Pete Rimmer with a longtail tuna.
Rob Schomberg scored this decent mack tuna.
Rainbow Beach Squid Rowe Trophy 2022
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NFORTUNATELY the 2022 Rainbow Beach Squid Rowe Trophy was hit by bad weather, causing the initial fleet to drop from 10 to five boats. Outside fishing was definitely off the table, however a weekend of socialising, crabbing and fishing the Great Sandy Strait was going to be ‘Plan B’ on this occasion. Day one saw the mud crab competition kick off with a $10 buy for the biggest crab and you
Power Boat Anglers by MICK CLUTTERBUCK
had to be up early to get to the best spots over the mud banks on the tide. Rob Schomberg and Helaine Wilesmith tried a morning to afternoon soak that drew a blank before repositioning the pots for an overnight soak. One of the other crews did way better, coming back with a good feed, including seven crabs in
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one pot for three good keepers. The final tally for their first drop was 10 but they got ahead of themselves and had cooked and cleaned their catch without measuring the biggest – rookie mistake. Rob and H checked their pots on the morning high, finding two bucks, with the biggest measuring 175mm – game on. After jigging up some live bait, they hit the Teebar Ledge but could only manage one bite off. A call from Dave, saying Dilligaf had got a nice bluefin tuna, saw them off to have a crack themselves. With a bucket of livies, H and Rob thought they would show the others how it was done, but they didn’t get a touch and were even jealous of the anglers catching sharks because they were at least having some fun, not just getting wet in the constant squalls.
The next day was much of the same, checking the pots then off to the straits to chase tuna, with more rain squalls. They finally got a hit on the smallest rod in the boat and it was panic stations when the backing on the spool of the little Penn Slammer came into view. With the motor started, they managed some line back and started the chase all around the straits, until finally a big mack tuna came into view. Thoughts of sashimi were dashed but at least they had some fresh bait for the pots. The fishos on Little Bit had again found sharks for a bit of fun until it was time to again check the pots. Numbers had dropped from the previous day with the crew only getting two from seven pots and H and Rob managing two from their four. The next day was Groundhog Day, with the same wind and showers but this time Chris got a bluefin away from the sharks and Rob
landed the biggest golden trevally he’d seen. The little Penn Slammer 360 was down to the gold spool on more than one occasion, with 15lb braid and 6kg leader, and took a good 20 minutes to land the fish. After a quick photo, it was released but came back to the top on its side – luckily it selfrighted and swam away before it landed on the sashimi menu. Sunday was looking as though it was going to be the only day to get out to contest the trophy but, as the window started closing, a decision was made to pull the pin on offshore and head out on a glassedout sea in the straits. The crew headed home on Monday but H and Rob decided to hit a little bit of country they’d found after getting a nice grass sweetlip the day before. The tide was slack at the spot, so they waited for the driving rain to slow up a bit before anchoring. Once they could see more than a couple of hundred meters, they
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