Team in Hire Boat Take out Golden Lure

This would never have been thought possible once upon a time, but such is the outstanding fishing at Bjelke-Petersen Dam at the moment, everyone stood a chance of winning. The boat was a wolf in sheep’s clothing however, it was packing a couple of experienced anglers, good lures, a GPS and a top of the range Zercom sounder.

To appreciate how good the fishing was, you only have to view the statistics. The 122 competing anglers, comprising 61 teams of 2, caught and released 1860 fish of legal size or greater. 1196 fish were caught on the Saturday and 664 on the Sunday. To put this in perspective, this was an average of 15 fish per angler, caught in a day and a half, under tournament conditions using lures and fly only. The Kingaroy Sportfishing Club Inc., competition organisers, couldn’t have been any happier about the way the tournament ran, the new venue, the camaraderie of the participating anglers, sponsorship support, the catering provided by the Yallakool Café, the weather, the casual social atmosphere and of course the first class fishing.

The winning team of Cameron and Debbie Smith of Parkinson near Brisbane, calling themselves the Black Merlins, used the afore mentioned lure to great effect amassing a total length of caught and released legal sized fish of 39.90m. For this Cam and Deb were presented with the Keith Patten Memorial Perpetual Shield presented by Jason Small of Caloundra City Powerboats on behalf of Mercury. Keith was an employee of Mercury who took great delight in attending impoundment competitions and promoting Mercury and Bermuda Fishing Essential products until his untimely passing. In addition to having their names being placed on the shield, the Black Merlins received take home trophies crafted by Shane Kendrick of SK and SMAK lures fame, 65 litre custom Evakool iceboxes as well as some framed certificates.

Runners up in the team category were Casey and Wayne Blundell of Team Wild Marine. Casey and Wayne from the Gold Coast took home two Dave Irvine Environets as well as trophies and framed certificates for releasing 29.74m of fish.

Casey didn’t get much of a chance to sit down before she was required once again for taking out Champion Junior Angler with 19.81m. For this she received a top of the range Team Daiwa bait casting reel, top of the range Daiwa rod, a take home trophy as well as a framed certificate. Hot on her heels was Lauren Sargent of the Coominya Trakkas. Lauren’s total was 17.16m caught and released. Lauren received a trophy and certificate along with a Daiwa Kastor spinning reel and Daiwa rod.

Champion Senior Angler was Cameron Smith with 25.30m. Cam received the same prize package as Casey along with the Yallakool Tourist Park perpetual shield for Champion Angler. These were presented by Cr Robert Eisenmenger of Murgon Shire Council. If the juniors were competing in the same prize category as the seniors they would have taken both second and third place but it was Patrick Conduit from the team Reel-em-in who took out the Runner-Up Senior Angler trophy. Patrick picked up a trophy and certificate along with a Daiwa Kastor spinning reel and Daiwa rod.

The longest Golden Perch for the tournament was caught by Tony McDonald of Evakool II and it went 58cm. This fish was caught very early on in the competition at 5.19 a.m. on the Saturday. Contrasting this was the longest Australian Bass of the tournament which waited until the last minute to be caught by Jason Javanovic of Keep Trollin at 10:00 a.m. on the Sunday, just before cease fishing time of 11:00 a.m. This fish was 53cm long.

For 2003 tournament or sponsorship enquiries please contact Robert Smith on 4162 6235 or 0407 574 868.