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2009 Winter Camp - Wrap Up

Angus

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Angus Rookie

Angus

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** This thread discusses the content article: 2009 Winter Camp - Wrap Up **

The 2009 Winter Camp cam only be called a total success! After arriving early Saturday morning at the cabins and receiving their briefing, 24 members of the AFO community descended on the dam in an effort to make a name for themselves among the ranks. It was great to see so many new faces mixed in with the fantastic AFO event regulars! With a slightly revised game plan than usual, Golden Perch and Bass were the only species targeted for the comp. Hinze Dam excelled itself putting on a good show and good sized specimens of each species.

For those that have not fished a AFO Winter Camp before, the day is made all the more enjoyable by the services provided. Steve Wilkes of Sports Tuition and Mick were diligent in getting around to all boats to provide refreshments and snacks. Shimano, as a new sponsor for Sports Tuition also excelled themselves with the new hear provided for these events. Sports Tuitions “base” level rods and reels are now Shimano Stradic 2500’s and 6 foot 6 Starlo Sticks! It’s a tough day at the office I can tell you!

With plenty of fish in the bag it was time to head back to the ramp at 4:00pm. Or as some people know it, Beer O’Clock. With a demonstration on filleting and a few social drinks it was time to present to coveted prizes. Major event sponsor Damiki Lure’s provided some exceptional lures for prizes. There were also rod and reel combo’s supplied by Wilson’s Tackle.

The winners were:

Longest Bass:

1st. Greg Booth: 47cm

2nd. Ben Horne: 43.5

3rd. Jamie Brocket: 43cm

Longest Yellowbelly/Golden Perch

1st. Jeff Flynn: 43.5

2nd. Meg O’Connor: 42cm

2nd. Harald Engel: 42cm

3rd: Rebecca Goddard: 41cm

As you can some quality fishing for Hinze Dam. Special mention must also go to Greg Booth for securing a 44cm Bass which was the 2nd largest fish for the competition! Not bad a first fresh water experience!

Overall it was a fantastic event. Special thanks is extended from AFO to Sports Tuition for, as usual putting on an awesome effort, our event sponsors and of course… the competitors!

Look forward to doing it all again!

Good fishing,

Angus

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bootyinblue Newbie

bootyinblue

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Well here is the report!

Rocked up at Numinbah Valley Environmental Centre at 630am ready for a big day out on the dam. As I had never fished freshwater before I picked peoples brains during the week on rigs and lures and even had an order lodged with Rob from Searing Tackle for Damiki lures to pickup on arrival.

Met up with guys I have not seen for a couple of years, and better still people I had never met before and we were off to the dam.

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Teamed up with Jamie (Polyphonic) and we were off to fight some bass. Well we had been on the first spot for about 2 minutes when Jamies rod went shake, shake, bend and he was on, but alas the fish was dropped. Next up my rod went bend bend bend and I wound in what I was soon to be informed was a 44cm bass. Yes I had to ask, is this the fish we are suppose to catcatch. Into the esky it went for a swim and down went more baits and within minutes over went the rod again and up can another one of those fish. Measured it for 46cm and into the esky too and it was later stretched to 47cm by the judges!

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Next on the line were more at 43cm, 40cm, 36cm, 33cm and a 30cm to both me and Jamie, so by the time the on water refreshment stand (how good were those friands!!) arrived we offloaded our catch and stoked up with cold drinks and we were off again.

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Things really slowed for us then, with only 2 more bass about 33cm landed, so we motored back to the ramp for hamburgers for lunch and a bit of a chat about who has done what. Back onto the water after lunch and Jamie landed just the one fish and I couldnt pull a trick.

Then it was back to the Environmental Centre to sort out dinner and it was good to see that everyone hooked in with a job of setting up tables, filleting fish, peeling spuds, battering fillets or just supervising ;-)

A great feed was enjoyed by all and then the all important awards were handed out. I mean seriously, how good is this prize package for 1st place in each catergory.

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Then it was down to the fire for some more drinks and some pretty loose chat on several topics.

Up early this morning and the die hards (those who did not over indulge the previous evening were back down to the ramp for another fish) Bit of a mixed bag with the 7 of us hooking bass 33cm to 40cm, Meg hooking a cattie that from a distance would have been an easy 50cm, and Harald landing a 44cm yellow belly, shame it wasnt yesterday! Kreel and Tacklebox bid us farewell on the water and they headed off in search of bigger fish and we stayed for another hour or so without much result.

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Off the water about 1130am, for the drive back home to a hot massaging shower to ease thosee weary shoulders and then an hours kip on the lounge.

A massive thankyou has to go to the AFO crew for organising the event, to Steve Wilkes and Mick from SPORTS TUITION for the hosting and logistics associated in running the weekend and Rob Searing from SEARING TACKLE, DAMIKI LURES for sponsoring the event and providing prizes.

I have to say that the freshwater bug has bitten me, so look out Ray and Dino as I will be muscling in....LOL

Cheers for the read.

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rayke1938 Experienced

rayke1938

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Congratulations to all who participated you dont have to win a prize to be a winner just being there is enough.I am jealous as ******* because I couldnt be there.

Were all the fish on bait or some on lures as well/ The bass seem to be getting bigger at hinze the last year or so.

