KALBARRI SPORTS FISHING CLASSIC REPORT

26th February to 28th February

24th YEAR 2010

This was a “Classic” to remember! 36 boats ranging from dinghies to 8m boats and 24 river anglers, of which 9 were juniors, all competed for $10.000 worth of prizes over the Labour Day week end.

The three day event started with perfect conditions as a coastal trough formed on the Thursday evening. The glassed off conditions allowed the boats to disperse to their best and furthest spots at first light on the Friday morning, with the resulting great catches at the weigh-in at the Kalbarri Motor Hotel that afternoon.

The river anglers had a few fish but without the opportunity to fish into the night it was not a big weigh-in.

The boat sections in the under 6 metres, 6-7 metres and over 7 metres all found fish with a surprising large number of red emperor landed.

A great catch by Mitchell Westlund resulted in him winning the Skywest Top Gun Award of a free Kalbarri/Perth return air fare for his red emperor.

Darren Cooper and Gut Morris had reds as well

John McCarthy picked up Men’s Meritorious for the biggest red emperor, adding good points to his team, “Jakshitt”.

A lot of dhuies were landed with a few big ones scattered amongst them.

“Lets Go” team boat 6-7 metres had good dhuies among their catch with John Morgan and Danny Vanderthing scoring the bigger ones.

Guy Morris had a burster of a comp, landing the biggest dhuie on the second day weighing in at 11 odd kgs only to beat himself on the third day with a 12.16 kg monster.

A big thanks to the organisers who put a lot of their spare time into this the biggest organised event in Kalbarri each year and not possible without the support of our very generous sponsors. Please support them when you can.

The 6 junior boat anglers found lots of fish. Bryce Parker landing a personal best baldchin groper of 5.79kgs fishing aboard the over 7m boat “Lauren Rose”. Lauren Rose skipper and comp regular, Norm Godfrey, down from Karratha also landed good fish as well as this snapper.

Junior, Beau Ivey, fishing aboard “Hurricane” a 4.5m dinghy, did the hard yards but

Made good with the heaviest not game snapper of 7.03ks as well as the Rod Mitchell Meritorious award.

Heaviest cod went to Brian Beales for his 15.01kg estuary cod, while the heaviest samsonfish of 15.8kgs went to Darren Westlund.

The game section was heavily contested this year probably due to the limited number of category one fish permitted to be caught, thus anglers switching to game.

Day one saw the team “Bulawayo Buoy” take the lead in the 6-7m game category with 4 mackerel caught on 3kg line.


John Hoye, Laurie & Sue Malton with 3kg line caught mackerel and Jared Malton landing a 10.5kg mackerel on 3kg line to win him the Highest Point Scoring Mackerel as well as the Highest Point Scoring Game fish for his efforts.

Team “El Barco” over 7m boat with Sue Olive, Stan Sutherland and daughter Anna Sutherland had good fish as well. Anna Sutherland holds her 1.38kg tuna caught on 1kg line winning her Ladies Meritorious.

The second and third day team “Proplan” and “Couta Crazy” travelled a long way north and found the mackerel adding big points to the boat scores.

Team “Proplan” day two and three, Daryn Visagie, Deon Visagie, Dominic Levzzi, and Sean Potter with their catch of mackerel caught on 6kg line.

Bradyn Stander was the Champion Junior Game angler fishing aboard “Couta Crazy”


Champion Angler Game went to Colin Wimpress who had the most individual points.

Colin also won the Skywest Top Gun Award for game on the last day.

Highest Point Scoring Snapper went to Caron Stewart for a magnificent 8.00kg snapper caught on 4kg line.

Highest Point Scoring Tuna was landed by Adam Bangay with 225.83 points for his 13.55kg Yellow-fin on 6kg line.

Meritorious Bottom went to Dean Wilcocks for his 20.76kg cobia

Team “Bamba Zonke” did well especially as they had 3 novices aboard and landing tuna on 3 and 4kg line consistently and ending up 3rd overall Boat Game over 7m.

Team “PMY24” with Paul Loffler and Mark Flannagan landed good snapper

While regular anglers from Ajana aboard “You 4 Reel” were consistent

Skywest Top Gun day 2 went to Brett Bain for his 7 fish from the river and Skywest Top Gun day 3 was awarded to Colin Wimpress for his great catch of mackerel on 6kg line.

The second day saw the river anglers bring their catches in after a full nights fishing when most of the better fish were caught.

