Lively Lassies

The Buccaneer Classic 2001

Trailer-boat enthusiasts are well-known as fanatics who never shrink from the daunting task of dragging their boat to a worth while destination.  One mob of fishing fanatics who add another dimension to that equation are the people who take part in the Buccaneer Classic.  Held among the 800-odd islands of the remote Buccaneer Archipelago in the Kimberley, participation involves not only dragging your boat to Derby, but also joining the water convoy. Boats of all sizes string out across King Sound and streak among islands and headlands, enjoying picture postcard scenery, spending a whole day to reach merely the starting point of the competition! 

The Buccaneer Classic is an annual tournament organised by the Mary Island Fishing Club of Derby, and held at Cockatoo Island.  The gathering takes place in memory of Kim Keevil, who contributed so much to charter boat operations in the Buccaneer Archipelago.  Close fraternity is particularly evident when it is made known that the full resources of the island resort are reserved solely for the event.  Whole families travel across to enjoy the occasion, and accommodation on the island is closed to ‘outsiders’.

As a source of revenue for the club a system of fines is imposed every evening.  Any hilarious mistake or activity on the water translates into a fine.  One skipper anchored without making fast the bitter end of the line.  Farewell anchor!  That was a fine.  One keen angler worked up a thirst tying a bimini twist to double his line, made a connection to a leader with a perfect Albright knot, used a double sheep shank to fasten a lure to the end, trimmed all ends and managed to trim the whole rig off the main line!  That was definitely a fine.  And so it continued with the audience in stitches, even when it was their own turn to pay up.

The geographic location of this gathering has to be one of the utmost challenging.  Only Alaska boasts a greater tidal range.  Spring tides exceed 11m.  Anybody with a shred of commonsense can understand from that information the importance of adequate ground tackle, warps and chain.  Safety today is popularly considered to centre around mobile phones, but such trinkets don’t even make good fishing lures or sinkers in the Buccaneer Archipelago, and they certainly don’t work as phones.  Telstra services in the bush? 

  They were the only all –female team.  Deb Foster, who has fished by invitation with the REEL GIRLS team in the Broome Billfish Tournament, decided to lead an assault on the Buccaneers.  Her enthusiasm persuaded four others to join her:  Tina Matthews, whose usual approach to fishing had been the laid-back Sunday arvo style of thing; Pam Blatchford, whose involvement in the family business of blue-water boat charters included success at the Broome Billfish Tournament where she was champion female angler; Sylvia Lerch, Reel Grannie and mother of REEL GIRLS’ Jeni Lerch; and most courageous of all Nicki Bilston of Mary Island Fishing Club, who not only abandoned her own ship ‘Serenity’ but even joined a team from outside Derby!  It’s surprising she wasn’t heavily fined.  The women chartered the Four Winds’ boat ‘Lively’ skippered by Dean Kemp.  As a team name they chose ‘Lively Lassies’.

Categories for the competition listed sport-fishing, reef-fishing, creek-fishing, and beach or jetty-fishing.  Only one man was heard to say, chuffed at his own perspicacity, “You’re an all women’s team, eh?  Then you must be in the beach and jetty section.”  He was possibly an octogenarian or about ninety in the shade.  Most of the throng milling around the bar just looked like pirates, or corsairs, or buccaneers, and the lively banter, good humour and intense enthusiasm never waned.  

The system of scoring provides fair competition between anglers who target big pelagics in a big way, and anglers who choose to remain land-based or restricted to creeks and estuaries.  This also allows the competition to proceed almost regardless of the weather.

 But this gathering is much more than just a fishing competition, or a memorial to a lost mate.  Whole families join the convoy for the trip across from the mainland to the island resort.  The trip across on Friday becomes a family picnic as lunch is taken at Croc Creek, the sentimental stopover for cruising yachts.  The tradition of mementoes left with messages, statements or just individual names reach out as a bond of human contact in truly breath-taking terrain, and mind-numbing isolation.  These works of true folk-art festoon the shade awning at the waterhole where cruising yachts stop to replenish water breakers. After lunch, it’s on to the hospitality of Cockatoo Island and all the comforts of a luxurious resort.  This extra-long weekend is a family affair.  Saturday and Sunday are fishing days where no one even has to bother cooking the catch, since it is strictly a catch and release conservation arrangement.  ‘Lively Lassies’ were soundly beaten in the competition, but content to be placed fourth overall.

 Monday morning saw all participants gather at an idyllic beach on a lonely island, like castaways and beachcombers.  After a light-hearted competition weekend held in fish-rich waters, after truly five-star indulgence from the resort, after a true escape from the rigours of mainstream life, everyone congregates on the final day at the tiny island called home by the late Kim Keevil.  This hide-away is a refuge of true recreation, by which I mean re-creation: becoming whole again.   

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