Usually scheduled in March each year, the competition has been running for 44 years and has brought many enthusiastic fishers to the Far South Coast region to participate.

Filling the town with people and injecting money into the local economy, the event has grown over the years and has been a boon for Eden businesses while also supported by the generous sponsorship of many.

Vice-president Eddy Evans said there was a possibility the prize pool event may not go ahead in 2023, largely because the months of work required to adequately plan and coordinate the event was placing more demand on the committee than it can manage.

"There is no firm commitment on it as yet, although we have great support with sponsorship from the business district and surrounding areas, the biggest issue we have is that we need more volunteers," Eddy said.

"We have a reasonably good list of members, it's not so much the actual competition itself being run, it's the lead up from October onwards that is the real issue."

The March competition attracts hundreds of entries each year and typically offers up to $50,000 worth of prizes for target species across many categories.

EAFC will hold its annual general meeting in September this year and Eddy said as not all current committee members would be standing again, the final decision about the future of the event would be left to the next committee to decide.

There are currently seven EAFC committee members and the vice-president said at least four more would be required, in addition to the desperate need for greater volunteer involvement.

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"Ultimately we need people on ground to help with managing sponsorship arrangements, taking the major prize boat around to various locations, selling raffle tickets, putting up posters and the likes," Eddy said.

"Putting on our wonderful competition each year is time consuming, having more people on the ground in the preparation stage to take some of the stupendous workload off the main committee members would make it easier to ensure we can continue to deliver this rewarding event.

"We can possibly go ahead next year providing we have sufficient people on the ground in early days, even if it's just a few hours a week of their time. I'm hopeful we can get it across the line," Eddy said.

Those interested in assisting EAFC with the planning and delivery of the annual fishing competition can contact Eddy on 0418 556 414 or via email: eddyev@bigpond.net.au.

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