Fishing Field Day Report Open July 2000.


		Surf Casting and Angling Club of W.A. (Inc.) July 2000 Fishing Field Day:- Open - anywhere in WA Tidal Waters.

Hey, you know how all of us believe those fishing stories in the paper, don't you? The report of snapper being caught off the ASI Groyne roped us in and enticed us to have a go over the weekend. Best after a blow, they said. Pity we didn't wait for 'the blow' to end first.

Peter, his boys and I arrived around 1pm to observe at least 25-30 vehicles all over the groyne. There's a platform resting on top of the rocks part of the way out on the groyne, so we set up a tarp for cover and settled in to have a go. Keith Derbyshire and Dave Redwood joined us over the next couple of hours and we all anticipated a possible catch of fish happening.

Well, we burleyed up and tried all sorts of bait and methods to try and at least get a few herring or gardies - but to no avail. A few short bursts of wind and light rain made the going easy and we eagerly waited for the sun to go down.


	The Club owns an air conditioned holiday house at Kalbarri which is available for rent to the public and club members at competitive rates

Just on dusk, the call went out from Dave that "He's on". A wimpish fight and Dave hauled in a massive pink snapper. The length was an amazing 3 bloody inches. Gawd, the gang of hooks was twice as long as the fish. Dave proudly displayed his fish to one and all, boasting that at least he can catch fish. His request for photos was replied with the usual answer - (guess...). Grudgingly, he returned his catch to grow up.

The weather changed its attitude about this time and it bucketed down, the wind moved up to gale force every 20 minutes and life looked a little lousy. Meanwhile, my line straightened out and on winding in I found my usual large clump of weed hanging off the hooks (all pride and maintaining a reputation). Untangling the weed, I found a tarwhine foul hooked up the backside and with a pained look in his eyes. I was chuffed when it was found to be a fraction longer than Dave's snapper. No staging by me and I quickly returned the little darling to its parents.

With all rods out anticipating whatever, we settled in, lit the BBQ and had a good nosh up, followed by coffee and cough medicine. Pete's boys had a ball climbing the rocks, playing with their toy cars (I wasn't allowed) and mucking around with their fishing gear. Later on, they camped in the back of the rangy for the evening.

I've got to give the lads full points for continuing on because the weather was atrocious. Keith also hooked up and bravely battled the elements and fish to land a similar sized tarwhine. Following our example of fish conservation, he promptly returned the fish to its elements Continual fruitless results got to a couple of us and Keith and Dave nicked off around 10 pm to head home to a warm bed. Only the brave kept going.

Err, let's rephrase that...only a pair of donkeys stayed. Approximately every 20 minutes we were hit with 50 knot gusts of wind accompanied by some 'bloody heavy rain'. A couple of times we thought our platform was going to be airborne. We soldiered on till just after midnight until we woke up to ourselves and tried to doss down for the night. Quite a few other fisherpersons had also departed and we spoke to a few who also had no luck.

The wee hours were spent tossing and turning, getting wet, getting colder and feeling bloody miserable. I'm sure a mini tornado hit us a few times because that platform sure did shake. Still, I did break up when after one strong burst Pete asked if I was still awake and "did the earth move for me?" as it did for him.

By 6.30am we were both, how could you say, "intoxicated off". So with a glimpse of some clear sky and only 20 knot winds, we decamped and headed for home, anticipating somewhere dry and warm to thaw out.

Who said" Going fishing is fun"? I bet it was some sod that only watches Rex Hunt and does all his fishing from his armchair. So, until I brave the elements and head out on another fishing trip, my fish fingers are going to taste great.

Apologies to our field day officer who foolishly anticipated that we would be knocking on his door with some fish to weigh in. He should know better than to expect anything from us.

"Will wait" till next time. Rickety Bob (Henderson)

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Well, what can I say? With terrible weather up here you wouldn't expect it to be fine down south but apparently it was, so Tony and Filomena were telling me. Tony returned from down south with a nice bag of skippy and blackfish, just goes to show that fishing is good down that way this time of year, as Tony has said before. Top effort Tony. He did it with a cold and all, I don't know what you young fellows are doing out there but it can't be enough.

Darren Batchelor. Field Day Officer.

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Attendance: Seniors - 6, Juniors - 0, Mini Juniors - 2, Visitors - 0.

Catch:- 30 fish - 15.3 kg - weighed in gilled and gutted.

Name	Fish	Weight	Species	Points
D'Alonzo, Tony	30	15.3 kg	4	243
Henderson, Bob	0	0 kg	0	50
Stoeckel, Peter	0	0 kg	0	50
Holman, George	0	0 kg	0	50
Redwood, Dave	0	0 kg	0	40
Batchelor, Darren	0	0 kg	0	40
Mini Juniors
Stoeckel, Andrew	0	0 kg	0	40
Stoeckel, Daniel	0	0 kg	0	40

Field Day Prizes.

Heaviest Scale Fish

Tony D'Alonzo

1.3 kg Wrasse

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This page last updated 4 August 2001.

Display of this page was updated on 21 January 2013. Contents updated as above.