# My trip to China - 2013 C.A.N Kayak Fishing comp



## madfishman (Dec 10, 2007)

Hi Guys and Gals,

i thought i would share with you my trip to china last month as part of a team to fish against the Chinese and Kiwis in a kayak comp.

This is heavy with pics, and the most words i have typed in one go for a long time, but well worth it, i think.

I have been fishing from a Hobie Kayak of some sort for many years now chasing snapper, bream, flatties , calamari and anything else we could chase in Victoria, I have learnt many new skills.

Over this time I have also made the effort to attend as many Abt daiwa hobie comps as I can where ever they are, as part of the team at Scott Lovig Hobie Mornington, we cut costs going together and have a great time weaving our way around the country.

I have to admit that I'm not the best angler on the scene but my sole intention in doing the Hobie Kayak comps was to learn as much as possible and make new friends , and having this as a goal it has lead me to many opportunities which I appreciate very much.

One event now stands out and way above all others I have been involved in. This event was to be once of a lifetime opportunity.

Firstly I would like to put out a massive thanks to Steve Fields and Hobiecat Australasia and the Chinese for the opportunity to be invited to the 2013 CAN (China, Australian and New Zealand) Kayak fishing tournament held in China in Sept this year. 
This is a very brief report/write up on the lead up, events and experiences of the trip from my perspective.

The email I received the weeks prior from Steve Fields put into action a chain of events that will live with me forever.

It was my First trip overseas and my first international fishing comp, along with many, many other firsts that would come my way on this trip.

The best news to start off the whole trip was finding out who the rest of the team was, with some serious depth in the team I knew we were going over to compete and not participate , once said by a wise man, plus they are all top guys and knew them all one way or another from comps and social fishing.

First things first was to find out what gear I needed, seeing some of the pictures that had been handed around, but we tried to cover all our bases, I went out and bought frogs, poppers and 110mm + lures, big blades with spinners and spinner baits. Geneo Kustoms had sent the team a pile of awesome lures to try out so these were added to the list also.

With the support of Duffrods, I had 2 custom made rods ready to go, 1 hystix 1-3kg 2pce and a 3-5kg ( called "the dirty broker" )this was for some more heavy stuff but it was to be the Hystix that had me sorted for the 2 day comp. With a Smiths Dancing bream as my other only light rod between the two light rods I had would be great support in getting some fish in the boat, the others being my Nitro Voodo and NS bait caster rod for the heavier stuff also.
Packing all my gear in I realize I have more fishing gear than clothes, this is not a bad thing, I figured the more gear the better off I would be in targeting fish we have never seen in places we had never fished.

Heading to Melbourne airport I was nervous and had no idea what we were heading into , met up with the other Vic boys Matt Petrie , Scott Lovig and Richard Somerton for a quick chat and things were put at ease with a comment from Lovig, " just go with it". With some serious connections at the airport one of the boys got us some Red carpet treatment, getting our boarding passes and luggage in was done in less than 5 mins ready for us to head into customs. This is where my eyes were opened up again, with no hesitation we had our 2 x 1.125ltr of Jim beam in hand for less than $50.00, I was officially sorted and ready to roll. 


The trip over in the plane was a 9.5hr ride that was slightly uncomfortable being my first long flight but with 3 movies to watch that covered most of the time.

When we arrived at GuangZhou we finally found out that our rods were still in Melbourne , straight to the airline "help desk" we completed a few forms and made a few calls, assured they would be there the next day, and they were, thank you to the powers that be. When we got out of Guangzhou we were met by our team associate from China , Gary who led us to a bus to meet the rest of the team and the New Zealanders at the first hotel no less than 5 min from the airport, easy.
Not having dinner and only noodles on the airplane we decided on the next best thing, crack open vitamin JB (drinks)..and that started of the trip in China. This was of course a "fishing trip".

The next morning we had no time to get out and grab breakfast so I headed down to the foyer and picked up a bowl of noodles, first meal in china was breakfast noodles.


