This year’s Clubhouse Hotel Fishing Club competition saw some new rules, but this didn’t deter 149 entrants from registering for the three-day ‘fish-a-thon’.

The main change was the introduction of a ‘catch and release’ section, with the club attempting to reduce the number of fish killed unnecessarily in the annual event.

This new category proved to be a great success judging by the number of entries, and will definitely become a permanent feature of the competition.

There was no Murray Cod section as the closed season for this species ends on December 1 and fishing was also restricted to Burrendong Dam only this year.

Regardless of the changes, a large number of keen anglers of all ages registered at the dam, including 61 seniors in Catch and Release and 59 seniors in Catch and Weigh.

Numbers were down a little on last year, but I’m sure that everyone who entered had a great time and quite a few of them won some of the great prizes that were on offer.

With the onset of warmer weather and a water level of around 13 per cent, Burrendong has been fishing quite well and the weekend of the competition was no exception.

Just about all groups of anglers reported very good catches of golden perch, silver perch, red fin and catfish, with quite a few carp also being removed from the dam. Much to the frustration of many anglers, good numbers of cod were also caught but had to be released due to the aforementioned closed season.

It is very encouraging to see such numbers of all types of fish being caught, which is definitely a sign that the fishing club’s restocking program is working, keeping Burrendong’s

reputation as a great fishery alive and well.

With the marshall boats in the catch and release section being kept busy throughout the weekend, it was great to see such a large number of fish released unharmed and also encouraging to see a number of juniors in this section learning about responsible fishing.