Huge Snapper Lands Big Prize For Heath
Illawarra Mercury
Friday May 7, 2004
WHEN Heath Withers hit the road from Shell Cove to fish the recent 2004 South Australian Amateur Snapper Championships at Whyalla, he never thought he would return to the Illawarra with the coveted trophy for catching the heaviest snapper weighing 14.72kg.
For years, Withers had longed to fish the big event with his mates from his home town of Morwell in Victoria.
But his work commitments as a supervisor with Transfield Services had always put a damper on his dream of fishing the snapper challenge.
``I have always loved fishing for snapper since I was 15 years of age when I started fishing with my good mates Bob Hodgson and Frank Tabone," Withers said.
``We used to tow a boat down to the nearest beach and launch it into an open sea to go snapper fishing in the Bass Strait."
The championships were run over three days and each boat had bag limit of six snapper a day for the entire crew, no matter how many anglers fished in the boat.
``On the first day of the championships all our boat crew could catch was a lone 2kg snapper, but on the second day we boated our bag limit of six," Withers said.
``I caught three of the fish weighing between 11.2kg and the whopper stopper weighing 14.72kg.
``My 14.72kg snapper was the heaviest caught over the first two days of the championships, so on the third and final day we had our first sleep-in before going fishing some eight nautical miles out to sea off Whyalla.
``I had to sweat it out all day long until the last snapper was weighed in, but in the end I was able to claim the title from the runner up Kevin Burton of Adelaide who caught a 14.32kg specimen, 400g lighter than mine."
For catching the heaviest snapper of the 2004 championships, Withers won a trophy valued at $750, a $1000 cash prize, plus a GPS sounder valued at $1600.
In conjunction with the championships, a special award known as the Steve North Memorial trophy which carried a Abu Ambassadeur 24 carat gold 5000 series overhead reel for the heaviest snapper caught by a interstate anglers also went his way.
Withers used a 25kg mono line with a running rig with two 5.0 hooks,with squid baits attached, to catch his snapper.
It was the first time in the 13-year history of the championships that an interstate angler had ever won the event.
Pretty soon, I'm going fishing with Withers, but not down to Whyalla , nor to catch St George whiting weighing over 1.8kg.
You see, Withers is a member of the Ocean Beach Hotel Fishing Club in Shellharbour and has already got his name up on the club board for catching the best whiting of the year so far, weighing 610g.
I don't know where his secret spot is, but as sure as hell I am going to try and find out, as the best I could catch over summer was a tiddler weighing 430g.
© 2004 Illawarra Mercury
