Official Report On Flattie Social

[mrsswordfisherman]

Driving to Cooks Park this morning we wondered if anyone would come out on such a bleak and blustery day. Light rain was falling.

We entered Grand Pde at Brighton Le Sands and in the distance we saw cars and boats and people anxiously waiting to register. Wooohooo 6 skippers and their crews hurredly signed up, eager to get on the water.

We jumped back in the car to get to the main meeting point and lo and behold along a bit further were several more raiders with boats. More registering completed we left to set up camp for the day.

Up went our new Fishraider banner strung between 2 trees. A tarp was draped around the enclosure we had chosen and the bbq's fired up.

Raiders began arriving bearing donations of bread rolls, cartons of drink, steaks, kilos of sausages, eggs, bacon and plates, cutlery and serviettes.

Ross and Brian worked like a well oiled machine churning out bacon and egg rolls for the hungry hoards.

Our new Fishraider hats were being bought and donned by members. At this point george s had some bad luck with his son accidentally locking the car keys in the boot. Raiders tried throughout the day to "assist" him to retrieve the keys without much success.

At about 8am a boat comes across the bay. We watched as Jewel and Fishrunner hopped out onto the sand and announced that they had a flattie to be measured. The crowd watched in awe as the magnificent fish was presented. The measuring was done and at 88 cms this was certainly going to take some beating.

A few tried to bring their boats up onto the beach but the winds were against them. Raiders continued to come and register and take off to try for the prizes on offer. Many new faces and lots of chatting amongst members took place.

Most of our sponsors were in attendance and chatted with members freely.

The crowd swelled at around 12 midday and with all the fish measured, documented on capture sheet and verified, the lunch began. Ross and Brian had everyone fed with the steak and sausage on rolls and delicious kebabs very quickly.

Time to get the official part of the day happening and members gathered around the banner.

The children and young folk were called forth and given a showbag filled with a hat, tackle box with lures, playing cards and other bits and pieces. Donated by Watto's and handed out by Mrs Watto, the kids loved them.

PRIZE FOR 12 to 18 yrs olds - ticket entry only

PRIZE WAS A VIVA REEL, SOME FISHING LINE AND SOME LURES DONATED BY MODERN FISHING AND PRESENTED BY DAN BURGESS - won by Mick (george s's son)

GUEST PRIZE - VIVA REEL AND FISHING LINE DONATED BY MODERN FISHING and PRESENTED BY MRSSWORDFISHERMAN - won by Joe (deckie for offtap1)

Joe's fish

SKIPPERS PRIZE - ticket entry only A YEAR'S MEMBERSHIP WITH SEATOW DONATED BY SEATOW DAVE AND PRESENTED BY SWORDFISHERMAN (dave had to leave early to tow someone) - won by Dalucius

JJSYDNEY DONATED 4 L OF TWO STROKE OIL - won by TonOFun

LADIES PRIZE - ticket entry only A TACKLE BUCKET FILLED WITH GOODIES DONATED BY WATTO'S AND PRESENTED BY MRSWATTO - won by breambuster's daughter Renee.

LARGEST FISH 2ND PRIZE - A VIVA REEL AND FISHING LINE DONATED BY MODERN FISHING AND PRESENTED BY DAN BURGESS - won by boxfish with a catch of 54 cms

MAJOR PRIZE BIGGEST FLATTIE - A KING ROD DONATED BY SAQA OF KINGRODS FITTED WITH A SHIMANO SAHARA REEL FILLED WITH 6LB FIRELINE AND SOFT PLASTICS AND JIGHEADS DONATED BY TONY DAVIS OF FISHFINDER BAIT AND TACKLE AND PRESENTED BY FLIGHTMANAGER - won by Fishrunner with a fish of 88 cms.

The sponsors all spoke in turn and expressed their confidence in choosing fishraider.com.au as a site to sponsor. Dan Burgess then handed out Modern Fishing magazines and lures and spools of fishing line to all the members.

No-one walked away from the social empty handed.

Finally, the day was A HUGE SUCCESS.

Flightmanager organised this event assisted by admin. He is to be applauded for all the hard work he put in for 6 weeks collating attendees, selecting venues and working non stop on the day. Thank you very much Ross and Cath.

The attendance for this social was 82 people, members, wives, hubbies and kids. This is by far the best social ever held by fishraider. The events are getting bigger and better each time due to the generosity and assistance from members and sponsors.

Cheers Fishraider Admin - Stewy, Donna and Grant.