Brett Bain took out the Skywest Top Gun award for the river section, landing 7 fish to give him good points, but not good enough to beat Karen Hartig who had better fish as well as the biggest black bream of 980 grams

Meritorious River was won by Craig Wise

Ash Goddard and Kane DeGrauw show their fish.

Champion Junior River was Marlin Heaney with Ash Goddard runner up.

Junior River Meritorious went to Luke Dooley

The $150.00 voucher for Safest Boat Award went to “Reel Colour” for the third time for their innovative and practical safety gear/boat layout.

The Blind Mullet Award for the angler who does the most stupid thing over the comp went to Harvey Gatt aboard “Secret Spot”. When out 30km from Kalbarri realised that he had forgotten the bait, and then did it again on the second day!

The presentation dinner at the Golf and Bowling club with a sit down dinner served by local girls and boys from the school supervised by Olivia Nye and prepared by our local Pizza & Pasta restaurant owner John La Faro was fantastic. The prize giving was well presented by Cheryl Eley and a great video presentation by Jason Van Viersen rounded off the evening nicely. Overall it was a very successful competition, only possible with the support of all our great sponsors. We would like to thank them most sincerely. Please show them your appreciation by using them whenever you can.

Final results and runners up

Champion Angler Game:

Colin Wimpress 844.33 points

Runner up: Sue Olive 804.62

3rd Sean Potter 790.17

4th Deon Visagie 765.50

5th Laurie Malton 748.00

6th Don Stander 711.00

Champion Angler Bottom:

Dean Wilcocks 258.40 points

Runner up: Bruno Delucia 243.76

3rd John Morgan 180.88

4th Nik Bramwell 168.92

5th Paul Loffler 152.88

6th Darrell Baldock 151.36

Champion Boat Game over 7m:

Proplan 2904.5 points.

Runner up: El Barco 1961.00

3rd Bamba Zonke 1577.00

4th Top Deck 100.50

Champion Boat Game 6-7m:

Couta Crazy 2305.83 points

Runner up: Bulawayo Buoy 2077.83

3rd U4 Reel 1106.50

4th Reel Colour 247.00

5th On Strike 225.85

Champion Boat Game under 6m:

BW 282 366.75 points

Runner up: Painted Black 341.00

3rd Baggy Minnow 292.25

4th Pig Trough 160.00

Champion Boat Bottom over 7m:

Reel Addiction 157.96 points

Runner up PMY24 138.56

3rd Buckshot 118.63

4th Lauren Rose 107.14

5th Jakshitt 102.81

Champion Boat Bottom 6-7m:

Lets Go 131.43 points

Runner up: Play Pen 111.63

3rd: Red Raider 92.68

4th : Lilyvale 84.48

5th: Reel Colour 62.89

6th: Secret Spot 39.58

Champion Boat Bottom under 6m:

Painted Black 202.54 points

Runner up Hurricane 135.80

3rd: Wifeless 56.92

4th Pig Trough 52.72

5th Efishency 52.31

6th Baggy Minnow 20.32

Highest Point Scoring Game Fish: Jared Malton 350.33 points (10.5kg mackerel on 3kg line)

Champion Junior Game: Bradyn Stander 478.33 points

Champion Junior Bottom: Mitchell Westlund 139.36

Champion River Adult: Karen Hartig 102.88

Champion River Junior: Marlin Heaney 51.04

Ladies meritorious: Anna Sutherland (1.38kg tuna on 1kg line)

Men’s meritorious: John McCarthy ( 9.86kg red emperor)

Highest Point Scoring Mackerel: Jared Malton 350.33 points (10.5kg mackerel on 3kg line)

Highest Point Scoring Tuna: Adam Bangay 225.83 points (13.55kg tuna on 6kg line)

Highest Point Scoring Snapper: Caron Stewart 200 points (8kg snapper on 4kg line)

Meritorious Game: Laurie Malton (4.42kg tuna on 2kg line)

Heaviest not game snapper: Beau Ivey Junior 7.02kg

Heaviest Dhufish: Guy Morris 12.16kg

Heaviest Groper: Bryce Parker 5.79kg

Heaviest Cod: Brian Beales 15.01kg

Heaviest Samson Fish: Darryn Westlund 15.87kg

Meritorious Bottom: Dean Wilcocks (Cobia 20.76kgs)

Heaviest Whiting: Brett Bain 130 grams

Heaviest Bream: Karen Hartig 980 grams

Meritorious River: Craig Wise, Mulloway