THE South Australian seaside town of Elliston again held its annual Australian Salmon Fishing Championships during the winter months of 2013. This three-month competition awards $1,000 and $300 respectively for the two largest salmon caught each month, with $300 mystery weight prizes handed out every fortnight, so a fair stash of cash gets awarded to lucky anglers during the competition period.
The competition boundary extends from Sheringa Beach in the south, to Mount Camel in the north, and includes other well-known Eyre Peninsula beaches such as Locks Well and Talia. South Australia was slapped with a pretty harsh winter this past season, but despite the blustery conditions and often heavy swell, the fishing was consistent throughout the winter months.
Again Locks Well proved a popular and successful location for large salmon during the competition, but interestingly Talia Beach yielded four out of the top six prize-winning fish. It must be noted that all salmon weighed in are gutted, so the below weights are mighty impressive given the fish were cleaned.
All six prize winning fish were in excess of 5kg, which set a high benchmark for recorded fish. The heaviest salmon for the whole competition-period was taken by Mark Wilkins, with an impressive 6.1kg fish taken from Talia Beach. This fish is now a new competition record, overtaking the previous record-fish by around 500gms.
Results for the 2013 Australian Salmon Fishing Championships as follows:
Heaviest for June $1000: Mick McCallum 5.420kg – Talia
2nd Heaviest for June $300: Nev Rotherham 5.265kg – Talia
Heaviest for July $1000: Richard Katschner 5.465kg – Locks Well
2nd Heaviest for July $300: Lisa Casasola 5.270kg – Locks Well
Heaviest for August $1000: Mark Wilkins 6.100kg – Talia
2nd heaviest for August $300: Mick McCallum 5.920kg – Talia
The organising committee are looking ahead to next near, which will be the 20th year of the competition. The Australian Salmon Fishing Championships will be held over the winter months (June – August) again in 2014.
Mark Wilkins (August) 6.100kg
Mick McCallum (June) 5.420kg
Richard Katschner (July) 5.465kg
Mick McCallum with a 5.42kg beauty.
July winner Richard Katschner.
