Daz and Dez's State of Origin fish off

[DerekD]

I met Darren several years ago by the water when he asked about fishing in Sydney. He comes from a family of mad fishos but most of it was in Queensland where they have to muscle the barramundi and mangrove jack out from snags. A quick trip to the fishing shop and that was the start of his learning curve in Sydney. A few more rods, a Hobie fishing kayak, trips on my boat, shore based stuff and once he got used to playing a fish he has become very proficient in fishing Sydney.

 

He has been a great fishing buddy over the years and when family commitments allow he’ll put the hours in to get some great results. Last year while doing some shore based fishing we decided to do an impromptu State of Origin fishing comp. I started off with a 53cm flathead. While unhooking it he snuck in with a snapper but I was fortunate enough to land a 70cm flathead to close the game out with a win to NSW.

 

This year we decided to make it a best of three with a scoring system. Lure only and any fish hooked and landed gets a minimum 1 point. If it is a species which has a legal size you get either 1 point for undersized or 2 points if it is a legal size. There is a bonus 1 point if it is the largest of that species landed for the day. For example, if only one flathead was landed in the session and it was 40cm (legal size being 36cm) then you would get a 2+1 = 3 points. Alternatively as there is no legal size for a yellowtail it would be 1 point plus 1 more point if it was the only one of its species caught. There is a proviso that if a fish is too big to land on the light bream gear we are using you only have to get to within reasonable netting distance for it to count. There are a further possible 2 points for the longest fish landed of the day. That 3 point flathead could actually end up being worth 5 points.

 

Daz and Dez’s State of Origin Match 1 (a few weeks back)

 

An English mate was keen to join us which would have made the State of Origin a Tri-Nations (I also have a Dutch passport) but not to be as said mate slept in.

 

Couple of warm up casts and Daz yells to me, “Mate I am on, does this count?”. Checked my watch and 30 seconds past 8am so it counted. Nice little flathead for 1 point. Fifteen minutes he is on again for a second flat head. Again not legal but still another point. I have a few taps but nothing. Switching between minnows, grubs and Ecogear ZX and still no joy. Minor location change and Daz foul hooks a small snapper. As it was hooked on a lure it counted. I finally hook up on a flatty and as I am lifting it up the hook pops – “NO TRY”. Bugger. I turn around on the wharf and there is Daz struggling around the pylons with a huge bend in his rod. Turns out he’d flicked a blade at some structure and something big took it and went for a screaming run. All is fair in love and fishing but both of us wanted to see this fish landed. I gave him a hand clearing the rod around the pylon and passed it back to him. Fortunately the fish headed for the middle of the bay. Long runs and no give. Daz was hoping for a mulloway but I had other thoughts. Over 5 minutes in and this thing is showing no signs of giving in. I know it is only 4lb braid with 7lb leader but get your knots right and keep constant tension and you can land some really good fish. I made a judgement call at that stage and ran around the back of the bay to get my landing net as I figured this fight was going to last a while. 15 minutes in and I look at my watch and realise the ferry was due in a bit over 10 minutes. A power boat came cruising by and we are pointing at the rod and line and that we had a fish on. They still drove over the line – crap. Daz put rod tip down to water level and fortunately the boat didn’t cut the line. At one stage the rod tip jumped and the pressure came off the rod. Thought we’d lost it but then the pressure was there again. We think one of the trebles had pulled lose and fortunately other one stuck. With the ferry coming soon we had to get some line in. Fish was about 20m out from wharf. Then 10m. Then the danger zone. Getting some lifts on it and then it did a dash under the wharf and clipped him off on the pylon. He didn’t curse. He didn’t smash the rod. He just stood there, silently looking across the bay. I could feel his pain. It wasn’t just losing the fish. It was never knowing what it was. Based on experience, the long runs, the going deep I’d take a pretty big bet it was a king. Salmon or tailor I would have expected to jump at one stage. The fight was too long for a mulloway which often need some rest time during the fight. I’d take that bet even further and call it at least 70cm (like the one in my profile pic) and probably 75cm. If he’d landed it I would have conceded the match which I probably wasn’t going to win at this stage. A short while later he managed a frigate mackerel which sealed the deal. Win or lose I still had a blast and so did he.