P.S. George s had some good luck later. Two suspect gentlemen (previously Airds boys) successfully managed to unlock his car on their first attempt after many had tried in vain.

[Flattieman]

Yes - the glimpse that I got of the festivities was great. We didn't let the weather dampen our spirits! I was just sooooo pleased that someone landed a croc... but I guess we'll just have to read a bit more about that in the official report. I spent most of my day landbased - getting blown off the edge of the world only for a couple of sub-45cm flatties and a big bust-off. That's fishing!... and southerlies... Sounds like another successful social to me!

Flattieman.

[johnno]

Thanks to all who organised this event and helped out

unfortunatly the weather wasn,t on our side. at least it didn,t rain

For me well i tried to boat it to the park and turned back

but later to see that i only missed the point by a few hundred metres

What i caught

*no fish

the rest i couldn,t go past

*1 plastic bag(shopping bag)

*1 big garbage bag

*6 empty plastic drink bottles

i pulled the boat out early and headed down by car to the

park and meet some raiders.And had a quick feed.

Could not hanging around for long so i was off.

Strange day to say the least but enjoyable to get out in the boat again.

thanks again to all that helped to make this event what it was.

Edited December 3, 2006 by johnno

[Guest fishrunner]

What a great day

I'm not referring to the weather above by the way,

This was a great social, but I s'pose I'm always gonna say that,, But seriously very well done with a great social feeling with several rendevous on the water for chats and gettin the lowdown on how others were going!..

BBQ lunch went down a treat and great to meet so many friendly FishRaiders

Nice pic Lance ,,, mmmm Cap'n Jewel hey?, He's not doin too bad then , considering deckies have chairs

I'ld like to say a big thanks to the sponsors for their ever generous and increasing involvement on the site ,- Well done guy's. Also to the admin team and their loyal and hard working lil helpers. Thanks all it was brilliant

This beauty came in 1-2 ft of water with hazardous obstacles everywhere!!! Using a black n gold 80mm squidgie on a 1/4 oz jighead,--- ,, YEEHAA, 88CM fish, beat my old pb by 1cm, gotta be stoked with that!!!

and why not another of her being released!

Great complete camo outfit , thanks again guy's,

cheers

Edited December 3, 2006 by fishrunner

[mrmoshe]

Congratulation to Fishrunner for an absolute crocodile of a flattie ...Well deserved win. She was a cracker and as soon as I saw her lifted out of your boat, I knew you wouldn't be topped for the day.

Special thanks to Flightmanager and the Swordies and the rest of the organisers for a terrific social.

My first social certainly won't be my last as I had a great time meeting everyone and being able to put faces to screen names.

Thanks also to the sponsors and to everyone who generously donated both their time and material goods to the event.

Those bacon & egg sambos sure went down a treat in that wind on a cold morning.

It may have been windy but the people surely made up for it ten fold.

Thanks again and looking forward to the official report and pics.

Cheers,

Pete.

Edited December 3, 2006 by MallacootaPete

[TunOFun]

Great day guys and gals, thanks to all that were involved in the organising and those there on the day.

Had a great day, feel better after the 2 stroke...lol. someone will put the pic up!

[mrmoshe]

Is it me or does this shot look a lot like the late Kerry Packer?

Reincarnation can be a bugger eh?

Pete.

[Davemmm]

missed the shindig due to family stuff but I have to say not only is fishrunners flattie an absolute beauty but that last underwater picture is a classic. Well done

[femalefisho]

WOW sounds like a FANTASTIC DAY!

We are so dissapointed we missed it

Congratulations to all the winners and hope everyone had a great time!

Ross your a champion!

[Dalucius]

Thank you for a great day Fishraiders.

We met a lot of friendly people.

Congratulations to all the winners and WOW what a monster Flattie.

A special thanks to the organisers, cooks, and the sponsors especially SEATOW for the membership I won.

Looking forward to the next one.

A job well done.

Thank you

Edited December 3, 2006 by Dalucius

[Wastin Time]

Great day (by the looks of it) Raiders,

[clutch]

Looks like a great time was had by all..............I'll make one of these one day

And biy that is one fine looking rod Rohit Its great to see a deserving fish win it

[robthefisherman]

It's been said I know but what a cracker of a day,It was fantastic to catch up with a few old faces I haven't seen in a while and meet a whole lot of new ones.

Great company, great food and a few great fish caught more than compensated for the crappy weather.

