Saturday the 24th of August saw 34 people on 12 boats and 2 kayaks descend on Lake Monowai for the 9th annual Southland Police fishing competition trying to take bragging rights by winning the trophy for the heaviest fish. Once again huge support for the event was provided form Police Sport and Invercargill Hunting and Fishing.
Pre-event the usual claims of winning tactics were being boasted by crews and ex-Southlander Blair Dalton even travelled down from Dunedin boasting he already had a spot in the Dunedin station picked out for the trophy. The weather forecast was reasonably grim, but the rain stayed away throughout the day. There was a lot of wind though, and strong gusts even provided some water spout action on the lake. Despite this everyone stuck it out and although the fishing was tough work, some lucky anglers managed to snaffle one for the weigh in. The radio chatter on the water did suggest there was perhaps some over estimation of the size of some of them though.
Back at Borland Lodge, 16 fish were weighed in. After it was all said and done the man affectionately known as Bert, Greg Ballantyne, went back to back and defended his title from last year by weighing in a nice brown trout. Gutted and gilled it weighed 1.360kg (3 pounds). Pity Blair Dalton didn’t catch a fish as big as his bravado as he had to rely on his son Blake to weigh a fish in and it was well short of the trophy.
So well done Bert and congratulations. The event was a huge success yet again and the comradery, banter, and socialising together was at the usual exemplary level with laughter to the fore, quite a lot at the expense of Craig Colyer. Thanks to everyone that came along and contributed to another successful competition and see you all again next year for the 10th edition.
Written by Hayden McNaught