The new concept of a photo on a brag mat with the fish to be judged by length instead of weight was very well received. 

The anglers then had the option as to whether they wanted to keep the fish or release it.

“We sold 28 new brag mats at the Friday night briefing which indicated roughly a quarter of the boats did not already have them and hence had never used them before,” competition organiser David Dulhunty said.

“I gave everyone a detailed description of ‘do’s and don’ts’ when using the mats and taking the photos and every thing ran very smoothly. 

“I only had two calls during the competition regarding the mats and these were easily sorted out over the phone.”

Overall winner of the $500 cash prize for the largest bream was Bob Cochrane with a 390mm bream.

The “top of the range” Shimano rod and reel second prize bream of 378mm was a tie between Glen Rollason and Don Hay. 

Hay took the rod and Rollason the reel.

The $300 dusky flathead went to Shannon Gilmore with a fish of 850mm and the rod and reel second prize dusky to David Mathews with 840mm.

All of these prizes were presented by Ron Vanderdrift from TackleWorld who donated over $2000 worth of cash and prizes to support the competition.

John McDermott presented $200 to Shane Shaw for a massive 975mm jewfish. 

This fish was located at 30 feet in the Bega River with a sounder then targeted by Shaw and crew mate Ian Neilson with soft plastics and was the only jewfish caught. 

The jewfish and the winning bream and duskys were all released, which was exactly what the Merimbula Big Game and Lakes Angling Club was hoping would happen with the new competition format.

Gunter Koslowsky took trevally with 385mm, Trudy Badullovich tailor at 410mm, Ian Neilson and Josh Wilkinson tied whiting at 382mm, Shane Coles salmon at 390mm and Stuart Pentinnjn luderick with 347mm.

There was a great turnout of juniors but unfortunately none won the major prizes. 

Next year the club will definitely be offering good prizes for under 16s only and already have over $400 offered by two sponsors specifically for this purpose.

The committee is yet to have a debrief on the whole competition but are already declaring it a success and are promising bigger and better things next year.

Visitors always welcome at the Spencer Park Club. Inquiries to Lindon Thompson on 0411 873 880.