Back To The Bay Social - Official Report 2009

[mrsswordfisherman]

Well what a beautiful day today was for the 4th annual BTB social.

This is the scene that greeted us as we arrived at Botany Bay and we knew it was going to be a cracker

As usual flightmanger and mrsflightmanager, #1son and gf Jacinta, mako and the swordies were up and at it organising the base camp. With registration and the BBQ breakfast well on the way we quaffed a quick coffee as raiders steadily started to arrive. There were old and new faces everyone swapped game plans over a cuppa.

Mrsflightmanager had all the raiders quickly signed up and gave each registrant a selection of fisheries pamphlets, coast guard info, torches, tide charts, catch and release kits and cd. Some raiders purchased hats and boat stickers.

For several hours we waited anxiously for fish to brought in for measure. Swordie helped yarraone to rig up his rod for some soft plastic fishing tuition as promised. Even I had a chance to have a flick off the beach to no avail in fact no fish were caught landbased this year. For those that remember last year's event the winning flatties were caught just off the groynes in front of our base camp! It was becoming clear that raiders out in boats were to be the victors this year.

The only real drama we had for the day was a set of car keys locked inside a car. There was a sense of deja-vu as this happened at the very same social 2 years ago. The man who saved the day then was again available to miraculously "open" the lock - thanks again swordie for services rendered !!!!

I am not quite sure what this passer-by thought though......

A gentleman turned up to join us and donated some games. These games are not on the market yet and Reg the MD of the company offered the games called FISHO and a big thank you to him.

More food was consumed by the waiting crowd. The fare on offer was bacon, eggs, onion, mushrooms, tomato, chicken and beef kebabs in various sauces, steak, sausages, salads washed down with soft drinks, bottled water and one or two cold ales. Here are the executive chef flightmanager and apprentice Tan and some of the happy customers

Cut off time was 1pm and around 12md the fish started to be brought in. The young anglers really outdid the older anglers with some terrific captures. The crowd swelled at the measuring mat and cheers of "bewdy" and "great fish" were heard all round.

Here is the list of winners complete with pics

WINNER OF LARGEST BREAM (JUNIOR) - boat cleaning kit valued at $100 from Huett Marine and a FISHO game

Jayden - bream 32 cms

WINNER LARGEST TREVALLY (SENIOR) - a $50 voucher from GO FISH Dural and a FISHO game

pmak - silver trevally 41 cm

WINNER LARGEST TREVALLY (JUNIOR) - a $50 voucher from GO FISH at Dural

Kayla - silver trevally 30 cms

WINNER FLATHEAD (SENIOR) - boat cleaning kit valued at $100 from HUETT MARINE and a vest from johnno and a FISHO game

tony t - dusky flathead 55 cms

DUEL RUNNERS UP FOR FLATHEAD SECTION - a $50 voucher from GO FISH at Dural/ a $50 fishing tackle shop voucher and a t shirt donated by yarraone (LIVING INK TATTOO PARLOUR)

davemmm and pike with an equally measured flathead respectively of 49.5 cms

WINNER MYSTERY FISH LENGTH (42 CMS) - a $50 voucher from Geoff and Lyn (dalucius and mr dalucius) to be redeemed at GO FISH Dural

SNAP-ER

Other credible catches of the day are seen below

A MASSIVE THANKS TO ALL THOSE THAT DONATED, HELPED AND ATTENDED ON THE DAY

Cheers mrsswordfisherman

[Guest]

Great effort by all concerned and congratulations to the winners on the day.

Big thanks also to mrsswordie for all her organisational skills.

This Social was one of the best we have had and the weather was spectacular to say the least.

Regards Swordfisherman

[Davemmm]

Another great day.

Well done and thanks to all that where involved in organising it.

Dave

[mottyman]

Hi everyone,

What a bloody great day we had... the socials are just fantastic and well worth heading along to.

A big thank you and congratulations to everyone who organised the day, provided food and drink, COOKED ALL DAY, and generally looked after us so well.

Now... bring on the king social

Cheers

David.

[slinkymalinky]

What a fantastic looking day. Congratulations to all the winners and to the members, mods and admin who played a hand in putting together another fanastic social.

Cheers, Slinky

[cut_loose]

Glad you guy had fun. Looks like a awesome day.

I'll try and make it to the next one

[Michael Hatte]

Crongarts to all the people that made today happen!!!

