WHEN you are fishing fanatics like Wayne and Judy Litfin, you have many stories to share about the Rosewood Amateur Fishing Club (RAFC).
However, the common theme is family-friendly competition with like-minded anglers.
Life members Wayne and Judy are part of three generations with their children and grandchildren who regularly fish on saltwater and freshwater outings.
“We all get to the dam trips,” Wayne said.
“We all get together and all camp in the one spot.”
Wayne, a former miner with strong Rosewood ties, is the current club vice-president, along with Wayne Browning.
Judy is club secretary. She worked as an emergency nurse for 45 years in Ipswich Hospital after growing up on a dairy farm at Hatton Vale.
Wayne and Judy have been with the RAFC for more than 20 years and are multiple club champions.
Club president Graham Topping was one of the founding members in October 1984 when a group of fishing mates formed the Walloon Amateur Fishing Club.
“I’ve still got the original box here from the first meeting [on a Monday night at the Walloon Hotel],” Graham said.
Graham was elected as the inaugural president.
Other founding members were Billy Hornbuckle (treasurer) and Tom Milford (secretary).
Topping said Nigel Pemberton – the Walloon Hotel publican at the time – suggested the patrons get together to form a local fishing club.
From starting with men and boys, the club was renamed the Rosewood Amateur Fishing Club in the late 1980s.
The club welcomed women and girls and began establishing a variety of regular competitions.
Forty senior and junior club members now fish in five saltwater and five freshwater competitions a year.
The saltwater trips are mainly mid-year to the Jumpinpin where bream, flathead and tailor are among the species targeted.
The freshwater competitions are held on South East Queensland lakes like Moogerah, Leslie, Somerset and Glenlyon. They are staged in the warmer months where club members attempt to catch Australian bass, golden perch, silver perch, jew and the elusive Murray Cod.
Using digital scales on their boats, members record and photograph their catches before often releasing them to fight another day.
Members receive points for participating, for each fish they catch and for weight per kilogram at each of the 10 competitions.
The current club champion is Daren Henderson.
Monthly meetings are held at the Rising Sun Hotel in Rosewood, which became the club’s home base in 1991.
For Rosewood-based Wayne and Judy, the competitions are fun and a challenge, especially with the couple having different fishing styles.
“I like sitting in the one spot,” said Wayne, who enjoys targeting bream on cold nights.
“And that drives me mad,” Judy replied.
Often fishing in another boat, Judy favours catching flathead and tailor while always on alert for a prized mulloway.
The couple’s daughter Naomi is a regular competitor along with her children Holly, Arielle and Owen.
Loyal and long-serving club member Graham fishes with a slightly different focus.
“It’s always nice to sit back and have a couple of quiet ones and maybe catch a poor, unfortunate fish,” he said with a laugh.
“I used to like the salt [water]. I prefer the fresh now … sit back in the camp and relax all afternoon.”
Judy said the club has a wide appeal for participants from Rosewood and Ipswich.
“The membership is changing,” Judy said.
“People move because they are too busy with grandkids or whatever but there always seems to be new people joining.
“That keeps it fresh too.”
