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Commodore’s Notes

Summer has arrived and we are now open 7 days a week so drop in for a cold one and say G’Day. Don’t forget we’ve now also got mid strength great northern on tap.
You can pick up your new membership card any time and remember they now have a number on them so always bring it with you. We will be having random members lucky number draws but you have to be there with your card to win the cash. Also on the back of our membership cards are the dates of all our fishing competitions for the year.
Visitors are very welcome at our club but they can only visit 5 times a year before signing up as a member. Why not join up, it’s only $45 each or $60 for a family membership which is for two adults and any children under 18. There are too many benefits to mention but can become part of our super friendly club.
We are still having our famous sausage sizzles on busy nights and recently we got very generous and cooked up porterhouse steaks, rissoles, chicken fillets as well as the snags and all for free. How many clubs do that?
Don’t forget that our facilities are available to members for any event!

We held our Annual General Meeting on Saturday the 30th of November. As usual it was very well attended with a large crowd of interested members which is fantastic.
We streamlined it this year and we covered the years happenings in record time. It was all done and dusted in 24 minutes. I then awarded what I consider to be the most important award we have each year. It’s for the ‘Club Person of the Year’ which is our Anglers equivalent to the Brownlow Medal.
Each year we have a dedicated team of wonderful helpers who without we wouldn’t exist.
This year it was awarded to Ange Quinn who is much loved and respected around the club and was a very deserving winner.
It was then followed by our fishing competition award presentations, an open bar and numerous plates of scrumptious snacks generously donated by FoodWorks Lorne.
Our new committee is as follows: Commodore, Keith Miller; Vice Commodore, Doug Williams; Secretary/Treasurer, David Worth.
General Committee: Ian Hutchinson, Ange Quinn, Leon Armistead, Tony Peddie, Ric Addison, Chris Nisbet, Chris Tutungi, Allan Walls and Phil Meurer.
I would like to thank Barry Hayward and Donna Issell who did not seek re-election.

UPCOMING EVENTS

NEW YEARS EVE
Come and watch the 9.30pm fireworks from the best vantage point on the Great Ocean Road. Bring the kids. We close just after the fireworks at 10pm.

 
HAWAIIAN SHIRT WEDNESDAYS

Wednesday evenings in January have become a tradition with our beloved campers coming along in mass. We all look forward to our ‘Campers Wednesdays’ they are great fun. It was suggested to me last summer that to add to the fun we should encourage everyone to come along wearing a Hawaiian Shirt every Wednesday during January. So we’ve decided that anyone who wears one will get their first beer free. Also each week we will award a prize to the best Hawaiian shirt.

 

PIER TO PUB

After much discussion and advice from our members we have made the following changes to our Pier to Pub Live Music Night to make it a lot more enjoyable for everyone.

  • Entry is free
  • Early in the day entry will be for members and visitors but visitors will have to sign in. Members will be required to show their membership card
  • We will have extra security on duty to assist. They will be counting the number of people in attendance and when it reaches what we consider to be a comfortable number we will close the gate
  • We will then let small groups in when others leave. Members will be given priority but must have their membership card with them
  • After 3pm we will stop serving our Draught beer in glasses and go over to cold cans as it’s not possible to keep our glasses cold enough and for our volunteers to retrieve them
  • There will be extra rubbish bins
  • We will have extra toilets outside our yard and patrons will be given a pass out so they can re enter.
  • Some of our large outside tables and chairs will be removed to free up space
  • Our courtesy bus will be operating for gold coin donations
  • Local Rock Legend Ron Holmer and his band will be performing live from late afternoon until 9pm
  • The bar will also close at 9pm

We’ve never had any problems at our functions but I’m sure with these changes it will be a much more enjoyable evening.

CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY

On Sunday the 1st of March we will again be organising the clean up day so please put this date on your calendar. I will include details closer to the date.

RECENT EVENTS

2019 Fishing Competition Awards
CLUB CHAMPION: Andrew Clarke (Back to Back)
RUNNER UP: Ian Middleton. Ian doesn’t have a boat so it was a sensational effort from him.
THIRD: Paul Staley

WINTER CUP CHAMPION: Ian Middleton
RUNNER UP: Andrew Clarke
Third: Paul Staley

Biggest Bream for 2019: Wayne Griffiths. It is also a club record.

Biggest Flathead for 2019: Tilo DeBon

Biggest Garfish for 2019: Wayne Griffiths. It is also a club record.

Biggest Whiting for 2019: Kaide Love

Biggest Salmon for 2019: Ian Middleton

Biggest Snapper for 2019: Tilo DeBon



WORKING BEE

We recently held a working bee to paint the outside walls of the clubhouse. Murphy’s Law gave us a 36 degree day with a 40 knot northerly but we still had a heap of wonderful volunteers arrive and despite the terrible conditions we got the job done. A very big thank you to all involved.