Im only very new to the site and it was a great way to meet a couple of you.

Here are a couple shots from Monch and myselfs day out....

2 choppers on the one blade.

Monch with a nice dusky on lure.

Rat kingy on a lure taken in only 3-4 meters of water off towra piont.

Look foward to meeting you all again....

Cheers, Michael.

Edited September 13, 2009 by bloopin

[cat-as-trophy]

WHAT A TERRIFIC DAY....

The weather gods where definately smiling on us. A fantastic day was had by one and all.

As usual Flightmanager had the bacon and egg, tomatoes, onions and mushrooms cooking away and the kettle on the boil for all the early starters.

A steady trickle of raider arrived, registered and got a feed then went out to battle the bay for the elusive fish. ( Not before I had hassled them to buy a raiders cap or stickers for their boats)

Time marched on and there was not a raider in sight for a measure and we where thinking, this will turn into just a bbq and not a social when all of a sudden Mottyman arrives and brings us a nice legal flathead.

It is now starting to look up.

With the official cut off time of 1pm quickly approaching, Flightmanager fired up the barbie and started cooking sausages, steaks, hamburger patties, sausages, onions, mushies etc for the hungry hoard that we where expecting to inundate us at any minute.

One raider arrived with a nice flattie and then all of a sudden we had quite a number of raiders young and old with their prized fish ready to be measured, noted and accepted.

At approx 1:30pm Stewy made the call to close off the measurements and then came the wait.

After about 20 minutes, all where called together, firstly for a group shot and then for the presentations to begin.

Congratulations to all the winners, you really earnt your rewards today.

Congratulations must go to our terrific site sponsors who donated prizes, one fantastic site sponsor, Brickman for his continued donation of the fantastic meat that everone was eating today, and especially to our members Yarraone, Delucious and Mr Delucious for your terrific donations. It is all gladly appreciated.

Finally a big thankyou to our fantastic administrators Stewy and Donna and to my fellow moderators, Flgihtmanager, Blood Knot, Tan the Fisherman and Johnno, thank you all for helping to make this day as spectacular as it was.

I am now looking forward to the next social, and once it is posted hope to see you all and definately some more members, mods etc attending.

See you all soon.

Cheers

Mrs Flightmanager

[bart]

Congrats to all at Fishraider. A great day with the weather and by the smiles on everyones face a great day had by all. Great to catch up with Donna, Stewie and Ross also to meet Ray R and Peter ( Mercer) from the Central Coast. Appreciated the great brekky also.

Cheers Fishraiders ,

BART

Edited September 13, 2009 by bart

[Blood Knot]

What a top day a pleasure to put names to faces and meet so many Happy Fishraiders.

Fantastic weather, food and company.

Congrats & thanks to the members, sponsors, admin & mods who donated the food, prizes and energy to make the day a great success. Great to see those young kids with some good prize winning fish too!

Goodonya Smitty for sharing your boat & showing me around the "Cooks" great Raider spirit.

Looking forward to catching up with all again at the next one. They are not to be missed.

John

[donjuarez]

Well done raiders!

look like yet another well organised, and well run event!

Congrats to all involved!

The weather sure did look the goods down in the Bay!

Will hopefully get along to the next one..

AJ

[Yarraone]

what a great report .. i had a great day meeting more raiders and catching up.. That was such a great report.. wow so i will just add a few more photo's

Abuman hard at it

Just to proove i had a go at the soft plastics......

Once again thanks again.. We were made very welcome as always and it makes the drive from Bathurst well worth it

[Ray R]

50,000 casts and walked about 20 miles and didn't see a fish, hey this was my first social and it was a beauty, I really didn't care too much about the land based fish no show as it was great to be there and put some real life faces to the avatars.

Thanks again to the organisers one and all , you provided us with a magic day..

[HawkesburyMarlin]

Thanks to the organisers!! It was a great day out & I think the majority can agree that Botany /Georges river's sub-marine ihabitants have been left too grow a little bigger, ready for summer!

Also thanks to those that gave me a few tips on my outboard issues , after trying to track down some new plugs, to no avail, and some bobing around in the bay with the cowing off... I found it was the manual primer switch which was loose and ON ....therefore choking the engine. Thanks for the offers of assistance, though not required in the end, it was reasuring to see so many people willing to help! Thankyou!

