• Boys division winners: (in no order) Flynn Carson (who caught five of the winning fish) Rick Walker, Jonathon Bray, Hayden Elton, Luke Currie Jones, Anothony Brehaut and Jessie Bray.
The sun was shining brightly as 350 people attended the presentation of the $35,000 Eden fishing competition.
Hosted by the Eden Amateur Fishing Club the event proved to be a thrilling success for locals and visitors alike.
Kicking off the proceedings was a monster barbecue that was free for anyone in attendance.
The air was thick with the sweet smell of snags, onion and coleslaw as the eager crowd tucked in ahead of the presentations, auction, and, of course, the major raffle draw for the $15,000 boat and trailer package.
The word from volunteers around the barbecue was that the event was a little quieter than previous years despite a record number of entries, totalling more than 700.
Given the magnificent weather, some fishermen had stayed on the water.
“They’re not on the board, so they’re out on the boat!” someone said with a laugh.
After a few quick words from club president Bob Wilcox the event got underway with John Lidell hosting the auction.
The top item on offer was an $1100 legal package from Peter Tierney, which was nabbed up for a bargain at $400.
All the auctions cleared out with some crowdgoers relishing in the competition of bidding.
Girl angler Lexi Gatt dominated the field, claiming four trophies on the day.
A number of items were then raffled from the girls entrants, as well as a number of hundreds club draws.
In the boys division it was Flynn Carson who cleaned up, scoring himself five of the winning fish for the competition.
Daphne Hyde was delighted to pick up a prize for the biggest tailor in the women's division and also took home a brand new rod courtesy of the raffles.
She said that her original fish had been knocked off the board, but she was able to get back out on the water and improve on her catch.
“The woman that knocked me off, I knocked her off,” she laughed.
Last week, Mr Wilcox told the Magnet that Chris Cox’s striped tuna looked hard to beat, and he was right.
No one was able to topple the near club-record sized monster.
At the conclusion of the presentations Malcolm McConnell from Fraser Marine took the stage to draw the winner of the $15,000 boat and trailer package.
A hushed silence fell over the crowd as Mr McConnell opened the envelope.
See the back page story to find out who took home the glory.
