First in line for record
Lucy sets precedent with catch
ALL Lucy Davis needed to do was catch a legal sized 30cm Australian bass to take out a world record but the Gold Coast angler smashed that by reeling in a 43cm snodger.
The 14-year-old caught the International Game Fishing Association-certified Australian bass world record for a junior girl in November while fishing at a secret Coomera River tributary with a hard-body lure.
“It was only when the fish did a roll on the surface and we realised it was a pretty big fish,” Lucy said of her catch.
“I was stressing because it went under another log.
“But my dad (Paul) and brother (Jack) gave me a high five and they said ‘you’ve got this’ and helped me get the fish out, even though I didn’t think I had it.”
It took more than six months for Lucy’s 1.3kg bass to be recognised.
The Emmanuel College student is the first record holder in the category because no junior girl had been a member of the IGFA and submitted an Australian bass for certification.
Lucy said unofficially the fish was 46cm but it shrunk while it was weighed and measured using certified scales.
“There were so many steps we had to take to get everything perfect,” she said.
She took up the sport two years ago after her brother convinced her to buy a lure and fish at her Austinville home on Mudgeeraba Creek where she caught a bass on her first cast.
“I was hooked right away,” said Lucy.
“Fishing is very soothing, I’d just go out the back and start fishing.”
Now she’s sponsored as a JM Gillies young gun and continues to fish with her 16year-old brother Jack who is racing to break the boy’s record before his 17th birthday. MORE than 60,000 library books were returned after City of Sydney made the decision to close the books on late fines.
The City of Sydney libraries made the decision to shelve overdue fines until the year 2021, after a trial resulted in the return of 67,945 which were due back more than a decade ago. Following the trial’s success, Lord Mayor Clover Moore hopes the initiative will be rolled out at libraries across the state.
Under the new system, all library memberships will be suspended until an overdue item has been returned. THE value of Australia’s agriculture industry has reached a new high of $56 billion.
The 2015-16 figure, released yesterday as part of the Agricultural Census, represents a $3.1 billion rise and was driven by increased livestock values.
“Beef was again the largest contributor to this rise, despite fewer animals heading to the saleyards, with strong price rises both domestically and internationally,” the Bureau of Statistics’ Lauren Binns said.
The most valuable crops were wheat ($6.2bn) and fruit, nuts and grapes ($5.6bn).