Results of the 2008 Hawkesbury Classic

Hi Everyone,

So the scorecards are in, the fish have been weighed and the boats are cleaned and packed away back in the garage. The classic is over for another year. All the hype, anticipation and nervous sweat that goes into it ends in either excitement of sweet victory or the taste of hollow defeat.

In years past the taste of hollow defeat has been the subtle pill i have had to swallow. I have come close on occasions, seen my fishing partner bring home the bacon and even been cleaned up by fish that would surely have won the whole thing...but it wasnt my time.

So in 2008....yep you guessed it....it still wasnt my time. Sorry if you were expecting me to say i won. I didnt. But i did do a few things that gave me a glimmer of hope moving forward. I caught the 5th biggest jewie of the comp. Ok so thats not particularly exceptional as 4 fish weighed more but it was the only fish of substance to be caught on a soft plastic. The 4 other jewies were all caught on live bait.

So how big were the fish i hear you keep asking??? The winning jewie weighed 19.5kgs cleaned. The same angler caught the second biggest fish 15.7kgs and 3rd place weighed 13kgs. The 4th biggest weighed 11kg and my little puppy weighed 10kgs cleaned. Not a bad effort as i said, especially on 8lb braid and 20lb leader. The winners were probably using 30 or 40lb mono leader and 60 to 80lb leader...sporting??? I think not. I'd still be happy to catch one on anchor rope regardless but the light line really put my heart in my mouth.

The fish took 25mins to subdue and gave a brilliant account of itself. I orginally thought it to be better than 11kgs whole, thinking to be 13 or 14kgs...but my excitement over-rode my ability to judge and it weight alot less.

We did catch some other notable fish too. We caught a stack to flatties...probably 60odd fish in 2 days but none were real monsters...the best was 2 fish at around 2 kgs each...nowhere near big enuf to win comp. The results of the winning fish were;

1st Heaviest Fish - Jewfish 19.5kgs
2nd Heaviest Fish - Jewfish 15.7
3rd Heaviest Fish - Jewfish 13kgs
Flathead - 4.2kgs
Bream - 1.18kgs
Whiting - .450g
Jewfish - 11kgs
Biggest Other Species - 2.8kg kingfish

The low light was seeing all these 50-60cms jewies weighed in. Now all the fishos knew that the fish wasnt going to win the comp...so why keep em??? Why pilfer sooo many juvenile fish out of a system that is constantly raped by the commercial fleet??? It makes no sense...but is a typical reason why the mighty Hawkesbury River is little more than a shadow of its former self. It devoid of life and the sad reality is the noose is being pulled tighter...no managemet plan is in sight and the over-harvesting of its resources will surely be its downfall.

Next year i will not be fishing for flathead either. The winning fish is always a female...so why bother??? Keep a breeder for the possible chance of noteriety or give the system an opprtunity to re-stock. 1 breeding flathead will put over a million young into the system per year...its only a small step but one im prepared to make.

Time to cahnge to more ecological practises i think!