Edward Kolety Fishing Challenge reels in big results for river health

And event coordinator Andrew Jefferies said everyone who attended was exceedingly generous.

“Friday’s night auction for Navorina Aged Care was very well supported, and will see at least $7000 donated to the aged care facility,” he told the Pastoral Times on Sunday.

“But the yabby races ... they must be the richest yabby races ever run.

“People were very enthusiastic to be involved on Saturday night, and bids added up to more than $16,000.

“Every dollar of that will go back into the event and our aims of restocking the rivers.

“The other big seller was the boat raffle.

“We sold out on Sunday, meaning we had $27,000 worth of tickets in the barrel by the time we did the draw.”

To top it all off, the Edward River Fishing & Camping Group made a $7000 donation to support the challenge and its aims.

Club president John Creenaune said the amount had been raised from the weekly Friday night raffles at the Deniliquin Coach House in 2024.

Mr Creenaune said this year’s amount was a positive increase on the $5000 donations made in both 2024 and 2023.

Mr Jefferies said the growth of the relatively new event and its popularity was positive for both Denilqiuin and for the health of local waterways.

He said the vast majority of registered anglers came from outside Deniliquin, which should see the town’s tourism appeal continue to grow each year.

But he did warn that it meant those interested had to be quick so they don’t miss out on being involved in future years.

“To have people drive seven hours or more just to be at our event is no mean feat,” Mr Jefferies said.

“Most of them have heard about our event from their friends and family who have attended in other years, and we expect they’ll bring more and more with them each year.

“We did sell out of fishing entry tickets this year, and some of our sponsors kindly sold back their unused tickets so we could accommodate some more people.

“It just goes to show that you have to get in quick for 2026.”

Mr Jefferies said the other benefit of such strong attendance is the additional river health and fish release projects the Edward Kolety Landcare Group can continue with.

“Whatever you spend here - whether it’s on tickets, raffle tickets or food - goes to that cause,” Mr Jefferies told the presentation crowd on Sunday.

“It’s all to ensure that we’re all still fishing here in 30 to 40 years.”

With funding raised through the Edward Kolety Fishing Challenge since the first event in 2023, the landcare group has released more than 65,000 fish through the threatened fish species program.

It has included 3500 eel tailed catfish, which had become all but extinct from local waterways, and 70 mature cod through the special Adopt-A-Cod entrant ticket sales.

Also released have been 60,000 golden perch (yellowbelly), and 500 each of purple spotted gudgeon, olive perchlet and southern pygmy perch.

Event funds have also supported the Year 10 landcare program run through Deniliquin High School, planting days with district primary and high schools, a native fish community training day and a Murray cod survey of the Edward River.

Funds have also been used to work on bank revegetation of the Edward River and Billabong Creek, on the restoration, rehabilitation and maintenance of Deniliquin’s lagoons.

Outside of fishing, the event has helped fund lighting upgrades at the Memorial Park showgrounds, which act as Challenge HQ during the event.

Mr Jefferies hinted it may be some extra work needed on yellowbelly into the future, based on the native fish catch numbers throughout the weekend.

He said it was “a little worrying” that only 12 yellowbelly were caught within a 50km fishing zone from two days of fishing.

During the same fishing period, challenge entrants caught a total of 232 cod.

Mr Jefferies said regardless of the popularity of the event, it would remain capped at 500 registered anglers into the future.

He said anything over this number would trigger river closures for fishing, which he said was not conducive for fishing and would impact on other river users.

He said it would also increase event costs, which would take away from the investment in river and native fish health.

To stay up to date with planning for next year’s event, and to learn more about the benefits of the Edward River Fishing Challenge, go to https://www.edwardfishingchallenge.com.au/ or follow the event’s Facebook page.