bcampbell

Interested, GPS preferrable but price dependant

Excellent haul for a first go, i am curious what is the guy doing in the background of the photo?

Gday Raiders, I thought i would give a rundown on the fishing competitions at Forster Last week, the inagural Blue Marlin Classic and the Forster Fishing Carnival. The Blue Marlin Classic recieved 33 boat entries which was a little down on the expected number primarily due to the forecast weather which turned out to be shocking. Isn't that the norm, three weeks of great conditions then it blows 25 knots from the south a few hours into Competition day. The conditions were great early but just after midday the seas were around 2m rising to about 3m in the arvo, forcing a couple of the smaller boats inside early. Despite this, the day was pretty successful with 9 Marlin tagged and 2 captured. All three species Black's, Striped and Blues were in the tally. In addition a number of boats raised fish but didn't hook up. One of the captures was a small fish unfortunately just under the 60kg mark captured on 10kg line by a girl of 8 years of age. What an effort. The family had come all the way from Dubbo to compete and young girl cleaned up a number of prizes. The prizes were sensational thanks tho the sponsors with a number of great game reels given away, and heaps of smaller prizes. Due to the weather the comp was called off on the Sunday and almost half of Saturday was pretty poor for fishing so i am left wondering how many fish would have been caught if the conditions were good. Although I am moving to Townsville in two weeks (looking forward to the marlin and Sail action up there) I am looking forward to next years comp already. The Forster Fishing Carnival was also a great event, again with heaps of prizes and a few really good fish caught, mostly by team Gumby (Ken, Heidi and I) (LOL). Hey, not a great name Heidi came up with it on the spur of the moment while registering. There where heaps of categories however we only concentrated on 2, the Blue water and the Light Game. I hope Roberta will post some of the results for other categories. Some of the best fish captured in the Blue Water were (all weights cleaned) a 7.8kg Snapper (Ken /Team Gumby), 8.7kg King (Ken/Team Gumby). 2.8kg Teraglin (Ken/Team Gumby), 18kg Cobia, 14kg Cobia (somebody else). We ended up taking out the light Game comp (unfortunately only with little Kings 2.5kg and 2.8kg) as the big king and Cobias were taken on days outside those specified for the light game comp. Ken took down the top 2 Kings for the week i placed 3rd, Ken took down biggest snapper and Ken and Heidi took down the 3 largest Trag. Our three person team actually walked away with over $4000 of prizes including more Squidgeys, Stubbie holders and Hats than we know what to do with. Now that’s better than working! Roberta did you want to tell them about the 'little' Flatties captured and released? See you there next year, Brett

Mate, it is one of the Gurnards, it is generally called a Flying Gurnard but technically i think its accepeted common name is the Red Gurnard. It is very similar to the lachet (Sharp- beaked Gurnard) they are excellent eating (firm white sweet flesh) but generally you need a decent version to get a fillet that is worthwhile.

Happy B'day Roberta, We nearly share birthdates, my birthday was yesterday. You are proof geminis are good at Fishing! It was good meeting you last week, best wishes and tight lines. Ps i will try to give a run down on the Fishing Carnival perhaps you can add the estuary results.

I thought so at first, the pect fin was curved, not leaf shape though and the drosal while large not dis proportionate like Stripey. I am by no means an expert though.

No, I am in Forster, but have family in Sydney so they can pick up the lead for me and bring it up.

Raiders, I mentioned the Kingfish we caught , i have just recieved the photo. It is only the second largest this year. Apologise for Photo quality (crappy phone) It went 10.5kg cleaned.

Raiders, heres that one photo, (i hope never attached photos before). 2nd try attaching photo, Thought i might read the instructions

Noisy, We have been losing heaps of droppers offshore a few snags but schools of pesky leatherjackets biting the line before you hit bottom, i lost three in four drops before we moved on. With my crew losing 2 ( he's slower to re-rig). He was two for two. I have been struggling to get lead, the metal recyclers said they can get it for me but bulk orders only, smallest order is one tonne and a couple of thousand dollars. Anyone want to share i reckon 50kgs each, thats 20 raiders. Transport could a bugger though. Where can you buy a lead ingot, how much and where do you get it cut up?

