THE Macquarie River that has been running a banker for months dropped at least another few inches yesterday when 562 recreational anglers turned eco warriors for a day and heaved more than 100 kilograms of European Carp and Redfin from the river.
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It was the biggest turnout of fishers in the four years of the Bathurst RSL Fishing Club’s BCF Carp Blitz that saw near record breaking Carp nudging seven kilograms in weight reeled in from the Macquarie.
Bathurst RSL Fishing Club secretary, Jim Beattie was elated when families started arriving at the river at 7am, with the first 250 booked into fish, giving gold coin donations to the RSL Fishing Club Trust to restock native fish in local waterways.
“It was full on from just after daybreak on the river where a few hardy souls camped out overnight to get their favourite spot,” Mr Beattie said.
“Another big success was the register of 11 school teams in the Central West Catchment Management Authority’s inaugural Carp Catching Champs Trophy.
“The trophy was collected by three enthusiastic young anglers from Bathurst High School who landed a European Perch between them in what was a hard day for learners, but a success for the environment.
“At the end of the day the most experienced fishers hauled in many more bigger carp than 2009, in fact the biggest fish were above five kilograms with several nudging seven kilograms which is the record established in 2007.”
Mr Beattie said that the club’s trust fund was given a terrific boost by Tooheys local representative Andrew “Struth” Smith giving $500 and the RSL Club a matching amount to boost the gold coin donations to buy native fish to put in waterways around Bathurst.
Central West Catchment Management Authority catchment officer, Allan Wray praised the initiative of the RSL Club saying that all of the young fishers catching carp and redfin were doing wonders for water quality of the river and spreading the word to others.
Mr Wray had the honour of presenting the Carp Catching Team Trophy to the Bathurst High School team. NSW Fisheries (Industry and Development) educational officer Brett Smith added to the prize list giving books for four of the team’s school libraries and fishing rods to encourage more young anglers.
Perry James landed the biggest fish of the day, a 6.85kgs carp that Jim Beattie declared was one of the “Mr Big” target fish the club has been waiting to see landed.
Mr Perry landed four massive fish a second scaling 5.48 kgs another 4.49kgs and a fourth 3.62 grams.
Trent Naylor set an early pace in the battle to land the biggest carp among senior anglers with a 3.15kg specimen he jumped into the river to net and wrestle to the bank.
Soon after Trent Rue landed a 4.09kgs fish that was one of the biggest length wise, measuring 69cms.
The most carp were landed by Sofala’s fly fisher Ken Smith four carp ranging from 2.71kgs to 3.59kgs.
The juniors were well in the hunt with big fish taken to the Tooheys Weigh In Station, six-year-old Indigo Prebbel fishing with grand dad Viv Hutching to put a monster carp 4.17kgs and 67cms long on the bank after a terrific struggle.
Another great fish was landed by Jett Bullock who is only five years old. His fish weighed 4.52kgs and was 76cm long. Jett’s dad took on look at the huge carp and almost decapitated it before the weigh-in.