We were then all loaded and back to Guangzhou airport for our 2 hr flight to Chengdu. 
Arriving in Chengdu we were then piled into 2 buses with all our luggage, which didn't leave much room for ourselves but we managed find spots. It was great ride getting to know everyone.

This was the trip to Shengzhong lake, a 4 and half hour bus ride through Chengdu and some amazing sights of the beautiful Chinese country side along the way. 






From what we understood Chengdu had a population of 20+ million people, this place was huge in our terms. I was amazed at the amount of buildings we passed in this city, it was never ending, skyscrapers for as far as the eye could see and within 45 mins we were in the country. 






The terrain was surreal, I have to give the Chinese credit for their roads, if there was hills/mountain in the way they built through them with heaps of tunnels and no real huge gradient rods as you would expect in the steep and undulating terrain.





As we approached the Shengzhong Lake Hotel resort we passed many small villages and where we were heading was only a small place and the closet town only had a population of 2million, only 2million, wow. 




As we weaved down and around on our way to the resort on what we thought we single lane roads the bus driver showed us why horns were invented, honking on corner approaches, passing of people on the road on bikes ( usually 2-4 on each bike), people walking and other cars/trucks. We were quite entertained by the bus drivers ability to use the horn constantly.




On arrival to the resort which is more like a national park we passed a large amphitheater , they had set up a large stage which would under normal circumstance be fit for a large rock band concert. This is when we were told it was for the fishing tournament, we were awestruck, and it only got better from here. The tournament also had a seperate division of 600 anglers with 4 anglers per platform over 150 floating platforms around the lake, this was ending up to be a massive comp. We had 30 anglers fishing for over $55,000 USD in the kayak division and they were fishing for over $100,000, I liked our odds better.








Land based anglers, all around the front of the lake

Once we arrived at the resort we were set up in our own villa on the water, impressive to say the least, 5 star layout and furnishings. We even had our own villa security guard, we found out later his name was Mr Du, but we just called him Charlie and he seemed to be very happy with our presence. This was also true with the many locals and employees of the resort, who from what we found out, had never seen westerners before, and with Scott Lovig standing in at 6'5" he was a new local attraction.


We then found out they had arranged for us to get out on the water at some stage and this would be a navigation day or part there of.
Navigation day on the water, this was a 4 hour window to sound around and have a look prior to prefish..The goal was for each of us to couple up and look at different areas. Jim, Myself and Matt and Richard were given the area around a large island to the right of the launch spot , using my sony action cam I recorded enough info so I could review the night before comp and look to see where the most fish marks and drop off were, unfortunately it was everywhere. This ended up being a good and relaxing day and was the lead up to a very entertaining night. Before heading out to the big night we had a team meeting in the Villa Boardroom discussing that the best way to beat the Local Chinese talent was to work as a team.









The opening Ceremony was, well out of this town, the Chinese know how to put on a show, i will only post pics, no story required here..just WOW..












First night welcome dinner with officials and govt reps started off very formal and with a formal dinner was shaping up to be a short night. Then out come the fire water ( as we called it ) but was actual rice whisky at 50proof was lethal and the demise of most of the team along with everyone else at the event. It ended up being a massive night and luckily only prefish the next day.We got to meet so many of the nice hosts and other competitors along with the main officials. I wont go into to much details but lets say a picture says a thousand words, and we got lots of pictures ..we were drinking with the Minister of sports from Beijing, other senior govt officials, the Chinese fishing team and the NZ's..The dinner was , well I cant remember actually..lol. As the night progressed the Chinese spoke more English and we spoke more Chinese, a very entertaining night indeed, we even had a visit at our villa from a very well known actor ( Kerry, the lady MC for the event). She enjoyed our company and went a little too hard with the aussies and with me ending up giving her a lift on my back, back to the hotel due to the fact she couldn't walk too well . What a night.

Scotty and the Minister of Sports from Beijing, great guy .





The Minister from Beijing and Myself..i was getting a little messy about now..lol

The next day was prefish day and there were many sorry heads floating around the Australian and NZ camps thanks to the Chinese, we think this was part of their plan, but we were still able to get our gear together for the 30min windy, rough and constant honking bus ride to the launch spot, which for some didn't go down to well. Some guys took a few days to recover ,if ever at all..




