Sunshine Coast Spring Shootout
After a false start on the original as well as the rescheduled dates due, it was decided to scale down the 2018 Sunshine Coast Gamefishing Club Spring Shootout with major sponsor Ben Campbell Building Group into revised format one day event with half the entry fee. This proved to be a great concept all things considered with the Sunday ending up with a strong wind warning. 10 boats from 3 clubs comprising 34 senior anglers and 5 juniors headed out to sea on the Saturday into a light NW wind which turned into a solid NEer around lunch time.
Catching the first fish of a tournament goes a long way to setting you up a lot of the time and so it proved this time for Tony Kempe and the crew of Take Time, his 45’ Bertram. Angler Scott Heaney’s blue marlin was tagged at 9:43am on the Saturday, 2minutes before Darryl Lund’s on Keneka. In total there were 16 strikes recorded by the fleet, 11 hookups and 5 tags comprising 3 blue marlin and one striped marlin and a non qualifying mahi mahi tagged by a junior angler.
Champion Team OverallSkipper and owner Tony Kempe and crew on Take Time
Champion Angler Overall – Scott Heaney, Blue Marlin, 15,000 points, 9:43am
Champion Angler Runner Up Overall – Darryl Lund, Blue Marlin, 15,000 points, 9:45am, Keneka
Champion Male Angler Heavy Tackle – Scott Heaney, Blue Marlin, 15,000 points, 9:43am, Take Time
Champion Junior Angler – PJ Bennett tagged mahi mahi, Infinity
Champion Boat Over 7 M – Tony Kempe, Blue Marlin, 15,000 points, 9:43am, Take Time
Champion Boat Over 7 M Runner Up – Tony Cross, Blue Marlin, 15,000 points, 9:45am, Keneka
First Billfish Day 1 – Scott Heaney, Blue Marlin, 9:43am, Take Time
Last Billfish Day 1 – AJ Wright, Striped Marlin, 9:43am, Take Time
Lucky Anglers Sked Draw – Sked 1 – Gerhard Laubscher, Sked 2 – Justin Kempe, Sked 3 – Brett Southwell.
Calcutta 70% 1st Place – Tony Kempe – Take Time, 30% 2nd Place – Tony Cross – Keneka
Last Man Standing Major Winners 1st Chris Hilliar, 2nd Zane Bennett
Last Man Standing Juniors – Marlin Ryman
Weipa Ladies Day
The Annual Ladies Gamefish Day was held on Saturday 3rd of November with a record turnout for this years event of 19 teams with 57 ladies including 3 juniors participated in the tournament with the proceeds raised going to the McGrath Foundation.
At 10.50am the first Sailfish was called in by Pineapple Express. This was angler Imogen Armstrong’s first ever billfish. Reports came in over the radio of a few other billfish raised and a couple dropped but it wasn’t until 12.45pm when Hookin for Hooters called in another tagged sailfish. Another first billfish for angler Raechel Gordon. This was the last billfish called for the day and it would come down to the other gamefish to decide the winner.
A good variety of species were weighed in with mackeral and cobia making up most of the catch. Notable catches were Elissa Cordukes weighing in an impressive 19.85 Spanish mackeral and Junior Emmi Roberts with a 6.6kg cobia.The major winners on the night were:
Champion Breast Angler: Raechel Gordon
Runner up Breast Angler: Imogen Armstrong
3rd place Breast Angler: Elissa Cordukes
Champion Chicky Babe: Emmi Roberts
Runner Up Chicky Babe: Shari Vallance
3rd Place Chicky Babe: Jamie Raliegh
Champion Boat: Hookin for Hooters
Runner up Boat: Pineapple Express
GFAA Awards
Photo: Cairns Bluewater GFC’s Sharon Pouleter receiving the Geoffrey Woolley trophy at GFAA awards 2018 in Adelaide for the most meritorious tag and release achievement for 2017/18. During this season Sharon tagged and released 48 marlin .
And, as proud hubby Paul tells me, 3 of these marlin were re captured in the same season! This is the first time on NSW tagging programme record that 3 fish from the same angler have been recaptured in the same season.
The first was recaptured by Sharon herself 2 weeks after she initially released it. The next was recaptured at North Stradbrooke and the 3rd was recaptured on Barwon Bank out of Mooloolaba. Since these 3 fish there has also been a Spanish mackerel recapture that Sharon released back in 2016.
The 2017/18 season was probably Sharon’s best yet as she took out the 2016/17 (Nov to Nov) Billfish Foundation top release angler black marlin Pacific Ocean award along with top release boat/ skipper 2016/17 Nov to Nov as well as Lizard Island BMC Champion Female and Champion Boat Day 5 Lizard Island 2017. Paul says her next goal is the 8kg Ladies Black Marlin record out of Cairns!
