The BMYS 41st GALA Fishing Competition 2025
Despite generally bad weather particularly on Saturday of the event the BMYS 41st Gala Fishing Competition was held and was generally regarded as successful despite some necessary changes to the format.
All up approximately 90 members and visitors registered for the event across some 45 boat crews. No doubt overall numbers were impacted by the poor weather forecast particularly on the Saturday which saw a strong wind warning issued. This resulted in fishing on the day being cancelled.
Sunday saw and improvement in the weather with winds of about 15-20 knots allowing about 18 of the larger boats to launch and enter the fishing competition. Unfortunately, conditions generally proved too rough for smaller boats and juniors to participate.
Visitor clubs in attendance included Wangaratta, Albury and Orbost who made their annual trip to BMYS despite the ordinary weather.
Major sponsors of the Gala included JV Marine who donated a small tinnie complete with motor, Complete Angler (Bentleigh), Shimano, Engel (portable freezer) and GME (marine electronics package). In addition, a range of other sponsors contributed to prizes for the fishing competition and raffles. Our thanks go to all our sponsors who played a big part in making the event a success.
Fishing competition winners included Yossi Rakach (first secret weight snapper) who won the major prize of the boat and motor, Harvey Brabener (junior heaviest snapper), Leeron Meyer (senior heaviest snapper). Harvey weighed in the heaviest snapper of the competition at 4.68 Kgs. Eddy (the Eel) Zahara had the most unusual catch being a small eel.
The major raffle prize of an Engel portable freezer was won by Victor Lackner from the Wangaratta Club.
Both the Saturday night informal dinner and Sunday lunch presentation were well attended and thanks go to Club Manager Alex Henderson and his staff for their hard work in making these functions a success.
During the Sunday lunch Commodore John Giuliano made a presentation to Brian McNaughton who organised the first Gala event over 40 years ago and has been a stalwart of the event ever since.
In closing I would like to thank the Fishing Committee members and other committee volunteers who contributed greatly to make the event a success. In particular a big thank you to Tony Huxham and his team for setting up the club site, and David Bell who organised the secret weight fishing competition.
John Malempre
BMYS Fishing Committee Chairman