The idea of our approach for the prefish day was organized by the team capt, Matt Petrie and team manager, Steve Fields that we would split the group up and cover different ground again from the navigation day. I was delegated to now head off and cover the left side of launch an went around to aptly named dredge island and [email protected] island for reasons not to be revealed..lol.

The Chinese country side was amazing and cruising around meeting some locals working a barge and seeing a couple fishing from the bank. Then I cruised over to the now named sleepy bay seeing a yakker having a nap for most of the 4 hrs on the water. It must have been the food he didn't look well. 
The fish species we were after were: 
-Red Tail Cutler (most common)
-Topmouth Cutler (second most common)
-mongolian perch (small cod like perch)
-catfish (fairly rare apparently but Matty did hook up on one for a short time)
-snake head ( not actually a this place as we were told)




The day was interesting I was getting the occasional bump and hook up but no fish to the boat then finally I had a huge sub 20cm fish, this was after about 3 hrs of casting and it shook itself free at the yak.





andrew with a couple of fish, we didnt get many photos of our fish as it was the local media taking all the pics and we were quite rushed.

These fish were similar to a mini barra, redfin perch and bass with their mouth types, large inhaling type.

I was throwing Daiwa double clutches, smiths panish and osp bent minnows working water columns of 2-5 mtrs around edges and drop offs. I decided then to head out to deeper water 20-40mtrs which was only 5 mtrs from shoreline. No luck still I headed over to sleepy bay again and met up with Steve who picked up the same marks, we worked the area for an hour or so with no luck.

Using many different types of lures from, Lucky craft LVRs, Jackall TN60's, spinner baits, soft plastics with ¼ ounce jig heads and so on for no luck. Things were looking tough. We headed back in to review or day as a team.

Andrew had caught the most fish on prefish and we listened to his technique and types of lures, simply enough we had to fish as if we were fishing for bream, vibes and slow winding with lifts on the bottom, and sometimes as Stewie had mentioned a little pace on the wind back in.. bring on day one , we had a plan and it suited us well.

Getting back to the villa and it was game on, we all got our gear sorted and had an idea on what our plan was. I had now sorted my rods form 5 down to 4 ( no bait caster needed now) , sorted out my lures and culled down a few hundred to just 2 trays. Vibes, vibes with spinners, soft plastics rigged weedless for any surface bite in close to the bank.


The Aussie Team ready to roll.


the Chinese team


the Kiwi Team



Day One 
Its on.
Getting started was a little longer than previous days in getting ready, the officials had a plan and we followed. First was to get our starting order, this was allocated by each team lining up infront of a box of numbered ping pong balls, this was our boat allocation and launching position. in the first attempt at a kayak comp the Chinese were doing really well in getting the process's right.







After 20-30mins we finally had our boat allocations and ready to go. 
Launching our boats I decided to put the EVOLVE straight in for the start to get me to where I wanted to go fast, but as one of the boats EVOLVE had a flat battery it was decided that we all hand our electric motors back for the rest of the comp. this suited us fine, the Aussies we used to the Hobies mirage drive but the NZ and Chinese didn't have the stamina, this was another advantage to the Aussies. 



Hover Cam cruising around..

