FROM THE PRESIDENT
Firstly, I would like to say thank you to all the participating boats and their crews who entered our recent Peter Goadby Memorial Tournament. It was a fantastic weekend, with beautiful weather and outstanding fishing. With over 30 boats competing and more than 40 fish tagged and released, the results speak for themselves. A special thank you goes to our committee, whose tireless work behind the scenes ensured the tournament ran smoothly from start to finish. And of course, a big shout out to Grahame Williams OAM—our trusted voice on the radio skeds throughout the weekend. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. Winter Point Score Has Begun With the Summer Point Score now concluded, we’re excited to announce that the Winter Point Score is officially underway. Running daily from 6th May through to the end of July, this competition is based on the highest point-scoring fish each month—May, June, and July—in both Tag & Release and Capture categories. Get involved and make every trip count! Tuna Slam is Back! One of our most popular events, the Tuna Slam, is set to return for the months of June, July, and August. This competition focuses on the Heaviest Yellowfin or Southern Bluefin Tuna and is a boat-based entry. You can fish any day, anywhere within Central Zone waters. The more boats that enter, the bigger the cash pool—so rally your crew and get involved! It will run from 1st June to 30th August with a presentation on 31st August. To kick things off, the club is kicking in with $1,000 to start the pool Central Zone Wrap-Up The Central Zone tournaments have now concluded, and congratulations go to all Sydney boats for an outstanding performance. Thanks to your efforts, Sydney has secured first place in Tag & Release! Final results will be released soon, along with the announcement of the host club for the official presentation night. SGFC Video Night of Nights Returns We’re thrilled to announce the return of the SGFC Video Night of Nights! It’s time to dig through your footage and start editing—show off your season’s highlights in what’s always a fun and entertaining evening. Expect plenty of laughs, popcorn, and enthusiastic crowd participation. Full details will be posted soon on our Facebook page, so stay tuned. Thanks Glenn Wright
Get the lasted information and Central Zone Updates Go to www.centralzone.com.au
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Calendar of Events SGFC May 2025 5th - Start of winter Pointscore 6th - Club Meeting 27th - Committee Meeting Tuna Slam 1st June to 30th August 2025 Presentation 31st August 2025 June 2025 1st - Start SGFC Tuna Slam + Winter Pointscore 3rd - Club Meeting 20th - Friday Member’s Video Night at SGFC 24th - Committee Meeting July 2025 1st - SFGC Tuna Slam continues + Winter Pointscore 1st - Club Meeting 29th - Committee Meeting 30th -Book Launch The Last Days of Zane Grey At SGFC Club
Peter Goadby Memorial Tournament 2025
The Sydney Game Fishing Club recently hosted the annual Peter Goadby Memorial Tournament, drawing 35 boats for two days of outstanding offshore fishing. With perfect weather conditions and a vibrant atmosphere both on and off the water, the tournament was a resounding success. Tournament Highlights: 46 fish tagged and released, contributing to ongoing conservation and research efforts. 12 fish captured, 10 of which were yellowfin Tuna including: A 68kg Yellowfin Tuna by Tanacious (Sydney) An 88kg Striped Marlin captured by a junior angler from Broken Bay Game Fishing Club The tournament also featured strong participation from juniors and small fry anglers, showcasing the sport’s growing appeal among young fishers. Why Participate in Game Fishing Tournaments and the value of Club Membership Tournaments like the Peter Goadby Memorial are about more than just the catch. They offer anglers an opportunity to: Promote ethical and sustainable fishing through tag-and-release practices Compete in a structured and regulated environment with defined rules and standards Support marine research, with tag data contributing to fish migration and population studies Build camaraderie, teamwork, and lasting friendships among like-minded anglers Challenge personal skills, with each outing testing technique, strategy, and endurance Automatic entry into Central zone Tournament giving you the opportunity to win points for yourself,boat and Club Eligibility for NSW game fishing association Awards and Australian game fishing Awards On behalf of the Sydney Game Fishing Club Committee, we thank all our anglers, volunteers, and generous sponsors for making this tournament a success. Your continued support is vital to the future of our sport. We look forward to seeing you at our next event—tight-lines Sydney Game Fishing Club
Statistics for the tournament: Tagged Marlin: 38 Captures: 12 (mostly Yellowfin) Heaviest Yellowfin: 68kg 13.7kg Mahi Mahi on 10kg A couple of Wahoo & Shortbill spearfish as well. It was fantastic weather with some great Stats over the weekend!
