ORGANISERS of the Let's Fish Lake Mac tournament are planning a return next November after a better than expected debut last weekend.
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Michael Guest, from Reel Action TV, was asked by Lake Macquarie City Council to run the inaugural event and he was thrilled with the turnout of 1155 people, who fished from land and boat over Friday, Saturday and Sunday and submitted catches via photos sent digitally.
"It was exceptionally successful. Probably way more successful than I initially thought it would be," Guest said. "I think weather plays a big part. We had a lot of late entries. The storm on Friday wasn't great, but you couldn't have asked for better weather on Saturday and Sunday.
"It was great to see so many junior anglers and families out on the water, considering how the year has been with COVID."
Guest said he had met with council this week and the catch-and-release tournament was returning next November. He said council was also on board with the Pirtek Fishing Challenge in mid-April.
As well as prizes for winning catches, packs worth $3000 in total were given out from a draw of all participants. Jono Cuell and Dean Mason won $1000 packs and Payden Hartley and Nathan Wells gained $500 versions.
In the bream section, Dean Semph was closest to the mystery length of 35cm with his 34.9cm fish. Robert Mason won the opens with a 44.9cm bream, ahead of Darren Yule (44.5cm) and Michael Gilmour (43.9cm).
Liam Dolman (30cm/30.40cm) claimed the junior mystery length. Logan Conway (40.2cm) won the juniors from Oliver Mason (40.1cm) and Lachlan Holz (40cm).
Ken Hepworth (86.4cm) won the flathead division from Adam Milne (83.8cm) and Daniel Diamante (79.8cm). Mystery length went to Heath Such, who was spot on with his 61.5cm fish.
Junior champion was Joel Edgerton (71.9cm), ahead of Sonny Bruen (69cm) and Luke Taylor (66.8cm). Levi Kelly was on the money for mystery length with 56cm.
Tailor winner was Tee-Jay Thomas (46.4cm), from Andrew Sampaklis (45cm) and Zac Muscat (43.7cm). Mystery length went to Dane Lambert (40cm/43.7cm).
In the juniors, Brenden Fong dominated with a 53cm catch. Gizelle Weimer (30cm) was second. Mystery length was taken out by Alfred Davidson (39cm/31.6cm).
Whiting champion was Jessica Nixon (44.7cm), who edged out Timothy Gleeson (44.1cm) and Brendan Stobbart (43.5cm). Brad Sullivan won the mystery length competition with a perfect 36.5cm.
Top junior was Weimer with a 45cm whiting. Blaze Valentine (42.6cm) and Lachie Brownlee (42.3cm) were next best. Mystery length winner was Kye Brinkworth (34cm/35.1cm).
TERRIFIC TROY
Troy Terrill put in the hard yards to dominate the Charlestown Anglers' November weigh-in on the weekend.
Terrill won the senior men's division with a great haul of kingfish, bream and flathead. He hooked four solid bream on the flats then bagged out on squid before hunting kings. He trolled a live squid and landed a 82cm king after a 10-minute battle. He also had a night session where he landed a couple of flathead, the biggest at 77cm on live squid.
Mick Gilmour was second with catches of whiting, bream and squire. Tahnee Pike (senior women's), Bastain Kelleher (junior boys) and Kyah Pike (junior girls) were other winners.