Better late than never but here are the results of the Coipasa Classic that was run on the 24th March this year. It was a great comp with 8 boats competing on the day with 18 anglers on board, all keen as mustard to win the fantastic prizes we had on offer this year. To say the support we received from local businesses was fantastic would be an understatement. Not only did we have Compleat Angler in Joondalup on board again for the second year in a row, but we also received support from Unique Aquariums, Bob Slights Boat Schools, Retravision Joondalup, Oscars Restaurant in Currambine, Perth Esky Hire and Garden Glow Fruit & Veg. Prizes were awarded using the points system we developed for the Fishwrecked Invitational back in December 2006, that trophy still looks good in my home office (hehehe), and despite having to use a calculator to work out the points it certainly made it an even chance for everyone to win something on the day.

The embarrassing thing however was that I managed to have a pretty reasonable day on the water and got my crew onto a good assortment of fish, which was the name of the game and meant that we walked away with most of the prizes at the end of the day. So here are the results for those who are interested.

Champion Boat: $100 gift vouchers courtesy of Joondalup Compleat Angler plus the perpetual Coipasa Classic trophy.
Winners: Macattack (Andy Mac, Darryn Brice & Rory Cowman) (Total of 8 different point scoring species between us with an average points score per angler of 1072points)

Champion Angler: 800mm size Aquarium valued at $995 from Unique Aquariums. Plus $50 gift voucher from Compleat Angler Joondalup
Winner: Andy Mac (1765pts) second place Darryn Brice (909pts)

Biggest Dhufish: Bob Slight Boating Course valued at $330 plus $50 gift voucher from Compleat Angler Joondalup
Winner: Darryn Brice (8.5kgs)

Most Species: Voucher for two people for one nights accommodation including breakfast at the Duxton hotel in Perth, valid to the 30/06/07 valued at $200 plus a $50 gift voucher from Compleat Angler Joondalup
Winner Andy Mac (5 species)

Classic Catch: Deep Fryer courtesy of Retravision Joondalup valued at $145 plus a $20 gift voucher from Compleat Angler Joondalup
Winners: Graham & Janet Gillespie (Special NAFA Award)

Biggest Pink Snapper: Dinner for two at Oscars Restaurant Currambine valued at $50 and 7 days free hire of a 120-litre esky from Perth Esky Hire valued at $45 plus a $20 gift voucher from Compleat Angler Joondalup
Winner: Mat Beavis

Biggest Sand Whiting: 7 days free hire of a 120-litre esky from Perth Esky Hire valued at $45 plus a $20 gift voucher from Compleat Angler Joondalup
Winner: Graham Towler

Biggest Blackarse/Harlequin: A voucher for $50 worth of Fruit & Veg from Garden Glow plus $20 gift voucher from Compleat Angler Joondalup
Winner: Andy Mac

Biggest Other Snapper: $50 gift voucher from Compleat Angler Joondalup
Winner: Andy Mac (This was the big points scorer at 1.1kg it scored the maximum points for the species at 600pts)

Biggest Baldie: $50 gift voucher from Compleat Angler Joondalup
Winner: Darryn Brice

Biggest KG: $50 gift voucher from Compleat Angler Joondalup
Winner Darryn Brice

Biggest Skippy: A $20 gift voucher from Compleat Angler Joondalup
Winner: Ray King

So how did we do it, well I guess it pays to have done the hard yards finding plenty of ground over the years and whilst that alone isn’t a guarantee of a good day on the water it certainly helped. Basically all the boats that entered were allowed to launch from their home ramps (Hillaries / Ocean Reef / Mindarie), which meant that it evened up the score with no real home advantage for anyone in particular.

All the skippers were very experienced and have been fishing these waters for well over 5 years so it was a tough field of quality anglers vying for the prizes. To make it fair the Champion Boat prize was based on the total boat points divided by the number of anglers on board so with three onboard if only one of us had a good day their points would be divided by three when it came time for the champion boat prize, so the pressure was definitely on.

