Day 1 Saturday
If you like your fishing wet, cold and miserable, the Evans Head was the place to be on day one of the comp. After the briefing, held under a constant drizzle, anyone venturing out for a fish on the first night would have been saturated in a second and cold even sooner. The rain just did not let up. Water collected around the clothing tent and required an emergency drop of road base.
The fishing though was good with some pretty solid fish coming in straight away. We even had a dead heat for one species. The offshore guys made the most of pretty calm conditions with Coady Strong taking out the AJ/Sambo category with an 891mm fish. Alex Campbell slayed the 1m mark with a 1140mm kingfish and Ethan Donnelly, always present at the tip of the board in the offshore category landed a 521mm pearl perch alongside Tyler Hayes with a fish of the same length. The only dead heat of the day. Tyler also took out the snapper category. The Mulloway was also hefty with a 1130mm fish taking out day one for Stephen Banks.
Closer in a horse tailor of 770mm was caught by Monty Moore. Alexander Klassen fishing late into the night landed a stonker whiting of 450mm taking out day one for that species. Martin Soutar landed a fat flathead of 874mm, just ahead of second place with an 861mm fish. Bernard Richter as always won the day for Dart with a 470mm fish. The bream category is always hotly contested and already we have a clear leader with a 450mm fish to Matthew Hardy. That will be tough to beat. The blackfish likewise was a healthy 457mm for Michael Clark.
The judges choice was an 870mm longtail tuna. Bonus points may have been awarded had Mick Beddoes actually brought some sashimi in for the judges.
