An incredible 408 Open and 28 Junior competitors registered to contest the Dart Cup Yamaha Fishing Classic tournament over the Queens Birthday long weekend.
This number surpassed all prior events and had the organizers stretched to the limit as they rallied around to supply extra armbands and fill extra ‘Competition Bags’. A big thank you to all the sponsors who helped fill these bags, as where else would you get a prize before even wetting a line?
The Dartmouth Angling Club Members did a fantastic job coordinating 200 boats onto and in the water. After a hefty breakfast supplied by Mitta Angling Club, the competitors were soon pitting their wit and skill against wily and cunning fish, in an attempt to take off with some of the magnificent prizes on offer.
Unfortunately the only unwilling partners in this whole tournament were the trout, and many hours of hard work under glorious sunny skies took place over the next two days. After limited success on the Saturday, anglers took to Lake Banimboola, but the fish there were also very shy and it produced very few trout. And the Mitta River failed to produce one weighable fish. Tough going was the flavour of the weekend.
However, to the credit of the 21 teams, and every individual angler, they soldiered on and the final tally for the weekend was 54 rainbows and 368 browns.
The live weight competition took place at the boat ramp on Saturday afternoon, and was won by Paul Capper of Cappers Pro Tackle, Wodonga, with a 1.198kg brown trout.
Sam Pan of Baranduda, who fished for the ‘Jack Fishes Here’ combination, won the pre-registration draw of the Minn Kota electric trawling motor.
At 8 o’clock on Sunday night, the presentation for the Open and Junior sections began.
First up were the Junior prizes, and the future anglers were waiting with anticipation for their names to be called. Rhys Daniels of Mooroopna won the Junior Major Prize. Rhys accepted a beautiful rod and reel combo sponsored by Woomargma Hotel/Motel, David Scales and B F Panels.
Encouragement awards went to Bill Nicholls, Harry House, Sam Hunt, Tom Bugden, Daniel Carlisle, Coby Graeber, Xavier Allermand, Nathan Nicholls and Jye Goraci. These prizes were sponsored by Peninsula Taxidermy, Dederang Angling Club, and Cappers Pro Tackle
The Open Best Species prizes for the weekend presentation followed shortly after. The Dart Cup immediately became a national event as Aaron Korbl, from Canberra, took out the Best Rainbow Trout for Saturday at 1.45kg. David Cheremnov, from Tasmania, won the Best Brown Trout at 1.529kg and local Michael Sparkes cleaned up the Carp section with a 3.458kg.
Sundays results saw the Best Rainbow Trout go to Rolf Harvath of Chisholm with a lovely specimen at 1.15kg. Simon Chernisov snared the Best Brown Trout for Sunday at 1.2kg. And Sunday’s Best Carp went to Bradley Smith, of Melbourne, with a 5.9kg monster.
Lastly, everyone who had weighed a fish was eligible to win the Major Prize boat draw. The winner of the Dartmouth Cup Yamaha Fishing Classic 2008 was Candice Taylor of Croydon, Melbourne. Candice was to take home the Magnificent Makocraft 390 Estuary Tournament Tracker, with a Yamaha 25hp 2-Stroke electric start motor on a Makocraft trailer.
The presentation of the team’s event saw the mighty Dartmouth Alpine Anglers Club succumb for the first time in years. They were looking quite comfortable until the last minutes of the competition when the persistent Russians had a golden hour that shot them to the top of the tree with a total ten trout at 9.454kg.
Facts
Place | Team | Weight |
---|---|---|
1stThe Russians | 9.454.kg. | |
2nd | Dartmouth Alpine anglers | 7.531 kg |
3rd | Cappers Pro Tackle | 7.452 kg |
4th | Dederang Anglers | 6.875 kg |
5th | Too Gee Tackle | 5.803 kg |
6th | Brunski Fishing | 5.687 kg |
7th | BCS Fishing Club | 5.293 kg |
8th | Skull Drag’Em | 4.840 kg |
9thWombat Warriors | 4.705 kg | |
10th | Rennie Anglers | 4.503 kg |