Getting ready to start we all had our plans and it was the wait for the gong to us going and off the legs went, looking back I could see the yellow yaks ( aussies) out pacing the others in all directions. 
Once the gong sounded the rules were, no competitor was to communicate at all with each other and a 50mtr fishing zone applied with a 30mtr traveling distance rule. 
This was enforced with referee boats zooming around monitoring each angler. We all had hand held radios so we could communicate with base and the officials. These were used by several anglers in certain occasions when another angler encroached on another angler's space. I was fortunate enough to not have to use mine as I was lucky not to see any anglers all day.
I peddled like a demon from the launch spot and headed for the big island we had sounded on navigation day, I knew there was a few bays and points I wanted to hit before working my way around. 
Getting around the first point I was working the weedless soft plastic right on the edges and the vibes on a slight 45 deg angle to the bank and hopping it down the drops. I got a few hits but nothing solid. It was 15 min into the comp and then all of a sudden I had a very solid hook up and was taking line.
This was on the Duffrod Hystix 1-3kg, Daiwa, steez 2004, Varivas Max Power braid with 4 lb Varivas Absolute leader and a OMG 7gram vibe, I was a little worried at the time my kit wouldn't hold on, this fish was very heavy and was quite happy taking line.
I was so nervous, It could be that in the first 30mins of the comp, I might have been back in weighing a good fish.
I kept bringing the fish up the water column and then it would decide to go back down, then it ran for a while and kept going I had no choice but to let it run. This happened several times over about 10 mins and on 2 occasions I had it at the surface but too far for the net, plus every time it saw me it took off again. 
I had a referee boat around and they had launched a remote controlled helicopter camera which made things even more nerve wrecking, as now I was being filmed and had to make this to the boat. No pressure I thought Neil.
I then decided I would get the hobie working to my advantage and start peddling to bring the fish up the water column on the move, this works well for snapper in my home ground in Melbourne, Port Phillip Bay, so I figured I give it a go. This made things so much easier, with the lift and wind working with the hobie on the move , I was going to land this sucker and this was going to take me to the top.. well after 15-20mins I landed this fish and it was about 3kg+ , BUT wasn't on the species list. DAMN, all that effort for a fish I couldn't weigh in. 







pic from the tv show from the helicam





vid of the capture...

The most important thing I later found out was I got my Vibe back. Out of all the lures I had this is one blade I wanted to keep , even though I had only caught 2 fish on it so far, for some reason it was a lucky lure, or a confidence lure, as most anglers would understand. After showing off the fish to the hover cam , and making sure wth the officials boat that it wasn't on the list , I put it back, then I kept on working the edges.
Cruising around this surreal bay in total serenity, no other anglers around, I had a small glimpse of Steve early on for a little while and possibly one other Chinese angler later on in the day but other than those guys no one else, my bonus.
I finally worked my way around the bay to the point I so wanted to fish from navigation day, this spot which I called the Tree Point had everything , point, drops, flats , edges. It was a long point of the island that came out towards another island 100mtrs away and from the edge at 2.5mtrs dropping down in stages to 25mtrs. 


I started working the point, casting directly into the bank and also working the drops back to the yak, then worked the lures along the bank at different distances from the shoreline. I had a systematic approach and could see marks on the sounder at all levels but more concentrated in the 7-12 mtr line. 
I was winding the OMG vibe back from a dodgy cast and this is when I got my first hit, thinking I had dropped it I let the lure drop and sure enough I was on..a 25cm redtail..not huge but of the donut board. I then cast out again , same angle but instead waited for it to hit the ground at about the 10mtrs mark I then slowly started winding it back and then another hit, landed another 25cm redtail. I had worked out my pattern. But this pattern changed throughout the day, I just had to make sure I got a long cast out and worked it back, then I would generally get a hit. Things would go quiet for a while and nothing on the sounder, then a bit of wind and the sounder would light up with marks, so I knew this was a spot to keep. One thing kept going through my head, don't leave fish to find fish.
I sat on this point for the rest of the day and caught over 20-30 fish upgrading the whole time until I had the biggest bag I could get. 
Upgrading fish was a little difficult as these fish were very temperamental and after 3-4 upgrades I was worried I would lose some fish, the scales came of easy some fish and some were laying the wrong way up, so I peddled around whilst holding the fish at the intake valve of the live well giving each fish a fresh pump of water. 
With 1 ½ hrs to go I worked my way around the island and picked up another 5-6 fish but still no bigger than what I had. Only 30 mins to go it was a short coast back to the weigh in/ finish area. 
My anticipation was high but most of my fish were around the 30-35cm mark, I didn't think I had a chance and having heard some people getting permission to go in weigh fish during the day I thought they had bigger bags, I was expecting more people to have bigger fish and more of them. 
After all the weigh ins had been completed I was in 8th place, it was tight between 9th and 4th. 
What was great was to see Richard Somerton in the lead with a 2.11kg bag on day 1, leading the Aussies to a potential victory. After weigh ins had finished I had the 2nd biggest bag in the team at 1.25kg . 
The Chinese had a majority of their team on the board and the Kiwi star Belinda Thomas pulling an impressive 2nd place on the first day and with the biggest fish so far along with a 1.71kg bag . This was day one finished.
The ride back to the villa was great , we had a real team feeling and the feeling was awesome , Aussies were in the top 10 and we knew we just had to do what we could to keep the Chinese out and get more Aussies up the ladder.
That night we had a team meeting and with the map on the table we talked about who fished where and what lures and techniques were used, along with ways of hitting certain areas first and hard on the second day. We knew as before we had the stamina to outpace the rest of the field so getting to certain spots was easy. We all talked about our action plan and I had stated I was going back to my Tree point spot again for a while first. 
As Stewie, Richard and Andrew had mentioned during our discussion there were fish everywhere, it was about getting the technique right on the retrieve.