Day 1 12 Stripe marlin 1 Black Marlin Yellowfin x 2 Mahi Mahi x 1 16 fish tagged 5 Yellowfin heaviest 68kg 1 x Dolphin fish x 13.7kg on 10kg 10 fish captured
Day 2 Stripe marlin x 19 Blue marlin x 6 Yellowfin x 1 Wahoo x 2 Shortbill sphere fish x2 30 fish tagged capture 88kg stripe marlin on 24kg 46 tagged fish 12 captures
TAG AND RELEASE Champion Boat Tag & Release Assault Weapon Central coast 6 marlin 60,000 Runner up WAWA 5 Marlin Third Place Kalastaa 2 marlin 2 Shortbill spearfish 53,500 Champion Lady Tag Michelle Eagle ON Call 10,500 Most Tag OGF Lucky Strike 1,175 Champion Junior Taj Mossman Central Coast 2 x Marlin 23,000 Champion Smallfry Abdul Akkouche 12,500 CAPTURE Champion Boat Capture The Hound 2968 Runner up Tancious 2658 Heviest Tuna 68kg Champion Junior Jed peters The hound 2968 Stripe Marlin 88kg
2025 Junior Team Recap Video (Peter Goadby)
The NSWGFA Junior Team—comprised of Kayden, Aiden, Brae, and Indi Garvey—arrived at Sydney Game Fishing Club on Friday afternoon, brimming with anticipation and ready to take on the challenge ahead. With gear prepped and spirits high, the team set their sights on the start of fishing early Saturday morning. Day one greeted them with perfect conditions—crystal-clear skies and calm seas—but the ocean offered no rewards, and the team finished the day without a strike. Disappointed but undeterred, they returned to the water on day two, where once again the weather delivered pure magic. Then it happened. There’s nothing quite like the scream of a Tiagra 24 to set the adrenaline surging—and this time, it was Indi who found herself hooked up to a wahoo. Before the excitement could settle, the long rigger snapped down and the reel sang once more—Kayden was on, battling a spirited striped marlin. The team sprang into action like clockwork, clearing the lines with practiced precision. As the marlin danced across the surface, Amanda Lamond was ready on the tag pole. With nerves of steel and perfect timing, she landed a clean tag—1.1.1 on a striped marlin. That was the moment of the day—and while the action was brief, it was unforgettable. A hard-earned fish, an electrifying atmosphere, and memories that will stay with the team forever.
PORT HACKING GFC 100 Paul Barning Memorial tournament proudly sponsored by Seakeeper. This tournament has been one for the history books. 90 registered vessels 419 Registered anglers 17 Female 28 Juniors 5 small frys Day 1 Saturday 3rd of May 69 marlin Tag and release - 6 Fish capture One of those fish was a world record to a lady angler a 321kg Mako Shark ( Well done to the crew on TOPAZ) Day 2 67 Marlin tag and release - 9 fish capture 1 of those fish was a $25k jackpot prize fish 461kg Tiger shark . Please see the tournament winners below. Champion Angler Tag & Release – Small Fry sponsored By Carlson Marine (11 years and under) Sait Etemovic – Emerald Isle Champion Angler Capture – Small Fry sponsored By Carlson Marine (11 years and under) NOT WON Champion Angler Capture – Junior sponsored By Shore Thing (11-16 years old) Ziggy Mantis – On Call Champion Angler Tag & Release – Junior sponsored By Shore Thing (11-16 years old) Hunter Davies - Antagonist Highest Point scoring Team – Tag & Release Shark Reaper Highest Point scoring Team Tag & Release Other Game Fish Blowout Heaviest Other Game Fish – (Not Shark or Billfish) - On Call Champion Angler Tag & Release - Senior Lady (Excludes Junior & Small fry Girls) Hayley Bonnici - Zorro
Champion Angler Capture - Senior Lady (Excludes Junior & Small fry Girls) Amanda Lamond - Topaz Champion Team – Tag & Release Billfish Third Place Shorething Champion Team – Capture third Place Reaper Runner up Team – Tag & Release Billfish - Wawa Runner up team – Capture - On Call Champion Team – Tag & Release Profishent Champion Team – Capture Topaz Pursuit of Giants Heaviest Marlin over 150kg $5000.00 – Blacklisted, 159kg Heaviest Blue Marlin over 250kg- Not Won Heaviest Mako or Tiger Shark over 350kg – Reel Crazy, 461kgs Calcutta winners Profishent - bought by the boat Topaz - bought by Murry and Stubby’s Well done to everyone involved. See you all next year.
