Introduction
The Canberra Classic is a terrific event, it’s a teams event of three anglers fished over three days on the Eastern Basin of Lake Burley Griffen. The sections fished were Grevillea Park – Section A, Bowen Drive – Section B and the “Flats” – Section C.
This year, 8 teams registered for a total of 24 anglers.
Anglers started arriving in Canberra early this year to have some practise and see how the lake was fishing. Anglers that arrived early fished along the Grevillea Park section and all caught well. Ivan Mitchell even had a good session on the Waggler catching fish regularly to 2 Kilo. Other Anglers caught on both Pole and Feeder.
The match sections were pegged out Tuesday by John Foxall and Danny Brown. John and Danny did a terrific job and got the pegging absolutely spot on. A big thank you for a great job from all the anglers that fished over the weekend.
Registration was held on Thursday evening in the Kingston Hotel. The Kingston Hotel is a great pub with plenty of room, good beer, good food and has been the centre of the Canberra Classic event for many years.
Once registration was complete and all monies paid the teams drew their Section Rotation for the weekend. Each angler in each team must fish one day in each of the three sections. The weekend rotation draw was as follows:
The scene was set for a great weekend with the major topic of discussion being the weather. Canberra has a lot of thunderstorms and at times torrential rain. The weekend forecast was for a clear day Friday, but very heavy rain Saturday and showers Sunday. Fortunately, no thunderstorms were forecast.
Day 1
The draw for Day 1 was proceeded with quick pre match briefing explaining the Thunderstorm Rule and access to the bankside on Bowen Drive. A new cycle path along Bowen Drive has restricted access to the bank side. In previous years Anglers have been able drive along the bank side and drop of their tackle then drive to the nearest carpark.
Fortunately We had received advanced warning of the new Cycle Track and advised Anglers to bring a trolley. Most anglers on Day 1 used a trolley to get their tackle to their peg and then had to move their car to an all-day carpark. Carparking was another problem for the Friday and the Bowen Car Park is only 2 hours and the nearest Carp Park has been closed and is now a construction site so Anglers in Section B for Day 1 had a long walk back from the nearest Car Park.
On a more sad note, recently we all lost a very good friend– Howard Hill after a long battle with cancer.
Howard had been secretary of the Sydney Coarse Angling Club for many years and he along with Bill Childs were responsible for initiating, organising and running the Canberra Classic for many years. As a mark of respect for Howard’s passing a minute silence was observed by all present.
The fishing around the lake on Day 1 was very consistent with consistent weights caught from all sections.
The best fishing was from Section C – The Flats. The section was won by Mark Bryant from Peg 2. Mark fish both the feeder and pole for his 33.550 Kgs. He fished mostly corn on the hook but found he did have to wait for bites. Mark had a good last hour on the pole fishing with maggot. Mark had a great battle all day with Dave Arnold on Peg 1. Dave fished bread on the feeder for his 30.500 Kgs.
Section B was won by Ade Gore with 25.150 Kgs. Ade caught all his fish on the pole and caught consistently through out the day. Ade like many others over the weekend lost a lot fish through hook pulls for what seemed like no apparent reason. However, a consistent message from anglers was that the fish weren’t really taking the bait confidently with many fish being hooked on the outside of the mouth which could explain why everyone lost so many fish.2nd in the section was Ivan Mitchell with 14.500 Kgs.
The hardest section for Day 1 was Section A. Danny Brown didn’t squander his draw of the favoured Peg 1. Danny fished pole for most of the day for 18.400 Kgs to get a valuable section win. Second was Chris Drawski from Peg 2 with 13.650 Kgs.
So after Day 1 the top three individuals were:
- Mark Bryant
- Ade Gore
- Danny Brown
The top team on the day with a total of 8 points for Claret & Blue (Danny Brown, Mark Byrant and John Foxall).
Day 2
The weather forecast for Saturday was 70 mm of rain. For once the forecast was correct ! The rain started early Saturday morning almost stopped for the peg draw and then rained solidly all day till late evening. General consensus from most anglers was that they had never fished a match in such wet and damp conditions. It wasn’t really heavy rain it just didn’t stop.
But despite the rain the fishing remained consistent.