That night was a reasonably quiet night, as always we had trouble getting cold beer. You may think that's not right but every night we struggled to get the hotel staff to understand we drink our beer cold, the beer supplied was a govt beer ( yeah a beer made by the govt and it was free, we like free beer, but cold free beer was better. ) eventually we had them understanding to put beer in the fridge the day before and it would be the last day we finally had our supply of cold free beer, and we savored every drop.

The meals through out our stay were so different to what we were used to just to give you an idea:
Breakfast--noodles in chilli oil, shredded meat, sour buns, sponge cake, rice, fried rice, congee and many other dishes we had never seen. It was a bit of an experiment between the team members with some guys coming back to the table with different food and getting the aok it was good we would rush out and try and get some on our plate, this was the same very meal. We found out that there was a cook doing fried eggs, the queue for eggs each morning was mainly Aussies and kiwis. 
Lunch and normal dinners- noodles with chilli oil, pork knuckle stews, sausages of some time, other noodles like a Bolognese , money bags ( dumplings with stuff in them) and many many other dishes which had us guessing.
Then there was the formal dinners, these were brought out onto the table individually and ranged from full pigeon/duck/bird soups, fish dishes, eggplant, noodles of all types ( with chilli) , sliced meats and again other dishes that also had us guessing. 
We had to remember we were in the province of Sichuan, the home of the chilli, so most dishes had chilli's of some sort mixed in. 
Some of the strangest dishes were, Black bugs with Garlic and spring onion, silk worm larve , different types of fishes in different styles, eye ball soups, and soups with full birds in including the heads. We did get many strange looks from staff and guests but not being able to communicate most of the time it was a bit of a laugh for all, and totally enjoyed. 