Great weekend turnout fishing the Paul Barning PH100 We managed to take out Junior capture, overall runner up capture and heaviest other game fish. Ziggy did amazingly well with an 82kg stripe on 10kg switched off the long corner (lure - Ali Kai, nifty fifty) Another couple of tags (Ziggy and Michelle - lures tantrum bandit and bullet) rounded out the Saturday. Sunday was frustrating with marlin seen but no joy. Ventured out to 1000fa in search of a blue and found a lone yellowfin (46kg again to our gun junior). What a great turnout and fitting memorial On Call
The Last Days of Zane Grey Coming Soon! More info: www.vickihastrich.com Published by Allen & Unwin, 29 July 2025 'Utterly absorbing! Vicki Hastrich's deeply perceptive portrait of writer Zane Grey recovers a kind of twentieth-century Captain Ahab in a rip-roaring tale of obsession, money and high adventure.' Grace Karskens, Emeritus Professor of History, author of People of the River Zane Grey was the world's first millionaire author, inventor of the Western in both literature and Hollywood films, globally feted as a celebrity adventurer. There was a time when Zane Grey movies - sometimes three a week - were screening in every tiny Australian country town, but until now his adventures in Australia have been little known. Grey first sailed to Australia in the mid-1930s to pursue the new sport of game fishing, but behind the scenes, he was in financial trouble. While chasing world records in game fishing at Bermagui and showing Australians how to create new industries from their marine resources, Grey also scrambled to protect his precarious finances by making the first ever Jaws movie,White Death, at Queensland's Hayman Island. Amid all the drama that followed him, Grey was also on a singular quest to test himself against an epic-sized great white shark - leading to the fight of his life in the wild seas of Port Lincoln. In the tradition of Grey's own dramatic westerns, Vicki Hastrich's biography is an exhilarating story with all the glamour of Hollywood: a tale of a new frontier, heroic battles with giant sea creatures; romance, adultery - and the cast of intelligent, headstrong women who surrounded and supported Grey his whole career. It is also a grand portrayal of Australian and American dreams and the human relationship with our ocean wilderness - and brings a missing part of Australia's history into dazzling light.
Book Launch will be held at the SGFC club Wednesday 30th July all welcome www.vickihastrich.com
Historic photos of Zane Grey during his fishing trips from Watson's Bay
Major Prize - $250 Gift Voucher from Otto's 2nd Prize - Case or Beer or Bottle of Wine (*Prizes subject to improve - see Facebook for more info)
Speedy swimmers
southern bluefin tuna
Unfussy eaters
Southern Bluefin Tuna are an important apex predator in the Great Southern Reef ecosystem. These waters provide a summer home for young southern bluefin tuna (one to four years), with large numbers migrating into the warm, shelf waters each year to feed on abundant prey. As the largest of the tuna species, these fish are one of the top predators in the marine food chain.
“Southern Bluefin Tuna gain about 80-90% of their annual growth as they feed for four months along the Great Southern Reef. This reefy system is vital to the nourishment and success of the species.” — Kirsten Rough, Tuna Researcher & Fisher, Port Lincoln, SA
A massive migration
These fish are made for speed. They have hydro-dynamic bodies shaped like torpedoes with retractable fins and the sharpest eyesight of any bony fish. Travelling up to 70 km/h, these attributes are perfect for the long distances they travel during their migrations. Swimming continuously, and at high speeds, they have a high demand for oxygen but are specially adapted with highly advanced respiratory and circulatory systems.
Because of their advanced circulatory system, the southern bluefin tuna, an endotherm, is able to maintain a body temperature that is warmer than the water around them like mammals, an ability found rarely in other fish. This trait is what allows them to dive from the surface down deep in merely minutes and maintain their large migratory patterns. As a pelagic species, they can be found as deep at 500 meters within the southern hemisphere waters of all the world’s oceans preying on a variety of different fish, crustaceans, cephalopods, and salps.
Southern bluefin tuna reach maturity at 11 to 12 years, and are known to spawn in the warmer tropical waters of the north-eastern Indian Ocean between Indonesia and Australia in what is called the Java Sea. Females have been estimated to produce up to 15 million eggs per season. Juveniles, as young as one year, will travel south along the western Australia coastline and turn into the Leeuwin Current and move along the Great Southern Reef while others turn the opposite direction and go to the Indian Ocean. The entire population of juveniles will then congregate in The Bight during the summer months to feed, and will keep migrating in this pattern for the first 4-5 years of their lives.