Cheers

Ray

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tacklebox Newbie

tacklebox

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We decided to go with our proven pre-fish tactics and troll the edges with babycranks. Good call for Kreel who picked up a 40cm bass where he caught his PB last weekend. As he was dealing with the fish his other rod with a live shrimp went off and up came another 40cm bass. He trolled up and down the same stretch for another two bass in the mid-late 30s and one more on the way back at around 30cm. I hadn't had a touch all morning until we got back to the others and I caught two bass on bait (35cm and 26cm).

Day two was pretty quiet. The same tactics resulted in two bass in the late 20s for Kreel. I decided to try something different though and managed a little bass on a Damiki Vault 35. Who says you can't catch fish on lures at Hinze :P

Once again it was a fantastic event. A big thank you to AFO and Sports Tuition for organising, and Rob from Searing Tackle/Damiki for the prizes and car boot sale Satuday morning :)

See you all next year!

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kriso Newbie

kriso

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arghhhh!!!!! first and 3rd place where in the boat i was ment to be on. i feel like jesus has taken a poo poo on me! massivly bummed i didnt make it but trust me you wouldnt of wanted me there as you all would have caught this stupid cold from the amount of coughing and sneezing thats going on .

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Angus Rookie

Angus

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Just on a small tangent. If anyone ever feels like a bit a mission after a Hinze Dam event, myself, Johnny, Beckie and Joanna headed to the Natural Arch at Springbrook after the event. It was a great little walk and very scenic. Well worth the effort.

. [img size=400]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/na4.jpg

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Zim man Newbie

Zim man

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my first AFO event and what a great time i had. being my first event i had only met a few other AFO'ers before and it was cool to meet some more.

The food was top notch (yummy bass for dinner), on water drinks service and cake delivery was most appreciated and the fishing was good, although no lure takers were around on the day :dry:

At least the Vaults got something on Day 2.

The boozing around the campfire was a great way to end the day and i think i am uptodate with all the MJ jokes. :lol:

I will definelty be there next year and look forward to meeting more members at other events.

A big well done to Angus and the AFO crew and to Steve and Mick from Sport Tuition for a very well run camp.

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polyphonic Newbie

polyphonic

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Angus, I like how your photos get more blured as the night continues, that's kind of how I remember it. ;)

Thanks to Steve and Mick for their hard work and the AFO crew for making this the best event of the year.

My day started off by meeting Zin Man while we waited for the others to show. Got on the water and saw a nice little spot that proved to be the goods. As Booty mentioned I dropped my first hook up, this was then quickly followed by Booty's 44cm. I then boated a 43cm (a new pb) that took third place followed by Booty's 47cm horse that took first. I was jumping up and down going woot it's a monster, Booty just looked at me as if to say I thought this bass fishing was supposed to be hard.

Finished the day boating around 15 fish between us all but a couple from before lunch.

Once again, good food, good company and good fishing what more could you want.

Thanks also to sponsers for the prizes, now I just have to get out there and use the new combo.

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Do$tylz Newbie

Do$tylz

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Frikking awesome guys. Sounds like a top notch weekend and good to see plenty of fish boated.

Well done winners and sponsors. Hopefully this will encourage more people to these events in future.

Looks like Tanya had a new best friend for the night :D

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Angus Rookie

Angus

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Do$tylz wrote:

Frikking awesome guys. Sounds like a top notch weekend and good to see plenty of fish boated.

Well done winners and sponsors. Hopefully this will encourage more people to these events in future.

Looks like Tanya had a new best friend for the night :D

Yeah ditched me for the Baily's. However I found comfort with over a bottle of rum so all was forgiven :P :dry: :S

Angus

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Davo_Dinkum Newbie

Davo_Dinkum

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looks like u guy's and girls all had a great time . :)

ditched for the Baily's or rum all good ,and yum yum in the tum. :laugh:

Natural Arch at Springbrook looks nice bet it was worth the walk.

winter camps and nights around the fire ,how could u go wrong. ;)

one day we will make it to one of these camps.

finding a sitter for 7 and $ are a hard call to find.

and no way i'm take the tribe would have to get a loan to pay for it lol.

still pumped for SOO at the end of the month. :woohoo:

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bootyinblue Newbie

bootyinblue

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polyphonic wrote:

......followed by Booty's 47cm horse that took first. I was jumping up and down going woot it's a monster, Booty just looked at me as if to say I thought this bass fishing was supposed to be hard.

Sorry I didnt get more excited Jamie, I had no idea what was big or small when it comes to bass fishing :P :laugh: :dry:

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jeff f Newbie

jeff f

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a great weekend as allways

even if half the field chickened out and limped off nursing thier hangovers on day 2

ya slackos

congrats to all the other winners especially the first timers

my 2 boat companions, mookystiks and harald were freshwater first timers and did really well

even if they did have do learn the hard way about the sharp spikey bits on bass

both of them got 3 species for the weekend, bass, golden perch, and tandanus

my total for the saturday was 13 bass biggest 37cm a tandanus mid 40s and a 43 1/2 cm yella

this is my 3rd winter camp and a few other afo camps and they are a great weekend

i strongly recomend anyone thinking about doing it to stop sitting on the fence and do it ,you will have a ball

thanks have to go to the admin boys, steve and mick for thier attention to detail that make these camps great

and to rob for the great prizes and for opening his in boot lure shop at a great discount for those in attendance(boy have i got some damiki lures now)

pics to come

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