Hooley spondooley – just when we thought it may never get bigger, we have broken records for numbers of anglers registered and a huge crowd of supporters who enjoyed the weekend! All told, we had 111 hit the water to fish – an even split of adults and juniors which bodes really well for the future of the comp.

We were relatively lucky with the weather – a blowy day on Friday wedged between two lovely days on the water – and boy were there some fish around! There were 155 fish registered and 254 released across nine different species (including a Stargazer and lots of stingrays!) A big shout out to Katie and the crew at the Gipsy Point Lodge who were once again willing to host us for registrations and the final Presentation afternoon. It really is so great to open and close the comp overlooking the Genoa!

FUNDRAISING

One of the new fundraising features this year was a huge hit and created some awesome theatre on the night of the Presentation. The ‘reverse-draw’ Mega River Raffle saw an excited crowd gathered around the bingo roller as the balls were drawn out, eliminating a punter with each extraction. In the end it came down to two excited (nervous!) lads in the room – Harrison Lipscombe and Dave Peters ultimately deciding to split the $2,500 pot between them. Both very excited and deserving winners who were immensely grateful for the windfall.

The regular raffle was again a success – the community once again came through with some amazing prizes! The items generously donated for the auction were all snapped up with some hot bidding on the night. Thanks to everyone for your donations – we can’t do this without you! With the additional funds received via a grant from Fire to Flourish for which we are so grateful, we were able to raise more than $2,500 while also doubling the prize money and sponsoring the Presentation dinner for the community.

PRIZE WINNERS

With so many fish being caught, the main prize was always going to be hotly contested – and patience paid off for many!

Longest Bream

Mitch Stothers 44cm

Reid Johnson 42cm

Scotty Panton 40cm

Longest Flathead

Dennis Brownlie 73cm

Tanya De Geus 64cm

Jack Resson 64cm

Women’s Prize (donated by Sally Foster for the longest overall ‘bag’ of fish)

Anna Harcourt

John Wood Memorial Prize

Eddie Eade (who released 46 fish!)

Paul Davis Memorial (Junior) Prize

Reid Johnson – 42cm Bream

Jack Ressom – 64cm Flathead

U/14 Nellie Brownlie – 62cm Flathead

U/10 – Tom Brownlie – 63cm Flathead

We look forward to seeing you all back again next year – I have already updated the website with dates for 2027 – lock 1st-3rd APRIL in your diaries! Always looking to simplify to make everything as easy as possible – please send any feedback you have! If you need to update your details or add anyone’s email to the list, please just shoot me an email to lucy.gilfillan@gmail.com

I look forward to seeing you on the river soon!

Tight lines!