Day 2 
D-Day
We arrived at the launch area again after a 30 min cruise in the team bus, honking of horns and close encounters with passer by's . 
This day I had now worked through my gear down to 3 rods and 1 tackle box of lures. 
We had our plan and it was a race to our first spots. 
One thing that stood out today more than the first day was the protests being made on radio by all parties about yakkers fishing to close, mooring up on the FADS and this was to cause some issues later in the day and the following day.
Again I had my spot to myself the Tree point was on fire again. Using the same techniques as learnt previously I have my first 5 fish in the well by 10 am and was upgrading cautiously from then on. 
The highlight for this day was catching my first 2 top mouth cutlers with one of them being over 40cm long and the other only 20cm, just legal. 
Today was a similar day to the day before, heaps of redtail and this time slightly larger. I worked this point for the whole day, and the fish would come on every hour or so, showing up on the sounder I would then go back and retrieve through these marks and pick up 1 fish here and another there. Then I noticed a small bust up on the bank, I then plunged a weedless plastic into their direction and heaps of fish began busting up and fighting for the lure. I was talking to Richard the day before and he mentioned that these fish had similar mouths to the American bass he had caught last year and that you had to be patient and wait to strike if you could feel the fish on. With large bass like mouths I had several fish fighting over my lure and waited to feel a little pressure, then bang I strike and hooked up to another upgrade, you ripper. 
I knew I had a slightly larger bag than the first day, but again heard a few people had already weighed in fish. I found out these were either distressed fish or too big for the live well. 
A funny situation come up over the radio during the day, one of the organisers had questioned Scott Lovig's signature on a weigh in he had done earlier in the day and that his signature was different. We had to sign off on everything and when you weighed in you had to sign off that you agreed with the weight. When Scott replied that he had signed with his initials on this occasion they were happy , but he wanted to confirm they had the right weights. This was all over the radios so all could hear, and the organizer replied with " yes we have 2 fish, 1 at 660grams and another at 480grams", awesome I thought, Scotty had weighed in 2 fish and was already over a kilo and everyone could hear, that must be doing some ones head in right now. 
We also heard the Chinese talking on the radio stating that people were too close and the kiwis complaining about other yakkers mooring up to fads again. Protests were made and recorded to be disputed later in the day. I had no trouble all day, but I did see a few more yakkers today than the previous day working their way around me, I wasn't moving. Don't leave fish to find fish ran through my head constantly.
As the day was closing to a finish I started to head back in, I wasn't thinking I had a good bag but was happy to have another full 5 fish bag and had done my best for the team. That was most important.
At the weigh in I came up and removed my livewell to take to the scales with the officials in wait. I was told the biggest bag so far was 1.38kg and thought I had a reasonable bag and should be ok, but looking back at the weigh waiting area we still had 5 Aussies, several Chinese and Belinda to weigh in, so I was hoping for a top 10 finish at best. 
As I walked up I weighed my biggest fish of 380grams and then the total of 1.45kg, yay I had just found out I had the biggest bag so far. I went back and packed up the gear from the yak and handed it over to the organisers and that was it, all done. Now it was time to wait for the final results. 
I was nervous and pacing around trying to find out who had what weights. Then they wrote up the numbers on the walls and to see at the end I had WON day 2 with the biggest bag YES I thought, im definitely in the top 10, this helped my ranking in a massive way and to say I was excited was an understatement again. I was a bag of nervous poop.








You have to understand now this was not a final weight comp but a ranking system style, so day one I had 8 points for coming 8th, Richard had 1 point for coming 1st and second on day I had 1 point for coming FIRST with now a total of 9 points, so the total of both days RANKING points was totaled and averaged out over the 2 days to give you your final ranking point. 
This is where I had a chance at coming 2nd overall, you bloody ripper, again nervous and running through the numbers with the team captain Matt Petrie, he was sure I had just pulled second place. But it wasn't over until it was official and I had to contain my excitement until we knew it was done. 
We knew Richard had taken out FIRST place and not sure on the others final results as this is when the protest were filed and investigated by the officials. 
This process took what felt like hours, but it was over and the buses were loaded. 
We stopped at the look out on the way back for another team photo and last look at the arena for the last few days, the view was amazing and we really appreciated the place we got to fish from a different view for last few days.




We headed back to the villa and the notepads were brought out and a spreadsheet was done, this is where we worked out who ended up in what position but still, it wasn't official, we had to remember we were in China and they made the rules , it was their comp and they had to release the final results. 
We were fairly certain we had 5 in the top ten and 9 in the top 13 , but most importantly Richard Somerton had taken out the honors of FIRST PLACE, this couldn't be changed and he had banked $20,000 USD. Cha ching.
I couldn't imagine what was going through his head, but it would have been all good. It hadn't sunk in with me yet and again wasn't official. 
We headed down to get cold beers and there was a box ready to go, we cherished our beers and now was the waiting game. 
Starting to pack up I couldn't contain my nervousness and called my missus and told her I had made the top ten, it was great. He was stoked but really wanted to know if I was having a good time, of couse.

That night was the Bonfire night for the kayak fishing comp, we had the officials up stage and Steve Fields help light the fire ceremony and paint the dragons with the Minister from Beijing.




