RBAFC Newsletter - May 2021
PRESIDENTS REPORT
It’s been another busy month or two in the club with 3 offshore and 3 inshore trips going
off. From all accounts the fish have been cooperating as well.
Our April general meeting featured Adrian Pilkington with a great talk on fire safety
followed by a hands-on session with fire extinguishers in the carpark. This was a great
opportunity for members to get their hands on a fire extinguisher and actually operate it.
Members agreed on the purchase of a new generator which has now arrived. Also at the
last meeting, Peter “Chooka” Balkin was elected as vice President, Gav Bycroft as offshore
captain & Robyn Passau as raffles coordinator.
The Redland Bay Hotel is now giving us more and more raffles and I urge all members to
consider giving an hour of their time to sell tickets. It’s a good way to get to know other
members and make some coin for the club. The club makes around $400 for an hours work
– so it’s well worth it.
Recently we also had a working bee at the club house. We got ruthless with 3 trailer loads
of trash and another 3 trailer loads of green trimmings went to the tip. Well done to the 10
or so members that turned up on the day.
The May committee meeting saw 10 committee members attend and cover a whole range
of issues relevant to the club. This was a fantastic turnout. As a result we cleared the decks
housekeeping wise for the May General Meeting so that we all could enjoy our special
guest Wayne “Youngy” Young. Youngy’s talk was very well attended and a lot of useful
knowledge changed hands.
The Somerset Dam trip was a great social trip in a stunning part of the world. The fish were
very scarce but enough red claw were caught to keep the interest alive. It was nice to meet
some new and old faces around the fire.
The June General meeting is on Wednesday 16th June. See you there.
Wal
Weigh Out/Weigh In Procedures
We have had a couple of issues at the last two inshore weigh ins that need to be addressed.
Firstly, there has been some confusion regarding registration and logging on for the inshore trips. An extract
of the current rules are as follows:
Registering to compete: All members competing must register no later than 7:30pm the Thursday prior to
any club fishing event. Registration is made by SMS, phone call or email to the club “competition captain”.
If contact cannot be made with the “competition captain”, the “competition secretary” can be notified.
Weigh Out (on water) procedure:
All members competing can elect to fish for any period of time during the competition window as per
calendar.
a)Once on the water competitors must notify the competition secretary or captain by radio(27
Meg/channel 94, VHF/channel 72), phone or SMS advising details including time and location of departure.
b)If contact cannot be made with the competition secretary or captain by radio or phone call, then a text
message must be sent to the captain and where possible contact should also be made with any other
RBAFC member on the water and request information be relayed onto Captain / Secretary.
c)On returning to the ramp competitors must again notify their safe return and sign off.
d)Competitors are not required to log off of an inshore competition if they come directly from the water to
the weigh in.
The Inshore Captain is Mark Mills 0417623774 and Inshore Secretary is Warren Richards 0488600495.
Please use Mark as your first point of contact. If texting, please include your name in all texts. Ensure that
you provide your departure point when logging on at the ramp.
Secondly, members need to be in the weigh in area by 11:00am sharp and not be driving to the clubhouse
or organising fish out in the carpark. The Inshore Captain has the authority to weigh in a late catch provided
the member has a very good excuse that includes extenuating circumstances. Being held up at the ramp or
heavier traffic on the roads than normal are not extenuating circumstances. Members should make
allowance time wise in case this should happen.
At a recent weigh in the captain/weighmaster graciously allowed some late weigh ins as they involved new
members. This leniency will not be shown again as this rule is well known & taken seriously. At the end of
the day we are running a competition.
Finally, some members are pushing the boundaries when it comes to club legal fish sizes. It is not fair on the
weighmaster or a good look for the club to have members put fish in for weight in that require checking or
disqualification. Further to this, some members prefer to bleed fish by cutting and snapping their throat.
Tailor, for example, are a fish that many fishers bleed. With Tailor this issue is when they are close to the
35cm mark it becomes difficult for the weighmaster to confirm the original length of the fish. At the last
weigh in questions were asked by members when this occurred and some members felt that the fish
presented were borderline at best.
As such, the committee has instructed the weighmaster not to accept any fish, especially tailor, that have
their throat cut and are borderline in length. The committee recommends slipping a knife in the fishes gills
and cutting the main artery of the fish without cutting the throat if the Tailor is 36cm or less and you want
to bleed it. Pearl Perch are another often bled fish that this theory will apply to.
Upcoming event dates!
Sat 12th June – Offshore fishing trip, WEIGH OUT – 05:00 am
Sun 13th June – Offshore WEIGH IN 13:00pm
Wed 16st June – General Meeting 7.30pm
Sat 26th June – Inshore Fishing Trip, WEIGH OUT 06:00 am, SPECIES is Bream (BACK UP –
Snapper)
Sat 27th June – Inshore Fishing Trip, WEIGH IN 11am
Mon 28th June – Booking cut-off date for North Stradbroke Island beach trip
Camping Trip Dates 2021
23rd to 25th July - North Stradbroke Island (Booking cut off is 28th June)
19th to 22nd August – Fraser Island (Booking cut off is 19th July)
Somerset Dam
Current fish leaderboard
Dave Russell with a pair of nice Flathead from our last inshore competition