 

Daz and Dez’s State of Origin Match 2 (last Sunday)

 

Same scoring system 12pm to 2:15pm. Walking to the first location Daz spots $5 floating in the water which we fish out. No that doesn’t count for a point. First location Daz gets some hits but no hook ups. I’m switching lures trying to spark some interest. My go to pink grub gets hit and up comes a flounder. Darren then hooks up and up comes a flathead which he drops as he is lifting it out of the water. NO TRY. Location change and I pick up two silver trevallies in quick succession. Not legal but worth some points. I then hook up this monster.

 

Laughing I walk over to Daz and point out that as it was hooked it counts as 1 point and as it was another species I get the bonus point too. Sweet. Shortly after Darren hooks up and I walk over to him and start laughing at the monster he has hooked.

 

Working the back of the bay I manage a flathead. It looked close to legal so out comes the tape measure. 34cm so no extra points. Switching to the Ecogear I hook up three flatheads of which two were well legal. I also drop all three trying to land them. I am still way ahead on points but I know Daz could turn things around in quick succession. One more location change and another flatty. 15 minutes to go and I am feeling pretty confident. We agree that any fish hooked at end of match counts if it is landed no matter how long the fight is. Fortunately for me there was no last minute turn-around. A win for NSW.

 

Shook hands and I’d had a blast. So we stand at one all. The decider will be a 4 hour session which I am really looking forward to. I pointed out that in Origin the matches are held in different states so that maybe we should go to Queensland and stay with his family for the decider. Just a thought.

Edited August 21, 2017 by DerekD

[ARC H]

well done those are some massive fish you hooked

pull any drag mate??

[big Neil]

What an enjoyable read that was Dez. Good luck to both Daz and you for the decider...I'm sure the outcome is somewhat incidental between such good mates. Don't forget to post the results though. Probably just as well that the Pom slept in...they don't understand proper fishing anyway (LOL). Cheers, BN

[HenryR]

beautiful write up Derek. The little ones are cute. For some awful reason I tend to catch trout that size. A big hooray for the Moby Dick too ... carrot and stick all in the one fish    guaranteed to keep most fishos coming back.

[Regan]

nice report derek

thats a pretty cool way to fish, using a point system

great work, win next match for us

[jdanger]

Top read and I like the system.

Looking forward to the round 3 highlights.

[DerekD]

State of Origin 3

 

As it was the decider, Daz and I allowed for a 4 hour session shore based last Saturday. A beautiful morning with slightly more breeze than I like but nothing to put me off. Bream gear only, lure only, same scoring system as last time (read previous posts) and I decided to dress for the match with my bright blue Pirtek fishing shirt with lots of fishing brands listed. I was kind of disappointed not to see Darren in a Maroon coloured top – he thought about it but didn’t follow through.

 

10am start and we send out our first casts from a jetty. About 15 minutes later I hook up and the line goes tight. Oh crap – a snag. Lost both lure and leader and spent some time re-tying. About 10 minutes later Daz hooks up. Again a snag and he had to put on another lure. He switches to a blade and then soon afterwards feels some weight on the line. Turns out to be a bait sized squid. Good news for me is that it doesn’t count as it is not a fish. Bad news for squid is that Darren and I plan to chase kings this coming weekend so it didn’t go back in the water. A few minutes later Daz hooks up again and there is some weight on the line. Not fighting like a fish so I called it as a squid or a plastic bag. Turned out to be an old plastic cup. Score is still 0-0.

 

Location change to the next jetty. Fished this hard but no joy. In fact I haven’t had a single hit about an hour and a half into a session. I was trying grubs, minnows, blades and so was Darren. Not often we fish this length of time for no results. After really working the area we decided it was time for the next spot.

