The 26th annual All Victorian Game fishing Competition hosted by the South Gippsland Game fishing club was held on the 17th and 18th of Jan 2009 and as always the hospitality was great
When we arrived the wind was howling at 40 to 50 knots with gusts better than 60 on the Friday night but by morning the conditions abated and many boats ventured out
Results for Saturday were mixed with only one mako and a bronze Whaler tagged
Highlight of the day was an 8 kg snapper
On Sunday the conditions were even better and the fleet headed far and wide in ideal conditions
At about 9 am the boys on Short stoker piloted by Phil and with Paul Irvine on the rod and Danny standing on the trace reported the capture of a 100+ mako and after reporting the tag and release of one earlier the lads were having a very good day
Phil called us up shortly after and said they were towing it in so this was obviously a very good shark
We also heard on the radio that stocky had a large shark around his boat and in his words “it is so big I am shaking” so the adrenalin was running high
Just before 12 Anca and myself boated a nice little mako on 10 so our club was having a good day out
Excitement was building at the ramp with short stroker on their way in so Anca and I pulled the pin and raced in to see this big fish (and we had a little one to weigh in too)
And what a site it was
Guesstimations ranged from 150 to 250 but 260kg and pending Vic record on 15kg line class
Fantastic result
Our little fish went 36.3 on 10 and was good enough for second and best fish on 10 kg
So great result not only for our club but for the tournament as a whole
As a footnote the large fish mentioned earlier was hooked up but lost after some 5 hours
