Betio Game Fishing Club

KINGFISHER Returns..............and Wins!

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Washup for the April Competition, generously sponsored by DHL.

As usual the competition started on Friday night with the registration. It started slowly with only the usual suspects of XXXX and Indy registering, but as the night went on the number grew to five with the addition of two new boats, the Princess Anita and the Nei Bingko, plus the return of the Kingfisher after a long absence due to maintenance. The Captain of Indy and the XXXX Crew Manager soon got to the trash talking as the lack of Kiwicom surely meant that one of them would be top of the pile come 5:30 pm Saturday. Much of the talk centred around the novice crew of Indy, three of whom were on their first outing, the Coxswain was only on his third and the Captain had only learned to tie live bait the day before.

XXXX were the first out, long before the sun rose, heading to their preferred fishing grounds around Maiana. Next out was Kingfisher, heading North to Abaiang, followed by Indy at 5:30 am, also heading North. The Princess Anita and Nei Bingko kept it close to the chest and were not seen until the weigh in. XXXX started well with what they thought would be the first weigh in Sailfish of the year, and followed this with decent sized Barracuda and Giant Trevally. Indy started off well with a nice Yellowfin that subsequently proved to be a pound under minimum weigh in weight. However, this was followed by a GT and a Dogtooth which meant all three novices had caught a fish. Unfortunately none of them on the live bait so Jason won that round of the sledging. Mack T on the Princess Anita was having a good day hauling in a good sized GT, Wahoo and a Barracuda. Charlie Copeland, Ariera and Martin Tofinga were also doing well with Coral Trouot, GT and Dogtooth. Their day was spoilt by water in the fuel and they limped home in order to make the weigh in. Indy also had her troubles whentrying to weigh anchor after lunch. The weather took a turn for the worse and it took some nifty driving and directions from a snorkelling Captain to avoid ending up on the reef. The "fleet" all made it back in time to de-register and weigh in before the 5pm deadline.

back at the Captains Bar the crowd was gathering. Smaller than hoped for a many had taken advantage of the long weekend to go away. Duncan was there in good time to set up and start selling tickets for the meat raffle and now famous "Mystery Box". First up to weigh in was Princess Anita who showed well with 51.5 points. Next was XXXX who made 47.5 points before the Sailfish was put on the scales. Unfortunately it fell 3.5lb short of the minimum and XXXX were left with third place. Indy was third up and weighed in with 38 points and fourth place. Last but certainly not least, was Kingfisher. Their first fish was a 35lb dogtooth which drew polite applause but it was the next fish that won the comp for them. A massive 72.5lb Giant trevally gave them 107.5 points and then, to rub salt into the wounds Martin came up with a 24.5lb Coral Trout to take the Board Record in the "Other" category.

Final Result was Kingfisher, Prinncess Anita, XXXX and Indy. At this point our kind sponsors, DHL, produced an esky full of "tasty beverages" whihch went a long way to dull the disappointment for some and to toast the win for others.

All that was left was the raffle and in the absence of Derek Andrewartha someone new was bound to win the meat tray. Team Indy came to the fore with Coxswain Darren taking the meat and Danial taking this months mystery prize of 5 packets of 2 Minute Noodles and a raw egg.

Congratulations to Kingfisher who have now made the comp the most open for a while. XXXX still tops the ladder but Indy, Kiwicom and Kingfisher are closing. Next months comp is on the 1st of May and is sponsored by XXXX. Derek will be back and keen for his boys to take out the "home" comp. Will Kiwicom return, can Kingfisher keep up the good form or will dark horse Princess Anita come through. Come on down to the Captains Bar to find out. Be there before 5pm as the weigh in starts prompt at that time. Bring a friend or come yourself and make some new ones.

Check out the "Gallery" for photos of this months comp and "The Board" for all the records and stats.

Good Luck and Good Fishing.

We've been working to update the Website as it had not been done for some time. The list of sponsors is now up to date for 2010 with website links for those I could find. The competition dates are in; complete with tide and moon data and we have the current points and monthly results table.

I will be putting in a monthly washup after each comp, with any photos I can get. Please feel free to send phots in if you have any.

The site remains a work in progress so please bear with me, I'm no computer geek and it's pretty much click and hope.

Anything that you think would be good to have in then feel free to contact either myself or our resident Webmaster, Karotu. 

The March Competition, sponsored by Kiribati Horizons “Oubwa Islet Resort”, has been and gone with INDY making a comeback to the Winners Circle with a good haul including two board records.

The weather was fair at the start of the day and 0530 saw the INDY and TAIKIRI both at Betio boat ramp ready to go. Unfortunately King and Tom were unable to get their boat going and did not get out fishing, leaving just XXXX, KIWICOM and INDY in the hunt. As the sun rose the weather came good with a small chop and North Easterly winds. KIWICOM headed south and INDY and XXXX headed North looking for that early wahoo. XXXX managed to get two wahoo with the largest weighing in at 16lb. Over the day they caught a Giant Trevally and the first Rainbow Runner of the season.

INDY hit a decent Barracuda around 0830 and then were looking down the barrel of another disappointing day until just after midday when Steve Littles rod bent almost in half. A good fight later ended up with a 41.5lb Dogtooth tuna on deck and a slightly hysterical crew dancing around in joy. To add to the species count Steve landed the first Mahi Mahi of the year a couple of hours later, giving hope to the crew of winning their first comp for a while.At the weigh in it looked good for XXXX and INDY, when KIWICOM came in looking crestfallen. All the NZ Coppers talk of the night before had come to nought and Captain Kalolo’s last hurrah had netted a sum total of ZERO fish. Much grist for the trans Tasman rivalry! As it turned out INDY’s two board records outscored XXXX’s wahoo and board record Rainbow Runner giving INDY the win.

A happy Steve Little (pictured left) received the prize money from Emil Schutz’ daughter and immediately donated it to the local School for the Disabled.

Next up was the meat raffle. First out of the box was Joanne Craigie who decided to take the mystery box prize. This month a bottle of Famous Grouse. (Who knows what it might be next month). This left the meat tray, which was taken out for the second month running by a delighted Derek Andrewartha.

At the end of the day a it was a good turnout for the weigh in and it’s good to see so many non members turning up to support the club.

We’re now looking forward to the April Competition to see if XXXX can come back or whether INDY can do without the skills of Steve Little. Will KIWICOM still be there? Looking forward to seeing you all on the 3^rd April. It’s the Easter Weekend so no excuses.

Good Luck and Good Fishing

Chris

On a day that saw most boats return home early due to deteriorating weather conditions, Natiera has just beaten 2008 champions XXXX with a good sized Yellow Fin Tuna to win the February competition.

On a morning that showed great promise most boats headed south to Maiana to take advantage of conditions. In the early afternoon weather conditions changed rapidly with storms moving in from the North East taking all fun out of what was a good day.

Conditions and early returns reflected low catches with most boats coming back with only a few fish. One large Yellow Fin was all that separated Natiera and XXXX.

Well done to the crew of Natiera.

Commodore