Anglers weather the Riviera Game Fish Tournament

by Denby Browning on 6 Mar 2008 The Newcastle and Port Stephens and Broken Bay Game Fish Clubs have won the weather-ravaged 2008 Riviera NSW Interclub game fishing tournament. Newcastle and Port Stephens took the Tag-and-Release trophy for a third successive year – a record for the tournament. Broken Bay won the Capture category.

The Riviera NSW Interclub is the largest game fishing tournament in the Southern Hemisphere, attracting a fleet of more than 200 boats each year to Port Stephens on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. Most are teams from NSW game fishing clubs but many boats visit from as far away as Tasmania and Queensland. Anglers compete for trophies. There are no cash prizes at the Riviera NSW Interclub!

Otto Volz, President of the NSW Game Fishing Association, said: 'It was a great result for both clubs in very difficult conditions. The weather reduced the tournament from four to two days but the overall performance was very competitive throughout.

The fleet was reduced from 206 boats to 125 on the last day after competition on the second Saturday was called off due to rough sea conditions. The first Saturday also had to be abandoned due to rough sea conditions.

Riviera’s own 48 Offshore Express, Fascination IV, acquitted herself very well on her first competition outing. Crew member Dylan Simpson took the Junior Angler trophy and the whole team won the trophy for highest tag-and-release points scored by a Riviera.

Broken Bay anglers took out the individual male angler awards. Matt Ling on board Gorilla won the individual male tag-and-release award with 60,000 points while Stephen Millgate aboard Rampage won the trophy for capture with 35,478.5 points.

The female awards went to Megan Dobson on Dobbo from Sydney GFC for tag-and-release (42,000 points) and Ally Harris on Climax from the Newcastle and Port Stephens club for capture (20,352.5 points).