Georgia Poyner finally got that big kingfish she has been after and what a fish it was, coming in at 22 kilograms and 1.3 metres.
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At just 16 years old, Georgia is fast making name for herself in the spearfishing world, already securing sponsorship for her next spearfishing competition down at Eden in a few weeks time.
But it was in her own time, out of competition that she speared her massive kingfish on Sunday. She would only say it was somewhere out of Narooma and that she is “sworn to secrecy” about the exact location.
‘I’ve been trying to get a really big one for quite a while now, I have got a couple of littler ones around the 80cm mark, but this was the one,” she said.
She actually had to battle a wobbegong shark to get her previous biggest fish back after the shark came off the bottom to try and steal her 80cm kingfish, so this time she made sure to keep it off the bottom and away from any sharks.
And it took a couple of days to get the big one this time around.
“I dived on the spot on Saturday and saw quite a few big kingfish, but none of them came close enough,” she said. “So we went back Sunday and I spent four hours in the water seeing quite a few smaller, rat kingfish.
“Then we moved a short distance and I hopped in and suddenly had big kingfish all around me, so I was quite excited.”
She said she got off a clean shot and the fish was off swimming around her and playing dirty as they usually do.
“It was only in 8 metres of water so it pulled me around a bit and I had to work to keep it off the bottom, as it’s the same as fishing and they try and reef you.”
As usual her dad Jonathan was her constant companion on the water and was able to help her hoist the big fish into their inflatable boat, then laying down on it to prevent it flipping over the side.
Georgia said she initially thought the fish was only around 15 kilograms and so she was “stoked” to measure it at 22 kilograms. “Who knows how big those fish were on Saturday as they looked even bigger under water.”
The weekend before she competed in the Narooma spearfishing competition, actually her first spearfishing competition, finishing third in the juniors by weighing in nine species.
Recent Narooma High School graduate and friend Mackenzie O’Neill finished second in the comp’s intermediate division.
In a few weeks time, she will compete in the Eden Three-Way spearfishing competition and has just sponsorship from iconic boat builder Cootacraft, who will be supplying their latest model for her to fish from.
And there is no stopping the 16-year-old dynamo because the day after spending all day in the water for the Narooma spearfishing competition, she was off to Batemans Bay to compete in the Ultimate Triathlon Series, winning her age group.
Currently in Year 11 at Narooma High School, Georgia plans on finishing her Year 12 studies if she can fit in all the fishing and running in between.