Section A gave Mark Bryant a second section win with 25.600 Kgs from Peg 2. Mark adopted much the same tactics as Day 1 fishing Feeder and Pole with both Corn and Maggot. Mike Grimes had a good day on Peg 4 for 2 points with 20.750 Kgs. Mike caught mainly on the feeder fishing Bread and Maggot. Quite a few pegs struggled on day 2 with lower than average weights.
In Section B the low number favoured pegs failed to produce. The high numbers fished a lot better than day 1. Glenn Nicholls had a section win from peg 7 with 19.650 Kgs. Glenn fished mainly feeder with a couple of fish on the pole. Dave Arnold scored another 2 points with 19.220 Kgs from peg 6.
John Foxall had a section win in Section C with 30.400 Kgs. John fished peg 4 and fished both pole and feeder alternating throughout the day. Les Markham was second from peg 1 with 24.450 Kgs. Les caught all his fish on the pole and caught fish from the very start.
So at the end of Day 2 in individual top three changed a little :
- Mark Bryant 2 points
- Dave Arnold 4 points
- Ivan Mitchell 5 points
The top team at the end of Day 2 was still Claret & Blue with a 3 point buffer over Pools Fodders.
Day 3
The weather forecast for Sunday was for sunny periods and occasional showers. It would be a good day to dry out after yesterday’s soaking. Two of the top three anglers, Ivan Mitchell and Dave Arnold were in section A and Mark Bryant was in section B. Going into the last day it was going to be a good close battle.
The weather was kind with plenty of sunny periods and everyone did manage to dry out after yesterday’s drenching. The fishing remained very consistent with very similar weights one all three sections.
Section A fished well all the way along. Ivan Mitchell had a section win with 23.900 Kgs from peg 8, tactics used where very similar to previous days feeder and pole with Corn and Maggot. Dave Arnold (Mr Consistency) had is 3rd 2nd in section with 21.450 Kgs from peg 4. This result left both Dave and Ivan on 6 points.
Section B didn’t fish as well as it had done on previous days. Steve Scott had a terrific last hour on the feeder when the fish actually turned up. Steve won the section with a weight of 33.400 from peg 3. Second in sections has Richard Tuxford with 18.700 Kgs. The big question was how did Mark Bryant go? Mark had a really tough day catch 13.500 Kgs from peg 4 (a really fancied peg). With the 13.500 Kgs Mark secured 4 points. Which put the top three individual anglers all on 6 points so the result would come down to a countback on weight.
Neil Dourish had a good weight of 26.675 Kgs to take out the Section C. Neil was on the fancied peg 2. Danny Brown managed a 2nd in the section with 19.125 Kgs from peg 5. That was a good weight from the middle of the section. Both Neil and Danny had earnt good points for their respective teams. The team result was also very close. Team BGT had a great result on Day 3 with a total of 7 point and Claret & Blue 10 points. The 10 points was enough for them to cling onto top spot by a single point.
Results
In summary this years Canberra Classic was a very close event. The fishing was by no means easy. The fishing was quite technical and required a lot of patience and thought to work out what the fish actually wanted. All sections produced very consistent weights and the fish moved between pegs making things even more interesting. To cap of some good fishing the social side of this years event was also a lot of fun with a few beers, wines and some good food being enjoyed with mates at the Kingston Hotel.
It was great to see Terry Whelan and young Charlie Bevis back on the bank. Things didn’t quite go according to plan for Terry who had to part with $5.00 as a result of bet that he would be young Charlie on Sunday.
Individual Results
The individual results were extremely close with all top three anglers finishing on 6 points. The winners were decided on a countback on weight. The results were as follows:
1st Mark Bryant 6 Points 72.650 Kgs
2nd Dave Arnold 6 Points 71.180 Kgs
3rd Ivan Mitchell 6 Points 56.200 Kgs
The complete individual results are below :
Team Results
The top team by a single point was:
Claret & Blue (John Foxall, Danny Brown and Mark Bryant) finished with 28 points and a total weight of 165.750 Kgs.
2nd was Team BGT (Shaun Redmond, Ivan Mitchell and Niel Dourish) with 29 points and a total weight of 164.880 Kgs.
Again congratulations to Mark Bryant and Team Claret & Blue for a great win and also congratulations to all the other winners and competitors for participating in what really was a very close hard fought competition.
Bring on the Canberra Classic for 2025.
Australian Federation of Coarse Anglers Association 