TIM Mutimer earned the honour of Overall Champion of the Compleat Angler and Camping World Inverell Great Inland Fishing Festival on the weekend.

The event has been hailed a success by the organising committee despite the inclement weather prior to the competition deterring some from making the trip.

Committee Publicity Officer, Brett McInnes said a total of 254 competitors signed on with 601 fish caught and released throughout the competition.

“We had anglers from as far a field as Wellington, Port Macquarie, Grafton and South East Queensland all come and try their luck at Copeton Dam,” he said.

While the competition attracted competitors from far and wide it was the local fishermen who dominated and were able to take out the major prizes.

Tim Mutimer from Inverell took out Overall Champion with 3328 points, closely followed by runner up Jim Buxton from Graman.

“Tim stamped his authority early on in day one and was never really headed although with the likes of Jim Buxton, Dave Martell and Garry O’Brien threatening it was always going to come down to the last day’s fishing,” Brett said.

“Tim Mutimer managed to land a couple of nice Yellow Belly on the final morning, which provided him with an unassailable lead.”

The competition was also hot among the female anglers with Samantha Mitchell from Ipswich taking out the title with 1685 points.

“Samantha measured seven fish on the final morning of the competition which certainly helped boost her points tally,” Brett said.

“Samantha was followed by Nicole Cruickshank who had total of 1404 points.”

Brett said the junior contest was also close.

“This year the junior male title was very hotly contested with little in it at the end.

“Luke Hobday from Biniguy with 1981 points managed to just hold out local Jayden Mutimer who finished with a total of 1821 points.

Luke Hobday’s effort was also sufficient to secure him the Bevan Ihle perpetual trophy for overall junior champion. Bridee Slavin from Kentucky led the charge in the Junior Girls with a total of 208 points followed by Bree Woodhouse with 88 points.

© 2011 Inverell Times

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