The day started with quite blustery Easterlies, which made the dash for the prime ground a little delayed for most of the boats. We chose to look at the species list and try to get a couple of inshore KG’s first off whilst the wind was so strong. It paid off immediately with Darryn hooking a big KG on light gear. The pic says it all with a very happy angler, who had luckily caught a wrasse on the first drift and appeased the fish gods before this came over the side.

We mucked about on this spot for a while and caught an assortment of non-points scoring fish that all went back to fight another day. The radio was crackling with tales of no-fish and water over the gunnels, everyone was finding it tough, so with one fish onboard and a forecast of an easing wind I decided to head out to 34m to at least get each of us a descent whiting. As it turned out the whiting weren’t as big as usual and we struggled to catch anything that remotely looked like winning the biggest whiting category, so we persisted for about half an hour. Eventually I landed a pretty good one as did Darryn and Rory, but since mine was a fraction bigger it was deemed to be the entry in the biggest whiting category and duly set aside for that purpose.

With the wind easing I decided to head out to some prime spots. First point was “the Dropzone” where I had a date with several unstoppable fish that had stitched me up on more than a few occasions. The sounder was thick with fish and several large arches were distinguishable on the first pass. We all loaded up on the best bait we could find. I had raided the Compleat Angler store for the best calamari and scalie mackerel I could find the day before so I was pretty confident we had the goods.

A week before the comp I had carefully shown Darryn how I tie my rigs for Dhuies and gave him a few “Super Snells” to take home and copy. Rory on the other hand had decided to go with single hooks looking for more of an assortment of high scoring fish. Darryn and I had almost identical rigs with the super snell on the bottom dropper and a smaller 7/0 Gamatsu Octopus hook on the top dropper. I alternated with lumo squids on the top hook and no attractors on the bottom snell. The results were amazing. Both Darryn and I were hooking and landing lots of fish but Rory was really struggling. Rory did however take the next 48 points for the boat with a nice little Skippy.

It wouldn’t be “the dropzone” without the obligatory massive hookup and bust off. This time it was me again with a huge fish that pulled the hooks 5 minutes into the fight, after several big lunges for the bottom that were stopped only by extra thumb pressure. Ah well we gave it a shot so off we trotted to another spot. This time I claimed my first decent fish of the day, a lovely blackarse that went 1.3kgs and scored me a nice 325 points.

The sounder looked lively so we went around for another pass. This time Darryn hooked up on a very nice Baldie that would later win the biggest Baldie prize for the day. This fish only went 2.2kgs but it was good enough to win the prize.

We moved again and first drop on the next spot Darryn picked up another KG, slightly smaller than his first but still up there with the kidney slapper brigade.
This lump was looking like it was going to hold a good variety of fish so we gave it another drift. No sooner had we hit the mark and I hooked up again with a magnificent Red Snapper that went over the magic 1kg mark, which sent me into bonus points territory so I now had another 600 points to add to my tally. Woo Hoo!!!

This fish reminded me of my only other 1kg plus Red Snapper that was caught in last year’s Coipasa Classic and on the very same spot. Low lying coral lump in the middle of nowhere.

Next drift and I nailed a nice Baldie and Harlequin in quick succession. The decision to use the 7/0 hook on the top was a good one as it accounted for several of the smaller but higher scoring species on the day.

I think that is what helped us out a fair bit, when you are targeting Dhuies alone then the big snell rigs work a treat, but with a points scoring comp you need to adapt your rigs to account for other species. Having both options covered resulted in me hooking and holding a massive Cuttlefish, which would have gone 6kgs at least. The resulting mayhem as Darryn and I tried to dispatch the cuttlefish wasted a good 15 or 20 minutes as we battled with ink, and slippery heavy cuttlefish. Eventually we had it killed and beheaded with most of the ink washed off the boat and our hands. I thought it might have been a good entry in the Classic Catch but knowing just how excellent fresh cuttlefish can be on Dhuies and other reef dwelling species I decided to cut it up for bait. (Sorry no pics, so you will have to believe me when I tell you how big it was.)

By this time the word from the other boats was pretty glum, there weren;t too many guys catching big fish other than Alan Towler who had let it slip that they had a nice Dhuie onboard.

