Hooked on Deni
The annual Deniliquin RSL Fishing Classic brought an influx of families from around Australia to the Edward River at the weekend.
This year’s Classic saw more than 1500 anglers registered for the event.
RSL Functions Coordinator Michelle Webber said there were 206 junior registrations and more than 1300 for the adults.
This is 300 more registrations than the 2018 competition that brought 1200 to the river scene last year.
‘‘It was a successful weekend and the Fishing Classic committee was extremely happy,’’ Mrs Webber said.
Deniliquin turned on glorious summer weather for the Classic. Fishing conditions were close to perfect on Saturday morning with mild temperatures and cloud cover, before it rose into the 30s during the afternoon with a slight westerly breeze.
Sunday morning was in the high 20s with barely a breath of wind, before the temperature moved into the mid 30s for the afternoon’s presentation and activities.
More than 300 people attended the presentations, all hopeful of winning a prize.
Matt Venzier was announced the 2019 Champion Angler with five fish at 293.5cm.
Deniliquin father and son duo Rhys and Patrick Westcott both claimed wins on the weekend.
Rhys won the Adult Male Longest Golden Perch and received $500 in prizes for his 54.5cm fish.
Patrick won the Junior Male Longest Murray Cod, receiving $400 worth of prizes for the 100cm fish.
‘‘I’ve been coming to the Classic for about 20 years and Patrick has been since he could get on a boat, so about nine years,’’ Mr Westcott said.
‘‘On Saturday morning we headed out about halfway between Deni and Benarca Bend.
‘‘Pat and I started flicking lures around and it wasn’t working so we tried bait fishing and when that failed we decided to trawl some lures around.
‘‘We found a nice stretch of water and caught a couple of good fish in that.
‘‘Sunday morning we headed to the same area and Patrick caught his metre cod after just a few casts.
‘‘We then said we could just go home because we were not going to catch anything bigger, so we waited a few hours and went home early.
‘‘Patrick celebrated quite well; you could hear him well down the river yahooing.
‘‘It was a good feeling to see the size of the fish in the water and knowing it would be hard to beat.
‘‘The conditions were perfect, I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend.’’
Locals Daria Bish, Jack Tyndall and Max Caruso were thrilled to be going home with their new boats, won in the Early Bird Draw, Junior Lucky Entry Prize and Raffle.
Daria Bish and Jack Tyndall both left with a Clark 395 Predator with 30hp Suzuki Motor and Dunbier trailer valued at $11,500 with Max Caruso winning a Clark 340 punt with 6hp Suzuki motor.
Ben Brice won the major prize, leaving the event with a Clark 427 Estuary Pursuit with 40hp Suzuki Motor and Dunbier Trailer worth about $13,000.
Many of the classic contestants were able to register a successful catch over the weekend.
This included 211 Murray cod, of which 119 were legal size, and 18 golden perch. There were 280 European carp registered. Jack the Cod was not caught, making the $20,000 tagged fish the fourth to have not been caught in competition.
He is now worth $1000 for 12 months, up until the 2020 Classic competition morning.
Mrs Webber asked anglers to advise the RSL Club if any of the other tagged cod are caught.
‘‘Unfortunately you won’t win the $1000 unless you catch Jack but we would love to know if you catch any of the other tagged cod.’’
A full list of prize winners will be in Friday’s edition of the PASTORAL TIMES.
■ Rhys Westcott will also launch a new fortnightly fishing column, ‘Westy’s Brag Mat’, in Friday’s edition.