ALSO ..... (and no offence to the steaks/snags/eggs/onions/mushrooms/bread..........I didn't try them..but am sure they were tops) Those Beef Kebabs were a1!!!!!!!!!!! ..............never mind the fish, and the opportunity too meet some great like minded people.............I'll be at the next social...just for the kebabs!!!!!!

[austwave]

Sounds Like it was a great day out had by all.

Sad that I was preoccupied and unable to to appear.

These days out are what fishing is all about.

Congratulations to all that attended and of course thanks to the Swordies and Mods and all other members who actively take part in making the events happen.

[mako1]

What another top social.

The weather was terrific.

Congrats to the admin and mods and to all

of the Raiders that turned up to make it a top day.

A big thanks to Ross for keeping us all well fed.

It was great to see the usual Raider gang again

and to meet some more Raiders.

Congrats to all who caught fish in tough conditions

and to all of the Raiders who won the great prizes generously

donated by the great sponsors and Raiders.

Looking foward to the next one.

[fisho1234]

hi All,

What a great day it turned out to be. Many thanks to the Admins for organising the social. Was great to meet up with so many raiders and and putting a face to the names. This was my first social and I certainly will be attending others.

Sam(samcat)

[Hodgey]

Another very successful Fishraider Social. Lots of smiling faces, good tucker, and a heap of great prizes. No wonder these events are so popular with the members.

Thank you to admin for all your efforts, and all the members who donated their time, equipment and tucker to ensure everyone had a great day out

Cheers

Hodgey

[james7]

Great day. Thanks to all involved.

Cheers

Peter

[pmak]

A big thank you to the mods and sponsors and generous fishraiders who made the event possible.

It was good to meet other fellow Raiders and put some faces to names.

Fishing was tough but I managed a couple of trevally off Kurnell during the runoff and at the bottom of the tide with one of them coming in the winner for the day.

The kids were not so lucky this time but got rewarded with a great feed at lunch back at base camp and a swim off the beach in glorious weather.

I also got three fishraider hats as my small measure of support for the site and the mods who devote so much time to making it accessible to all of us. The hats are actually excellent with a stiff wide brim and a strap to keep it on when it's windy - they're going to be permanent fixtures on our boat from now on.

Finished the day off with an excellent dinner prepared by my wife. We had trevally in a spicy lime sauce and was so yummy only bones were left after the dinner!

The kids had a go with the Fisho game after dinner. I was too tired to participate but judging from the sounds of laughter I heard coming from the family room, the game is a big hit!

Only thing left to do now is make the trek out to Go Fish at Dural. Somehow I have the feeling the $50 voucher will only be enough to get me started ...

[Jewdreamer]

Thanks to all the organisers of such a fantastic day.

We didn't do well on the fish fron but had lots of fun exploring, did about 90Km around the bay and environs looking for an elusive fish, but as someone once told me....

They swim around!

Cheers to everyone involved from Chris and Ralph

[Basil D]

wish i was there, my wife wants to come along next year, got my dates crossed, wedding anivesary weekend comes first

[Young Gun]

What an awsome day it turned out to be. I missed out on alot. Will try to come to the next one, looks like really good fun.

Cheers YG

[olitay]

Hi Raiders, congratulations on a great day! the fishraider community really is one im proud to be a part of, the dedication and organization in is amazing. I wish i was there!

Well done Donna, you have, once again, put on a spectacular event!

Ill be there for the kingy social. Can't wait!

BillyD

[monch]

What a great day it was on sunday. Thanks for the admins, mods, sponsors and others who contributed to organising and running the event. After registering early me and bloopin raced off to the container wall and other spots, hoping for some trevally, they were nowhere to be seen and after a while we gave up and moved around flicking plastics and blades in search of the flatties. We caught 3 keeper flatties that went 45, 47 and 48cm, caught a few undersize ones and dropped a few larger specimens as well. Bloopin managed to get 2 chopper tailor at the same time on a blade and shortly after hooked into a rat 63cm kingy on 6lb line in 3-5m of water. It was a good fight with the fish circling the boat and passing under it a few times.

Bloopin once again i thank you for taking me out on your boat, you put us onto some good fish and lots of action. We found some good spots, I learnt a lot about fishing from a boat and gained some good experience with using soft plastics as well. I had the flatties for dinner tonight, yummy.