The Moreton Bay Game Fish Club held its third annual Shark Fishing Classic on the weekend of February 12-13. Although the weather conditions were unfavourable for much of the weekend, 41 anglers fished on 16 boats and managed to tag 60 whaler sharks and two hammerheads.

Only one shark was weighed, a 55kg bull whaler caught on 8kg line by Scott Cutmore on Red Barron. This earned him the highest ratio capture trophy as well as champion angler for 8kg line class. Dwayne Thomas (Mad Mullet) and Darren Kopp (Cobia) tied for champion angler on 15kg line and Clinton McBurney (Allegria) took out the 37kg title. Trent Butler and Gordon Macdonald fished from the smallest boat in the fleet, a 4.65m Stessl Truck Centre Console called Noah Way to take out the overall champion boat title after amassing 7200 points for tagging 18 whalers on 4kg line. They also tied in the individual honours for champion angler overall and champion male angler after both tagging nine sharks each.

The highest point scoring sharks on each line class were Trent Butler (Noah Way) on 4kg, Scott Cutmore (Red Barron) on 8kg, Joe Milne (For Play) 15kg and Clinton McBurney (Allegria) on 37kg. Dwayne Thomas tagged the first hammerhead for the weekend. Nine-year-old Ivanna Zappala fished on the Black Watch 30 Vesuvius and tagged one whaler to claim both champion female and champion junior angler. Brandon Ives, Joshua Cuff and Christian Trovato each received junior encouragement awards for their efforts during the tournament.

The Moreton Bay Game Fish Club would like to thank The Tackle Warehouse, Master Baiter Custom Tackle, Hookem Gaffs and Accessories, Queensland Fishing Monthly and Tackle Tactics. We’ve already booked good weather for next year’s tournament so hope to see you there. – MBGFC