Windamere Golden Classic 2004

Everything You Could Hope for and More - All In the One Comp!

By Ian 'Barra' Miller

PREAMBLE.

From my point of view, the more tournaments I fish, the more I realise that the Windamere Golden Classic is special.

I don't want to get all sentimental or overly deep & meaningful on you, but there are things about the Windamere Classic that I'd like to say. (First and foremost, I should apologise for a few things: Firstly for rambling; secondly that this report is more for the competitors, the sponsors, and the organisers than it is the casual reader; and the third is that if you've yet to fish this invitational event.well due to its popularity the honest truth is there's little chance you'll be there in the near future unless you can bribe a team captain [or one of the organisers J ] - and this is a shame because I wish there were more comps like Windy. And maybe there are, it's just that I haven't had the pleasure of fishing them yet!)

For the last twelve years it has often been easy to get complacent about the value of 'Windy' or even take aspects of it for granted. Having missed out on the event last year but fishing well over a dozen other comps in the interim, the whole Windamere experience this year was a very welcome return to something unique! Where else can you find such a mix of everyday and high profile anglers competing earnestly yet enjoying the old fashioned social aspects of a fishing get-together? And all in a place where extraordinary fishing is available!

As an organiser I get an entirely different perspective; as a parent I get to enjoy the company of my kids and nurture their interest in fishing; and as a competitor I get to see all those friends and faces that otherwise would pass me by for another year.

Now on with the report!

For more than a decade the competition now called the Windamere Golden Classic has thrown all sorts of weather at the competitors, and this year it really turned it on!

The noon Friday briefing saw all the present competitors huddled under the huge marquee tent trying the avoid the torrential downpour Huey was sending! I wasn't sure if everyone could hear the P.A. system above the onslaught but judging by the nods of approval, the field wasn't overly disappointed at the start time of session 1 - the Shimano Session - being given a rain check. The nicely co-ordinated flashes of lightening and accompanying rumbles of thunder no doubt confirmed their acceptance!

In true Windamere style, two hours later when the weather had done an about-face and the anglers were given the go-ahead, the meeting was evacuated in record time! (And there were plenty of boats idling near the ramp waiting for their captain to get onboard too!).

With the lake at around 40% capacity (about the lowest level for our event) there were sure to be some big fish in the mix and the anglers did not disappoint. Some great bites were had and big fish recorded, including Andrew Tonini's massive 68cm 'yella', perhaps the largest ever recorded for a Windy event. In true first-session style, plenty of teams blanked entirely while others made hay. Amazingly Roger Apperley found enough of a lee shore to wave the wand and took a couple of hefty fish on fly in the process.

Topping the session were the infamous pair of Bushy and Starlo fishing as the Blakes Marine team who keyed into a hot bite by casting Jackalls, and landed thirteen fish from a single point of shoreline in the last hour or so of the session to blitz the field. But 'pair' is the key word here and because they did not have a three-man team, their scores could not count toward any prizes. Which was good news for team 'The Survivors', headed by members Ashley Barber and Blair Whitney who both racked up impressive tallies to take the lead.

And so it was that the Shimano Session #1 was eventually completed. Apart from an impressive list of big goldens there were also Murray cod, catfish and silver perch landed in the session and as usual, plenty of hard luck stories!

A nice calm dawn greeted the field (or at least the majority who saw it) for the Saturday morning Lowrance Session #2. There must have been some serious IOU's cashed in the night before because several anglers suddenly found out how to find fish in this session! Seriously, it always surprises how some team members can catch them while others struggle and curse alongside, which is something that only those on board and the thousand or so flies covering the boat will ever know the details of!

Traditionally this session is very competitive and this year it did not disappoint. No less than five anglers scored over 200cm of golden perch and the catch-cards made for some interesting reading. Suffice to say, the top three anglers that would later be rewarded earned their prizes.

Five big fish were needed to challenge for this session and Mark 'Mango' Mangold took it from the white-hot Ashley Barber, in turn narrowly edging out Tony Ferraro who found a run of solid yella's. Denis Pigott and Chris Burbidge were unlucky not to place in the Lowrance Session and Georgina Cullen stamped her mark in the ladies division during this interval.

After a quick break for lunch the anglers were back on the water for the third and final period - the Blakes Marine Session. The goldens can sometimes go quiet at this stage, and while that proved true for many anglers, others found enough fish to help overall numbers to reach 100 fish and equal the tally of session two.

The successful anglers were headed by Dave Welfare who with his team 'BreamOn' found an interesting trolling patch in the 'middle of nowhere' (where Dave was to head later that night), and also saw some strong finishes by last year's Champion angler Dean Hamilton (who finally figured out how to keep 'em on the hook), and the steadily improving Scotty Towner.

The wash-up was interesting to say the least, and the gory details of the score sheet are to be found hereabouts. Winners of the major category, the Steve Starling Champion Team Trophy were The Survivors, who did plenty in the first two sessions to hold off the strong finishes of Mango's Team Strudwick Wiggle Fin Action Disk (say that five times quickly after a presentation dinner) and Dean Hamilton's well credentialed Getting' Hammered.

The Blakes Marine team of Bushy and Starlo exhausted their honey-hole in the end, but still finished (unofficially) with the second highest tally of points - and probably worked hardest of all considering there was only two of them!

Some interesting figures can be gleaned from the statistics. Although fish numbers were down on some of the bumper years, size was certainly up and 5 kilogram fish were not uncommon - by my own reckoning over 30 fish were easily into pre-metric double figures and many more were close to it, if not over! In fact the overall average golden perch size (of which there were 272) for the three sessions was in excess of 50cm - and in Lake Windamere specimens that's a decent fish indeed.

Other notable captures included Murray cod, eeltail catfish and silver perch - especially Peter Harris' massive 59cm fish that took out the most meritorious category.

In brief, major categories winners were as follows:

Champion Team - The Survivors 1304pts; Blair Whitney, Ashley Barber, Warren Maybury

Champion Angler - Ashley Barber 662pts

Champion Lady - Georgina Cullen 247pts

Champion Jnr - Jeremy Moore 144pts

Champion Family Team - Left Overs 311pts; Laurie Moore, Jeremy Moore, Jason Moore.

Biggest Golden - 68cm Andrew Tonini

While I have your attention I must also thank and list our sponsors who generally donate their products and in doing so add very real value and credibility to the Windamere Golden Classic - to say nothing of giving everyone something extra to strive for! Please support the following products whenever you can:

POSTSCRIPT.

My personal thanks go to my good mates and fellow event organisers Patrick 'Lionel' Morris and Neil Ryan, who each via their own responsibilities shoulder the lion's share in the running and success of the Windy comp and also to 'The Emperor', whose assistance this year in helping tally the Classic's complicated results cannot be underestimated.

As a committee we would like to use the worldwide web as a vehicle for thanking those who helped us; firstly the 'Smoo Chasers' team of Paul Winchester, John Scott and Les Waldock, and the '.' team ., ., and . for not only cooking the massive presentation night barbeque but also backing up at dawn the next morning to cook an enormous pre-Dash hot breakfast for the entire field! Thanks also to Teigan & Paris for selling so many raffle tickets, the Kaenon girls Sarah, Daina and Jade for assisting with the prize giving, and Hammo and friends for rescuing the Marquee when the weather change on Thursday night threatened to tear it down!

And to you the competitors, thanks for your participation and helping to make another memorable event. I trust you all enjoyed yourselves, have recovered sufficiently to get your lives back on track, and will be ready and willing to do it all again next November!

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