Surfcasting: Safety first in hostile weather at 90 Mile Beach

Standouts in the 90 Mile Beach Surfcasting Club's overnight competition held earlier this month were Pete Watson, Derek Batton, Steven Beckett, Selwyn Shaw, Skarn Hokai, (front) Ursula Williams, Koby Hokai and Maree Williams.

Hostile weather conditions forced organisers of a local fishing competition to open up both coasts to anglers in the event.

90 Mile Beach Surfcasting Club commentator Jack Rogers noted the 31 club members and six visitors were faced with gusting 25-knot winds and a 4m swell for the 24-Hour Anzco Field Day on the weekend of October 6 and 7.

"This forced the club to open up fishing to both coasts due to the adverse conditions with safety being paramount," Rogers said.

He noted Rarawa Beach attracted a large number of club members because of the fishing feedback from the previous week, but unfortunately it never fired for the weekend field day.

Most of the fish ended up being caught on Exhibition Beach further north for anglers who braved the 25 knot winds there. A total of 35 snapper, 11 kahawai, eight trevally and one gurnard were eventually weighed, with the event running from 8am on the Saturday until 10am Sunday.

Heaviest snapper and first prize went to Steven Beckett with 5.65kg, while second place for the heaviest trevally went to female angler Ursula Williams with 3.49g, and third place for heaviest kahawai was taken out by junior angler Koby Hokai with 1.58kg.

Other prizewinners were Skarn Hokai 5.25kg snapper 4, Pete Watson 2.93kg trevally 5, Roger Hall 1.51kg kahawai 6, Derek Batton 3.89kg snapper 7, Maree Williams* 2.53kg trevally 8, Steve Maisey 1.43kg kahawai 9, Selwyn Shaw* 3.89kg snapper 10, with *indicating visiting angler.

The haggle set at a 3.20kg snapper was won by Koby Hokai with his 3.13kg fish.
Thanks went to the sponsors for providing a sheep-on-the-spit lunch complete with trimmings, as well as 10 meat packs given away as lucky draws.

* This Sunday sees the club holding a field day where the Bluey Worthy and Keith Smith memorial trophies will be up for grabs for the heaviest snapper and heaviest kahawai respectively.

The event will run from 8am-4pm, fishing a 3.5m tide high at 12.30pm. Both these varieties of fish must be caught off the 90 Mile Beach so the event is not an open field day. For further information, contact Jack Rogers on (09)408-2660 during working hours.