The 2023 Story and Results
Print 23 TBFT Story & Results
The 28th annual Trailer Boat Fishing Tournament will be remembered as being a top weekend of fishing at Port Stephens. Zeus smiled on us and other than venting his fury on Saturday evening the weather was good.
Much thanks to weighmaster Ted Mackay and his team from Shoal Bay Fishing Club for running the competition over the weekend. This is a small club and they are actively seeking new members so if you are living in the area or a regular visitor it is worth considering joining. Many members are “gun” anglers and are happy to help newbies with fishing tips. Juniors welcome.
Marine Rescue also did a bonza job over the weekend. Not only helping with safety, they also did Saturdays BBQ. This is one of the most successful service organisations in The Bay which says a lot for how good the team is. Luckily, we did not need to use the PCYC at all this year. As always, we made a sizeable donation to their “Starjump Challenge” whether we use the facility or not.
Registrations went smoothly this year. Quick & with very few issues. Some people did not complete their registrations and a few who paid separately did not log on with the boats log on details so did not get put on that boat. A couple of tickle ups will fix these issues. The effort put into the site pays dividends in making registration a quick and easy process. More time for fishing, socializing and fun.
Once again, our many sponsors were very generous and we’d like to personally thank Bay Boat Sales, Bluebottle Marine, Club Marine, d’Albora Marinas, Duffs Salamander Tackle, Frogleys Offshore, LifeCell Marine, Lowrance, Mako sunglasses, Port Stephens Beachside Holiday Parks, Shimano, TackleWorld Port Stephens, and Winning Holidays. Please support your sponsors whenever possible & if time allows, drop them a thank you note.
This year Ben Doolan showed the way to win Champion Angler with 19 points. On his shiny new boat, he also won the Champion Boat award. Fishing solo shows how much effort puts into his fishing. Meanwhile, Junior Kaio Medeiros dominated the Juniors to win with 21 points to be our 2023 Junior Champion. These two anglers illustrate the secret to success in this tournament – proficiency across several species.
After the presentation, Ben went home for an early night. Meanwhile, Kaio was spotted down on the pontoon ….. fishing. There was a great rollup of Juniors this and the prizes were shared amongst many of them.
For those who did not get onto the Scoreboard there were heaps of lucky draws including species prizes not won. Thanks again to our sponsors.
We hope you enjoyed this year and look forward to welcoming you back in 2024.
Cheers,
Tony.
2024 – 5, 6, 7 April
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