Saturday the conditions were looking pretty good and with the sea surface temp chart showing 23 degrees near the shelf, two of the boats in the Great Lakes Game Fishing Club, Achilles and RivengeII went out for a Dry? run for next weekends inaugural Blue Marlin Classic. At around 11 .45 the slight chop was smoothing and the skipper stated that we would get a strike around 12 or quarter past when the tide changes, Kenny stated yeah probably 12 to 1. We were in sight of RivengeII and our skipper said "there on". About 150m away we could see they hooked up as a decent blue started jumping. Unfortunately though the hooks pulled after only a few minutes . I climbed up to the flybridge and after a few minutes and comments on how visible fish would be from there as opposed to on deck, I shouted “Beaky”. It was 12.08, the predictions were right. A bright Blue fish with its head almost out of the water was chasing the long rigger. At the same time Ken shouted Strike, i didn't know at the time but he looking at another rod that got a hit, but didn't hook-up. Just then the long rigger screamed off and a i scrambled to clear the lines. I had one left to get in, the short corner, with cries from Ozzie the skipper to Get it in, NO leave it! A blue all lit up in stunning colour was cruising near the lure, i fed it back but he didn't take it. Get it in, NO LEAVE IT. The fish was back but as we had slowed and the lure had no action he wasn't that interested and the call was finally get it in. If we did hook up we it would have been chaos with only one harness and only three on board. By now Kens fish had stripped 200m from the 24kg outfit and he was working hard. After 30mins we saw colour and the Start of the double was at the water surface. The fish obviously didn't like us as he took off again and we wouldn't see the double again for 45mins. With helpful comments from Ozzie like "No Muppet Arms Kenny" and a lot of give and take, Ken managed to get the fish within 30m. That fish tried everything in the book; jumps, head shakes on the top of the water, dives then last resort tried hidng under the boat but Kenny and Ozzie were one step in front of him. We finally got along side the boat and got the tag in. 1 hour and 35 minutes after the action started. We then had a rough measure for the weight and, for a fish around 90 -100kg (aprox 2.2/2.25m short beak/ inside tail) it wasn't even close to the club record. Unfortunately we have only got one crappy photo of its head along side the boat after we got the hooks out as Ken was using my phone and deleted the first photos we took (Damm technology). I will post this on Monday when i can download it. After only another 45mins more of trolling we packed and headed in. I will hopefully get my chance for a Blue in next weeks comp. We swam the fish for a while and when he recovered released him for us to chase next weekend. Although it wasn't the big 200kg+ Blue that charged the Achilles a few weeks ago, then stripped 600-700m of line before the bust-off, we did get to fly the flag into port and overall it wasn’t a bad dry/wet run. In port we caught up with the boys from RivengeII, they ended up with 3 rises (2 Blues and a striped). So 5 rises for only two boats is not bad, especially this late in the season. This warm water should be hanging about so it is looking like there could be some pretty hot action for next weekend. I hope to see a few Fishraiders here, if the weather stays like this, the trailer boats could be a good show in the comp. Cheers Brett

Raiders, The upcoming Stebbercraft Blue Marlin Classic is the Inaugural interclub event of the Great Lakes Game Fishing Club. The event promises to be huge with heaps of prizes and if the warm water stays around, it is looking like it may produce some good beakies. At the last club event a couple of weeks ago a Blue estimated at 200kg+ was lost after they got back more than half of 700 m it took on the first run, so he's still out there, but he's gonna be ours this tourny! We have also got unfinished business with a little Black that despite a good effort just didn't swallow a little skirted we were trolling inshore for Tuna. So there are some good fish about before this weather. (I won't mention the size of the king we did get, you can see some of the photos in the Bellevue Hotel on the 16th at the briefing night!) The event is a two day comp on the 17th -18th of May. Details can be found at; http://fishing.greatlakes.net.au/ Hope to see a few of you here. Cheers Backlash