OVER the weekend, the 2014 Golden Classic was successfully held again at Windamere Dam in NSW. The Golden Classic is officially the longest running catch and release comp in Australia with this being its 22nd year.
Overall the fishing was tough at times and characterised by fluctuating weather and high wind, as is the norm apparently in this part of the world. That said, good fish were caught for switched on anglers and in the end the comp was a close event.
This was my first time competing in the Golden Classic and it was refreshing to participate in a comp that had a friendly vibe about it. The competitors were a good bunch of people who were open about sharing success stories and their feedback to give us “greenhorns” a nudge in the right direction.
Team Fishing World consisting of Ethan Mallaby, Gio Atayde and myself managed to catch 13 fish over two days with an average length of 53.6cms for our 10 biggest fish.
While the official scorecards are yet to be published it looks as though we managed to pull a top 10 finish which is a great result considering the amount of talented teams and anglers competing in this prestigious freshwater comp.
Our tactic was pretty simple: sound out fish hanging off points, mark them and keep casting till the fish bit the lure. The fish weren’t schooling together, which made it difficult in marking isolated fish and catching them, however, this seemed to be the best tactic rather than covering ground.
There seemed to be a lot of water between fish. We had our best success off rocky points but other top performing teams worked over the 18ft mark out from the bank to great success. Others had success targeting trees in the middle of the dam.
Team Fishing World’s Gio Atayde with a typical Windamere “football”.
Vibe lures once again reigned supreme in the comp with most anglers throwing a black vibrating lure of some description. The top teams such as Duffrods and Team Jackall threw Transams to tempt the bigger class of fish, however, any vibe-style lure such as Ecogear’s VX, ZX and TN50s, Luckycraft LV RTO, Spanyid Snipers or any black metal blade worked very well.
Champion angler was David Welfare from Duffrods who averaged 53cms for his personal 10 best fish. Champion team were the young boys from Team DTF of Bathurst who averaged an astounding 56cms for their 10 best fish.
The biggest fish of the comp was an impressive 61cms or roughly 6kgs.
This year’s Classic produced plenty of quality fish, most taken on metal vibe lures.
Ian Miller, event organiser, mentioned this year’s catch lengths were up on previous years, which is a good sign of the thriving fishery at Windamere. Every fish looked well-conditioned and brightly marked.
The Sunday “Dash for cash” was taken out by yellowbelly tournament expert Jamie Hardman from Team Jackall who pulled a healthy 59cm fish and made it back in quick time to take out top honours … and the cash.
All in all, this was a brilliantly run comp and Ian and Pat should be proud for continuing the legacy. You can bet Team Fishing World will be back next year to go one step closer to getting our name on the Steve Starling trophy.
