By Michael Burt
More than 800 fishers of all ages baited up for a record-breaking Putt Bennett Family Fishing Festival (PBFFF) in Mylestom last weekend.
While Bellingen is buzzing this week with Camp Creative (see page 9), the small coastal village and the North Beach Bowling & Recreation Club were heaving with fishing families and aspiring young anglers.
The 809 entrants eclipsed all previous records in the festivals’ 29-year history and was almost 300 more than last year. One angler caught one of the largest and rarest fish ever in the competition and 122 families, including some from as far west as Lightening Ridge, packed out local caravan parks at Mylestom and Urunga.
Weighmaster Chris Garrett (aka Captain Flathead) said it was a “cracking weekend” despite fishing conditions being challenging this year due to strong winds.
“Its not just about fishing. It’s a festival that is all learning about our different species, how to catch and release them safely and looking after our local environment,” Chris said.
“We target nine different species each day. To be a winner, you have to learn about how to target certain fish with different bait and gear. It also spreads the load across all the captures, which takes the pressure off individual species.”
“The competition side of it all teaches you to work as a team and have plenty of laughs along the way.”
Fish eligible for a prize are transferred live to aerated ponds set up at the Club, where PBFFF volunteers can further engage with young fishing enthusiasts.
“We get to explain to the kids about the fish, their life cycle and what they eat. They get to see them live, which is just remarkable. The kids are just mesmerised.”
The fish are returned to their natural waters at the end of each day. Entrants in the Deep Sea section were able take a photo of their live fish on a ‘brag mat’ before returning it to the ocean.
“We had some great fish come in for the deep sea section, including a 2.9 metre sail fish.”
“It’s quite a rare catch for this area and the fish of a lifetime to catch. It took 45 minutes to reel in and unfortunately it did not make it in alive. They rang us at the time and tried everything to revive it.”
“There are only a few fish that don’t make it. We really do our best to look after our local fish species, and the competition is designed that way.”
Other species are accepted in a merit section and there were extra prizes for the largest Friday Flathead, Saturday Whiting and Sunday Bream.
“We’ve recently introduced a new group of family or mates that can have be all over 18. We’ve done that because some families have been coming for more than 20 years and their adult kids still want to be involved.”
“We’re really proud of what we achieved this year and really looking forward to even bigger festival for our the 30th year next year.”