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The Lake Bullen Merri Comp was held from 12th to th14th of August 2011.
There were 35+ members attending with 4 Juniors.
Another fantastic weekend had by all with several prize fish being caught.

Good to see the competition being taken out by Juniors!
With the Biggest fish going to Andrew Gatt with his 4.08kg Brown Trout (Above)
and Second place Matthew Bailey with his 2.85kg Brown Trout (Below)
See all the pics here!

Pics of the surf Comp can be found here

Winning fish was an Australian Salmon of 1.1kg Caught by Paul Azzopardi (pictured above).
Fish was caught as the school swam across the beach. Some members had the opportunity to hook up with a total of around 8 fish being caught. Second place was Chrs Farrugia getting a double hookup, both around  the 800g mark. Mason Caruana also getting a double hookup with his winning salmon at 860g.
Comp was held at Gunnamatta Beach 31/July/ 2011
45 Members Attending

Great day had by all.

Reminder to all Members,2011/2012 memberships are now due and renewals will be accepted, Fill out the attached renewal membership form along with payment and return at the next meeting. - See David Gatt for all membership payments

Please download and fill out membership form from Here

Saturday July 24th 2011
On track for another memorable night. We ask if you could please finalize ticket payments. Available at the next General Meeting will be an Eftpos machine for your convenience. Or ring Vince DeGrazia For payment. (His number is in the Newsletter)

Smoked Salmon

Ingredients

2 Salmon fillets with skin and

scales on

10 tbs brown sugar

1 tablespoon of sea salt

1 litre of water

Method

Now you can use your Webber or any BBQ with a lid on it, you just need to get a smoking tray for your wood chips from the camping store and all the instructions should be there with it. Hickory is the best as far as wood goes and easy to find in either chips or a chunk form. Chunks last longer and produce smoke through the whole cooking process, Chips burn off in about 15 minutes (when placed on the beads) and require topping up a second time after about 20 minutes.

When placing the chips straight on the heat beads the temperature is controlled by the number of beads used with each type of fish. Most of the recipes I do have 20 beads per-side which produces a good result. The heat beads are also allowed to burn down for about 30 to 40 minutes before smoking starts. Look at the beads carefully, when they are light colored and smoldering with little or no flame they are about right.To make either the chips, or chunks produce the required smoke levels they must be pre-soaked in water for about an hour before use. Once wet they burn slowly and produce lots of smoke.

For the wet pickling solution you need to grab a dish long enough to hold the fillets without folding over. Mix the water with the sugar and salt making sure it is completely dissolved. Place the fillets in the sugar, salt mix and allow to soak for 4-5 hours. Smoked flesh will take up the smoke but the heat will dry the sugar leaving a nice sweet finish to the flesh. Fillets or cutlets cook quicker than whole fish, cooking times are usually around 40 minutes and 1 hour for whole fish.

When the beads are ready take the fish out of the pickle and towel dry before placing on rack skin side down. Add a good hand full of chips on top of the beads and put the lid on, making sure to open all air vents. After 20 minutes add another handful of chips and that should see you through.

When the fish is cooked allow to sit for five minutes and serve with some smashed potato, cauliflower cheese or a green salad of your choice. Hot or cold smoked fish is a nice change from the regular grilled or baked dishes and it also gives you more veriety in your cooking. But truly when it comes to good smoking, the fish has to be kept in prime condition and cleaned well with all bloodremoved from the gut cavity for you to have the best chance of success. Smoking is all about trial and error and creating your desired taste, so take some time to nut out the finer details and I’m sure you will be pleasantly surprised with the result.

Congratualtions to Rob and Rosa Franciosa on the safe arrival of their first child Daniel, great to hear all is well with both Mum and Bubs,apparently Rob picked up the skill of changing nappies overnight.

My very first trip down to Portland for Tuna was a very 'spur of the moment' event.
It involved some very quick talking to my wife, some coughing on the phone to the boss and most importantly some advice from fellow club members. 

Shot down to Portland after work with fellow club member Frank and the boys. Left Melbourne about 7pm.
Got to the cabins about 11ish and settled in. Setup the rods and gear ready for the morning trip.

Started the day at 6:30 got onto some squid in the shallows around the port for some bait (in case we sound up something big & troll with a downrigger)

Headed out to the "horse shoe" and trolled the 1000m mark occasionally weaving in and out to between 600m and 1000m,
First 15 mins produced a 5 way hook-up of SBTs, of which only 2 were landed...

Then the rest of the morning was fairly quiet, the crew caught up on some sleep

We had some lunch and most of the afternoon we heard some chatter over the radio of some minor catches.

Found a nice patch of baitfish schooling (Thanks Ray for the tip-off) and trolled around them for nearly 2km to produce 6 albacore. 

Had more fish than we needed so decided to have some fun and switched to light gear. In the end i had some great fun, and definitely memories for a lifetime!

For anyone considering having a go at the tuna, I highly recommend you go!
I had the time of my life, Thanks Frank!
Most importantly remember to have fun!

For more pics click here.
Cheers, Pete