 

Back of the bay which is usually sure to result in a flathead or three. Darren started near the marina and was doing some gutsy casts into structure. I hear a whoop of joy and there he is landing a nice little silver trevally of about 18cm. Points on that fish at that time would be 1 point for the fish, missed the 1 point for the legal size but pick up the bonus 1 point for biggest of that species. As it was also the longest fish of the day so far he was also lined up for the bonus 2 points for that too. In short I was on 0 and he was on 4 points. The fun part this scoring system is things can turn around dramatically with just one or two fish. Worked the rest of that section of the bay for no further fish. I’m not doing well.

 

We decided to skip the channel near the marina and head for the ferry wharf for the last hour and a half. About 15 minutes in Darren picks up a 30cm flathead and I am still on nothing. He was now on 2 points for the trevally, 2 points for the flathead (missed the 1 point for a legal flathead) and 2 points for the longest fish of the day giving him a 6-0 lead.

I was feeling a little despondent but still having a ball. In the area we were fishing we can usually pick up a grinner so I tried for them to get some credit back. I switched between a number of lures to try and turn things around. I was even prepared to risk some of my more expensive hardbodies in areas where there were snags just to give me an edge. Darren, hoping to repeat the kingfish hit from previously was fishing a white Rapala. Unfortunately for him he found a mooring rope – lure didn’t come back. With about 50 minutes left on the clock I realised I only needed one legal flathead to turn the whole comp around. Out comes the pink 3 inch minnow with a 9gm jig head just so I could cover some serious ground. Ten minutes later I feel a solid hook. With ferry passengers watching I bring it close to the wharf and it looks to be a legal flathead. I risked lifting it up as I could see it was solidly hooked. Out comes the tape measure – 42cm. Darren no longer has the fish of the day or the biggest of that species. His score has dropped to 2 points for the trevally and 1 point for the undersized flathead. I am now on 1 point for flathead, 1 point for being above legal size, 1 point for longest flathead and 2 bonus points for longest fish of the day. It is 5-3 in my favour.

 

With 40 minutes left on the clock I am nervously waiting to see if Darren will do what most Queenslanders do and finish strongly in the dying minutes. I know my chance is as good as his but neither of us was in a comfortable position. If he’d hooked any other species he had a minimum 2 points and a draw sitting there. Clock winds down and on the buzzer any lines in the water count till they are retrieved and any fish hooked is still in play until it is landed or lost. One slow retrieve later and I was out. One even slower retrieve later Darren was out. A NSW win and hands shaken, big smiles on our faces and looking forward to the next session.

[Rah]

Great write up mate. What an awesome way to fish.

Cheers

Rah

[ARC H]

Nice Report Mate

Good to see you won it for us

[Regan]

nice report mate,a point system is an awesome way to fish,

good to see blues one!! thanks for winning it for us

[jdanger]

Fantastic come-from-behind win.

Re-reading about the king in the first match brings a tear to the eye, even if it was QLD's loss.

[sam bros]

great report mate 

loved it

good to see NSW can win something

[HenryR]

2Ds your write ups are totally fab !!

Edited August 19, 2017 by HenryR
I decided it deserved an extra exclamation mark :)

[DerekD]

Of course as before any big matches there was some pre-match banter. I came up with:

• You have to respect the Queenslanders as they have performed strongly in the past but you are only as good as you are on the day.
• We have a young fit team balanced with experienced players (read I am 47 but refuse to believe that age is slowing me down). This puts us in a good place for the win.
• It will be a match for the record books.
• Blah, blah, blah (running out of ideas at this point).

Darren came back with:

• "this will be the greatest origin of all time" and
• "this is the closest matched teams ever assembled".

He also pointed out that:

• "I am under an injury cloud after 3 days off sick with a virus this week but will dig deep like a true Queenslander!

I'll need some good ones for our Origin 2018. I'm thinking of something along the lines of acknowledging the fans and how it wouldn't be the same without them but I'm open to suggestions.

Edited August 21, 2017 by DerekD