West coast weather and sea conditions have proved very testing of late for local anglers with large, sweepy seas putting a damper on two recent field days hosted by the 90 Mile Beach Surfcasting Club.
In the first instance, the Blue Worthy/ Keith Smith Field Day on October 19 encountered shore drift conditions which kept most of the 21 club members and six junior anglers down the bottom end of the beach before eventually weighing in with 11 snapper, two trevally and 12 kahawai in the Liquor King contest.
Heaviest snapper of the day went to Ken Tyler's 4.83kg fish, with Fred Cassidy securing second place overall after bringing in the heaviest trevally at 3.40kg. Others to feature on the prizeboard were Mike Scott 1.96kg kahawai (and heaviest) 3 (e.g 3rd), Dave Hallett 3.24kg snapper 4, Milton Arnold 2.57kg trevally 5, Ben Waaka 1.60kg kahawai 6, Joe Herbert 1.22kg snapper 7, Miko Rogers 1.56kg kahawai 8, Jo Arthur 1.09kg kahawai 9, Duke Fraser (a junior visitor) 1.60kg kahawai 10.
The winner of the haggle was Miko Rogers with his 1.56kg kahawai, the winner of the Blue Worthy Trophy was Ken Tyler, with Mike Scott winning the Keith Smith Memorial Trophy. The sponsors put on a barbecue and provided a large array of drawn prizes which were again much appreciated by the club members.
More recently, the Ray White Field Day was fished in mountainous seas earlier this month. The event on Sunday, November 2, drew only the hardcore of the club with the 13 members and a junior visitor weighing in a total of three kahawai. The heaviest fish of the day was caught by Milton Arnold at 1.52kg with 2nd place going to Jo Arthur 1.39kg and 3rd to Mike Scott 0.92kg, Arnold taking out the haggle as well as the sponsor's prize.
