Our First Fishing Comp. The Jounama Fishing Classic.

A month prior to the competition, we were invited by our uncle to join him on his boat for the day. We had never heard of the Jounama Fishing Classic, and had no understanding of how exclusive this competition is.

Once we knew we were certainties to get a start, our excitement went into overdrive and we found ourselves heading out to Tackle World on a regular basis. We upgraded all our gear. The boys out at Tackle World Wagga would have well and truly been sick of us, as we constantly pestered them for advice from ‘what size sinker should I use?’ to ‘does this fishing shirt bring out the blue in my eyes?’

We found ourselves with 3 weeks to go until the comp, but we didn’t have ANY gear that made us look like the ‘real deal’. We knew we weren’t, but we definitely wanted to look the part. We assumed there’d be boats with 20ft casting platforms, millions of dollars of sponsorship, and fishing caps and collars turned up. We needed to match this.

We sent out some desperate emails to loads of different companies, but not all fishing companies. Some that actually have nothing to do with fishing whatsoever. We were pumped to receive a bunch of shirts from Wagga Massive, but the icing on the cake was the package we received from Berkley: 3 long-sleeved fishing shirts, and 3 caps. 

The competition came around quite quickly from then on, and we found ourselves ‘touching cloth’ as we drove up the mountains out Jounama way. We arrived to see all the boats lined up, with some already out anglin’. We were very pleased to notice that there were no yuppies or over-the-top sponsorship. Just a bunch of good people, keen for a fun day on the water.

We packed all our gear into the boat, and quickly got it into the water. We were sure to pack the most important supplies for the day: a box of cans and a bottle of Honey Turkey (bloody good stuff!).

We trolled. We cast. We baited up. We drifted. We spun. We bobbed.

Then…

We cracked open. We sipped. We skulled. We stumbled. We personally contributed to the filling of the dam.

What we didn’t do, was catch a fish. The only exception was our skipper, Will, who caught the longest rainbow trout for the day at 35.5cm.

Negatives:

• Pay $80 to enter a comp where you get ONE egg sandwich for breakfast, and ONE rissole sandwich for dinner.
• We didn’t catch a fish.
• It looked like some competitors may have done the old sneaky…(I’m talking to you old man, with the 3 day old, dead, white, blotchy, seized up, brown trout).

Positives:

• Beautiful day for fishing!
• Great company.
• Feeling included in what we thought was going to be an exclusive, clicky, group.
• Plenty of cans, plenty of whiskey.
• AWESOME PRIZES! (Will ended up with a $600 spinning outfit for his rainbow trout. Jim won a Quantum Energy Burner baitcaster reel. Chris won a bag of goodies including a filleting knife, soft plastics, and an LED head torch).

We look forward to next year, and hopefully do what we couldn’t do this year. Catch a fish.

J & C