Bob Stanton's Corporate Fishing Newsletter - Bob Stanton ...

Group News
Toyota Queensland
Sean Hanley Regional Manager Toyota Queensland hosted a
group of 11 dealers to Arnhemland Lodge mid October for his
annual 5 night/4 days fishing Metre Challenge and although no
metre fish were caught his 98.5cm went very close to getting on
that metre board again having got on last year.
Sean had this to say “We only wanted to go barra fishing and it
could have been the best trip yet with 406 barra caught over the
4 days fishing. Every aspect of the trip went off without a hitch
and although we got a bit of wind in the afternoon the weather
was good and tides were perfect. Dave Thomas lodge manager
did a great job and all the new safety systems they have in place
makes us all very comfortable to fish in this very remote area.
The lodge staff also did a fantastic job cleaning up the lodge after
a fire almost took the lodge out just before we arrived.
There is no question this area has the biggest barra on a
consistent basis and one day at the Blyth we got 15 fish from 80-
98.5 cm in one session”. Sean disqualified himself from biggest
barra award so it went to John Madill on a count back from
Nick Pappas and won a barra print as well as a loomis rod and
shimano reel.
Dave Thomas lodge manager had this to say “ They were a great
bunch of guys, easy to get along with, probably the highlight being
the last night - boy do those blokes like a drink”.
John Madill with prize.
Great fishing country.
Toyota guest and nice jack.
Cyclone 9 Group
The Cyclone 9 group formerly Cyclone 6 headed to
Arnhemland Lodge Late November for a 5night/4 days fishing
program. The group named because they almost got caught in
cyclone whilst at Maningrida some years back had 3 extra guests
along for the trip with the highlight being a 101cm barra caught
by keen angler Garry Dare a regular visitor to the top end who
now joins the very exclusive Metre Club. Fishing for the group
was mixed with best boat day being 64 barra and slowest 10.
Next biggest barra for the trip was Shunji Miyahara at 95cm;
Shunji was a guest of Bernie Smith from Toyota.
I was on the trip and it was the first time to the lodge in 2 years
so it was good to meet the new lodge manager Dave Thomas
and his team of great guides. I also was impressed with the new
safety and communication procedures as well as team fishing
policies. As always great service and food was the norm which
has been the feedback from all groups who have gone there this
year.
One of the great characters we meet each time we go to
Maningrida is Sunni the mud crabber who spends many months
on his small boat catching mud crabs. Word is he catches 1000
muddies in a 10 day period which he gets $14 each for, not a bad
10 days work!
.
Yours truly and mates.
Sunni the mud crabber.
Garry and 101 leaderboard..
Toyota National Sales
I worked with Rick Anastas National Sales Promotions and
Incentives Manager Toyota to put together a trip of a lifetime
for 24 sales managers who worked hard to achieve targets and
win a 4 nights 3 days fishing trip to Arnhemland Lodge. The 3rd
quarter national promotion was a huge success as many of the
sales managers had heard about these fishing trips via the Dealer
Principals who have been going for years to such wilderness
destinations. Although they were not on the best of tides for
barra fishing Brett Urbanowicz caught a 101cm and joined the
very exclusive Metre Club the second biggest barra was at 94cm
caught by Scott McGuigan.
Jason Davies the host had this to say “It was fantastic and the
guys are still talking about it. The biggest feedback was that you
got to relax; you went out and fished all day then came back to
the lodge and relaxed some more, no phones and emails. Most
had never fished before and to get 120 barra and 200 other
species was amazing and the lodge people were fantastic they
could not do enough for us”.
Dave Thomas lodge manager said “The group was the best
behaved he had encountered, they didn’t drink that much and
all they wanted to do was fish and relax, they made my job a lot
easier. The big bonus for them was that James Blundell gave a
mini concert on the last night as he was in town to do a day of
fishing himself”.
James Blundell concert
Brett Urbanowicz.
Toyota group relaxing.