Hi Dolphins, a wee sports report for the past couple of months. Relating some Competition and Social events and Club Championship results to date.
The National Spearfishing Championships were held around the Port Fairy area of Victoria, we had the one Dolphin participate in the Nationals and that was Evan Leeson.
Evan had done some serious training for the event, in particular diving around Tasmania, I heard looking for Crayfish and other succulent seafood that the cold waters of the Tasman are renowned for – he struck out on almost all accounts despite becoming intimate with the complete map of Tasmania, yet when he arrived to scout the area for the Nationals he found the Southern Rock lobster to be in abundance, and the odd 22kg Southern Bluefin Tuna. Evan fared ok in the event finishing outside the Top Ten and he is keen to return to another Nationals in the near future.
Australian Pacific Coast Champs at Port Stephens
The APCC format is held over two days, similar to our Alliman Shield with the one specie only to be weighed in but the scoring is a lot different, each fish that makes weight is awarded 100 points, and every kilo is worth 10 points, therefore a 1300gm Red mowie is worth 113 points, a 4 kilo Bonito is worth 140 points.
The Dolphins had representation with the Puckeridge family, and they had great success, while our latest travelling three musketeers Pat, and gun juniors Eddie Sherb and Grayson Hinrichs also fared well.
Lara Puckeridge took out the Ladies category with 2326pts and places 11th from over 50 competitors; Ian came 5th overall with 3193pts; Pat Mullins won the Grand Masters (he rockhopped); Grayson and Eddie finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Juniors; Aaron Pucko on Day 1 was narrowly leading from a local Intermediate and it was a nervous afternoon for me waiting to see if Aaron had done enough on Day 2, the weigh in saw he had done very well and was able to take out this time honored championship with a convincing win scoring 4928pts.
Congratulations to all of you that attended the event and did the Dolphins proud.
Interpacifics: In early May, Derrick Cruz and Lara Puckeridge represented Australia in the Inter Pacific Championships, a pairs event, this year held in Eden. Both the Australian Mens and Ladies teams won their events, a meritorious achievement against the caliber of divers they competed against from New Zealand, Tahiti and New Caledonia. Lara and Derrick fished both the two days of competition and should be congratulated on not just their success but their incredible fitness and attitude. These events are testing swims, strategic, the ability to work well with your selected pairs partner, the numerous days of scouting from dawn to dusk prior to the event and maintaining your health for the weeks leading up to the dive, so you can see it is not just diving and spearing fish and having a good old time, though both Lara and Derrick may disagree. Congratulations Australia, and to these two Dolphins who have succeeded at the highest level.
Dolphins away trips to Coffs Harbour and Seals:
Going on these north coast socials can sometimes be ordinary diving, if you get in at all, yet socially they are always fun, this year, the conditions really turned on some nice fishing uo the coast. Stui Morrow, Ben Lake and Ian speared some nice Wahoo, Stui’s reaching 22kg and is to date the largest fish of the year speared during a club event! Derrick Cruz took the Reef fish option while he was up there and landed an absolutely smoking hot Mangrove Jack of 11kg, I could not do the capture of this fish justice in words, bail Derrick up and ask him the process he went through to land the fish and it will be a class in fish psychology for you.
Seal Rocks without Manny Bova there is like Guy Fawkes not turning up to cracker night (you had to have been around a while back to get this sorry) yet the water was crackling when the Dolphins arrived up there, lots of notable catches and some of the crew that went up caught there first or PB kings while diving there. Well done to Irish Ian on his first king and a good fish too getting over double digits, and Eddie pulled off a 14.5kg fish to be the largest of the weekend.
