KALBARRI SPORTS FISHING CLASSIC

22nd YEAR 2008

The Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic this year was a little down on numbers, but still a good turn out of 30 boats. The 23 river anglers of which 13 were juniors were also down and that can be directly attributed to the Murchison River in flood. The flooding river does make fishing difficult but did not seem to upset the black bream as lots were caught.

The river anglers had quality fish with lots of anglers bringing them live to the weigh-in to be weighed and then released. Fisheries awarded Di Stewart a comprehensive fish identification book for the most caught and released bream. Only black bream were caught this year and that was due to the flooding river.

The river competition was a close fought battle between a number of the Kalbarri locals with Cheryl Eley placed third this year, Brett Bain a close second but Di Stewart had the fish this year and took out the Champion River Adult. The local juniors also did well but a commendable effort from Marlin Heaney had them worried. Jeb Duigan brought in the biggest bream on the second day, which worried Lee Ivey, last year’s winner, but Lee managed to make up on the last day landing the biggest bream, a 788 gram fish, for the comp as well as taking out Champion River Junior.

Jeb Duigan’s fish and Lee Ivey with his biggest bream winner.

Di Stewart also won the Skywest Top Gun Award for her 4 bream in the river on the third day

The boat section was hampered by the less than perfect weather, which turned pretty ugly on the Saturday afternoon forcing a lot of boats in early. Some quick thinking anglers anchored in the river mouth the first afternoon and fished for the numerous mulloway that were foraging in the dirty water. Junior Jared Malton fishing aboard Bulawayo Buoy, was quick onto a mulloway and was able to weigh-in for the bottom along side junior Mitchell Westland who had a bag of reef fish. The other two juniors, Luke Maindok fishing aboard Santa Barbara and Steven Eley aboard Air Bourne also had reef fish. Daniel Tarasek and Josef Duff had the best bag with mulloway, dhufish, snapper and mackerel to take an early lead.

The three boat category sizes made it a lot fairer for the anglers and a healthy competition spirit was alive between The Master Baiter and Jak Shitt in the 6-7m bottom category. The game fishing section saw some very good catches come in. Laurie Malton, Sue Malton, John Hoye and Jared Malton aboard Bulawayo Buoy want the wrong way the first day along with Steve Wiseman, Steve Gilders, Ian Jarvis, Wayne Mitchell and Harry Capeling aboard Top Deck, and only landing a couple of fish between them. Steve Wiseman’s only fish a tuna of 7.35kg on 3kg line was an outstanding catch wining him Highest Point Scoring Tuna. The rest of the boats went north picking up mackerel and tuna.

Westside Autos team of Paul Youngman, & brothers Steve & Bob Fisher aboard the new 7.8m Murchison Boat Hire boat had a burster of a day landing 5 mackerel on 4kg and 6kg line. Paul Youngman’s biggest mackerel of 13.1kg caught on 4kg line won him the Highest Point Scoring Mackerel as well as Highest Point Scoring Game Fish. John McCarthy with Bridie McCarthy led the 6-7m boat game section on the first day with a good mackerel from Bridie, which won her the Ladies Meritorious. The under 6m boat game section was close with Top Gun bringing in good mackerel the first day with James Scovell, Andrew Wooley and Joe Abberton all adding good points. Daniel Tarasek and Josef Duff put in a late run aboard Quintrex with some very nice line class mulloway giving Top Gun a scare but just not good enough to Beat Top Gun from winning the Champion Boat Game under 6m.

Westside Autos with their catch that won them Champion
Game Boat over 7m, Highest Point Scoring Mackerel, Highest Point Scoring Game
Fish to Paul Youngman, & Champion Angler Game went to Steve Fowler.

Champion Junior Game Jared Malton

 

Josef Duff with one of the several mulloway that he landed and Daniel Tarasek’s line class mackerel.

The first day was the best and many of the winning fish were weighed in. Biggest dhufish went to Josef Duff who had a burster of a comp, it went 9.1kg. He also had the biggest snapper of 8kgs and picked up the Skywest Top Gun Award of a return flight to Perth.

Biggest dhuie and biggest snapper for Josef Duff.

Mitchell Westlund

Biggest groper went to Kane Higham and Mitchell Westlund, Junior Bottom Champion.

Meritorious bottom went to Graeme Black for his red emperor.

