2026 George Besoff Memorial Big Fish Classic
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GEORGE BESOFF “Barbara Bee” by Paul Besoff
George had a very long association with gamefishing and with Newcastle and Port Stephens Game Fishing Club. He first gained an interest in game fishing and pursuing large fish back in the early 1960’s when tackle and techniques were quite primitive, compared to what we use today. I can remember going with dad to Sydney to select rods made by William Southam, which had the first roller runners, and buying black sided Penn Senator reels. Most of the line classes at that time were still being referred to as “threads”, a hangover from the very early days of the sport. Most boats only fished in the area between the Outer Light and Broughton Island and out to about 50 fathoms. The boats fished in those days were mostly carvel planked timber hulled boats, which were barely capable of reaching the lure trolling speeds we do today!!
At that stage George fished in a 23 feet timber hulled boat powered by a converted holden grey motor. He soon replaced this motor with a V8 Ford to give a bit more speed to get to the more distant grounds like the Wide Mark off Broughton Island and even as far as the occasional trip to the Gibber Reef where they used to fish for Kingfish and Snapper. They trolled all the way to these fishing spots and used to catch the occasional marlin on their bluefish, purple squid or early knucklehead lures.
George built his first “Barbara Bee”, a 28 feet plywood and cedar cabined cruiser powered by 2 V8 petrol engines. At a later date he also added a flybridge and another control station. In this boat a number of game fishing records were broken: Australian Record for Striped Tuna on 12 lb line, World record for Tiger Shark on 30 lb line, NSW record for Yellowfin Tuna on 30 lb line to name a few.
His quest to venture further out and catch bigger fish saw him build the last “Barbara Bee”, a 38 feet fibreglass Flybridge cruiser powered by twin V8 Caterpillar Diesels which was launched in 1979 and was his pride and joy seeing him add to the list of records with another World Record Tiger shark on 30 lb line, a World Record Mako on 30 lb line, a NSW record White Shark on 30 lb line and a World record Yellowfin Tuna to his wife, Clarice, on 20 lb line.
He has proudly represented the club in many gamefishing tournaments travelling as far away as the Hawaiin International Billfish Tournament, Lizard Island Tournament, Cairns, Dunk Island, Townsville, and most of the tournaments held on the NSW coast.
George will also long be remembered for the capture of a Broadbill Swordfish on “Barbara Bee” during the club’s anniversary tournament.
During this time George was a very active member of the N&PSGFC holding many positions on the committee from President, Vice President, Capture Recorder, Committee man, member of the board of directors, delegate to NSWGFA. When the new clubhouse in Shoal Bay was proposed he held a place on the board of Directors and made sure that the club was running well to pay back this loan in a minimum of time so that future members could benefit from the great facilities we now have. The club recognised his outstanding contributions over a long period of time by granting him a Life Membership, an honour he proudly received.
A lot of current members owe their start in game fishing to George as he was always first to offer to take someone out fishing and show them how it was done. Many new members were joined up in the club through George and he was always keen to pass on his knowledge and fishing expertise and hosted many tackle nights to promote the rules, new techniques and equipment to other club members.
George was a very keen game fisherman who put a lot of effort into his sport and his club and with his untimely passing in 1991 the club decided fittingly to remember his contributions by naming the “George Besoff Memorial Tournament” in his honour.