JUNIOR PROGRAM

The Rainbow Beach Amateur Anglers Junior Fishing Program held their inaugural fishing camp recently. Nine very keen anglers and parents gathered at the Rainbow Beach Surf Club on Friday evening to prepare for a solid weekend of fishing.

The boys and girls spent the first night spooling and rigging their supplied new fishing rods and reels (huge thanks to Wilson’s, Department of Agriculture & Community and Gardiner’s Tackle World Rainbow Beach), before settling in for dinner and an early night. The group was divided into 2 teams, the ‘Blue Steels’ and the ‘Blade and Tails’.

Saturday morning saw the band of happy anglers up before dawn to catch the early bite. Many small dart and whiting were caught with the odd keeper going onto the ice. After a hearty breakfast, we loaded up the 4WDs and headed to Double Island Point. We pumped a few yabbies at the lagoon and our competent anglers converted these into a few nice whiting. We then ventured out to Teewah Beach in search of some good beach gutters. Pippies were harvested and many dart were added to our tally.

Our sunset session saw the group head to Inskip Point where we heard there was a hot bite for whiting. Sadly, the fish weren’t on the chew. As the sun set our cadets were given a quick lesson on how to care for our catch and fillet fish.

A weary group headed back to base for a barbecue meal and an early night in preparation for our final assault at dawn.

On Sunday morning we were greeted by a foggy sunrise as we set out to fish the gutters near Pacific Boulevard. A fresh batch of worms saw many swallow-tail dart, whiting and even a flathead caught.

The final tally for the weekend saw the Blade and Tails team win bragging rights for our first ever junior camp. It was also pleasing but not surprising to see the girls top the individual fishing tally.

Thank you to Wilson Fishing and Gardner’s Tackle World Rainbow Beach for their generous sponsorship of this program and Rainbow Beach Surf Club for the use of their facilities.