Also thanks to iceman for dropping of the esky and jacket that we left behind and Katie had a great time playing with your girls, it was certainly great to see the kids at the social the future of fishraider is looking secure.

and a big thanks to all the sponsors your generosity was outstanding

Edited December 3, 2006 by robthefisherman

[gafmo]

Just my luck to have the boat packed up and ready for a real fun day then all sh?t happens and I end up in Westmead Hospital. After seeing more specialist this week I look like being back in next week.

I was glad to see that heaps of FISHRAIDERS turned out for a great day going by the reports.

Regards

gafmo

[Flattieman]

Great report, mrsswordy. Thankyou to all who organised the day.

Flattieman.

[Chef]

What a great way to meet everyone for my first social.

Lots of new friends, great food & a fun time.

All of which helped to make the weather fade away.

Thanks & appreciation to all who put in the effort to make the day the success it was, and a big thanks for helping the new boy on the block to feel welcome.

[netic]

Wow looks like it was a great day, I was looking forward to coming down but was sooooo tired from the day before.

Congrats to all the prize winners

I will definately be at the next one

[pekingduck]

despite the crappy weather sounded like a top day.

Congrats to all involved and to Ross for all his work.

Hope to make it to the next one.

[Outnumbered]

what a day! great bunch of people and it was good to see the amount of kids there. our two ice maidens (daughter and her friend) had a blast and are looking forward to the next one already!

[Penguin]

Thanks to all who put this social together,was a beauty judging

by the reports.I wish I could have stayed around longer and met

more raiders in person,but I was not feeling well thanks to illness,

and had to leave after an hour.

I hope to meet more of you during the next social.

Bring it on.

penguin

[wettingaline]

Congrats on a top social guys, unfortunately i couldnt make it cause i had a close mates engagement party on the saturday night which went on till sunday morning , looking forward to the next one..

[reneej1]

Wow what a great day, despite the miserable weather!!!

That Flattie sure is a beauty!! Well done fishrunner

My dad (breambuster), Rocky and I (lady luck) was on the water at 5am, wondering what the hell we were doing here!!

We dropped off our crab traps in front of the sailing club, then shot up the bay in the bleak conditions, but could not see any sign of fishraider members around dolls point, we were getting smashed by the chop, so headed back to captain Cook bridge. Hooked up a few small tailor, whilst trying to battle the wind with our minn kota. Swordfisherman and outdoor Dan were soon on the sceen, along with Richard (Bails), and Gary (Boxfish). We all went our seperate ways to find cover.

Tried in and around the morred boats south of Captain Cooks bridge, Rocky and Breambuster managed to hook up a few small flatties. We then headed up the river to Como bride, the odd bite here and their, but nothing great, until breambuster landed a luderick on a black and gold smile'n jack

No sign of the weather improving, so we pulled up stumps and headed back for the ramp. The day for us yeilded 8 blue swimmer crabs, and the luderick!

Join the raiderd back at the BBQ, and had a great afternoon meeting other raiders, and socialising.

Really pleased that i won the bucket mate, will go great at Garie when fishing for the salmon!!

Thanks to the organisers for the great day!

Renée (Lady Luck)

[The Iceman]

It was a great day Nice to meet so many raiders and have a good chat

Well done to the organisers sponsers and those who caught fish

And my wants to know where we can get some of those sausages as they were so nice with hardly any fat

Wasnt a problem dropping the stuff off Rob and the girls enjoyed playing with Katie

[ianoc69]

Thanks all for another very well organised fishraider social.

Alot of people put in an enormous amount of work to make these days possible and I dont want to name individauls for fear of leaving someone out but to all concerned I for one do recognise the efforts and it is this group effort that makes the Fishraider site number 1.

Conditions were tough and some areas we had earmarked were not practical to fish. So we put plan B in place and headed up toward woronora for a few drifts.

Fishing was tough and only managed 5x flatties (biggest was mid 30cm), 2x bream, 1x small reddie and 1x reasonable reddie between the group of 3.

Would have liked to hang around longer at the park but had a broken window to attend to at home after some "power cleaning from the ".

The photos are excellent.

Congrats to all prize winners and well done Fishrunner on the 88cm specimen. Those underwater shots are truly spectacular.

See everyone at the next get together.

[mrmoshe]

Here are a few "happy snaps" of Camp Fishraider in action while most were fishing.

The BBQ was firing all day producing those wonderful bacon & egg rolls, while the organisers

kept busy with various chores.

Camp Fishraider was a home away from home all day.

Thank you again to everyone who helped organise this great event.

Cheers,

Pete.

And a couple more;

Edited December 4, 2006 by MallacootaPete