Powerboat & Fishing Summary
Australian Offshore Challenge entries starting to be logded, Murray River PWC camps, Master charged with DUI in Yamba, Coral Sea Tour of Duty a success and more ...POWERBOATS & FISHING
The Australian Offshore Challenge is a navigational rally designed for owners and crews of larger sports cruisers and offshore fishing boats, starting from Hobart on February 22 and finishing in Melbourne on March 5. With multiple enquiries coming in daily and entries starting to be lodged, the organisers are confident of achieving the necessary numbers to make the event a success.
The number of vessels in general on the Murray River has increased dramatically this summer and PWC (personal water craft) camps are a new development. Camps of people with up to 10 PWCs have been detected at various locations. Since the introduction of Victorian licences water traffic in some areas on the Murray has increased by approximately 50 per cent. New lifejacket regs introduced into Victoria on December 1 have also resulted in increased water traffic.
At 16:20pm on December 23, the Master of a 11.6m (38ft) cruiser was breath tested after crossing the river bar at the entrance to the Clarence River at Yamba / Iluka. The Master, a 53 year old male from Victoria, returned a reading of 0.070. He was bailed to appear at Yamba on February 14. NSW Maritime reminds boaters to Go Easy on the Drink. Boat skippers must keep under 0.05 or risk heavy fines.
Once again the 'Tour of Duty' was fished in perfect weather with some amazing catches of Dogtooth Tuna. The surprise this year was the amount of Sailfish encountered just off the shelf into the Coral Sea. The size of Sailfish never went under 50kg and Marlin Blue experienced at least one per hour of trolling. As usual the mothership kept the food and cold drink flowing and everyone who went out the 220 miles into the Coral Sea had a ball including the crew.
Fishing in the Whitsunday's remains patchy with a few mackerel showing up during the good tides but the reef fishing has been poor. This may be due to the high water temperature of 29 + degrees or that the sharks are once again very aggressive during their breeding period and taking most of the quality reef fish. From Ken Bryant, Marlin Blue
Financial assistance is being offered to 500 fishing and associated marine industries to help manage the hardship caused by the rezoning of the Great Barrier Reef 18 months ago. According to the Boating Industry Association of Queensland the grants have been deemed 'taxable income'.
More information at www.boatingoz.com.au
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