Yesterday was the monthly MAAC Competition.  As I have discussed previously, these competitions are keenly fought by “quality” anglers and regularly produce trophy fish at the weigh in.  This month’s comp was no exception, but there was one outstanding capture from very close in.

There is a spot not far out from Hillarys affectionately known as Terry’s Pike Spot.  At the presentation Terry, as a past Captain had to present as the current Captain was not available (for valid reasons), was at pains to explain how he had benefited all Members by revealing this spot that regularly produces a number of species for everyone on comp day.  This was certainly backed up late in the night as there were a few “maaaaaate, you have done the single most important thing for the fishing Members of the club by handing over that spot, dribble, dribble, dribble”.  Anyway I digress, but it was very funny.

Now Terry’s spot is a shallow weed bed not far from the marina mouth where you get a range of bread and butter species if you burley up.  People tend to stop there first and get a few species on the board (the competition rules are 2 points per species and 1 point per kilo at weigh in).  It’s in about 3-4m of water and does generally produce the small things.  Yesterday however was different.

Matt is a really nice young guy and is having a “purple patch” at the moment smashing the comp last month (a 15kg dhu was in the mix), picking up a big Spaniard off Rotto a couple of weeks ago and now this. 

As the schools of herring were in the burley trail, Matt noticed a very big shape in the water.  Thinking it was a shark (you can weigh in the non-protected shark species over a metre) he threw a live herring at it and hooked up.  This thing was an obvious beast and headed for the horizon.  Good work from the skipper and they chased the fish – I’m not sure how long it took them to land it but catching a big YTK inshore, in very shallow water, is a quality effort.  The whole deal (seeing, hooking and landing) is awesome and Matt should be congratulated for this unique capture.

Our bag (3 of us) was “mixed” with quite a few people reporting a slow day also (might have something to do with a falling tide all day?).  The big demersals were generally absent and I know we threw back a lot of undersized pinkies and dhu – including one just over 500mm, but I am now very “shrinkage shy” in competitions!  It was good to see the sambos move back in close as we haven’t got one for a couple of months.  No matter what people say about them, sambos are a fantastic sports fish on light gear.  We release all we catch, except for weigh-in specimens on comp days with the occasional upgrade.  They are not wasted as they go well in the burley but it was interesting to hear one Member call them the “cane toad of the ocean” in that the “packs” consume everything in their path, including the valuable “threatened” juvenile demersal species.