In the absence of anyone claiming a great day we felt quietly confident that we would be up there with the points we had amassed so far when it came to the weigh in.

One of my good mates Ray King, who had often fished together with me and knew quite a few of my spots, had gone out to a few marks we had shared over the years and really struggled to find anything that would co-operate. His deckie for the day David Screigh posed for a pic with their entire catch as at midday.

How depressing!! Things weren’t looking too good for the crew of Kingfisher judging by the only points scoring species they had landed. However later that day Ray nailed a Skippy that pipped Rory’s by a few grams and took out the prize for the biggest Skippy so their hard work didn’t go completely unrewarded.

Meanwhile Greg Boylen and his son Matty (my next door neighbours) were also scratching their heads as to why the ocean was seemingly devoid of life. Greg ended up taking pics of Matty’s teenage fashion sense to at least have something to show us back at the ramp. I’ll spare you all the sight, but let me tell you if his boardies were any lower they would be around his ankles. Thankfully Matty’s hip hop accessories didn’t stop him catching fish and narrowly missed out on a prize with this nice Baldie.

Greg in the meantime only managed a few undersize Dhuies and a couple of smaller points scoring species.

Last year’s champion boat Neil & Mark Mitchell were also really struggling North of Mindarie. There was no hiding their frustration over the radio.

With only an hour to go to get back to the ramp I decided we would hit “the Dropzone” one more time on the way back in, this time with a slight South Wester blowing and a change of drift angle. We had time for one quick drift only or risk missing the weigh –in time, which would be a big no-no.

I put us on a good track over the Northern tip of the lump, which seemed to hold most of the fish, the drift angle was good and we all selected our best baits. I convinced Darryn to try the cuttlefish on his snell rig and he took a big tentacle and paired it with a mulie. We all dropped down and waited. We hit the corner of the lump and several large shapes appeared on the sounder, as they left the screen the bites started. I missed one, Rory missed one but Darryn came up firm on a good fish. I quickly lifted my gear out of the way and grabbed the camera. I managed to get a bit of footage of the end of the fight. When a good size dhufish surfaced it was the icing on the cake for the boat and huge satisfaction for Darryn who was absolutely wrapped with the capture.

No sooner had the fish hit the deck and I was calling for a quick dispatch and we high tailed it in to the ramp at WOT all the way. Thankfully we arrived with 5 minutes to spare and were greeted by three of the other boats that left from Mindarie. None of them had done particularly well, with only a few species each to be weighed in. By now we were feeling very confident of at least picking up a couple of prizes between us.

By the time we got back to the house and washed the boat down, Ian Keay from fisheries had arrived and set up his operating theater to dissect the Dhuies for us. The footage was great and Ian was very informative. He even filleted the fish for us, which went straight on the Barbie along with half of every winning fish.

The weigh in was a little disappointing with clear winners pretty obvious and not too many bags that scored much at all apart from ours so there wasn’t too much in the way of suspense. Even the winning whiting was a hands down winner compared to the other fish so whilst we promised to weigh the top two bags in full they happened to be mine and Darryns, with Rory’s coming a close third in the Champion Angler point section, all it proved to do was give everyone a look at our fish and that our points were calculated correctly. We weighed all our fish including Darryn’s Dhuie seen here on our makeshift weighing station.

So the final part of the formalities was to award the prizes culminating in the fantastic Aquarium from Unique Aquariums that I picked up for the champion Angler on the day. Bob Nichols the owner of Unique Aquariums was there to present the award, which I graciously accepted. All we have to do now is pick the background, and the frame to suit our décor and Unique Aquariums does the rest.

This is the one I like the best, so it will end up looking something like this.

Or this…

So to round it all up here is the winning team with the perpetual trophy.

Well done crew a great day on the water in difficult circumstances. Lets hope next year we get as many entering if not a couple more that couldn’t make it on the day and that the weather gods and the fish gods both smile on us all. I now have a heap of vouchers I need to spend at Compleat Angler in Joondalup so next time I’m in there, there will be some serious dollars spent on a new combo (hehehe).