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Comp winner Chris with the prizes for his Murray cod.
On the weekend just gone, a group of 16 yakkers met at the Googong dam foreshores ready to take on the first day of the 2009 Canberra classic comp. This is the first year this has been run, and a lot of effort was put in by Luke to get it going for us all, organising some fantastic prizes donated by Tackleworld Canberra, and Wetspot watersports. I miscalculated my travelling time and ended up about an hour early so i went for a short pedal when i arrived, and spotted some nice Golden perch cruising the edges of the weedbeds close to the ramp, and thought we were in for a good day with signs of one of the target species within 20m from the start location. I went back to the ramp after about 30mins and found a few members unloading yaks so i pulled in for a chat and caught up with quite a few that i hadnt seen in quite some time and also the regular south coast visitors, which was great.
Day 1:
Start time came around and Luke explained how the prizes would be allocated, and announced the teams and we set off for our chosen destinations. I was teamed up with Hammo and Butterfingers from AKFF, and we headed towards the south end of the dam, fishing steep rocky banks along the way with no results. Most of the others seemed to go north towards the dam wall from the boat ramp, the only other team i could see near us was Chris and ant working the islands in the centre of the main basin. I was keen to hit a few certain spots that had produced good results in the past, so i dragged my 2 team mates the 5.7klms (sorry guys, my bad.) each way and fished the cliff faces with spinnerbaits.
After about the 600th cast for the day, i finally connected to a good fish and loaded the rod up with some solid weight, after a minute or 2 a very nice cod came to the surface, estimated length of 80cm and once i got him close to the yak he took a run for it and left the spinnerbait behind, no matter how much i yelled and swore at him he didnt come back unfortunately. That improved my confidence a bit after a very slow start, so we moved to the next cliff face and started to work the area with the same techniques and on my 6th or 7th cast i got another solid hit but failed to hookup.
Chris and ant turned up to fish the same area, and Chris informed me he had landed a small cod from early on in the day, after checking my options i soon realised there was no way i could steal his sd card from his camera so i proceeded to try catch my own fish, Which was a dumb idea, apart from a few reasonable hits, and a follow by a decent fish of some sort i had no more luck, and neither had my 2 team mates. We all started working our way back after hammering the area with everything we had, and the 5 of us slugged it out into the wind the whole way back, every yakker i spoke to on the way back in had none of the target species to enter and it was looking pretty damn good for Chris at that stage.
With everyone back at the ramp and only the 1 native caught, it showed just how tough the fishing was for us all, and the best we could do was have a couple of beers and throw stones and other random objects at Squidder, which is always good fun.
Day 2:
The 2nd day of fishing was at Lake burley griffin in the heart of Canberra, Yarralumla bay was the launch spot with ample parking and a nice little sandy beach to launch from. We all set off hoping to knock Chris off his high horse, and a few minutes into it it was looking good. I was working a steep bank with thick overhanging trees whilst having a nice Sunday morning chat to Shayne and got a very solid hit while looking the other way at Shayne but failed to hookup, the fact i wasnt looking makes no difference as it was a short strike anyway, but damn that is frustrating, JUST EAT THE DAMN LURE I SAY!!!!!!!!
I put in 100's of casts into the thick overhang and rocky shoreline for no result, and my patience was starting to wear thin so i opted for the dreaded trolling which i dont overly enjoy doing but at that stage i thought it was about my best chance for a fish, but again, i failed to produce any result apart from 2 embarrassingly small redfin, geez i hate them. There was almost no wind, and it was stinking hot so i pulled the pin early and went in to relax in the shade, and it seemed i was not the only one that felt that way, a few more had given up from what was 2 very hard days of fishing.
Eventually everyone arrived back, Chris and ant being the last, so we cooked up a bbq, supplied by Calwell meats and handed out some prizes. First up, we did a random prize draw for a Ultra PFD and Hobie fish grips, which went to Ian (Hammo) Then another Ultra PFD and Hobie fishgrips went to Butterfingers, so both of my team mates ended up scoring a prize which was great. Then another Ultra PFD and 2 Hobie/Scotty rod holders went to Squidder. The PFD's, Hobie Fishgrips and rod holders were all supplied by Wetspot watersports, Thank you Wetspot, and congrats to the prize winners. Next up was the Minn Kota 30lb electric motor which was for the biggest Cod over both days, which went to Chris for his 51cm Cod from day1
Then the major prize of a Hummingbird sounder/gps combo, was intended to be a draw for anyone who landed a native fish over the 2 days, but since Chris was the only one to acheive a native, the combo went to Chris again. So, Chris walked away with almost $1300 worth of prizes for his 51cm Cod, well done mate, the Cod guru shows us how to do it again. The Sounder/gps combo, and Minn Kota electric motor was supplied by Tackleworld Canberra, Thank you Tackleworld.
The next part of the day was the Kayak demo day which Squidder organised, which was simply fantastic. Everyone lined their yaks up along the beach for anyone wanting to try the large range of different yaks available. There was almost the full Hobie range, Vikings, Old town Loon, Venturer and more. Paffoh was on a mission to purposely flip every yak he went on, and practice deep water re-entry and did extremely well getting back on the yaks almost effortlessly. Luke's Adventure island was popular, especially with me, im trying to figure out the best way to tell the Mrs i want a 5th yak, geez that thing was a lot of fun. Scottie got his sail onto my Pro Angler and got moving nicely. Jon had a nice stack trying to stand up on the little Venturer, which was quite amusing, thanks Jon. Unfortunately, i was knackered by the time i was done with the AI and just couldnt be bothered to try out any of the others i was keen on.
It was a really enjoyable weekend all round, even though the fishing was tough. Next year will be bigger and better, and i look forward to seeing you all there again, and hopefully a few more. Thanks to Luke, for the effort he put in to getting this off the ground. Thanks to Squidder for the kayak demo day. Ánd a big thanks to Tackleworld Canberra, and Wetspot watersports for the prizes they donated and to Victor at calwell meats for supplying the bbq food.
