfortunately.

stewy even got a kiss goodbye and we left talking about the next social at the entrance and looking forward to seeing her new found friends again!

thankyou to all who workrd very hard to make the day happen such as andrew,cath, donna and stewy etc and to all the members who donated stuff such as dogtooth (2 giant ice boxes) and of course all of the sponsers and anyone else who I may have forgotten (sorry but you know who you are), without people like you these days cant happen and I am sure that every raider that hooked into a sausage egg and bacon sandwich with a cup of coffee appreciates your efforts!

the day started off looking fantastic and after registering and a quick brekky Rosetta and i headed off to a flatty spot that I know and started flicking 3inch gulps in a smelt colour and soon started getting fish, unfortunately they were all around 35 - 37cm, we caught somewhere around 10 or 12 fish and all the same size and all were released. The plan was to catch some flathead for the first hour or so then head up the cooks river to try for some big blurters around the bridge pylons but up came the wind and made conditions very uncomfortable crossing the bay so we headed up the georges river instead to try and escape the howling wind but it was simply impossible and no more fish were caught by us.

The wind didnt spoil the great turnout of people and rosetta and I enjoyed mixing after the presentation, and thats what its all about!

bring on the entrance social!!

pete

rosetta looking very glamorous with some flatties!

Edited October 11, 2010 by tide'n'knots

[Ray R]

Sounds like another success, congrats to the Swordies and thier band of helpers that make all this possible, also congrats to the new 'GOLDIES'...

I wasn't able to get there but will be at the next one, hopefully at the Entrance..

[prawn*]

first social event i have been to was good to meet some faces have a feed and socialize everybody was friendly and wil be deffinetly be goin to the next social. Even though the fishing wasnt the best & conditions were windy was good to have a fish with mike (fishbones) and john (dogtooth) and flick a few lures,

[jenno64]

I am genuinely ashamed that I missed this one after putting myself down for it. We had my step-daughter's 21st the night before and after the festivities and cleaning up didn't hit the sack until 2:30am. After getting back from Thailand a couple of days before, my little guy and I were too zonked to get there. Sounds like another great day and I have missed another great chance to meet Raiders live!

Well done to all the admin and organisers, as well as the winners on the day!

[stuartf]

Hey Stewy

What a great social Thanks Mako good BBQ. Thanks global tackle we got some cool stuff and a good price. Sorry we didn`t get back for the weigh in, we got nothing to get excited about. But we meet some nice other Raiders. Good Day

Stuball

[swano]

sunday was my first fishraiders social day and will definately not be my last. what a great group of people, it was good to put faces to names. the wind was a bit of a letdown but nobody seemed to be whingeing about it and just got into the spirit of the day.congrats to all the winners,a good effort. i was really stoked about the gold membership and a little bit embarrased,because honestly i was just happy to help out Stewie and Donna. hope to meet more raiders in the near future,if not see ya next social day,cheers,Swano.

[Hodgey]

Another successful Fishraider Social has been and gone. It was terrific to see so many members turn up in some pretty ordinary conditions. It was the ideal opportunity to catch up with a few old faces and put faces to names of some new ones. Some nice fish were weighed in, particularly from the junior!

My thanks to the sponsors, Admin, helpers and members for making it a great day. Congratulations to our newest Gold Members! A special ‘Thank You’ to Mr and Mrs Swordie for accommodating me Saturday Night.

Cheers

Hodgey

[pmak]

Many thanks to Stewie, Donna, the rest of the admin team, helpers and the sponsors for putting together another great event.

We had high hopes of great fishing but as these things turn out, it was not to be. My youngest scored his flattie on his first cast of the day about 200m from the beach on a 100mm squidy fish. Many thanks to the admin team for awarding him a prize anyway. He's stoked and I'm of course very happy for him. We tried the beach, Woolooware Bay and Towra Point and picked up small flatties and a small bream but were getting blown all over the place. We were on our way to my trevally spot at Kurnell but the conditions worsened with white caps everywhere so we pulled the plug early and headed in.

Must say thank you to Davemmm and friend for helping us pull the boat out when the tide went out and left our tinnie high on the beach and Dogtooth and friend for helping us launch the boat in choppy conditions. Many thanks also the the kind gentleman who brought a stack of old mags to give out to fellow raiders. I took a copy and am enjoying reading it very much.

It was good to catch up with other fellow raiders again and some new ones I had not met before.

I'm already missing the event and am looking forward to next year's already.

Edited October 12, 2010 by pmak

[A.dawg]

even though our boat died heading past the bridges and were forced to get towed in and fish landbased...

was still great to meet the raiders and have brekky and lunch

surprisingly higgs got the biggest non target species what a surprise

cant wait till the next social

[johnv]

Wow what a turn out for the way the weather was, it was great to put faces with the names & meet all you people.We had a great time & a good feed as well.Congrats to all the winners,well earnt for the conditions we had to put up with.So thanks for a great time & for a well organised event by everyone involved.Hope to see u all at the next event.

cheers john & donna & kids

[samboy]

even though our boat died heading past the bridges and were forced to get towed in and fish landbased...

was still great to meet the raiders and have brekky and lunch

surprisingly higgs got the biggest non target species what a surprise

cant wait till the next social

who would've thunk it!! haha classic!

[mako1]

Thanks for the kind words Stewy.

Always happy to help out.

It was a top day despite the weather and it was great

to put a few more faces to names.

A big thanks to the sponsors that donated prizes and

congrats to the winners that did well catching fish in

tough conditions.

Congrats to the new gold members.

A big thanks to Donna and Stewy, all of the raiders that

donated items and their time and to the raiders that attended

that made it another successful Back to the Bay Social.

Looking forward to the next one.

[slinkymalinky]

Congratulations FIshraider on another fantastic social. :thumbup:

Looks like a great day with some excellent fish, beaut weather and plenty of fun had by all. Thank you to all the members who helped make it the successful day it obviously was and to the Swordies for leading the way.

Sorry I couldn't get there for this one... sounds like I missed some top rate sausage sangas courtesy of Mako.

Congrats also to the lucky winners.

Cheers, Slinky

[Joco]

It was a great day and a great turnout.....

Finally put some faces to their forum user names.....

Thank you to everone who made this event possible....

Can't wait for the next one, bring on "The Entrance"....