By Ken McWilliams

It all started with a great learning experience I was asked if I would take on the task of organising the above event.  Not having competed in many Regionals organising one was going to be a bit of a challenge, however with some great advice and help from Strato Cotsilinis, Paul Baker and John Pellew I managed to get 12 keen competitors with 6 boats to Lake Kuratau on Saturday 28th January.  Thanks also to Dave Alexander who provided company and his boat for a sortie to the Lake two weeks prior to the event so that I could get some first hand knowledge of the venue, the practice also came in handy on the day.

Saturday 28th dawned fine and still, so very very still.  As the competitors gathered at the boat ramp the mist hung unmoving over the lake.  At 7.50am after the briefing we motored out to the centre of the lake and with a wave of my arm I sent six boats disappearing into the mist. I fished the first session with Aaron West, the only way we could fish fresh water was to start the motor and move the boat.  The session did bring Aaron 2 fish and myself three with a few early releases for both of us.  Great fighters these Kuratau fish, pound for pound some of the best I have encountered.  By the close of the session at 10.00am the sun had burnt off the mist and the day was really warming up. The first session had delivered up 30 fish with some of a surprising size but more on that later.

Session two started in the same manner but this time not only was it still but now getting uncomfortably hot.  The boat felt like an oven and the fishing was slow and hard with again the rule being instead of drifting over fish you had to go and find them.  The joy of the session foe me was the landing of the biggest fish of the day a 62 cm brownie, nice for the point s total.  Session two produced 21 fish.

Lunch and a chance to thing about a strategy for the afternoon which looked to deliver a breeze but it never settled and were at the best light and fluky.  

 Session three I fished with Gary Lyttle in his latest acquisition a nice little Boston Whaler.  Gary has had some work done on it a great side console and beautifully fitted swivel seats, very comfortable.  It will be real nice when he gets it all finished.  It was another tough session in which I dropped a magnificent fish which decided to go under Gary’s rod and round the back of the boat.  But we still managed to get a few in the boat between us despite the heat and the mirror like conditions, as you would expect when we did get a ripple on the water was when we would contact the fish.  Session three produced 30 fish the best of the three.

Some interesting statistics:

  • 75 fish caught
  • Total length 3212cm
  • Average length 42.8cm
  • 4 fish over 60cm
  • 24 fish over 50cm

So what happened to Kuratau, you only catch small fish lake?   I think these statistics speak for themselves.

Well now it was time to plus the numbers into the computer and see who were the worthy winners and who would be the two non qualified competitors to go through to the Nationals in March. Congratulations to Ye Huang 1st, David Alexander 2nd, and Gary Lyttle 3rd. Ye Huang and Ken McWilliams also qualified for the Nationals.

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