ANGLERS from either side of the Singing Bridge celebrated the annual Tea Gardens/Hawks Nest Fishing Challenge Shield on Sunday 2 March at the Hawks Nest Golf Club.

Fishermen, fisherwomen and fisherkids from the Tea Gardens Country Club Fishing Club and the Hawks Nest Golf Club Social Club Fishing group battled it out against each other, and the forces of nature.

There were adults aged up to 80 and a sizable junior contingent of ages 13 down to four.

“Anglers could take advantage of all the beautiful waterways, from the river to the beach, all the way up to Dark Point, along the rocks and headland, and even out at sea amongst the islands,” Hawks Nest weighmaster Clint Harris told News Of The Area.

There were 32 anglers between the two clubs.

Winners in the men’s, women’s and juniors were chosen according to a pointscore system, which has been designed to encourage a diversity of catch.

“You get 10 points per species, one point per fish, and 10 points per kilo,” Clint said.

“The boats that went out among the islands caught lots of snapper, showing there are a lot of healthy fish out there.

“We’ve chosen in our rules for the field to be limited to half the official DPI bag limits, to keep the fishing sustainable.”

“We saw plenty of nice fish caught: bream, whiting, flathead, snapper, tailor, and a very nice, very big, mulloway.”

That mulloway, caught by Levi Peters from the Hawks Nest side, was a whopping 27.5kg, cleaned of gills and guts.

It was caught at some secret spot along the beach, and landed Levi the winner’s crown for the men’s competition.

Cindy from Tea Gardens was the ladies competition winner.

Overall scores were Hawks Nest 1211 points, to Tea Gardens’ 1236 points, with Tea Gardens winning the Shield by 25.

The next big interclub event will be at the end of March when the Narrabeen club visits the area.

By Thomas O’KEEFE