We all received a gift from the town of Nanbu, a beautiful porcelain egg in a case with a hand painted scene.


Then it was on again with the drinks and dancing and many acts. The 2 stand out acts was a Chinese version of Tina Turner, with the big puffed Mohawk and punk clothes, then there was the World famous changing faces act. 










This was an awesome act and they got involved with the team and to explain the would be too hard, but basically they had masks on that would change in the blink of an eye right in front of you, truly entertaining. Lol, too hard to explain. 
Many other acts were performed and was an entertaining evening, we mingled and danced with teammates and other competitors, whilst enjoying warm beer and warm coke cola..again. 

Chinese team captain and myself

The next day was the awards day, and getting very nervous we walked done to the amphitheater to be greeted by the big screen with final scores being displayed, it was official : ( even though they had our first and middle names up and mine was spelt wrong, but I wasn't going to complain, I was second)



The Aussie tally ended up:
Richard Somerton 1st Place ( Richard John)
Neil Carstairs 2nd place, ( Nell Collin)
Andrew Death 4th place (Andrew David)
Scott Lovig 6th place (Scott Mackay)
Jim Barrie 7th place (James John)
Craig Couglan 10th place (Craig Simon)
Greg Lewis 11th place 
Stewart Dunn 12th place
Matt Petrie 13th place

Now it was sinking in, I had officially come second, this was an amazing feeling. They now lined us up in the chairs according to our position ready to go on stage. First was the land based comp guys getting up and getting their trophies, prizes and cash. These guys had been sitting out on these platforms for 3 days straight, tents up, cooking beside the shoreline and fishing away like no other for their teams, as I explained earlier there was over 600 land based competitors and they were paying down to top 40. This took about 30 mins. 
Then came the Kayakers, first on stage was the 10-4 place getters, we had Andrew Death, Scott Lovig, Jim Barrie and Craig Coughlan up with 2 other Chinese and our new friend from NZ Belinda Thomas in 5th. They were handed their trophies and best of all CASH, USD to be exact, each place winner was given their winnings not in cheque or direct deposit but CASH, I looked at Richard and we both knew then it was going to be an interesting time on stage.



Third place getter from china went up and received his prize and I was so nervous , I was next . Directed up stage I found the mark on the stage and waited for the official to come up and hand over my trophy, but all I could hear was the Aussies yelling out my name, cheers and applause, I looked down and saw all the Aussie team taking vids and pics along with the other paparazzi in front of the stage. I was stoked..

Then up comes the official , he shakes my hand hands me the trophy, big cheque and $12,000 usd in $100 bills, wrapped in a red ribbon. It was now definitely official I taken out 2ND place and the excitement had kicked in, I was absolutely over the moon, you could have punched me in the face and I still would have laughed.
Richard was called up to stage and again the Aussies could be heard over all in the crowd, he looked stoked and excited, up on the podium we had a 1st and 2nd , together as a team Australia had taken $41,200 USD of the total $55,000 usd prize money. You cant get better than that.












Now we had the problem of getting home in one piece, everyone ( being locals) new we had the cash and we had to do everything together no one was allowed alone that night.

We had our own again room for dinner intead of the main hall and a dinner fit for a Sichuan king, again so much wonderful and different food, but most importantly COLD BEER. 
This night was special, we had all the staff, cooks, head chef, managers and owners come into our dinner room to get pics with the Aussie team, from what I gathered we were well liked and being number one also helped..it was an eventful night and one we will always remember.




The next morning back on the bus to Chengdu to fly back to Guangzhou and we had a little surprise from Steve when we got back , he had arranged fir us to stay opposite the airport at the PULLMAN hotel, a 5 star resort, with western food, on arrival that night we all ordered the same meal..STEAK, aussie steak infact, and the look on the guys faces when we got into our dinner was so funny, a steak never tasted so good. The next morning it was coco pops, toast ( how I missed toast), bacon, sausages and eggs, a breakfast for a king.
We spent the next day relaxing , playing pool, having a few drinks and I ended up doing a bit of souvenir shopping for the family and my partner.
That was our trip to china, I couldn't put everything in , there so much more .