The day ticked on. Nothing on the radio. Not a whisper. Until, finally, at around 3pm: “Hook-up!” It was George from Wahoo Charters. Frantic radio chatter followed—everyone wanted the coordinates. We were ten miles east of him. Time to move. We weren’t the only ones—about 30 boats, all clearly on a “sick day,” raced to the marks. But as many know, Bluefin are ghosts. They pop up, then disappear before you even blink. After a fruitless troll, we pushed out again. And here’s where the story really kicks off. I was determined—I wasn’t going home without my dinner. When Glenn said, “You take the wheel, I’m going to have a nap,” I took control of the boat and headed south-east. I kept driving. Further and further. Eventually, as the sun began to set, Jason and Steve both singing out Tiddles we should be heading West. That’s when our skipper Glenn woke up—only to find I’d driven us 40 miles south-east. He wasn’t thrilled. He turned the boat around and started the long run home, grumbling about how far I’d taken us. Then he said, “Start winding the lines in.”I turned to him and said,“Just give me five more minutes.” I dashed downstairs, flicked on the underwater lights—anything to draw those bloody fish up. I was desperate. I sat back upstairs, eyes on the spread. Then it happened... A massive swirl behind long corner Simmo grabbed the 24kg outfit—but then bang! the short rigger went off. I was on Simmo’s fish looked good—he had it under control. But heartbreak struck just metres from the boat when the hooks pulled. My fish, meanwhile, had gone deep. I pushed pressure on it, and then it turned and rocketed to the surface. 50 metres off the stern. Glenn backed up, Steve traced the fish, and Simmo landed the gaff. I had caught my first Southern Bluefin The adrenaline, the emotion—it was unreal. I looked at the fish and said to Glenn, “This is bigger than the one we weighed last night.” At the scales:143.7kg on 15kg line. A world record. While I might be the one whose name goes on the record books, the truth is simple: you don’t catch fish like that without a team. That’s the magic of game fishing—it’s a team sport, and it's about sharing moments you’ll never forget with people who live for it just like you do. So to anyone reading this, I’ll always say: just go fishing whenever you can. You never know when you’ll have a day you’ll remember for the rest of your life. Tight lines, Tiddles
Eleven Years On – The Tuna That Changed Everything It’s been eleven years, but I remember it like it was yesterday—2014, the year the Southern Bluefin Tuna made their unforgettable return to the list of winter target species. Glenn and I were sitting in a NSWGFA AGM, doing our best to stay awake when the first flurry of text messages started coming through—fishos hooking up on Bluefin left, right, and centre. That was it. we had to go Of course, like all good fishing trips, preparation is everything. Being a mum of two beautiful young girls, I had more logistics to arrange than most: daycare sorted, grandparents lined up for school pickups, and somehow juggling that dreaded four-letter word—work. But the plan was set for Wednesday 23/07/2014 The night before, I’d weighed a massive 128kg Bluefin caught by Australian cricketer fast bowler Brett Lee. After that, I was buzzing—more than ready for our turn. Wednesday morning, we set off: Glenn, Steve Bracken, Jason “Simmo” Simpson (who also happens to hold the Australian record for a 245kg Blue Marlin on 15kg), and me. The conditions? Flat. arse. Calm. You could’ve water-skied all the way past Browns Mountain. Ideal. In my head, the plan was simple:stay out until dusk. That’s why I love tuna fishing—no early alarms, a solid breakfast, and a relaxed 9am departure. You head out, enjoy the day, and you fish into the evening.
www.tantrumlures.com
SAINTLY WHISPERS
Big shout out to club sponsor Decorative Solutions Sergio Da Silva for doing an amazing job on painting our doors. "Thank you"
Why do fish always know how much they weigh? Because they have their own scales! Why did the fisherman bring a ladder? Because he wanted to catch something off the hook! What kind of music should you listen to while fishing? Something catchy! Why did the fish blush? Because it saw the ocean’s bottom! What do you call a fish that practices medicine? Asturgeon! Salmon-chanted evening! What’s a sea serpent’s favorite meal? Fish and ships. Where are most fish found? Between the head and the tail! What fish sounds like a telephone? Herring, herring… herring, herring… herring, herring. What do you get if you cross a trout with an apartment? A flatfish. What’s the best way to catch a fish? Have someone throw it at you. I went fishing with Skrillex once… It didn’t end well; he kept dropping the bass. So, I was fishing, and I saw a shooting star! The reel jokes are in the comets.
Which type of fish loves eating mice? Catfish. Where do all the fish safely deposit all of their money? In a riverbank. What do you think a shark puts in a peanut butter sandwich? A jellyfish. What supplements do fish take to stay healthy? Vitamin Sea. What would someone call a fish with two legs? A two-knee fish. Have you wondered where goldfish go for vacation? Around the globe. Why do fishes swim in schools? Because they don’t have fish colleges. Have you wondered what a fish’s favorite musical instrument is? A bass guitar. What will you get if a fishing rod is crossed with a gym sock? A hook, line, and a stinker. Do you know which day most fish dislike? Fryday. Why did Noah not do much fishing on the ark? Because he had only two worms. Why is fishing considered a good business? Because of net profits. What’s it called when a fish can’t carry a tune? They’re tuna-deaf. Which type of net is useless for catching fish? A soccer net. When is it time for a fish to go to an eye doctor? When they’re having trouble sea-ing. Who is the most famous fish spy? James Pond. Why don’t fish play soccer? They’re afraid of the net. How do shellfish take photos? With a clam-era.
Love the SAINT