DEPLOYMENT OF THE FADs (Fish attracting devices)

After 3 years of letter writing, emailing, phone calls and not taking no for an answer we have finally deployed our two FADs.
One is out off Stoney Creek in about 25 metres of water and the second one is out off the lighthouse in about 40 metres of water.
Below are the coordinates.


PLEASE NOTE 

Don’t tie up to them. Don’t anchor near them.
Fish down wind or down current so you don’t snag on the rope.
The best way to fish near them is to drift past and cast lures close to them.
If other boats are present, take turns drifting past.
We are hoping to attract Kingfish, the best months for them is January, February and March.
If anyone catches kingies please let me know the details.
Fisheries need the results to justify the continuation of the FADS program.
I get asked all the time, “how do they work?”
No one really knows why fish hang around them but I’ve fished on them in a few different locations and believe me, they work incredibly well.
They have a solar panel to charge a flashing light that comes on after dark.

 


PIER RESCUE

A couple of Saturday mornings ago a young lady and her boyfriend from the old country were visiting Lorne and went for a walk out to the end of the pier. It was blowing a gale and the young lady placed her bag containing her passport, purse etc down on the edge of the pier. It immediately blew into the water so she jumped in after it. The only problem was that she couldn’t swim.
Our local champion angler Wayne Griffiths was marshalling the Park Run at the end of the pier and quickly threw the life buoy to the lady who grabbed hold of it but still had her bag grasped tightly in her other hand.
The wind then started to blow her out to sea. Meanwhile her boyfriend who presumably is now her ex boyfriend calmly watched the proceedings high and dry on the pier.
Warren Norton our local pro fisherman who had just loaded his boat and parked it on the beach heard the commotion and wearing only his undies, not unlike Usain Bolt, sprinted out to the end of the pier and dived in.
He swam out to the quickly disappearing young English lady and after a very long time eventually got her safely to the very end of the rocks at Point Grey.
It was a very brave effort from Warren who probably saved her life.
WOZ isn’t a spring chicken and had just returned from pulling in fishing nets and long lines which is hard work so it was a remarkable effort.
When she finally waded ashore her handbag was still tightly grasped in her hand.
All Warren had to say was “the boyfriend isn’t a keeper”.

DEFIBRILLATOR AND CPR INSTRUCTION EVENING

Recently two of our local Paramedics came to our clubhouse and gave us a demonstration on how to operate our defibrillator and how to perform CPR.
It was very well attended by local members and gave us all invaluable knowledge that someday might save someone’s life.

FISHING REPORT
As per normal for this time of year the wind has been consistently bad making it difficult to find a window and get out for a fish. The flathead are biting well with quite a few big ones in amongst them. There’s still the odd big snapper getting caught but very few pinkies about.
No reports of any King George Whiting lately but the swell has been pretty big making it hard to get in close enough. Gummy Sharks have been pretty good but no huge ones. The Yakkas have re-appeared so that’s a good sign. Out wide off the light house the same blue water full of plankton that we had here last year is back so we might get the pink plankton events happening again this summer. The pier is still fishing extremely well with a lot of big snapper being caught.
Also plenty of calamari, salmon, trevally, flathead and the odd whiting.

 

POINT GREY REDEVELOPMENT NEWS

The Surf Coast Shire has advertised the plans for the proposed redevelopment and the objection period closed on the 28th of November. Anyone who lodged an objection has been notified that it’s been received and after the Shire has considered them they will notify each objector for consultation. We have focused primarily on our part of the redevelopment, our boat wash and the parking issues. We have no knowledge of what is happening regarding the petition that was set up regarding the old co-op. We now have to wait for the outcome of the shires deliberations and I will advise everyone as soon as we know what’s happening.


COFFEE

Jason is open from 7.30am 7 days a week.
He’s going to have a few days off during January so he can retain his energy to serve up the worlds best Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolate, Muesli, bickies etc.
He won’t be around on the following dates: 6th, 15th, 20th and 29th January.

 

MERCHANDISE

Our merchandise and gift vouchers make an ideal Christmas Present. We’ve got plenty of short and long sleeve T Shirts, Windcheaters, Hoodies, Caps and Stubby Holders. Each season we introduce a new colour for our shirts. This year it’s navy blue with dark yellow print.
They look sensational. 

BAIT

We’ve just restocked our freezers. Our bait is the best quality and value for money anywhere along the Great Ocean Road.
We have: Berley Logs, Squid, Prawns, Pippies, Baby Cuttlefish, Salted or unsalted Pilchards.

COURTESY BUS

We are running our bus 7 days a week until the end of January. We still need more volunteers to drive it so please let me or Hutch know if you can help out. We will probably only need you once a fortnight.
Please be generous with your gold coin donations. Phone 0408 031 234

Cheers,

Keith Miller, Commodore

Thanks to our sponsors:

KEANE CONTRACTING BRICK/BLOCK and SCAFFOLDING – Gary Keane
SURFCOAST GARDENING – Kerry Webster & Rob Dalziel