Now in its second year, the competition has officially earned a permanent annual place on the calendar, “the second weekend in November” and anglers from far and wide are eager to come back to the picture-perfect tranquil coastal town of Urunga to participate in this fun event.

This year you will see a few exciting new aspects to the fishing tournament including the team’s categories, making this event even more fun for you and your mates.

The goal has been, and always will be, to provide you with the best value for money fun fishing competition you can participate in. 

The Urunga Estuary Sport Fishing Club strives for this to be more than just a fishing competition, and we are building on an already great reputation among the fishing community with the major prizes awarded via an entrant only random raffle.

The success of the inaugural competition has allowed us to raise the stakes in this year’s entrant only random raffle, and with the help of the sponsors, we have put together a massive prize pool worth more than $15,000 including a Bluefin boat, Suzuki motor and trailer package from North Coast Boating Centre Urunga as the major prize.

All you need to do to be in the draw to win a prize is register for the competition – you don't even need to fish.

The fishing side of the event kicks off on Friday afternoon, when all the competitors will participate in a registration and briefing from 6pm – this is the time where you can register as a two or three person team. There will also be special guests present including the guys from Team Berkley-Abu Garcia Australia. You will find the team’s pro staff hanging out at the Berkley Fishing stand handing out a heap of free lure samples and promotional gear so make sure you take some time to catch up with those guys. 

Saturday morning at 6am is the official start of fishing, anglers will be targeting the ever popular dusky flathead using only lures and/or fly.

The aim is to catch the fish, take a photo with your ID Tag on a Brag Matt then release the fish straight back into the water unharmed. You are required to record all the information including the measurement on your score sheet of all the fish you catch during the tournament and hand it in at the end of each session.

Day two kicks off again at 6am but finishes at midday with a presentation and raffle starting at approximately 1.30pm.

The Urunga Anglers Club together with the Urunga Lions Club will have plenty of food and beverages available during the course of the weekend.

So don't be shy, call in to the Urunga Sailing Club on Atherton Drive to check out all the action. 

In the lead up to the event the river has been fishing great with numerous big female flathead caught and released over the past month.

Some anglers that would be hard to tip against and in my opinion the ones to watch are:

Hayden Elks of Bonville.

Hayden has always been notorious for catching big crocodiles and his recent string of 80cm plus fish gives him plenty of momentum heading into the event on the weekend.

Ryan Thompson is a staff member at Fishing Tackle Australia.

Ryan carved his teeth on the Bellinger and Kalang Rivers and definitely knows how to fish. After leading last year’s tournament on day one, Ryan narrowly missed out on the win by only 5cm, so there is no reason he won’t be at the pointy end again this year aiming for the number one spot.

Ming Liu is the product development coordinator for Berkley Fishing.

Ming comes into the competition blind having never fished either of the river systems here, but he has recently shown that it’s not relevant, by catching the longest flathead at 96cm during the Gold Coast Classic last month, where he had never fished before.

My final pick would have to be Dale Johnson.

Also a fellow Fishing Tackle Australia staff member, Dale is a quiet achiever, not one to boast about how well he has been fishing, but I know he has been putting in some serious hours on the water lately.

Dale knows how to grind it out in tough tournament conditions – put this together with his clever mind and ability to think on the water and he will be hard to beat on the day.