Brendon Tait was stoked with this gorgeous coronation trout.
Brendon showed off a pair of nice red emperor taken off Seventeen Seventy.
Brendon snavelled a solid spangled emperor during trophy week.
Dale McClurg and his monster red emperor.
Dale took a bludger trevally over the weekend. Page 58 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, January 2023
Seventeen Seventy BNB Trophy
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HANDFUL of Power Boat Anglers vessels headed north for the traditional PBA Saturday road trip, with Karma Cat among the mix, surprising a few. The surprise was not that Terry attended, but that he was there at 7am, because everyone knows Terry likes and needs as much beauty sleep as he can get. Hitting the road north, the crews were looking at a gloomy weather outlook for the week, which wasn’t anything out of the ordinary because the previous four years had basically been a carbon copy. On the upside, a few windows to be taken advantage of occasionally pop up, so it’s generally a ‘suck it and see’ type of arrangement to start with. Regardless of the outlook, spirits were high because hey, they were on a fishing holiday with good company and at least a little socialising was to be had among the PBA crowd. The trip north was going smoothly until Blackers lucked out and spat a brake calliper before the lights in the middle of Childers.
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Power Boat Anglers by MICK CLUTTERBUCK
This managed to then chew through the rim in super quick time, resulting in a deflated tyre and the lunched rim. The crew performed a quick roadside repair and wheel swap and were back on the road in good time, arriving in Agnes Water at about 2pm. By this time, Brett and Stuart were already fishing, having decided to make the most of the good weekend weather, so headed up early, foregoing the first weigh-in. Blackers was to fly solo for the first few days as his deckhand Lakis had commitments that locked him up until the Tuesday, but Dale jumped on White Pointer for the first trip, to help him out. On the Sunday, all the PBA ‘Sunday fishing boats’ had crossed the flat but shallow bar by 5.30am. Though the conditions were surprisingly good, there was enough residual swell from the previous week’s bad weather to keep speeds down.
Destinations varied between Fitzroy Reef, the Wides and out past Boult Reef where Karma Cat, White Pointer and Will Power decided to target first. The fishing was fairly hard going, though Karma Cat, White Pointer and Will Power managed to box five good red emperor between them. It was obvious there was going to be a stoush over who would take the hotly contested win for heaviest red. Terry took the lead early but was trumped by Dale in about 30 minutes, who managed to hold him off for the rest of the day. Monday through to Thursday were 20-25 knot lay days, with time spent in a mix of social chats, Bundaberg trips for wheels and medicinal supplies from the distillery, surfing, golf, dinners and even a mini committee meeting, where next year’s dates were discussed. A favourite afternoon activity was enjoying * continued P59
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