13th Lake Windamere Golden Classic 2005

The Windamere Classic has certainly come a long way in the last few years and this year it went another big step further! We were fortunate to have a few celebrities amongst our angling ranks this year, including singer Melinda Schneider, ex-league player now TV fishing celebrity Andrew ‘ET' Ettingshausen, and all the way from California two American Bass Pro's!

Everyone was certainly primed at the Friday lunchtime briefing, and when the field hit the water it was also an eye-opener to see the changes in fishing rigs on Mudgee's ‘home waters'. Competing this year were lots of beautiful new rigs including several ‘glass tournament boats both Aussie made and imported, and these probably would have out-run any of the local ski boats!

Filming the Golden Classic for Escape with ET.

The fishing went up a notch or two as well. Early reports indicated that it would be a good bite, and teams that arrived early to pre-fish certainly backed that up. In fact, the first session, Blakes Marine Session #1 returned more fish than were caught for the entire event last year!

Perhaps this had something to do with the dam level, which at around 35% was the lowest that many of us had ever seen it and meant less water between the fish, or maybe it was more that we are getting better at catching fish? Most likely it was a mixture of the two, but there is no denying the effectiveness of the lipless crankbait in Windamere, in particular the Jackall. In 2004 the Champion Team used this lure and most boats had at least a couple of rods rigged with these lures this year.

Almost every team caught fish in the first session, but it was the team Skeeter 1 (Mark Mangold, Andrew Homann and Scott Towner) who hit fish in a big way, releasing a couple of dozen fish and returning with a massive 1219 points! They were going to be hard to beat, but fighting to stay in touch for Champion Team honours were the experienced anglers from the teams Casterbaiters (Chris Burbidge, Gary Cook and Rodger Miles) with 981 points, and Survivors (Blair Whitney, Ashley Barber and Warren Maybury) on 853. For the rest of the field – even at this early stage – winning anything except individual Session prizes was a near impossibility.

Individual prize winners for Blakes Marine Session #1 were Scott Towner (Skeeter 1) on 682pts followed by Rodger Miles (Casterbaiters) on 548pts, and Mark Mangold (also Skeeter 1) edged out several anglers to come in third on 365 points.

Lowrance Session #2 kicked off bright and early Saturday morning with beautiful conditions although the same couldn't be said for some anglers… but many did make the most of the early weather. Picking up exactly where they left off – casting Jackalls in the lower reaches of the dam – were the Skeeter 1 team, who managed to string together an even more impressive tally of over 30 golden perch, and scoring 1686 pts for the session to forge even further ahead! Team Eagle ( Todd Moore , Harry Watson and Dave MacLean) returned the second highest score of 857pts for the session and Limp Rubbers (Peter Ellingham, Paul McMahon and Andrew Pullbrook) with 693pts led a small collection of teams for the 3 rd highest session return.

Individual honours in the Lowrance #2 Session went to Mark Mangold (Skeeter 1) who switched the tables on his team mates this time to best them with 622pts, followed by Dean Hamilton (Gettin Hammered) on a healthy 601pts, and Skeeter 1's Andrew Homann just managed to edge out team mate Towner to finish third in the session with 533pts.

Melinda Schneider performing on Saturday evening

Although it was all over bar the shouting, the last session – Shimano Session #3 – was still hotly contested and the quality fishing carried through to the end. Consolidating their lead and in fact totally dominating to the end were Skeeter 1, who in this session returned with a score of 964pts, and returning to the pointy end of the field were Survivors on 775pts, with Casterbaiters narrowly trailing them on 765pts.

Individual Shimano Session #3 winners were Mark Mangold (Skeeter 1), who continued to fish strongly on 496pts, as did stalwart Glen Stewart (Family Affair) with 343pts, and Chris Burbidge (Casterbaiters) with 320pts who edged out several competitors by only a few centimetres to take third place for the afternoon.

While the officials madly calculated, checked and double checked the huge tallies of the three sessions for the important presentations, competitors were equally busy with the Saturday evening barbeque feast. This was masterfully handled as always by the Team La Farge ‘Smoo Chasers' (Paul and Peter Winchester and John Scott) who were ably assisted by fellow members of Nowra SFC – thanks guys!

This year the field were also treated to some fabulous evening entertainment by Melinda Schneider and band, who performed several songs and kept even this diverse bunch of anglers enthralled!

The sound was excellent and it capped off a big day by Melinda, who like many of the anglers started well before dawn in order to catch that early bite – and her first Windy ‘yella'! Thanks Melinda, it really was our pleasure having you there.

Finally it was time to announce the results, and it was no surprise that Skeeter 1 team consisting of the anglers Mark Mangold, Andrew Homann and Scott Towner dominated the proceedings.

With an absolutely massive tally of 3,869 points they finished well ahead of the rest of the field and took out the coveted Steve Starling Champion Team trophy! But they were kept honest by many top anglers, and the teams Casterbaiters and Survivors deserve special mention as they both fished very well and finished in 2nd and 3rd places.

ET presents the Steve Starling Champion Team Trophy to the winning Team: Skeeter 1

Individually, Mark Mangold from Skeeter 1 just beat team mate Scott Towner to be the Grand Champion Angler, finishing ahead of Dean Hamilton (Gettin' Hammered) in 3rd place.

With the presentation concluded, it was time for the truly giant raffle to be drawn and several loads of fishing tackle and prizes were delivered on stage.

Who could forget the massive amounts of goods from our valued sponsor Bing Lee? Or the lucky angler to win the beautiful painting that Pat commissioned from Aboriginal artist Eddie Harris as a lucky door prize?? Many anglers left with some serious booty even though they missed out on the fishing prizes!

While the full presentation listing appears hereabouts, there are some special mentions that also need to be made. This tournament could not happen without the generous support of our sponsors, several of whom now make the annual pilgrimage to fish the event for the pure fun of it!

So when you consider purchasing tackle and equipment, please give due consideration to supporting the brand names that support you: Lowrance, Shimano, Bing Lee, Blakes Marine, Absorbed Power Batteries, Minn Kota, AFN, Evacool, Skeeter, www.sportsfishaustralia.com.au, Gatorz Eyewear, Darche Swags, Pure Fishing, Halco, Viking Lures and artist Eddie Harris.

Congratulations to all the competitors, it was another fantastic year at the Windamere Golden Classic.

More Details : 2005 Report | 2005 Golden Classic Gallery | 2005 Golden Dash | Results Sheet 2005 |