2nd National Titles - Finschhafen 1977
by Kerry C. King
I have been fortunate to have directed two National Titles Tournaments on behalf of Lae Game Fishing Club. The first was the 2nd National Titles out of Finschhafen in 1977, the other from historic Salamaua the 12th in 1987. These Titles had the common theme in that they were in remote locations with no major sponsor, in fact very little in the way of sponsorship at all resulting with the associated logistics being quite challenging.
As at the time I had a residence at Little Dreger, I spent many weekends at Finschhafen and Tami, fishing and enjoying bountiful catches of yellowfin, rainbow runner and all species being plentiful – even losing more than my share of Marlin. Hence as President of Lae Game Fishing, I nominated Finschhafen as the most exciting location imaginable in my mind to stage the Titles.
Terry Ryan and myself had a weekend fishing there and as a result of our catch, we wondered how we would keep control of the catch and points associated with 100 anglers.
A Committee of 13 was formed, of which only Keith Kingston, Terry Ryan and myself of course are still in Lae.
We observed it had great facilities and was ideally located. We made the necessary donations, some K600, to the school resulting in the students breaking school much earlier than scheduled.
This gave us early access to ready the dormitories for the new incoming residents, some 100 anglers. As part of the anglers bag, we had a plastic blow up mattress.
A reasonable number of the students were employed as assistants, security work, marking reefs, bar work, cleaning and in the kitchen. A large KUM BAR was erected in the grounds and all necessary power lines were put in place for the new “Tourist Lodge” kitchen.
We coerced the services of Hans, the Chief Cook at Unitech Lae. Hans came on site together with most of the Unitech’s kitchen utensils, and set up shop. This is when we started the 4am breakfasts and actually wondered if anybody would show up. To our surprise, every body did and easily obtained their cereals, eggs, sausages, tea, coffee with no problem at all. The big school bell, still in use today was rung each morning.
Supplies:
Supplies were flown in daily by Richard Leahy’s Cessna 185, which was under Co-Air Management. Supplies included fresh vegetables, other required food and urgently required items as well as ice.
Moorings and Fuel:
Moorings were built in Lae by Lynden Anderson and were simply floating finger jetty type. Also used were old wartime cable obtained locally together with some 11 Japanese fishing floats borrowed from Tami Island. The Government work boat, MV Lakanai went to Tami for us. The moorings were established on the eastern side of Little Dreger harbour, while the floating pontoons were anchored near the Government wharf at Dreger close to the school. The weigh station was also established here. Keith Kingston was the ‘Master of Fuel’ and this was obtained at the little Buki wharf, prior to weigh in.
Was very much involved and Boyamo Sali the local member, was our Patron. We had local taxi drivers with established fees for taking visitors along the scenic drives, especially the ‘man-made waterfall’, established by the American with explosives to create an ideal swimming hole. Finschhafen during the Pacific War was home to some 100,000 personnel.
Some 6 policemen were dispatched from Lae to reinforce the Finschhafen Detachment. No arrests or disturbances were reported. Power was organised by getting the Gagidu Power Station going, two generators that were not working were commissioned, 3 pistons for one and bearings on the other, some 4 days and 3 nights work. We paid for this, plus necessary fuel for the power and paid three ELCOM men some K20.00 for being on stand by for 5 days shift work. Tami Islanders were paid for carving 100 special National Titles Commemorate bowls, one for each angler.
All necessary finance was self generated. Lyndon Anderson proposed to sell 100 tickets for K200, the prize being a Range Rover, which cost the Club some K8-9,000. All tickets were sold, the lucky winner being Richard Blackley. Richard unfortunately wrote it off on his way back to Goroka.
The other great money raiser was a Cabaret held at the Melanesian Hotel. Again all tickets being quickly sold out. The ‘Actors’ being the old salties from the Lae Yacht Club, people you would least imagine would participate. I had great difficulty in persuading them to take part in “Out in the Itchy Kuni”. Also a sweet number was performed from South Pacific, two very suitable participants being Noel “Muddy” Edwards and Keith Kingston. Terry Ryan was originally in the cast, however had to withdraw due to commitments arising from Diedre's impending delivery of Troy Ryan. Terry however performed a solo act reciting “ Little Red Hodding Ride” and “William to Hell” in comedy lien. The main music theme throughout the night was Neil Diamond's Hot August Night. The night was so successful, the other people of Lae requested we run it again – but alas the ‘actors’ had had enough.
We had successfully reused sufficient funds to finance all the expenses of the tournament and still had K20,000 left over, this I think was the start of the K20,000 preserved by LGFC for the working capital for the next National Titles.
Yes the fishing - some 100 nominations received at what was considered a large sum of K100 each. Rabaul refused to come stating it was too expensive. That paid for 2 days fuel for fishing, all food and accommodation for 4 days and Anglers Bag. Bougainville sent 14 Anglers and shipped 6 boats, Madang sent 8 anglers and drove 3 boats down to Finschhafen and Port Moresby 16. We had some 50 visiting anglers/visitors, some 50 teams and 40 boats. Both the Australia and New Zealand High Commissioners took part in the Port Moresby teams.
Terry Ryan was Weighmaster, and as usual designed the Score Board. This tournament saw also the introduction of the aluminium metal tags which made it simple to tie the angler number and line class to the fish.
The most exceptional event fishing-wise, was the fact that Geoff Drake managed to lose some 70 rigged baits at Tami. One exceptional loss was when John Costello fishing probably 130 pound had a great hook up on marlin at Tami, fishing with his usual heavy tackle partner, Mr. Crocket only to loose it. On retrieving the line, they found the wire circle still intact but no hook! – does happen!. John was then the GFAPNG President. The Bond brothers from Bougainville won all and generally the fishing was as you would expect, when there was little current running particularly on the last two days.
Finally, the presentation dinner was held on site and was a great night. We ran out of draught beer, so I then said to open all cartons, (we had big reserves) and simply pushed them through the cooler system, it avoided a major catastrophe!
These were happy times in Lae and Finschhafen, there were competitions held between Lae and Finsch and it brought a great deal of understanding to the local people and the Tami Islanders.
A very special thanks goes to the Finschhafen Co-ordinator, Mr Frank Havilland, the Government officer at that time, with a great ability to get things done in the right way.
Kerry C King
© Copyright 2001-2004 Lae Game Fishing Club and Kerry C. King. All Rights Reserved.