Bream Competition

 I justify putting this post here as it does include photos of weather and of a fish, as well as lots of images of boats!  The event is a round of the Bream Classics competition.  

Boats started to arrive off Karbeethong Jetty after 6am: not quite as evocative as the events in the past as they are earlier in the year and thus still dark as they gather.  This year it was just murky because of the weather!

I counted about 55 boats: there were 63 listed entrants.  Here are the first few heading off from 0645.  They go off 2 at a time at 30 second intervals: it used to be a Le Mans style start but that got too dangerous!

The arrangements for the finish have also changed with crews checking in at Karbeethong at 2 pm and then going to the weigh in at the wharf.  My guess was half had launched at the wharf  so boated back there and stoodged around waiting for a spot on the ramp.  

Those who had launched at Karbeethong towed the boats back and then had to queue up - the line stretching back to Allen Drive!

Here is the weigh in taking place.  The bloke on the left is the official who chats as he weighs the fish and checks they are all of legal size.  The guy on the right is a competitor who is invited to talk about their day and their tactics.  The official commented that there isn't much information provided - they used all baits and fished all over the Inlet covering all habitats - on day 1.  The anglers actually admit what they did on the second day!

Here is a bream going back into the water.  They were put back in between the Gipsy Princess and the wharf so that the Pelicans couldn't get them!  There are two species of bream: Black Bream which are denser so that a given length weighs more, and Yellow-finned Bream.

This is the Coastguard boat which patrolled the Inlet presumably as a safety measure.

There is a Facebook page with a summary of results and some photographs and the full results are here.  Many of the crews reported getting a lot of Flathead as well.