Think Big with Bruce Eldridge, John Matson and Steve Creusot aboard, were in with an early chance fishing out of Port Gregory but failed to put many points on board the last two days, letting Quintrex slip away.

With the weather changing on the Saturday few fish were caught, but a couple of catch up tuna by Jared Malton & John Hoye were enough to win the Champion Boat Game 6-7m boat.

Jared & John with their catch up tuna caught on 3kg line.

Heaviest cod went to Ken Nylander, a small 1kg specimen this year, and Nic Bramwell took out the biggest whiting, it being the only one caught!

Heaviest Samson fish was caught by Daniel Tarasek, just a small 4.5kg fish.

Lauren Rose, crewed by Norm & Vern Godfrey and Ian Walsh did the hard yards and ended up only 1.12 points behind Santa Barbara who won Champion Boat Bottom over 7m. Well done Paul Maindok, Peter Maindok and junior Luke Maindok aboard Santa Barbara. Luke Maindok also won the Men’s Meritorious for his efforts

The Master Baiter with Paul Loffler and Mark Flannigan just scraped in over Jak Shitt and The Grumpies to take out the Champion Boat Bottom 6-7m, and Daniel & Josef aboard Quintrex the Champion Boat Bottom under 6m.

The presentation dinner at the Golf and Bowling club with a sit down dinner served by volunteer golf club personnel rounded off the evening 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: Steve Fowler with 597.5 points

Runner up: Paul Youngman 483 points

3rd Bridie Mc Carthy 373

4th Jared Malton Junior 325

5th Rick Clarke 322

6th Andrew Woolley 301

Champion Angler Bottom: Josef Duff with 333 points

Runner up: David Douperousel 152

3rd Paul Loffler 148

4th Daniel Tarasek 138

5th Kale Higham 100.8

6th Trevor Skeels 100

Champion Boat Game over 7m: Westside Autos, Steve Fowler, Paul Youngman, Bob Fowler. 1363 points.

No runner up.

Champion Boat Game 6.7m: Bulawayo Buoy: Laurie Malton Sue Malton Jared Malton, John Hoye. 448 points

Runner up: Sirocco 373 points

3rd Reel Colour: 283 points

Alliance: 145

Champion Boat Game under 6m: Top Gun: James Scovell, Andrew Woolley, Joe Abberton, Brett Maloney. 876 points

Runner up: Quintrex 590

3rd Silver Medal 322

4th Fish Wrecked.com 300

5th Hurricane 295

6th Rip Tide 133

Champion Boat Bottom over 7m: Santa Barbara, Peter, Paul, Marty and Junior Luke Maindok 33 points

Runner up Lauren Rose 31 points

Champion Boat Bottom 6-7m: The Master Baiter, Paul Loffler and Mark Flannegan 118.5 points

Runner up: Jak Shitt: 112.6 points

3rd: The Grumpies 106

4th : Buckshot 86.5

5th: South Bound 44.6

6th: No Orange Hat Allowed 37

Champion Boat Bottom under 6m: Quintrex, Josef Duff and Daniel Tarasek 235 points

Runner up Think Big 83

3rd: Patch 72

4th Fish Werecked.com 43

5th Silver Medal 35

6th Hurricane 29

Highest Point Scoring Game Fish: Paul Youngman 13.1kg mackerel on 4kg line 328.7

Champion Junior Game: Jared Malton 325 points

Champion Junior Bottom: Mitchell Westlund 86.6

Champion River Adult: Di Stewart

Champion River Junior: Lee Ivey

Ladies meritorious: Bridie McCarthy

Men’s meritorious: Luke Maindok

Highest Point Scoring Mackerel: Paul Youngman

Highest Point Scoring Tuna: Steve Wiseman 245

Highest Point Scoring Snapper: no winner

Meritorious Game: Daniel Tarasek

Heaviest not game snapper: Josef Duff 8.00kgs

Heaviest Dhufish: Josef Duff 9.1kgs

Heaviest Groper: Kale Higham

Heaviest Cod: Ken Nylander

Heaviest Samson Fish: Daniel Tarasek

Meritorious Bottom: Graeme Black (Red Emperor)

Heaviest Whiting: Nic Bramwell

Heaviest Bream: Lee Ivey

Meritorious River: Brett Bain

Tag & Release River: Di Stewart

Hope we see you all next year,

Laurie Malton