DANIEL Pipitone was crowned King of the Hawkesbury River after he hauled in a 13-kilogram jewfish to win the largest dedicated estuary fishing competition in Australia on Sunday.
Pipitone beat off more than 600 other hopeful anglers as close to 2000 people watched the weigh-in at Pitt Town Fishing Club on Sunday afternoon.
The competition, which started on Friday evening at 6pm and continued through to Sunday morning, aims to raise more than $25,000 for Pink Finss and Windsor Park
Public School — this year’s beneficiaries.
Pipitone hauled in a jewfish which was 2.8 kilograms heavier than runner-up James Tasovac and 5 kilograms heavier than third-place finisher Ben Mosman.
But it wasn’t just the fish that the anglers were after.
As in the past, every angler that registers back at the weigh-in goes into the draw to win the lucky door prize, which this year was a beautiful Stacer 399 Proline matched to a whopping 30hp Suzuki outboard motor and trailer package, which was fully registered and decked out with safety gear thanks to Blake’s Marine.
The lucky winner of this was Luke Attard.
Another boat/motor trailer package valued at more than $6000 was also given away on the day and it was won by local Jodie Toomsalu.
It was a huge day with a carnival-like atmosphere as special guest auctioneer Gary Cotter from Hawkesbury Radio helped the auction raise record money.
Full results:
Heaviest fish:
1st Daniel Pipitone 13kg (jewfish)
2nd James Tasovac 10.2kg (jewfish)
3rd Ben Mosman 8kg (jewfish)
Heaviest species
Bream: Jordan Davis 1.155kg
Flathead: Troy Benson 4.19kg
Jewfish: Colin Myles 5.5kg
Whiting: Con Gianis 0.46kg
Other species: Melissa Vella (Aust Salmon) 1.905kg
Juniors’ heaviest fish
1st Corey Perin 4.615kg (jewfish)
2nd Nicholas Pipitone 4.38kg (jewfish)
3rd Joel Woods 3.32kg (jewfish
Ladies heaviest fish
1st Kathleen Matthews 3.870kg (jewfish)
2nd Ashleigh Maskell 2.195kg (flathead)
3rd Samantha Daff 1.59kg (flat)