Above: the winning triple tail – a tasty morsel indeed.
2009 BROOME FISHING CLUB MAY DAY COMPETITION by Eric Locke
Well to put it mildly, the weather deserved the May Day title! About 20 boats entered the annual event, which this year combined the Thready Shootout and the May Day Competitions.
This was due in part to there not being a decent tide condition for the Thready competition to be run over a weekend that wasn’t already booked to another event!
So that all this makes sense, this competition is points based, there are specific species to be caught, and you can only score 5 of any species. First fish of a species was worth 100 points and any further fish of that species was 50 points (There were also several “special” species that scored double points). This meant that you had to catch a variety of fish to do any good in this competition. It is also an honour system, you DO NOT NEED to keep your fish. Catch, measure, if you think it could be a “biggest of the species ” take a photo, and release. Although our boat caught loads of fish, we only kept 2 Blue bone and 3 Triple Tail (both the best eating fish there is!).
Well, I will give you a run down on how we caught our fish – on Saturday we didn’t head out too early, we tried to sneak out while the wind took a short lull about 8.00 am Saturday. We launched at Gantheume Point and headed to Willie Creek “lump”. This is where mum and Kelly took control over the fishing, mum landed a 98 cm Cod and a great Blue Bone, while Kelly also found variety and a Blue Bone. Her Blue bone was the first on her hook, but then the fight turned slightly different with something huge taking control – her line went slowly but with force all around the boat, a huge Cod had tried to eat her Blue Bone! Sadly she didn’t land the Cod, but the Blue bone came on board – minus lots of skin and scales and appeared very flat (it measured 53cm)!
At this spot we all got all our Trevally and most of our snappers and cod. We had an audience around us who were also catching bits and pieces. We headed back to Broome while trolling for anything and tried our luck off Cable Beach and at the moorings.
President of the fishing club, Steve McLaughlin in front of the banners and prizes for the event.
Some boats stayed out the night up Bard Creek or the surrounds. The weather conditions didn’t ease during the night and if you didn’t get up a creek it was not very comfortable. But one boat did find a calm spot on a sandbank while the tide was out (they were stuck for hours and there team name changed to ‘Mud Skippers’) . There was even slight drizzle all night too!
Now for these keen overnighters there was the delight of finding Sailfish, but, they were not very hungry yet and were not too interested in anything that was being fed to them. Hopefully they will be hungry for the Competition in August.
Now Sunday saw us again take late shift to Entrance Point to catch a lull in the weather and charge over to Crab Creek to try to find a threadfin salmon – with $500 up for grabs in this section it was worth a try. Sadly, on neep tides there just isn’t any movement around to stir them up. Not even many catfish! But, Kelly did land a blue nose salmon to increase her species. Off to chase triple tail, mum caught the first one, then stood back while everyone else caught one each. Lots of fun to catch, but taking turns is the only way to do it.
Black ledge then produced some more variety with Mulloway, jacks and remainder of some other species. I caught the biggest Mulloway of our boat at 110 cm, but sadly it wasn’t the biggest of the competition.
Now back at the fishing club for BBQ dinner and presentation, loads of Bu@$*&%t about sailfish and sizes of catches shared around. But I think the point that got to most of us was that the winner of the Female section, Jess Tinson, had fished off the Jetty and the shore at Crab creek – avoided the swell, wind, launching and retrieval and general hard work on a boat for the weekend and won! Who needs a fancy boat!
RESULTS:
Biggest Mackerel – 1.34m – Andy Collins
Biggest Tuna – 91cm – Jenna Tucker
Biggest Trevally – 80cm – Eddie Lah
Biggest Coral Trout – 59 cm – Frank Kenna & Al Rassmussen – draw
Biggest Cod – 99cm – Steve McLaughlin (beat mum by 1cm!)
Biggest Salmon – 69cm – Justine Trigwell
Biggest Triple Tail – 51mc – Liz Locke
Biggest Mulloway – 1.15m – Frank Kenna (beat me by 5cm!)
Champion Junior
Female – 1500 pts – Kelly Locke
Male – 1050 pts – Eric Locke
Runner Up
Female – 1450 pts – Jess Tinson
Male – 1750 pts -Mick Peti
Champion Overall – 2200 pts – Frank Kenna
Champion Sports Fishing Team - 1350 pts – Red Emperor
Champion Reef Fishing Team - 3400 pts – Red Emperor
Overall another great competition, run in the spirit of the sport – very competitive! – no not really, very social more like it. Even if you are not a great fisher person, it is well worth entering one of Broome Fishing Clubs Competitions, with great briefing nights and excellent awards presentations fabulous prizes and great fun for all.