State Championships: Seven Dolphins fished the State and all did very well. The 2 day event was held at Long Reef (5 hours) and Long Bay (6 hours) a rock hopping event as usual. Day 1 was held at Long Reef where we encountered patchy viz that was best over the white rocks up to 12m, Evan landed 12 species to gain the 100% first place on the day, our Junior Grayson had a great day with 11 in only a few percent behind Evan in 2nd place another three Dolphins and we had 5 Dolphins in the top 10. Day 2 at Malabar saw near perfect conditions, especially in the morning with vizo up to 25m and lots of fish in the shallows before the swell picked up. Grayson unfortunately had gear failure on TWO guns and was out halfway through the day so his score was amazing for the day, he finished 4th overall. Marshy and Parry did very well, Marshy 3rd on the day and finishing 5th overall, 
Parry close behind Marshy with 6th place. Eddie just missed the Ten with 11th and a third in Juniors, Pat won the Grand Masters, Trippey the Veteran Champion; the Super Yank again top scored on this day and became another Dolphin to add their name onto the State Champion’s Trophy. Congratulations to all of you that fished the event.
Allimans: As much as we have enormous talent in our club, without doubt the best of any club in the nation, we simply are not getting numbers to the local interclub Alliman competition, to quote a phrase often heard during a Wests Tigers match “We’re getting flogged!” Come along to an Alliman, most of the club are rockhopping as there are not enough boats at the moment, (see Pat in the photo: he stole my boat, and is driving it as such, for the Alliman – what a champion clubman he is) regardless it’s always a fun day out there with your friends.
If you are interested in coming to a dive, contact Eddie or Evan and they can assist you. At last check Derrick was leading the Alliman overall progressively, and in form spearo Grayson won the last Alliman held at Bayview. It is a team effort that wins the championship, not an individual, so no matter how you rate yourself, come out for the day and have a blast with the rest of us.
Other Notable catches: Big Jewies – Lara Puckeridge outshone everyone in her boat with a 27 kilo Mulloway and outstanding fish Lara and it go on the Pelagic honour trophy “The Pucko” (named after your dad). Grayson landed his first Mackerel, a good fish at that.
Mulloway Madness has definitely affected Paul Mudcrab Marsh, as you know Marshy moved further up the coast to escape Red Morwong and rude people and he has definitely caught the bug that only Jewies can provide. Marshy deserves results with the efforts he puts in, and the fish keep coming in, his most notable this season, a splendid 32 kilo specimen.
Benny Bayfield has been putting some kilometres driving up to the North coast and has speared some amazing pelagics, for mine his horse of a Samson topping over 20 kilos is a wonderful fish.
Sahil with his first Kingie, speared at Maroubra, Sahil literally jumped in swam for 5 minutes, speared the kingie, wrestled it to the surface and jumped straight out, weighing 9 kilos it’s a cracking first kingfish for him.
Club Championship Statistics as of today:
The Club Championship is one of the more open in recent years. Grayson is leading the way ahead of Parry and Paul Marsh. Derrick and Evan are not far behind. The coveted species shield is also tight with Grayson just ahead of Mudcrab Marsh and the Handsome Mexican, with the president and Super Yank still in the thick of it to make the species shield a very interesting event this year. The fight for B grade will be a great tussle between our eldest and near youngest Dolphins, Maddog never gives in so look out Eddie he may stop picking you up on the way to comps. C Grade normally the most seesawing of the grades for who leads the Grade throughout the year appears to be a two horse race between Alex and Vita.
A Grade: Grayson 2361, Parry 1829, Marshy 1748
B Grade: Eddie 1166, Pat 732pts
C Grade: Alex Sehrig 186pts, Vita 78pts
Species Progressive:
A Grade: Grayson Hinrichs 23, Paul Marsh 22, Derrick Cruz 21, Parry Gryllis 19, Evan 17
B Grade: Eddie Sherb 15; Pat Mullins 13
C Grade: Ricardo 7; George 3; Alex 2
Most Meritorious Fish: Mangrove Jack 11000gm – 330 points – Derrick Cruz
Largest Fish Progressive: Wahoo 22kg – 110pts – Stui Morrow
Largest Species Progressive
Bream: 1115gm Paul Marsh
Goatfish: 1375gm Evan Leeson
Luderick: 915gm Parry Gryllis
Morwong Red: 1520gm Evan Leeson
RBF: 3040gm Grayson Hinrichs
Tassie: 1600gm Grayson Hinrichs
Kingie: 14500gm Eddie Sherb
Jewie: 32000gm Paul Marsh *
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