Avalon Beach RSL Fishing Club Wins 2013 Inter-Club Challenge
And the winner is ....fishing !
So stated one salt crusted angler early Sunday afternoon at Avalon Beach RSL Club where the Avalon Beach RSL Fishing Club were hosting this year's Inter-Club Challenge between Narrabeen RSL Fishing Club, Newport Arms Fishing club and the Avalon members.
Every year the Narrabeen RSL Fishing Club, Newport Arms Fishing Club and Avalon Beach RSL fishing club have this wee competition to see who can catch fish.
Points are allocated to certain species ranging from 7points for some fish per kilogram and up to 17 points per kilogram for other fish. There is also a difference between points awarded for fish caught from a Deep Sea Boat and those caught in the Estuary or from the rocks or beach with points in this category ranging from 11 points per kilogram up to 33 points per kilogram. Yes, the harder to catch fish do rate the high scores.
The competition commences at 5 p.m. on the Friday evening and finishes at midday on the Sunday when the weigh in is hosted in turn at each fishing club’s venue. This year it was the turn of Avalon Beach RSL Fishing Club to host the event and also put on some pretty nice food.
Paul Sinclair, or ‘the chef’ as his fellow club members refer to him, put on a great spread of salads, tender roast beef, sausages for all the children and perfect roast chicken. This was followed by the biggest bowl of fruit salad we’d ever seen. Yes… all that fish goes home to be enjoyed for dinner, not lunch.
As you can see from some of the pictures taken at this year’s weigh in there were plenty of decent sized flathead caught, some huge drummers, plenty of leatherjackets (not sure why they’re called that – most colours in the rainbow seem to be in their skins), pig fish, bonitos, in fact, you name a species in the fish world and these folk caught it last weekend.
All participants are well aware of the rules about regulation lengths and bag limits and know to unhook unacceptable fish and throw them back in.
Between being amazed at the range and beauty of these fish being weighed in, stories of how they were caught and how to catch them were shared. Ladies, gentlemen, teenagers and children all took part – this is a family focused trio of fishing clubs and what they all shared in common on Sunday afternoon, apart from a touch of sunburn, was a happy smile. These are genuinely down to earth friendly people without one exception and ‘Mellow’ would understate the atmosphere in the garden courtyard at Avalon Beach RSL as they shared a cool ale or lemonade and great food.
Steve Law of Narrabeen RSL Fishing Club explained that the Comp. has been going for 13 years and that his club has won it for the last 10 years. It was not to be this year though with the Avalon Beach Fishing Club scoring 1377. 6 points to Narrabeen RSL Fishing Club’s 787.5 and Newport Arms Fishing Club’s 567.8 points.
If you love fish, if you love fishing...if you want to spend time with real salt of the earth... or salt of the ocean people join one of these clubs as an indiviudal or a family and we'll see you at the weigh ins!
Newport Arms Fishing Club hosts the Three Way Comp in 2014.
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We are giving Avalon Fishing RSL Club a copy of all photographs this week - if you want a copy from us please drop an email to pittwateronlinenews@live.com.au - no charge - with a guesstimate of where you came in the proceedings. Thanks for a great afternoon!
