Mandalay Family Fishing Competition 2011

Jan 24th 2011, 10:00 by Mandalay | Posted in Events

On Thursday January 20th the beach in front of Mandalay experienced one of the largest turnouts for the annual Mandalay Family Fishing Competition. With over 170 registered fishermen and women, the fish had nowhere to hide and there was hardly room on the beach for our budding fishermen to cast their lines.

 

The bites began few and far between in the first 20 minutes of the evening, but as the scent of the burley slick reached the fish, the judges were soon inundated with aspiring anglers bringing their catches to be recorded.  A variety of fish, including sand whiting, herring, trumpeter, skippy and flatheads were caught, even a nor-west blowfish!  All fish caught were to be presented live, and then released once recorded. 

 

As the night wore on and the temperature dropped, the fishermen were still keen to catch the biggest, most interesting or greatest number of fish.  When the final buzzer sounded, all of the anglers and their shivering spectators headed back to the games room for presentations.  With a huge haul of prizes donated by Jim and Karen Hailstone and Compleat Angler Rockingham, almost every fisherman was rewarded for their efforts. 

 

A very big thank you to all contributors, in particular Jim and Karen Hailstone, Glenn and Yvonne Traurn, Compleat Angler Rockingham for the donation of all of our fantastic prizes and Carina Gemignani from the Department of Fisheries for helping on the night.  We are now looking forward to another great family fishing competition next year.