Over the weekend of the 19th/20th November, the Inaugural Noel Shelton Memorial Bass Catch hosted by the Clarencetown Fishing Club was held on the Williams River, Clarencetown. The weather gods handed out two 30+ degree days with 82 seniors and 24 kids from 3-16 years of age turning up to try their luck at winning the title/trophy.
Bacon and egg rolls at 5.30am followed by a 6.00am briefing and then everyone headed of to their chosen locations to try to catch a bag limit of two big bass for the 12 o’clock weigh in. There was a size limit of 25cm as the river holds a lot of fish, although only of a quite small average size.
Myself and my son Oscar headed off to the first of a few rock bars that I know hold fish and proceeded to troll our Rapala lures, chipping the rocks in about 10-12ft of water. First run and Oscar gets his first scorer; second run Oscar gets his second size fish. “Right, dad needs to lift his game”, as Oscar is letting me know all about it.
After trolling all the old favourite spots it was time to head in for the twelve o’clock weigh in. Our tally was around thirty bass with only four of them over the 25cm limit; and yes Oscar caught three of them. He had his two too weigh and myself just one.
After some lunch, a swim and a couple of hours rest from the burning sun we shot back out for the afternoon fishing session. We started trolling again and in no time Oscar had caught his two 25cm+ bass again while I continued to catch more sub 25cm models one after another. Oscar was really giving me a hard time so I thought seing as though he had his two we would do some casting of small spinnerbaits into some of the shady pockets that were now appearing as the sun got a little lower. Oscar being only 4 1/2 years old was doing well with his casting although not quite getting into the thick stuff. The fish were hitting my spinnerbait on the drop and it didn’t take me long to put two scorers into the boat.
I had seen two big lay down trees on my side imaging earlier while trolling and marked them on the GPS. As we approached them I fired in a cast right at the base of the biggest tree, the result was 6 fish in 6 casts with one nice one and two nice ones lost right at the net. While I was fighting a fish Oscar also claims to be on, looking over my shoulder I see his rod bent right over with the line straight below the boat. Having a fair bit of tree below the boat my first thought was that he was snagged but upon looking twice I noticed his rod tip bouncing, sure enough he has a 30cm+ fish at the side of the boat which thankfully I netted for him. I upgraded one of his other fish for him at which he looked at me and said, “I’m still the man aren’t I Dad?” “Yes Oscar, you’re the man.” We went in for the 7 o’clock weigh in with two fish each.
The next morning Oscar and I had a little bit of a sleep in as the day before had been a big day in the sun; fishing, swimming etc. Once we hit the water the sun was already out with a fair bit of bite to it so we fished our lay down trees first up where I got a nice fish just over 35cm early in. After this it was back to trolling to try and get Oscar a fish or two. Oscar lost interest quite quickly as it was extremely hot and all he wanted to do was to have a swim.
After an hours sleep in the bottom of the boat and then a swim we only had about half an hour before the 12 o’clock weigh in, so we headed back to the weigh station. On the way back we stopped briefly to troll one last stretch of bank and as luck would have it Oscar landed a 27cm fish on his favourite Rapala lure. We weighed in and I enjoyed a cold drink along with a steak sandwich while Oscar cooled off with the other kids in the river. Everyone gathered around waiting for the presentation sharing the old one that got away stories etc.
After thanking organisers, helpers and sponsors etc. the presentation got underway. It started with junior names getting drawn out to collect a prize of hats, tackle boxes, lures in which they all received something – followed by the seniors in which again everyone received something. Once this was completed, the major awards were given; champion male junior with the heaviest bag of 1.584kg- Oscar Flett… Wow! Up he jumped to receive his trophy and prizes. What a surprise, Oscar was over the moon and I was also a very proud dad. He had won his first fishing completion and was a great reward for the effort he had put in over the weekend in such hot conditions.
Other winners were champion junior female heaviest bag with 1.292kg – Charlie Boyton; Champion senior female heaviest bag 1.482kg – Kylie Cornish; Champion male senior heaviest bag 3.182kg – Ben Crieg; and longest bass of 43cm – Cameron White.
Congratulations to all the winners and also all the organisers for running such a great event. Oscar and I will be back again next year and we believe it will only get bigger and better.
Gregg Flett
ABT/AFC Angler
