2012 Gold Coast Flathead Classic Wrap up & Results
What a great 2.5 days of fishing at the Classic with the best weather conditions seen in many years of the event. This saw people put in full days of fishing which resulted in great capture numbers. A total of 4918 Flathead were caught with 2653 of them being legal fish.
The event attracted 178 Teams with 434 anglers and the amazing thing was how fast and well all were fed by the Team at Catering by Clancy’s. A highlight was the unveiling of the great prize boat package with the boat supplied by Blue Fin Boats. The Drifter Tournament Pro was presented in a one-off wrap design and was fully spec’ed out. It was matched with a quality Oceanic Trailer and fitted with a 60Hp Suzuki by the team at White Water Marine. After it was unveiled, the punters could not wait to check it out and the team at Blue Fin Boats received a lot of inquiries about the package. The venue looked a treat with the new layout and outdoor bar being very popular. A huge thanks to all our sponsors who displayed their goods including themadhuis, Evolution, Adventure Outlet, Diztek Lures, WhiteWaterMarine/Suzuki, Blue Fin Boats, Lowrance, Bozos and a special mention to Austackle who donated 100% of profits to The Smith Family Children’s Charity.
It was fantastic to see the Carlton Mid Rich Fish go off, with Roy Latter from Team Dog taking home a cool $5,000 dollars thanks to our Major sponsor Carlton Mid. Roy was a member of the Champion Team – Team Dog – who amassed an amazing 5515 points. Two of the team featured in the top 3 Individual anglers overall. The team trolled the middle banks around the Aldershots and worked over an area with a strategy of targeting large numbers rather than size. The boys aimed to keep ticking over fish to accumulate their points and this strategy certainly paid off for them. Coming in second for the second year in a row were long time Flatty Classic stalwarts, Team Sands. However things were a bit different on the boat this year with junior Cooper Sands getting the call up. He took his place in the team fishing alongside his Dad and Great Uncle Kev who now at the age of 71, still travels up all the way from Tassie year after year to fish the tournament. The three generation trio had a tough day on day one but turned it around late in the day and over the next one and a half to make up ground to take out second place, and to also win Champion mixed age team. Cooper took to his first Classic like an old pro, fishing well to take out the Champion Junior and Champion Club Junior. Not a bad effort for his first Classic experience.
‘Team On Strike’ stepped it up this year to slot themselves into 3rd position with 4432 points, which saw them also take runners up Mixed age team. It is great to see so many of our teams fishing with a junior on the decks. Consistent finishers ‘Plastics Paranoia’ once again finished fourth, backing this up from last year, the boys played their cards very close their hirsute chests and snuck off to ‘secret’ spots to tick over numbers of small fish. Rounding out the top 5 was ‘Whyte Boys Can’t Jig’. The brothers had a fantastic day one blitzing many in the field and whilst still ticking over the numbers throughout the comp they could not match the day 1 effort. Our Champion 2 person team taking this out 2 years running was Anglers Connection.
The Champion Senior was Graham Dodds from Team Dog with 2057 points Graham’s lure of choice in the tournament was the Lively Lure Micro Mullet. Runner up Champion was young club member Tom Ryan, Tom has worked his way through the junior ranks and only a few years ago was our Junior Champion. Tom netted a 91cm beast on day one that certainly boosted his points. His efforts also were rewarded as he was capped Champion Club member.
Champion Female was Fay Rohweder with 838 points fishing in an all female team with junior angler Mariah Neilsen they won the Champion female team. Club member Tamara Anderson certainly enjoyed her first classic experience not only out fishing the fellas on the boat but be awarded Runner/up Champion female.
The biggest Flathead caught in the comp was a whopping 96cm specimen. She was caught by Michael Green in team ‘Dead Fishy’ they were trolling a micro mullet to work the weed edges around the flats of the Pin area. The fish gave Michael a bit of curry,taking 15 mins to boat coming to the net four times. Michael received the Humminbird Biggest Flathead trophy and a Humminbird sounder. There were also two 91 cm fish caught on day one by Mick Horn and Tom Ryan, both these came on soft plastics. Mick’s was the first capture and he was awarded biggest flathead on a soft Plastic Mick was using one of his favorite ZMan plastics to work the drop offs around at Crusoe Island.
Well done to all our anglers whether you caught one or netted 100 you got out and gave it a go, and it was so good to see so many juniors and families get amongst the fun.
Our random draw was once again a real highlight for the event. A lucky 7 Seniors and 3 Juniors were added to the draw each night to have their chance to win a boat. For the seniors it was the fabulous Blue Fin Drifter Tournament Pro package worth close to $30,000 and the Juniors were chasing the Blue Fin Catfish and Suzuki 4HP. Nobody went home empty handed with all juniors in the competition receiving a prize thanks to Tackleworld and Engel and all 28 seniors in the draw taking home a swag of fantastic prizes. It is always exciting once down to the final 2 and you have them sitting in the boat, this year both Flathead Classic old hands George Sands fishing his 14th Classic and Gavin Dunne who has lost count but recalls a time when flyfishing fish gave you double points. There they were with hearts in mouth the winner Gavin Dunne taking home the Boat package and George Sands missing out but taking away a great Minn Kota iPilot/Humminbird package .
Top 10 Anglers
A big thanks to the dedicated members and committee who make this event happen. There were a great number of people who offered their support this year and the event certainly benefitted from having a few more hands on deck. Well done team Gold Coast Sportfishing Club!
Thanks to all of our fantastic sponsors without you this event could not happen Bluefin Boats, Carlton Mid, 102.9, TT Lures/ZMan, Channel 9, Austackle, Minn-Kota/Humminbird, Suzuki Marine, White Water Marine, Hi-Seas, Berkely, Abu Garcia , Lowrance, Dynamic Print Communications,Diztek,Doug Burts Tackle World,Shimano, Engel, The Gold Coast City Council, SEQFA, Swivels Fish Measure, Gold Coast Fishing Tackle, Evolution Jigheads, Oceanic Trailers, Warlock Lures, Jinkai,TheMadHuis,DOA Lures, Outermark, Tairyo Rods, Evakool, Bias Boating, Dead Fish Cabinets, Qld Fishing Monthly, Ecogear, Bush & Beach MAgazine, Australian RV Hire, About Oz Camper Hire, Kakadu Annexes, AFN, Tonic Eyewear, Adventure Outlet, BCF, Lively Lures, Black Pete Marine , Montezumas
Results (* please note due to an IT issue we are unable to report on the 2 and 3 man teams separately at this time)