The hospitality of the Chinese was amazing and they really know how to put on a great show. i was really impressed, they pulled no stops for us and the other competitors, i really appreciate the opportunity they gave us to have the comp.

Again thanks to Steve Fields and Hobiecat Australasia for the chance to attend the most amazing event of my life and an experience I will share with a great bunch of guys for life.
Thanks also to Scott Lovig, Matt Petrie, Richard Somerton, Greg Lewis, Stewart Dunn, Craig Coughlan, Jim Barrie and Andrew Death, for being great team mates and great travel buddies.
Thanks for reading..






stewie dunn

Aussies


getting ready with our gear..



the sun coming up


Scotty Lovig, Kerry( the amercian actor) myself and Jim Barrie


line up boys, its fishing time.


Me with one the local acts.


Number 1 and Number 2

i will try and add more if you guys want to see more...


----------



## wilson191 (Sep 22, 2012)

Thats truely awesome. Best trip report ive read. 
Would have been an amazing experience.


----------



## grant ashwell (Apr 24, 2007)

Brilliant.. Well done with the fishing and comprehensive report. I have been waiting for this and really enjoyed.
Thank you

Grant


----------



## Cuda (Sep 18, 2006)

Wow, I thought Murds reports were good. 
That was a great post Neil!
Not a bad two days work for a cool 12k u.s.d too :shock: 
Looks like you all had a memorable trip too.
Thanks again for posting this


----------



## anselmo (Aug 26, 2008)

Great report


----------



## Stealthfisha (Jul 21, 2009)

Photo heavy no s#$t!
Fantastic trip report


----------



## GregL (Jul 27, 2008)

Great report No.2
You really covered the experience perfectly mate. That was much more than just a fishing trip for all of us.
It was truly an honour to be part of it, and to be part of a team who really knew what team work means.
One of the best experiences of my life!
Nice one.
Now, pass me the fire water.....


----------



## blueyak (Jan 20, 2009)

Epic report from an epic trip Neil. 
Richard and yourself had such a good result and deserve all the props you get. I feel so lucky to have been part of such a cool and rewarding experience and had a ball both fishing and travelling with the whole crew.

Greg L I'd pass you the fire water but Fiddy hid it.


----------



## madfishman (Dec 10, 2007)

GregL said:


> Great report No.2
> You really covered the experience perfectly mate. That was much more than just a fishing trip for all of us.
> It was truly an honour to be part of it, and to be part of a team who really knew what team work means.
> One of the best experiences of my life!
> ...





blueyak said:


> Epic report from an epic trip Neil.
> Richard and yourself had such a good result and deserve all the props you get. I feel so lucky to have been part of such a cool and rewarding experience and had a ball both fishing and travelling with the whole crew.
> 
> Greg L I'd pass you the fire water but Fiddy hid it.


Thanks heaps guys, hope i did everyone justice, but i could have kept going, it was and EPIC trip for sure..

Just the mention of Fire water has me cringing like a girl....danger will robinson danger....

it was great to go over with you guys and what an experience, i have so many photos and vids, of which some will/"may" never see the net....id be happy to destroy them for a small fee, in the trust account...hint hint..lol


----------



## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

Fishing comps are a big yawn for me but that was a fantastic read, thanks!


----------



## mudpat (Feb 21, 2011)

Great report and top pics.
Sichuan province is an excellent destination once your bum gets used to the chilli in everything and you learn to stay away from the rocket fuel.


----------



## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

Huge effort in putting that report together Neil and greatly appreciated, excellent read and well done everyone that was part of it.


----------



## ifish1208 (Feb 17, 2010)

wow that is a great read thanks Neil. Big congrates to Richo and Neil and the others that did well this is great for the kayaking sport and gives everyone a goal to achieve for future events. Well done for steve for organizing it will only make our sport bigger.


----------



## Rebel 1 (Mar 27, 2007)

Hey Neil, great write up! It is hard to explain just how good the trip was. It was also good to spend some time with the Melbourne boys . Well done


----------

