SEQ SNAPPER CHALLENGE 15/16 JULY 07 by Gary (Gazza )Sturdy

A very cold and brisk morning greeted the 62 Anglers that braved fishing the Inaugural SEQ Snapper Challenge .The brief was conducted on the Friday Night At the Redcliffe Coast Guard complex ,the weather was not favorable with winds to 20/25 Knots .The fishing times from 4am on Saturday till 11am Sunday . Some of the teams fished Offshore, but we decided to fish the inner reaches of the bay .I fished with my good mate Mick Kan ..and he is the most articulate person I know ,he analyses everything ,moon phases, water temperature, wind direction ,barometric pressure and Isobars .I think it is very funny to hear him sum up the whole plan of what we are going to do !!!. It was decided to fish an area in the bay called PEEL ISLAND ,it is a make up of reef clusters ,sand , and small gutters close to the pockets of broken rubble , perfect structure for Snapper .The poly was launched at 4.25am .it was probably one of the coldest mornings that I have experienced in Qld !!! The ride across the bay was not pleasant !!! by the time we reached our destination we were both frozen ice blocks .the wind was blowing pretty hard and keeping the electric in the water was real challenge, so we just drifted and poked the nose of the boat around each time we got off course, we started casting heavier gear to start with 6/8kg Braid and 20Ib leaders ..some of these fish will blow you away as soon as they get their heads in the coral …but they were timid …so we fished lighter down to 4Ib braid and 8Ib leaders this worked a treat rigged with 1/20^th oz Jig heads and a small Berkley Gulp we probed the little pockets of reef slowly lifting the rod tip and pausing, the fish would hit on the drop …I don’t know how many fish we missed..but it was a lot !!! the snapper weren’t huge but there was plenty of them so they made good targets for tagging …the wind got worse as the day wore on so we swung around to the back of the island which was protected this proved to be a good move as the fish responded again no huge fish but plenty to keep us interested ,Mick landed some really nice Bream and they were quickly tagged and returned same as the snapper ,we tagged 20 legal fish and lots of smaller fish hopefully we will see some data back on these fish in the future ,we finished fishing late in the evening, then got up on Sunday and drove back to Redcliffe which was just over an hour from the Southside ,,Sunday was a Skunk but we had fun catching lots of Pike and Tailor the water over the North side was crystal clear ..and the fish were spooky …so no fish on Sunday …we were really hungry once we came in so it was nice to see the BBQ fired up with some nice yummy snags to eat !!. Once the tally was added up we were pleasantly surprised to learn that we had won the tagging and the Moreton Bay section …I must admit we fished really hard …and the Monday..I paid for it !!! But it just goes to show if you do some research you will get the results we made the call to go to Peel Island and it Paid off …Thank you to all the competitors for attending …and a BIG Thank you to Jeff Sorrell, .Peter Griffiths, Ray                                                                       Wessels and everybody else who helped over the W/end …it was a great concept and has heaps of merit. Sometimes you have to look outside the square and that is exactly what the BISFC did WELL DONE !!! . ANSA was the winner overall we have recruited some more members which is very pleasing …looking forward to bigger and better things next year ,Thank you to all the Sponsors as well Tight lines Gary (Gazza )Sturdy

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Summer Titles 2008
4/5 October 2008
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Burdekin Recreational
Inter-club Challenge
11th & 12th October 2008
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Cardwell Challenge
25th-26th October 08
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Bowen Challenge
29th -30th November 2008
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