Well what a weekend, Urunga truly turned it on for the 326 anglers participating in the 2015 Berkley Urunga Sport Fishing Flathead Tournament last week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Anglers from all over Australia ascended on our little slice of heaven for the two day catch and release lure and fly fishing tournament.
Those that come along to the registration briefing on the Friday afternoon were rewarded by special guests and event major sponsors Berkley Fishing Australia. The crew from Berkley gave away over $3500 worth of soft plastics to anyone willing to stand out in the rain for the briefing.
The best thing about fishing competitions is that all competitors are on a equal playing field, and all face the same curve balls mother nature throws.
As predicted, the massive weather front came through Friday evening throwing a spanner in the works and producing some spectacular storms and a huge down poor of rain. This definitely didn't deter the competitors though, all turning up fresh and early Saturday morning ready to grind out a long 13 hour day one session chasing the ever popular Dusky Flathead that frequent the Bellingen and Kalang River systems.
At the end of day one the leader board stood with Ralph Kennedy from Bellingen catching and releasing the Longest Flathead measuring in at 76cm, followed closely by Joey Ellis-Cluff and Ryan Thompson.
As the saying goes: “You can’t win a two day tournament in the first day … but you can sure loose it” … this definitely rang true many competitors. The estuary systems are not usually exposed to such heavy boat and angler traffic so as expected the fish shut down and were a lot harder to temp into eating a lure or fly.
Sunday bought along day two, the final day. The competitors were given six hours to add their final amount of points to their tally. The day bought early showers and a lot more wind. This pushed many anglers up the rivers seeking shelter from the southerly wind.
I had the chance to get out and about to catch up with some anglers on the water. There were plenty of smiles and high fives going on amongst the competitors which was awesome for me to see as the event organiser. Personally, and also as a club, the aim has and always will be to make the event as welcoming and as for the competitors to have as much fun as possible. I truly believe we are doing that with this style of comp we are running at the moment.
The presentation took place at 1.30pm Sunday afternoon next to the sailing club on Atherton Dr.
Thanks to Club Urunga, all the juniors that participated took home a medallion for their participation. Like all sports, the juniors are set to be our future champions and to see 42 kids participate, let alone slug it out on the water for two days in tough weather conditions reassures me the future of fishing as a sport is in good hands.
There could only be one winner of each of the categories and this year the junior Champion Male and Female were Hayden Reeves on 270 points and Caitlyn Hinshelwood with 93.5 points, respectively. Thank you and well done to all the kids for coming along.
In the Adult Male and Female categories Ryan Thompson took out top honours with 932 points, and Kara Eades went back-to-back with 213 points proving she will once again be tough to beat in 2016.
The champion two person team went to Ash Holdsworth and Daran Ryan from Team Fishing Tackle Australia with 648 points, while the three person team champions were Paul, Clayton and Chloe Davidson from Team Yamaha with 582.5 points.
There was also four stand-out random by-catch species awards handed out to Aiden Baloh for his 80cm Mulloway, Clayton Davidson for his Giant Herring, Young Gun Danny O'Connor with his 67cm Giant Trevally and Brent Hogarth with his 40cm Australian Bass.
Back to the Flathead, and the three longest on fly, hard body and soft plastic lure trophies were awarded to Peter Byron with a 36cm Flathead on fly; Daran Ryan with his 65cm Flathead on a hard body lure and the longest Flathead on soft plastic; and longest Flathead overall also etching his name onto the perpetual Longest Flathead Trophy was Ralph Kennedy with his 76cm Flathead.
Massive congratulations to all the winners.
The real draw card though is the random raffle where the Urunga Anglers Club along with the help from Fishing Tackle Australia, North Coast Boating Centre Urunga, Berkley Fishing, Lowrance, Abu Garcia, Daiwa, Samaki, Aussie Outboard Wreckers, Urunga Cellars, TT Lures, Liberty Service Station, Spotters Sunglasses, Z man, and The Ocean View Hotel allow us to give away more than $15,000 worth of prizes to the competitors.
On behalf of the Urunga Anglers Club I’d like to thank all the competitors, volunteers, and especially the sponsors mentioned above for such a great event.
Until next time, tight lines.