Sustainable fishing charity OzFish and social enterprise Reflections Holidays are launching the Reflections Sustainable Fishing Series, three angling competitions in premier fishing destinations in New South Wales, with $25,000 in prizes and a firm focus on protecting waterways for future generations.
The Reflections Sustainable Fishing Series kicks off at Reflections Copeton Waters. The Reflections Sustainable Fishing Series is the “five star” experience in sustainable fishing and entrants will notice a few changes to the regular format. We’ve considered everything from the prize categories, to fishing gear recycling, to the packaging and materials we’ve brought into this event to achieve the highest level of sustainability for a fishing event.
Fish health is at the forefront, with a catch and release photo system for entries. Catch and release competitions are becoming more popular, which is great to see. We’re taking that one step further, asking our entrants to consider how they catch, and how they release their fish.
We recommend barbless hooks, avoiding soft plastics, using the right type of net, having a wet handling rag or gloves available, avoiding hot boat surfaces and holding the fish carefully in the water for a gentle ‘swim-away’ release. All these factors mean that fish are largely unharmed by their capture.
Entrants will receive advice on the best way to handle fish.
OzFish has some fantastic ‘how to’ videos that show the best practice handling techniques, the gear you’ll need to make a gentle release and ensuring the fish swims away again in the best health. These are provided to entrants through links on entry and via our website.
Prizes aren’t based on the biggest fish, rather quirkier things to make it more about fun than competition.
The prize categories are deliberate, they are intended to reduce the need for excessive fishing effort on a particular spot, where you might target a particular species, putting pressure on both that fishing spot/environment and the particular fish that reside there.
We don’t target specific native species, so whichever native species you catch can be admired and celebrated. This ensures we don’t have target-species fishing pressure, where the same fish are being chased in their same habitats. It gives fishers the opportunity to move around and try new fishing habitats and methods.
It also reduces the need to ‘race’ to get to the ‘best’ fishing spots ‘first’ so that fishers can take a more leisurely, enjoyable and more sustainable pace around Copeton. This means using less fuel, a more pleasant fishing experience for others on the dam, and less impact to other wildlife like birds, wallabies, kangaroos, emus, lizards and more who reside around the dam.
It means you have equal opportunity to win whether you can get to a spot by boat, kayak or bank, ultimately encouraging more sustainable methods of fishing as a real option. It also allows families to choose the mode of fishing that suits you, if you would like to stand on the bank with your four-year old and just get her to catch her first fish, you can. Or you can have the teenagers up early, loaded reluctantly in the boat, catching the sunrise and trying for an early morning yellow-belly bite.
We are targeting pest species, these are fish that have been introduced to Australia, they compete with our native fish for food, shelter and breeding opportunities – sometimes directly predating on the native fish eggs, babies or fingerlings.
The event is designed to celebrate fishing and being in nature, we encourage chasing personal bests, whether that’s your first fish, your first cod or just the biggest one you’ve ever landed at Copeton – your challenge is yourself, not the other fishers and the environment around you, so you get the chance to enjoy those things.
We’ve also given fishers the chance to win by doing their little bit for nature – pick up a bag of rubbish and win. Or even bring your old fishing tackle in from home for recycling through our TackleLoop program and win.
Murray cod were once abundant in our Murray Darling Basin waterways, but with habitat losses, flow changes and poor water quality they’ve become increasingly rare in our river systems. In Copeton, the population of Cod has been healthy for many years now and its one of the most reliable places to catch one of these beautiful green and gold native fish.
OzFish will have a Tackle Loop repair tent at Copeton to help anglers fix rods or reels and the series aims to minimise plastic and waste and promote recycling. We’re taking a range of actions to minimise plastic use and waste at the event, see if you can spot some of our non-plastic strategies along the way!
All entry fees go to OzFish and their work to restore local fish habitat. OzFish have a range of projects in the NSW Tablelands and surrounds to return snags and fish hotels, to restore wetlands and to make sure the riverbanks are thriving with native vegetation.
Good luck, and tight lines!
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Age & Prize categories
Age categories
• Adult (15 years +)
• Junior (10-14 years)
• Sub-Junior (<10 years)
Prize categories
• Adult (15 years +) Mystery size native of the day – Saturday
• Junior (10-14 years) Mystery size native of the day – Saturday
• Sub-Junior (<10 years) Mystery size native of the day – Saturday
• Adult (15 years +) Mystery size native of the day – Sunday
• Junior (10-14 years) Mystery size native of the day – Sunday
• Sub-Junior (<10 years) Mystery size native of the day – Sunday
• All Ages – bonus hour 1, mystery length (Native or Pest) - Saturday
• All Ages – bonus hour 2, mystery length (Native or Pest) - Saturday
• All Ages – bonus hour 3, mystery length (Native or Pest) - Sunday
• All Ages – bonus hour 4, mystery length (Native or Pest) - Sunday
• Adult (15 years +) – Longest pest fish (across entire event)
• Junior (10-14 years) - Longest pest fish (across entire event)
• Sub-Junior (<10 years) - Longest pest fish (across entire event)
• Adult (15 years +) – Most pest fish (across entire event)
• Junior (10-14 years) - Most pest fish (across entire event)
• Sub-Junior (<10 years) - Most pest fish (across entire event)
• All Ages – Show us the sustainable fishing tool you can’t live without! (one winner)
• All Ages – Show us your fish release video! (one winner)
• All Ages - Tackling Litter (Recycling) – recycle the most fishing gear (Judge's discretion all competitors)
• Adult (15 years +) – Tackling Litter - most litter picked up while fishing (across entire event)
• Junior (10-14 years) - Tackling Litter - most litter picked up while fishing (across entire event)
• Sub-Junior (<10 years) Tackling Litter - most litter picked up while fishing (across entire event)
• 4 x Lucky Door prizes for all ages
• 1 x Lucky Door prize for Non-Adults
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Safe Fish Handling Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn3UkHvswsg
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