A TOTAL of 240 teams and 588 anglers competed in this year’s Gold Coast Flathead Classic held last week in some horrendously windy conditions.
Wilson Fishing was awarded champion team with an impressive 3222 points, ahead of Lowrance Whyte Boyz in second and Team On-Strike in third place.
Gold Coast flathead gun Franco Martinese scored most individual points at 1784, that’s despite breaking his foot only hours before the comp kicked off! Franco and his team-mate Chris Metcalfe of team “Out 4 a Quickie” also took out champion two-man team.
Champion Junior was awarded to Jamie Horner with 866 points, while champion visiting team went to “Beer & Bullshit”.
Christian Cross caught the longest flathead, a 96 cm monster caught on a plastic in shallow water.
Over the three day event 4195 flatties were caught, 2121 on plastics and 2074 on hard bodies. The most popular lure was pink.
Chasing flathead is thirsty work and this year naming sponsor Great Northern sold over 6000 cans of beer at the event! Team Fishing World did its best to help boost this number!
Organiser David Whyte told Fisho this year was the club’s biggest ever event, and despite some of the worst weather in the Classic’s 23 year history, it was still an overwhelming success.
“All in all we have had positive feedback from the event. This was our first Classic with the new clubhouse and even with the additional numbers this year, the event ran smoothly,” said Whyte.
Whyte pointed out the massive sponsorship giveaways this year with over $235,000 worth of tackle and boats on offer. Each team was handed a bag full of gear and magazines with a value of $378 per two man team or $487 per three person team. That alone, not to mention the delicious meals, covers the cost of entry. In addition, each night there were generous giveaways and a major random draw for a Quintrex Renegade worth just under $32K. One lucky junior also won a Quintrex tinny worth just under $4k.
Team Fishing World, which consisted of Scott Thomas, Ian “Big E” Phillips, and Julian Viselli came in 10th place, while Team Fishing World – Dead Fishy came in 12th place. Dead Fishy was David Green, Mark Frendin and Kane Barclay.
All up the Gold Coast Flathead Classic proved why it’s considered one of the best events on the Australian fishing comp calendar. Despite 30 knots winds on day two and three days of trying conditions, there were fish to be caught, new techniques to learn and plenty of fun to be had after hours at the event’s clubhouse in Southport.
For more details, visit the event’s Facebook page here.
