The Club's annual dinner is once again done and dusted. The suits are at the dry cleaners, the weariness of a late night filled with good food, cold beers now gone and all that's left are the memories of a great night.
As the Club's president I want to thank everyone that came along to the dinner (and AGM) for making it the wonderful evening that it was. The night was filled with the banter of a group of friends catching up on all the fishing gossip from a year apart. No surprises there though as we always seem to make a real night of it.
For those that couldn't make it you missed a ripper of a night. Dr Sean Tracey was our guest speaker and gave an entertaining and knowledgable talk on his work with Broadbill Swordfish and Southern Bluefin Tuna. Some of the detail he shared from his satellite tagging on both species was a real eye opener. We were also given great insight into the best method of handling our Bluefin for either: the greatest chance of survival upon release or the best quality of flesh if retained. A lot of which can be viewed on the Tuna Champions website (an awesome resource).
I've been wanting to hear Sean speak for quite some time now and he did not disappoint. From all the members a big thank you must go Sean and the program he represents and assisted develop.
Our Club's Vice President, Scott Gowland, gave us a fantastic rundown on our recently completed documentary "The First Marlin" and the world premiere that was held earlier in the year. He also presented a short film trailer on the documentary that well be sent around to Gamefishing Clubs across the country and around the world to help promote this film and see it aired to a wider audience. Well done Scott and once again thank you for all your hard work and determination on seeing this through to the end.
While there were many fantastic fish caught and released by club members throughout the year the lack of tagging and also weighing of many fish meant that we were a bit lean on handing out trophies this year. You can read all the news on the winners here in this news story.
Along with the current committee all being returned and no positions changing, the real
highlight of the evening was finally being able to award Kel Taylor Life Membership to the STC.
This took place formally at last year's dinner but Kel was unavailable to attend so could not accept in person. Thank you Vic Teasdale for your kind words and for presenting this very fitting award to a stalwart of the club. Thank you also to past president and Life Member Allen Gowland for adding his only little spin on the award, it was a lovely tribute to Kel's hard work for over two decades for the club.
I wish you all a fantastic fishing season ahead. May the bites be hot, your lines tight, drags smooth and the fish so big there's no need to lie about their size in the retelling of their capture.
Chris Baty
PS If anyone would like to share feedback on our dinner and event please feel free to contact the committee via our website contacts us page.