Mulwala fishing competition draws anglers to town, boosts economy

Tournament director Steve Galvin said the 'Boats and More Native Classic' team fishing competition would run from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon, but competitors had been practicing at the site weeks ahead of the event.

"Because of the prizemoney, these serious anglers, they've actually come down one or two times before and pre-fished the event to get used to and know the location," he said.

"They have come down for the weekends and stayed, so we're estimating it's going to bring a quarter of a million dollars into the economy."

Mr Galvin said the three-day competition had attracted 130 anglers competing in teams of two or three.

"We've got 48 teams that have signed up and we've got people travelling from as far as Queensland," he said.

Lake Mulwala Holiday Park operations manager Greg Hough said accommodation at the park was nearly fully booked.

"At the minute I think there's only about three sites left in the park and they'll go easily in the next few days," he said.

"I would say about 60 to 70 per cent of the park bookings are from that fishing competition."

Mr Hough said in a typical year before the pandemic, bookings would have quietened off after Easter, but a lot of accommodation venues in Yarrawonga and Mulwala were still busy.

"This is a premium fishing event," he said.

"There's big dollars in prizemoney so the people that enter the competition, they're serious, they're fair dinkum fisherman.

"They've all got to eat and all got to drink and all got to stay somewhere, so it rubs off everywhere."

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Mr Galvin said the tournament was one of the richest in Australia with the first prize of $25,000.

"Second prize is $12,000, third prize $8000," he said.

"We pay down to 10th prize which is still $1000 in cash prizes."

Ninety per cent of the $1500 team entry fees will be paid back in prizes.

Mr Galvin said the most exciting thing about the competition was the format of the tournament.

"Everyone is excited that it's a multi-species format," he said.

"In other competitions it's the most fish or the biggest fish, this is you've got to catch two different species (Murray Cod and Golden Perch) and it's your five best of those species which will count.

"People will go out and actually target their five fish and then spend the rest of the weekend trying to upgrade to bigger fish.

"It's bringing the best anglers from all over Australia."

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